Tyler James Williams Isn’t a One-Dimensional Artist

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It was in 2021 that Williams also began starring in his second career-defining TV role as Gregory on Quinta Brunson’s hit Abbott Elementary. His portrayal of the anal West Philadelphia public school teacher earned him three Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe Award.

Below, Williams talks with The Hollywood Reporter about growing up in a family of entertainers — his younger brothers Tyrel Jackson Williams and Tylen Jacob Williams are also actors — the trauma of being a child star, bringing dimension to the portrayals of men onscreen and why he’ll need a break from TV after Abbott.

Congrats on season five. You’ve now starred on more seasons of Abbott Elementary than Everybody Hates Chris. Did you think the show would have the longevity that it’s had when you signed on?

For sure. I think there’s a certain alchemy to making a long-running show, and Quinta had a really clean idea, and I love a clean idea. A workplace comedy in the school, that’s something that can run for episodes and episodes and episodes. So I knew that it had the potential to, and then when we shot the pilot, I knew that we had the right players to do so — not to sound cocky by any means.

The fandom around Abbott continues to be particularly strong, especially on social media. Do you follow the convos on X after each episode?

No. No. God no. I don’t even have that application on my phone. I try to stay as far away from any of the conversations about any of the art that I make as possible. It’s my job to make it. I don’t need to micromanage how it’s perceived.

When the opportunity for Abbott first came along, where were you professionally? Were you looking to do another TV series where you had a main role? Were you interested in more film?

I remember after I finished Chris, I specifically said, “I don’t want to do another network TV show for a very long time” because, as grateful as I am and as great as Abbott is, it still shoots eight months out of the year. There’s a certain amount of fatigue that comes with that, and it’s more physical than anything. That was the reason why if I was going to come back to something on network TV, it was going to be something that was really good with people that I really liked to work with. It checked all my boxes, and it was a story worth telling. To me, that was worth the four, five, six, seven-year fatigue that comes with it, especially doing the grind of a 22-episode show. Once Abbott is done, I’m going to be in the exact same place again. I’m not going to want to jump right into another network show.

What was it specifically about Gregory that attracted you, and are you like him in any way?

It was the way that Quinta saw him. Quinta saw Gregory in a way that I see a lot of the men in my life and a lot of men in general. As flawed as they may be, they’re just trying to do right, and they’re not always given the tools to make the right decisions, but they’re trying. For that reason, I think I’ve grown to be more like him. And I think that’s kind of a symptom of doing a show for a very long time. You spend eight months out of the year in this person’s skin. At some point, the line gets blurry, and that’s also part of why you need a break after the fact. Earlier on, there was a bigger chasm between Gregory and myself, and over time we’ve bled into each other, which is really beautiful. But I think at some point I’m going to have to detach from him and that’s going to be hard.

Has the lens people see you through now as a result of playing Gregory impacted other roles and opportunities you’re offered?

Yeah, it’s layers and complexity that people are seeing. I think one of the better examples that we’re seeing of that right now is Teyana Taylor. You see somebody do one thing and that’s how you’re introduced to them, but that’s never the end of the story. And I think that’s ultimately what led to the conversation about Gregory. This is a guy who is way more layered than you would believe, but we should probably question why you believe that. That’s the point of it. Why do you think this is a one-dimensional character? And for me, why do you think that I’m a one-dimensional artist? That’s part of the work, I think, ultimately for anybody who’s being introduced on any one show or any one genre or any one medium or art form, but that’s kind of the treasure in it all as well. You get to turn people on to the things that they didn’t know that you were capable of doing, and seeing you as a more fleshed-out human being.

Both of your brothers are actors as well. What was it like growing up in your household? Was it auditions all the time? Were you all competitive?

It was definitely auditions all the time. We spent more time, I think, stomping the streets of New York City, going to and from auditions, than we did doing anything else. But it never was competitive and never has been. My brothers and I, we all live together now, and it still isn’t. I think we all have a very good understanding of what the industry is, and I think so many people see it as the industry is their antagonist. [It’s just,] “I’m not getting jobs,” and it’s not that so much goes into putting out a show that the fact that a show ever gets made is incredible, let alone packaged together with the right actors and all of that. We’ve always had a good understanding of that. So, it’s never been competitive, but it has been incredibly supportive, and in more ways than just being a cheering section. We talk about projects and things that are coming up, and who’s reading for what and what are you hearing about that. And one thing that we do that I really love is at the end of the year, we’ll go back through all the things that came in, and we’ll take a look at what actually even made it to screen so we can maintain that context going into the next year. I think we keep each other in a good place artistically. Very few people can have that.

A greater light has been shed on the troublesome experiences of child actors in the past couple of years. You’ve labeled your own as “traumatic.” How so?

It’s a weird place to be because actor is a profession. That comes with certain standards. And child is a position. So those two things don’t really go well together. What was very difficult was the amount of people who didn’t respect me as an actor and as a child. You can hear that. You can hear somebody talking to you like a child. Although a lot of times, at that point, I was doing more TV than most adults. But I think the thing that makes it even harder is nobody tells you that once you turn 18, your career starts over fresh. You did nothing. And I don’t have an issue with that being the case. You have to kind of earn your position in this world, which I’m a huge advocate for, but it would be nice to say that. It would be nice to let [children] know that.

We have a lot of kids on Abbott, and every now and then, a parent will ask me, “What should I do?” and “How should this go?” and I make sure they know that you can do whatever you want to do right now. But when she turns 18 or he turns 18, this is all going out the door, and they have to start over anyway. So, prepare them for that, prepare them for the idea that, also, it’s not going to be based on, are you just a cute kid who is more charismatic than usual? You have to come out here and bang with the adults. And we work really hard, and we train really hard, and they have to learn how to do that. So I think that was the hardest part. No one tells you that that’s what you’re going to have to do, and you have to slowly figure that out over time.

You said the turning point for you was at the age of 17, when you just started turning roles down and you got an acting coach. How did that change things?

That’s when I figured that out. Like, oh, I have to go back to the drawing board. It’s one of the best times of my life now looking back on it, just locking yourself in an actor studio seven days a week until three, four o’clock in the morning, putting on plays, going over roles that you would never read for and testing out those muscles. I highly recommended it to anybody, one, making that transition, but then also, two, starting in general. I think so often people have these goals of the show’s release and the premiere and the photos and the press. You have to fall in love with the process when no one sees it. Find a black box theater with a group of other really hungry actors, and if they’re the only ones who see this, that’s got to be enough. So I look back on that time now and go, we were hustling and grinding and doing everything that we possibly could, but we were doing it from a really pure place of just wanting to be great. And part of me wishes I could go back to that. Now I have to manufacture that feeling in another way for the next step.

You’ve started talking more about your Crohn’s disease. Has managing it had any impact on your career?

Definitely. There were projects where I was in really bad shape while we were shooting them, and I look back on those things now and I’m like, what could that have been if I was actually at full capacity? But I think part of the issue with that was that I wasn’t telling anybody what I was going through. I think there’s always going to be this fear with anybody who’s going through anything that seems outside of the norm that it’s going to be used against you and it’ll be one of the reasons why you don’t work. But what usually dispels that is once you start telling people, you’ll find that people rally behind you. And that’s what happened with me. So it affected the way I worked and the way I chose to work. But also, you can’t pour from an empty cup. And a lot of the stuff that happened at that time I [was sick] informed a lot of my performances after the fact for sure. I needed to go to that place and understand that place to be able to perform from that place as well. There’s still a well of stuff that I haven’t really even tapped into from that. So, I’m incredibly grateful for the experience, and I think that’s the point of stuff like that. If you’re going to go through something that’s awful and horrible and hard, there’s nothing better than finding a way to use that later.

You now have three Emmy nominations under your belt for your portrayal of Gregory on Abbott Elementary. How bad do you want that win?

You know what? I told myself once Abbott‘s award run started and I felt like, okay, we’re going to be in this for a while, that I wasn’t going to let it get to me one way or another because I think that’s another way of taking in the audience too much. It’s the same thing as reading comments or checking in to see what people are saying after an episode. And I think people begin to modify their performance slightly based on those things. I’ve also been around enough that this isn’t my first awards run. I remember when we did Everybody Hates Chris and we got nominated for a Globe in the first year and then fell out of contention, yet that show stood the test of time, even 20-something years later. I’m not really looking at what’s happening right now. If I made something that audiences can appreciate 20, 30 years later, that’s where I won. That’s ultimately what I’m here for. People don’t necessarily remember who won best supporting actor in 1986, but they very clearly remember, as we saw this past year in the [Emmy] memorial, the minute you see Malcolm Jamal Warner, everybody’s heart breaks. That’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I’m here. I don’t want to ask anything else after that.