‘Abbott Elementary’: Tyler James Williams on Reuniting With Keith David While Directing Comically Chaotic Episode

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Abbott Elementary Season 4 Episode 13, “Science Fair.”]

Abbott Elementary‘s newest episode explored the wonders of scientific competition in “Science Fair,” which saw star Tyler James Williams pull double duty as Gregory and director behind the scenes.

Making his directorial debut with the episode, Williams got to highlight his costars in a chaotically comedic installment which put the teachers in direct competition with each other as they attempted to assist students with delivering the best possible projects. Adding to the competitive air created between Janine (Quinta Brunson), Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), and Ava (Janelle James), science teacher Mr. Morton (Jerry Minor) selected Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Jacob (Chris Perfetti) to help judge the event.

Meanwhile, Gregory’s connection with Ava’s dad Frank (Keith David) led to the father-daughter duo crossing paths when he decides to submit funding for the science fair. Ultimately, the competitive nature of the event backfires, with the students taking a stand against the judgment and critiquing each other fairly while the adults look on.

Below, Williams opens up about his directorial debut, including what it was like directing himself, working with young performers as a former child star, and collaborating with his colleagues.

How did directing this particular episode come about?

Tyler James Williams: No director gets to pick and choose really. That’s just not how it goes. I brought it up to Quinta at the end of Season 3, and she went over to [director and executive producer] Randall [Einhorn] immediately, and he was like, “Hell yeah, let’s do it.” And it wasn’t until we were getting ready to start Season 4 that they had started breaking a story that wasn’t Gregory heavy or that could be Gregory light at the very least. I think it was decided by Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker that this would be a good episode to do.

While Gregory isn’t in too much of the episode, you still feature onscreen. What was the experience of directing yourself like?

It’s definitely weird. It’s not my preference. I was like, “Does Greg need to be in this at all? I feel like it’s not necessary…” But it’s difficult. It’s shooting that shot, and then walking into that shot at some point and then walking out of it and going back and watching the rest of the scene. So that was definitely a challenge. And we had several conflicts. Our cast is very successful and very busy, but it all came together in the end, which I think is every director’s dream.

The episode has a lot of energy and chaos. Did that make directing easier or more complicated?

I mean, there was one scene in particular that was really difficult to wrap my arms around, and it’s the scene where Janine starts a conversation with Melissa in her classroom and then follows [a student who] we have now named “the tiniest kid,” as they run into the hallway, which leads to a conversation with Gregory and then Ava, which then follows them down into the library. It’s a lot of ground to cover for three cameras that shoot at all times. So we had to build in a seamless cut that happens in the doorway as Janine exits so that we could make it work. It was the most ambitious shot of the episode. And it was one of those things, I talked to Randall, and I was like, “I’m not positive it’ll work, but I think it might.” And when I saw it cut together, I was like, “Oh, that actually works, thank god.”

When it comes to filming a scene like that, do you film straight through? What are the biggest challenges?

We actually had an interesting thing happen. We had to try several different bags of charcoal strangely enough for clearance reasons. So there were parts of the back half of it that did have to be cut up not as seamlessly in case we didn’t get clearance on what we were using there, but we tried to keep it as together as possible.

You’ve worked with your fair share of directors over the years. Is there anyone that influenced or inspired your approach to tackling this episode?

I think it’s all of the good directors over the course of my career, the first one being Jerry Levine, who was our producing director for Everybody Hates Chris. He had a really good eye for comedy and was good at working with kids. And I thought about Jerry a lot when doing all of these scenes with all of these kids and understanding that it’s more about treating them as artists and not trying to manipulate them into a performance. I think a lot of directors try to manipulate a child into a performance thinking that they’d have to trick their emotions [rather than] just explain the intention to them. And if they’re good at this and this is what they really want to do, they’ll get there. Thankfully, for a lot of our kids, that’s the case.

But I think visually, Randall is another [director that influenced me]. We talked quite a bit about this idea of the camera finding moments… Thinking about this from a documentary standpoint of slowly finding conversations. Sometimes conversations start before the camera gets there and then the camera has to get to them. And that is something I was really trying to think about as much as I could.

Keith David returns as Ava’s father in this episode. What was it like getting to direct (and potentially boss around) such a legendary actor?

There is no bossing Keith David around. It doesn’t happen. That’s just not a realistic expectation for him. [Laughs] But me and Keith had also previously worked together on a movie called The Wedding Year when he played my father. So I had a good shorthand with Keith, and then when he came to Abbott, it was really fun to have him, but the opportunity to direct somebody like that is not one that you get a lot, where you get a veteran actor who knows what they’re doing, but then also in a style that’s a little different. He’s one of those actors that’s so good at finding moments.

You mentioned working with the young actors. Did you feel like you had an easier time directing because you’ve been in their shoes before?

I definitely feel like I understand them a lot better because I was there. I understand when they’re confused by something, what they’re confused by. I think so often in the industry, we get used to speaking to adults and having this shorthand of words that we use that we’re just used to knowing but they don’t know. Being able to get in there with them and break it down and really explain what’s happening here and understand that there’s a time crunch that comes with working with kids, that’s fine. You can still get it done and you can get it done without stressing them out as well. There’s something you have to get done, but it can be done in a realistic way. You can never prep for what’s going to happen with kids. We always have something, but how you handle it is what’s most important. I really wanted them all to have a good time, flex muscles that they may not have known they had, and just get a good foundation in what they’re going to do with their careers next.

And it’s fun to see the kids be a little smarter than the adults in this episode. They perceive the pitfalls of competition.

Yeah, also Gregory not being in the episode, I wanted to supplement a lot of the work that Gregory would’ve done with them, and it was really nice to watch each of them kind of step up into that.

Because Gregory isn’t on screen as much, we do get more of Mr. Morton. Was it fun digging deeper into that character with Jerry Minor, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Chris Perfetti?

Yeah, that was great. I think I loved the idea that it was a Morton-centered episode. It was just a blessing to have all three of them. Jerry’s been doing great work for years and giving him a chance to open this character up a little bit and explain why everybody hates him so much was really nice. There’s some kind of commonality, I think, between where Morton is in our show right now and where Gregory was in Season 1, so it was nice to go back and tell pieces of that story but from another perspective. And Christopher is just a blessing. You give him one note and he will find five different variations on that note long after you forgot you gave it to him. And I was really happy with the fact that I got a chance to experience my cast from this point of view as well as being in scenes with him.

Would you like to direct again in the future?

I’ll definitely do it again. I think if they have me on Abbott, I’ll do it there at some point. It would be nice to do it in a show I don’t also have to be in, to just focus on the behind-the-camera aspect, but it’s definitely the beginning of a conversation for me.

Abbott Elementary, Season 4, Wednesdays, 8:30/7:30c, ABC