Abbot Elementary creator Quinta Brunson and her costar Tyler James Willliams met under the kind of circumstances that would set the scene for their future collaboration. A particularly stressful skit together on A Black Lady Sketch Show left an impression on Brunson, who called up her former scene partner when it was time to fill the Willard R. Abbott Elementary teachers’ lounge. Fast-forward five years and Brunson and Williams’ characters Janine Teagues and Gregory Eddie have gone from will-they-won’t they colleagues to the couple to root for – even as they gave fans a scare last spring with a brief breakup. They thankfully found common ground and the end of Season 5 set the two up for a possible engagement, which Brunson teases as, “yielding some good fruit for this Season 6.”   

Here, the duo talks about trust as the foundation of their working relationship, the importance of creating two interesting individuals before coupling them up and how they explore the temperature at which these characters burn.

DEADLINE: Let’s go back to the very beginning. When is the first time you two met, and what were the circumstances?

QUINTA BRUNSON: We met at A Black Lady Sketch Show, right?

TYLER JAMES WILLIAMS: Yeah, that was the first time we had ever met and worked together. I was a guest on that show, but it felt like it was a run-and-gun type of show, where you don’t really get a lot of time to sit down with the person that you’re going to be doing a sketch with. We kind of just jumped right into it. From there, it was clear that we worked really well together.

BRUNSON: Yeah. For me, that sketch required more work. We were speaking in iambic pentameter, and it was a long sketch, so that was a little bit of a challenge for me. This was the one that was going to require two locked-in people. I was really happy when Tyler came to set, and was not only an excellent scene partner, but I was able to feel very confident in my performance during that. I think, from that point on, I feel like we both knew like, “Oh. This is a person who is easy to do a scene with and work with.”

DEADLINE: How did that turn into Abbott Elementary? Did you always know that Tyler was going to be Gregory?

BRUNSON: So, when I first started thinking about Abbott, I thought, first and foremost, who do I enjoy working with? That’s how I put the writers’ room together. My co-producers, Justin [Halpern] and Pat [Schumacker] – I worked on a pilot with them. I knew I really enjoyed working with them, and I brought in writers that I knew I had a great working relationship with. So, when I laid out the characters, and I thought of the character of Gregory, who was based on a friend from back home, Tyler just naturally popped in my mind for it. I knew he was a hard worker, and I knew that we work well together. I pitched Tyler to ABC, and fortunately – which does not always happen – they were like, “Yeah, we love him,” because I think they also knew the things that I knew about him.

With Gregory, it’s an honor to get to show a young teacher who’s not a dork. He’s a cool, real, Black man, and having conversations about that as the years have gone on, that’s stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

Quinta Brunson

WILLIAMS: Our last show (Whiskey Cavalier) was with them too.

BRUNSON: They knew that this is a reliable [person]. At a certain point, when you’re thinking about efficiency, you want to start thinking about who was going to help this engine run. And I feel like Tyler’s so trusted in that space, to be a part of a well-running engine.

DEADLINE: Tyler, were you just like, “Yep. I’m in.”?

WILLIAMS: Yeah. I knew from that day that we worked together that this is somebody I was going to want to work with more in the future, so I was going to jump at any opportunity that popped up. When getting into a show, one of the things that everyone gets really concerned about is, does this group gel and work well together? If we’re going to be here for, now looking at it, at least six years, it would be nice to do that with people who you enjoy, so while I was looking at other shows at the time, the minute Quinta made me aware of this idea and that this was moving [forward], it jumped to the top of my list on that alone. You know what I mean? I think creative pairings are very, very, very important.

DEADLINE: What was the long-term plan for Janine and Gregory? Did you always see a longer arc for them, or did it grow with the show?

BRUNSON: Yes, yes. But like most things, you kind of let your baby grow up. I frame it as, you could have that in mind, which I did, but I also wasn’t opposed to it going into whatever direction it needed to. When we first started dropping the “will-they-won’t-they”, it was exciting to see how much the audience was into it. That made it feel like, “Oh, there’s really something here. We can keep going down this path,” but a few people absolutely hated it, which is why I wanted to build two strong characters, because then they didn’t have to be together. They could just be two characters who would exist without that. But yes, the audience got very involved, very fast.

We’ve entered a phase in both this story, but also in fan viewing habits, where the “happily ever after” isn’t just assumed, you want to see the “how.” You want to see, “Do they make it past those difficult conversations?” We had one of those happen in this last season, that was kind of big and broke them up.

Tyler James Williams

DEADLINE: Do you recall the earlier times of people getting really excited about little hints?

WILLIAMS: The first one I noticed was the sign above the door in Season 1. What was it? Was that Episode 4?

BRUNSON: No, 2.

WILLIAMS: It was pretty early on, but I think what was nice is, when we shot it, it wasn’t in that order, so it felt, for us, like it was something that we were gradually putting the pieces together for. But I picked up pretty quickly that it was going to be a fan anchoring moment for this show.

DEADLINE: Is there a temptation to play that up? Even in scenes that don’t require it?

BRUNSON: Totally. But I feel like I always go back to, as a writer and an actor, that there’s more to these people than just the romance. It’s really compelling, but we’ve been able to tell such great stories with Janine and Gregory, especially Gregory, that have nothing to do with the romance. Because the show is just about teachers making a way at the end of the day, so I’m happy that we don’t lean into that too much. It’s funny, we’ve often gotten notes from the studio – which is them doing their jobs – but they’re like, “We haven’t had a Janine and Gregory moment in a minute.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah. That’s right. We have to focus on that, too,” but I’m always more interested in telling their individual stories, their individual journeys, which sometimes come together, sometimes not.

DEADLINE: There’s an adage in television with will-they-won’t-they couples that, as soon as they get together, people lose interest. How did you go about letting the relationship transition?

BRUNSON: I think that’s the importance of having other things going on in the character’s lives. For instance, I am very excited about a vice principal storyline for Gregory — Gregory’s character mission from the beginning to be principal. I think when people look back, they’ll say, “Oh, wow. He really went on a journey from coming in as a sub, wanting to be a principal, becoming a teacher full-time, starting clubs, becoming a staple to these kids, and now he’s going to be a vice principal.” So, making sure that there’s story outside of just the romance. But Tyler, what do you think with playing it?

WILLIAMS: I feel like the answer to that question is the answer to the previous question. That’s what keeps people interested. They’re not necessarily here for the relationship. They’re here for the two individuals and how they come together. They’re not just “if.” We’ve entered a phase in both this story, but also in fan viewing habits, where the “happily ever after” isn’t just assumed, you want to see the “how.” You want to see, “Do they make it past those difficult conversations?” We had one of those happen in this last season, that was kind of big and broke them up. I think the “How do they get to the end?” is just as important, and that only comes by way of being invested in two individuals.

BRUNSON: Yeah. Off your point of the breakup, I could not have predicted how — well, in a way, I could because we wrote it — but how affected people were by that breakup.

WILLIAMS: That means they’re affected by two individuals, and they’ve got opinions about both of them and also their histories. I found it really interesting to see people go, “This is a recurring pattern for Gregory. He needs to grow up.” It’s like, yeah, because you’re invested in him as an individual, not just him as a love interest.

BRUNSON: Yeah, same thing with, “Janine has been through this with her mother.” It’s like, “Oh, yeah. You guys are totally invested in who they are as people, and it’s creating a real ‘Who is right in this situation?’” That, to me, like Tyler’s saying, is a testament to, these are two people you care about.

DEADLINE: What was the challenge for you two, as actors, playing those breakup scenes? It must have felt quite different as an episode?

WILLIAMS: With any of the major Janine and Gregory scenes, one of the challenges we always have is the temperature at which they burn, right? We had it with the initial first-kiss scene. We had it with the conversation about them not wanting to date and be together, because it could be big. And we shoot it in a way where we have all types of variations, from hottest to coldest. We had to approach this one the same way. We had certain takes that were more passive on both sides, but then we had takes where we dialed it up, to the point where our crew felt uncomfortable watching these two characters argue. I think that will always be one of the big challenges, making sure we understand the breadth of their emotional spectrum, and then finding, in not only the rehearsing and the shooting of that but also in the edit, where their perspectives really land and what points they hit.

BRUNSON: The challenge, too, is that we are a 22-minute sitcom, and because it’s 22 minutes and there’s 22 episodes, we have a lot of responsibility. For us, it becomes that we want to go deeper or go more dramatic, but we need to bounce back to a joke really soon. We don’t have a lot of time to let things breathe. I’ll watch something on HBO or FX, and I’m like, “God, I wish I had a minute. I wish I could let something breathe for even 10 seconds,” but we just don’t have that privilege over here. That, to me, becomes the acting challenge with the Janine and Gregory scenes. It’s making sure we’re handling all of our constrictions well, and we make it look easy on screen. I don’t want the audience at home to be thinking about the things I just said, so it’s up to us to really handle all of that.

We know each other’s comedic voices really well, which comes in handy – to write something and Tyler just gets it. I also get what is not just funny to him, but what’s going to be funny coming out of his mouth too, so that’s really great.

Quinta Brunson

DEADLINE: That’s fascinating. So, you really film a whole spectrum of emotion? Where does it become clear to you, where it lands?

BRUNSON: I think we feel good at each temperature, and it’s a conversation with the director of the episode, too. Like, “Okay. This one, I want it to be a bit more hot, this one more cold, really let each other have it, do the sweetest version of this thing.” It’s usually in the edit with scenes like this, that we really can pick and pull what feels right, but it’s up to me and Tyler to give all of it, so that in the edit it can be put together like a puzzle piece.

DEADLINE: How has your relationship evolved off-screen in the past five years?

BRUNSON: I think about, back in Season 1, Episode 108 when you wanted to talk about the hairpin turns Gregory was making.

WILLIAMS: Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, that was a day.

BRUNSON: It was a day. So, we have a lot of conversations about character motivation. Especially with Gregory, it’s an honor to get to show a young teacher who’s not a dork. He’s a cool, real, Black man, and having conversations about that as the years have gone on, that’s stuff that goes on behind the scenes.

DEADLINE: What happened on Episode 108?

WILLIAMS: So, 108, the major storyline in that was Gregory softening up to his kids. It was the first time that I had ever explored Gregory moving physically and getting outside of his comfort zone. Whenever you’re in a show, and it’s the first of a character doing something, that’s when you really feel the co-ownership between writer, showrunner, and actor of that character. We all knew that it was a really important moment. It set the stage for what would be the collaboration of Gregory Eddie for the rest of this show.

When I look at how our relationship has evolved, I think the co-ownership and partnership of Gregory Eddie has gotten stronger over the years, and that was a defining moment for that. It was us having to find the middle ground that felt right to everybody who was telling this part of the story. But it goes back to that first decision that Quinta was talking about, of wanting to work with people that you know and you work well with. There’s a certain shorthand that we now have, that you couldn’t put a price tag on. You know what I mean? Your creative relationships get stronger, and I think what’s really nice is, now we can take bigger swings and we can play with things by way of just a look.

BRUNSON: Yeah. We know each other’s comedic voices really well, which comes in handy – to write something and Tyler just gets it. I also get what is not just funny to him, but what’s going to be funny coming out of his mouth too, so that’s really great.

DEADLINE: How collaborative is the process? Are you the kind of set where people interject or have ideas?

BRUNSON: Yeah. For instance, there was an episode last season where Tyler had a perspective on – it was the apartment episode, was it? And I’m always going to be open to hearing out what those concerns are. Now, granted, we try to have it so that, by the time [the script] gets to our actors, they don’t have to think about any of that.

WILLIAMS: And we usually don’t.

BRUNSON: But sometimes when there’s some deeper, bigger material, I don’t know, something that’s a little different, I do tend to want to listen to the people who are living in the bodies of these characters. I also think that Tyler, just with his perspective as a Black male, often brings things to the character that I don’t have any shame in going, “Oh, yeah. That is a helpful note. We didn’t exactly think about that in those terms.”

DEADLINE: Is there a scene you two remember where there was more workshopping than others?

WILLIAMS: There was one scene I can remember, because it was the last scene we shot at the end of Season 3. We shot the Gregory coming back to Janine’s apartment scene and the “I fixed your light” scene [out of order]. We went back and shot the scene where he goes back into the house as the last thing. I remember we were shooting it, and I know everyone’s tired. It’s our last scene of the season. I was like, “I really don’t mean to be this guy,” but I definitely needed help on the motivation. We talked about, “Why doesn’t he just walk right back in there? We have to keep him outside.” It’s a tingle that you feel in character, where you’re like, “I need a little bit extra here.”

I think it speaks to the diligence at which we do our work. I remember the writers came down. Quinta came down because she wasn’t even in the scene, and we stood outside and we talked it through until it got right. I think that’s what it takes to do the show. When people ask about the collaborative effort and how do we keep finding the next gear, I think part of us continuing to find the next gear is that there’s always somebody who’s strong and looking to make it that much better. At any given time, anyone in our cast, someone in our writers’ room, any one of our directors could be that person to make sure that we maintain the bar that we’ve set for ourselves.

DEADLINE: Before I leave you, we’ve more than hinted at an engagement between the Janine and Gregory. How do you feel about the next step in this relationship, both as actors and characters?

BRUNSON: I’m really excited. I mean, it’s just yielding some good fruit for this Season 6. I’m very excited, but I’m curious in Tyler’s answer, because he’s not in the room.

WILLIAMS: I’m excited. As an actor knowing that I’ll have good stuff to play with, I’m excited. As the person who is slipping back into Gregory’s skin shortly, I’m very stressed. I’m so stressed out, and I can just feel it building, which is good. This is a good place to start the season.

BRUNSON: Gregory’s juggling a lot this season.

WILLIAMS:  Yeah, he’s stressed. Just the math of it, it’s like, yeah, he’s stressed out.

BRUNSON: He’s cracking us up in the room, but, yeah, he’s balancing quite a bit.

Boy George has withdrawn from the West End Jesus Christ Superstar revival just days before he was set to appear in the role of King Herod, apparently as a result of the former Culture Club singer’s recent release of a pro-Israel song that disputes the charge of genocide and calls pro-Palestine supporters “sheep.”

The singer’s exit from the musical revival at the London Palladium was announced on Instagram this afternoon by George’s manager Paul Kemsley, who noted, “George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions.”

“After careful consideration,” Kemsley writes (see the post below), “I have decided, in my capacity as Boy George’s manager, that he will no longer be appearing in Jesus Christ Superstar. The decision has been made with the utmost respect for the producers, the creative team and the entire company. We are grateful for the professionalism and understanding they have shown throughout and sincerely wish everyone involved every success with the production.”

Kemsley continues: “We also recognise that many people purchased tickets in the hope of seeing George perform. To those fans, we offer our sincere apologies for the disappointment this decision may cause, and we are deeply grateful for their continued loyalty and support.

“George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that. Equally, I believe it is my responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interests of my artist while also showing respect to others. In this instance, I felt it was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.”

Boy George was have have played King Herod from August 2-15, one in a rotating cast of performers in the small role. Others playing Herod include Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Simon Russell Beale, Richard Armitage, Layton Williams and Julian Clary; Armitage is expected to fill in for George.

Earlier this week, Boy George posted a new song online titled “We Will Dance Again,” voicing support for Israel’s military action in Palestine. The title comes from an Israeli expression popularized following the October 7 Hamas attack at an Israeli music festival.

The song, which apparently no longer is available online, includes lyrics stating Israeli civilians were murdered “for the crime of dancing,” and, in a direct address to celebrity supporters of Palestine, “You condemn, with selective memory/Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep/Propaganda fueled by the internet feels so weak.”

The song, which Boy George had posted on his social media accounts along with lyrics in both English and Hebrew — and with the note that the song was written with the help of AI — also included the lyric:

“You say genocide, I say war
When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for
Does it get ugly? You bet it does
When I know you wanna kill”

The Jesus Christ Superstar revival, which has received good reviews and strong box office, stars Sam Ryder as Jesus, Tyrone Huntley as Judas, Desmonda Cathabel as Mary Magdalene and David Thaxton as Pontius Pilate. The Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical began performances June 20 and runs through September 5, with Tim Sheader directing.

The producer behind the World War II spy thriller Fortitude has filed suit against Netflix, claiming that it bears responsibility for the theft of the hard drive of the upcoming film Fortitude after it was delivered to the streamer’s headquarters for screening and possible purchase.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Wednesday, seeks damages of at least $105 million.

In the complaint, Simon Afram, the producer, writer and financier, and production company Op-Fortitude Limited claim they had an unencrypted digital cinema package of the film delivered to Netflix for a potential purchase, with the instruction to delete the files after screening.

The lawsuit claimed that after screening the film around June 16, Netflix “failed to provide the promised instructions for picking up the unencrypted DCP for over a week. Instead, on the afternoon of June 25, 2026, a Netflix executive emailed Plaintiffs with the subject line ‘Stolen PCP,’ referring to Plaintiffs’ unencrypted DCP, and wrote, ‘someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week.’”

The Netflix executive said that they had been working with security teams with “no luck,” but that piracy teams were “on high alert,’ according to the lawsuit.

“Netflix’s email indicated that Netflix had known about the theft of the DCP for potentially a full week without ever advising Plaintiffs that Netflix had allowed Plaintiffs’ DCP, which cost over $45 million to make, to be stolen right off a Netflix desk.”

The executive assured that the stolen drive likely would be “sold for scrap given that they require” a key to unlock an encrypted DCP, according to the lawsuit. But, Afram claimed, “Netflix knew the DCP was unencrypted and could be opened, viewed, published, copied or distributed without any key.”

The lawsuit also claimed that Netflix has refused to disclose whether it filed a police report or whether it had enlisted the help of a law enforcement agency. The lawsuit claimed that on Tuesday, Netflix refused their request to involve “the Los Angeles Police Department, with which Plaintiffs had filed a report regarding the theft, in Netflix’s private investigation of the theft.”

The film, directed by Simon West, is based on the true story of British Intelligence operatives using unprecedented strategic operations to fool Nazi leadership and help change the course of World War II. The cast includes Nicolas Cage as Dusko Popov, a real-life double agent who is said to have inspired Ian Fleming’s James Bond character, as well as Matthew Goode, Ben Kingsley, Ron Perlman and Michael Sheen.

A Netflix spokesperson said that the company “disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards. While we do not own the rights to Fortitude, we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team. This includes conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale. We have declined to share anything about our ongoing investigation with the law firm representing Simon Afram, given their hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation – including immediately demanding $165 million for the film rather than work with us in good faith.”

A source at the company says that they have seen no evidence that the film has been leaked.

The lawsuit claims conversion, breach of bailment contract and breach of implied contract.