Quinta Brunson on 'emotional' Emmy speech, taking chances in 'Abbott Elementary' Season 3

Quinta Brunson is getting her flowers.

Last month, the creator and star of “Abbott Elementary” took home the Emmy Award for best comedy actress. It was her second trophy, after winning for writing the ABC sitcom in 2022. Brunson was moved to tears by the honor, which she accepted from one of her comedy heroes, Carol Burnett. Minutes earlier, her longtime friend Ayo Edebiri picked up an Emmy of her own for FX series “The Bear.”

“I was not expecting to be so emotional,” Brunson, 34, recalls. Oprah Winfrey congratulated her with a gargantuan bouquet of roses, delivered to the “Abbott” set at Warner Bros. “The entire cast and crew got to take flowers from it, so everybody had their small Oprah bouquets. It was really sweet.”

“Abbott,” returning Wednesday for Season 3 (9 EST/PST), quickly became a sensation after bowing in late 2021. The series endeared viewers with its warm tone and sharp one-liners, following a hardworking group of teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia public school.

In the hourlong season premiere, the eager-to-please Janine Teagues (Brunson) mulls a new opportunity, while the outlandish principal Ava (Janelle James) has a serious new attitude after studying at Harvard (with an asterisk). Meanwhile, the sagacious Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) supports Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) through an important life decision, and janitor Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) gets a backstory that sounds an awful lot like the plot of "The Godfather."

“The third season is like, ‘OK, people really know who these characters are. We get to take some chances,’” Brunson says. She recently caught up with USA TODAY to chat about the series' return, delayed by the Hollywood actors' and writers' strikes. (Edited and condensed for clarity.)

Question: "Abbott" cleverly acknowledges the monthslong strike hiatus in the Season 3 premiere, saying the mockumentary film crew had its camera equipment stolen. Why did you want to nod to it in that way?

Answer: For me, Strike TV would be like Pandemic TV: I don’t want to hear about it and I don’t want to see it. That’s not what’s going on in the world of our characters, and TV should be a welcome escape. With the strike, especially, that was very inside baseball. Our industry’s dealing with that, not the majority of viewers at home. So I wanted to make sure our show still felt like our show. And that just led to us being like, “What is the most exciting and humorous way to say why we weren’t here for a while?”

Was there a character you most enjoyed getting to write for in Season 3?

I know it sounds like BS, but it’s really fun to take all these characters and figure out how we grow them up or grow them down. Barbara and Melissa are older women. A lot of times, people think, “Oh, once you turn 50, you’re done learning things.” But you don’t just stop there, so that’s been a fun part of writing them. And Ava is always exciting because we can make her say almost anything. The challenge is to make sure the character has some type of conviction for her actions.

What's the most exciting challenge of teasing out the relationship between Janine and Gregory (Tyler James Williams)?

I love tropes. A lot of people will be like, “We should shy away from them,” but I don’t feel that way. It’s about reinventing the wheel (but) not throwing the wheel out completely. You always just go back to the fact that they’re young and probably won’t figure out everything immediately. Dating in my 20s was insane and hectic. A lot of times it’s just dumb! So it's fun to remember that because it helps us write them in really honest ways, and also write them as individuals. No one says they have to get together – they’re individuals first.

Whether it's Taraji P. Henson or Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty, "Abbott" has always incorporated its guest stars in organic ways. What would your version of "jumping the shark" be?

There have been people in the past who wanted to be on the show, and I’ve been like, “That would just break the world that we’ve built.” Especially since it is a mockumentary, people would say, "Why is this person on this show?” I also would never want to do a “very special episode” of “Abbott.” I’d never want to do an episode that isn’t a comedy – that to me would be jumping the shark.

You've said that your parents taught you the importance of advocating for yourself. What are the biggest ways you championed or made space for yourself in Season 3?

I’ve been prioritizing rest and being intentional about that. Wearing so many hats, it’s easy to forget that and not advocate to say, “Hey, I need to go home and go to sleep.” In this season, so many of the writers have been stepping up and it’s been wonderful. They know the show as well as I do now, so I’ve been feeling that I’m able to take a step back a bit. Sometimes it’s things like production meetings or tone meetings. The writers have a good enough grasp that I feel like now I can say, “I don’t need to be in this meeting. I can sleep or do something else.”