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Tyler James Williams On Making His Directorial Debut On ‘Abbott Elementary’ & Preserving The Network Comedy

Tyler James Williams told Deadline he's thought about directing since he was a child actor on Everybody Hates Chris

WILLIAMS: So, at the end of last season, I went to Quinta, and I was like, ‘Hey, I think I may want to take a shot at directing an episode.’ she immediately walked me over to Randall Einhorn and said, ‘Tyler wants to direct an episode.’ And Randall said, ‘Hell yeah.’ When we got into the season, what was interesting about it is we had to find an episode that was Gregory-light, but we never want to take away from the story by just writing it that way…I think once they got to the science fair storyline, they realized that Gregory did not need to be as present as much, that we could run the story through Morton. He would point things out, and it was like, ‘Alright, you have to fall not just into the mind of the storyteller, but then of the cinematographer and the individual camera operator as well.’ But that was just kind of going further into what was already the visual language of the show. But then seeing this new generation of kids who are equally as good, who just may not have had those opportunities, and how quickly they pick things up, there’s something about it that validates my inner child, and it makes him feel a little bit less crazy.

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