Class is back in session for one more episode. The highly-anticipated Abbott Elementary season 2 finale will air on April 19. Tyler James Williams teased in an EXCLUSIVE interview with HollywoodLife that this will be a major episode, which also included a field trip for the cast!
“We took a trip actually to Philly. Quinta [Brunson] and I went and shot some of the episodes out there,” Tyler said. “Anytime you get kids outside of the school environment, something is going to happen. Like, it’s just going to happen. So it’s a big chaotic episode, but it’s one of the ones that sits super close to my heart. I’ll really never forget that episode, man. It was super beautiful, and I can’t wait for people to see it so we can finally talk about what happened. That’s the hard part. We’re just waiting for y’all to catch up.”
The Golden Globe winner is also taking a page out of Gregory’s book by teaming up with Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day to announce the new Lots of Compassion initiative. Tyler revealed why he values this partnership and the good it can do.
“As Abbott has kind of begun and taken off, part of the character of Gregory is that he spends a lot of time, be it against his will or not, in the garden. It’s been coming up a lot for me lately, so when this came up, I got kind of thrown and hit with some figures that I didn’t fully know, but I knew that I had experienced before,” he explained.
Tyler continued, “I kind of grew up walking past these vacant lots and abandoned areas and didn’t really think much of them at the time or how they really affected me. When Mrs. Meyer’s was like, you know 15% of the U.S. is like this, and it really affects people’s mood and the way they see the world. I really thought about it and I remember being in areas that were affluent and feeling the greenery and how beautiful it was, and there were other spots where it was just pretty much vacant and felt depressing. Since gardening has been coming up for me so much and how it actually affects kids and affects communities and all of that, this was kind of an easy call for me.”
Through the Lots of Compassion initiative, Mrs. Meyer’s is pledging to provide up to $1 million from Compassion Flower product sales to support community garden transformations over the next 5 years. The Compassion Flower products are available on MrsMeyers.com and Grove.com.
The Everybody Hates Chris alum admitted that he doesn’t know if it’s “art imitating life or life imitating art at this point” when it comes to this partnership and how closely it aligns with his Abbott Elementary character.
“I was recently at an elementary school where I was planting the Compassion flower that was developed by Mrs. Meyer’s, and I was sitting there talking to real teachers who had been contributing to their own community school garden for years. They had to keep it alive through the pandemic when people weren’t coming in. I feel like this is research for the character at this point. It really feels like this is a message that the universe wants me to get out and attribute to and help to get out,” he told HollywoodLife.
While the 30-year-old noted that Gregory would probably have a “trauma response” to a personal garden right now, the actor has hopes that Gregory will “work through that.” Since Gregory likes to contribute, Tyler said that we’d likely see “a lot of produce” in Gregory’s garden “that he’s just giving out and probably one small patch of a flower that he really appreciates that is like his pride and joy. I think he would be making tomatoes, carrots, and stuff that people use in their everyday dishes that he could give to people.”