Creator Quinta Brunson is decorated with plenty of Hollywood accolades for populating her “Abbott Elementary” with memorable and hilarious three-dimensional characters. But sitting with Amy Poehler on her new “Good Hang” podcast, the Emmy winner shared that her own Janine Teagues was met with criticism from Black women because she was not perfectly put together. She remembered it feeling like Janine was expected to be representative of all Black women.
“I’ll be real with you: She’s a Black character … Black audiences have so few representative characters on screen, and Black womanhood alone is so touchy,” Brunson shared. “So when a lot of women were seeing Janine not present as they wanted her to, that became tough — and I understand it.”
She said that her aim is to create character where “the show doesn’t care what the audience thinks,” but that “that was a challenge with Janine.”
Brunson went on to explain that while she understands some of the pushback against the complicated and quirky schoolteacher, she also stated that platforming a wide spectrum of Black characters, like Janine, helps reduce the amount of constricting boxes Black roles and Black people have historically been placed into in Hollywood.
“I think it’s important for us to have characters who are more realistic than they are the absolute best representation of us,” Brunson said as she concluded her thoughts. “I think it creates layers for us, not only on TV but in the public eye. When I was thinking about her, I wasn’t really thinking about representation, but she became representation.”
Brunson’s hit, Emmy-winning ABC comedy is currently airing its fourth season. The cast also includes Tyler James Williams, Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Chris Perfetti, Zack Fox and William Stanford Davis.
Watch her interview with Poehler in the video below:
