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Abbott Elementary’s Janelle James Was Never Going to Play a Loser: “It’s very easy to have kept her as a one-note zinger, and I was killing it at that. But to be able to do more has been amazing”

“It’s very easy to have kept her as a one-note zinger, and I was killing it at that. But to be able to do more has been amazing.”

This season, Ava took the fall for her teachers when their collective scheme to blackmail the local golf course and take bribes for supplies was revealed to the school board — and got her fired on the spot. Just about everyone tangentially related to the Abbott community shows up to plead for Ava’s reinstatement in a gymnasium school-board showdown, and, in a hard-fought twist, their request is granted. “For people who are paying attention,” James says, “these are all thoughts and feelings Ava has always expressed.” The inclusion of her father and a compelling love interest, though, add a new dimension to the woman who once arranged student files by sexiest dads.

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