Quinta Brunsonhelped bring to life our latest mockumentary obsession withAbbott Elementary.The hit ABC series landed Brunson multiple Emmy nominations and is beloved by fans. But there havebeen criticisms of her character, Janine, and how she is portrayed on the show. Brunson was onAmy Poehler’s new project, theGood Hangpodcast, where the two talked about playing characters that are not instantly beloved by fans.
“I’ll be real with you,” Brunson said. “She’s a Black character.Black audiences have so few representative characters on screen, and Black womanhood alone is so touchy. So when a lot of women were seeing Janine not present as they wanted her to, that became tough — and I understand it.” Brunson went on to talk about how she wanted Janine to have layers. “But I think it’s important for us to have characters who are more realistic than they are the absolute best representation of us. I think it creates layers for us, not only on TV but in the public eye.” She did admit that when she started creating the character, she “wasn’t really thinking about representation” but that “she became representation” anyway.
Poehler came to Janine’s defense and said “I think Janine was one of the most exciting things about that show [because] you could see, ‘Oh, we’re really gonna go on this ride with her.'” Brunson agreed with her take and explained how it was a journey to get people to go along with the character. “It’s hard to get people on the ride becausethey don’t know they’re on the ride.Abbottreally started where I was like, ‘This is going to be a ride. This is going to go for seasons, I want to tell stories here.’ We gotta start somewhere.”
Amy Poehler Knows What an Imperfect Character Is Like
Parks and Recreationis a beloved classic from NBC but Leslie Knope isn’t a character that fans instantly like. (Couldn’t be me though, she’s perfect.) But Poehler related to Brunson by relating to her struggle with the commentary on Janine because Leslie ended up getting a similar response when the show was airing. “The interesting struggle about playing comedic characters is [that] you want them to be flawed and have stuff to learn,” Poehler, said. She went on to saythat characters can get complicated"the minute people — either yourself or other people — start to get in your head about what they should be representing."
You can see Brunson shine as Janine onAbbott Elementary.
Abbott Elementary
Source:Good Hang
