Ashley Friedman

From the moment that Dominic Clarke (Shrinking’s Luke Tennie:) joined the Abbott Elementary staff at the top of season five, it was clear that his character was eager to fit in and learn from his older and wiser colleagues. As a former student of Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and protége of Janine, we’ve seen the new fourth-grade teacher adjust to the school over this season through everything from navigating social dynamics in the teachers’ lounge to the instant classic episode where he has to keep his cool while trying to teach his class in a broken down mall (episode 509, “Mall”). But this week (episode 514, “Aide”) we see a whole new side of Dominic as he opens up to Barbara and Jacob (Chris Perfetti) about his struggles with ADHD and the benefits of medication.

The episode opens with a scene in the teachers’ lounge where Barbara comments that medicating children with ADHD is a “shortcut” and Dominic overhears. He then confides in Jacob that he found the comment hurtful, and wants to figure out how to best address it with her. Luke discussed this storyline and more in an exclusive conversation with The Knockturnal.

The Knockturnal:
Your career is an awards season bingo card between Abbott, Shrinking, and The Pitt. You’re just checking all the boxes.

Luke Tennie:
I agree. I’m super blessed, consider me Thanos, alright? I’m out here trying to collect each Warner show like his infinity gauntlet.

The Knockturnal:
So my manifestation for you to add on to that, since you’re already on the Warner lot every day, when they bring Gilmore Girls back, which everyone is dying for them to do, I think you should be Rory’s new boyfriend.

Luke Tennie:
Hey, I’m not mad at that.

The Knockturnal:
You’re already on the lot. You know the set. You’ve worked in that house before.

Luke Tennie:
Rory needs to find somebody, alright? I’m team Jess, but he might deserve somebody better than her at this point. So it’s like, Rory needs a reality check. And if I am involved in that reality check, I’m in.

The Knockturnal:
Well, I’m so excited to dive more into talking about this season of Abbott. I feel like even though you were in the season’s first episode, this week’s is the biggest introduction to your character and how you weave into the school.

Luke Tennie:
Yeah, it’s definitely a great episode. And I think it’s exactly that. It’s about weaving Dominic into the fabric of what it means to be a teacher at Abbott. I agree. It was such a fun episode and I can’t wait for people to see it.

The Knockturnal:
A few weeks ago, I absolutely loved your scenes in the mall with the kids on episode 509. That was just epic.

Luke Tennie:
Yeah, that’s like a future classic episode. I think that those mall episodes are really going to be like when Jerry gets lost in the parking lot on Seinfeld or Will Smith in Fresh Prince when Jazz gets thrown inside instead of being thrown outside it’s like one of those iconic sitcom moments.

The Knockturnal:
It had one of my favorite lines in a scene with you where you were yelling over the kids and you said, “They’re testing me” and your student thought you said Destiny, her name.

Luke Tennie:
Classic mix-up, right? I think what they do so well on Abbott is it may be a joke format that you’ve seen before, but you’ve never seen it in this way. I could praise these writers till kingdom come. And on that episode, too, we had so many different adjustments that they had to make because of the nature of the mall.

The Knockturnal:
That was a real mall, right?

Luke Tennie:
Yes, a real dilapidated busted broken down mall and it had leaks and it was pouring when we were shooting there so they wrote it addressing the leaks into the script. The writers just adapted and really kind of worked this story together so it would all just shine the way it did. It was great.

The Knockturnal:
You all finally made it back to the school, and then in this week’s episode, we get to see you approach having hard conversations and getting to know some of the teachers better. What was your reaction when you first read the script?

Luke Tennie:
So I sort of anticipated it because the writers are so good. I don’t get to read every episode. So sometimes when Dominic is present, I have to do some catching up so I can know where everyone’s at in the season. And what I think is so cool is they kind of built this up. Dominic had been this character who was just a little new, a little young. So he wasn’t as jaded as everyone. And that’s a really cool journey to see with Quinta’s character because Janine is somebody who used to be that. And now she sees herself from five years ago and it’s annoying. She finally gets it. But he’s also his own person, and he’s been struggling to find his identity at the school for a while. And I think this mix-up provides an opportunity, not only narratively for him to tackle that and figure out how to articulate who he is to other people. And with Barbara who taught him when he was a kid, he gets to tell her, ‘You don’t know me that well. And now that I’ve changed in this way, I’m going to need a little bit from you in this regard’. It’s such a responsible way for this show to tackle neurodivergence, ADHD diagnosis, and medication. So I’m just grateful to be a part of it.”

The Knockturnal:
And that was really an issue that we hadn’t dived into yet on the show. So maybe this can even open the doors for future storylines and showing how he relates to some of the kids who might have ADHD.

Luke Tennie:
Yeah, I actually, I think of The Pitt. One of the most moving portions of that show was when a character came on who was on the autism spectrum. And then Dr. King had a specific set of skills on how to accommodate that patient. Whereas this other doctor who’s great at being a doctor did not know how to personally engage with this individual to get him the care that he needed. That provided this perfect narrative opportunity for this doctor to use their special set of skills to help and get this patient what they needed. So I’m watching that and I’m kind of seeing what’s being set up here on Abbott. And I’m like, perhaps there’s an opportunity there where Dominic may have a special skill that some of the other teachers lack where he can come in and help a student get the education that they need.

The Knockturnal:
And of course, in the classic Abbott way, this whole situation was sprinkled in between amazing comedy between you and Jacob, Chris Perfetti, and a miscommunication where you thought you were talking to him about your ADHD and he thought you were coming out to him. 

Luke Tennie:
Oh my goodness me. I was wheezing when I read the script. The thing about Chris Perfetti is that dude plays his characters with such conviction that you can’t take for granted what it means to be prepared. Because if you show up to set without being prepared, he will knock you off your feet, man. You got to be ready to play with that dude. He brought his A game like he always does. I had to make sure I brought my A+ game. He’s just so funny, and I think he does a great job of expressing this character who really wants to help, but whose help can be a little dangerous.

The Knockturnal:
I feel like the line of “ADHD” “GayDHD?” will be quoted and be a hashtag for centuries.

Luke Tennie:
That right there is what had me wheezing on the couch. At every stage of rehearsal of that scene there was some snickering and giggling because the way that man delivered that line he such curiosity and tenderness. There’s no way you’re walking out of that without all the air leaving your lungs through laughter. Maybe some water’s coming out of your eyes because you can’t catch your breath. He just broke everybody on the set every take. Except me. I was locked in there. He broke me like twice. But honestly, I give myself a medal for that because that’s way less than how much I probably would have if I didn’t prepare that hard.

The Knockturnal:
Now that you’ve been around this group for a full season, do you have any favorite moments or memories on set that you can share?

Luke Tennie:
Any time that we’re just waiting for the cameras to set up and we’re just chatting and getting to know each other a little bit. I just love getting to know those people. They’re all such incredible artists. My favorite thing is learning how similar and different they are from their characters. There was this one moment, probably my third or fourth day on set. But it was a scene from Abbott. It was a scene. Because Tyler had just come back from craft services. And there was this cheesecake thing. And Lisa wanted to know if it was good, and then she was like I’m not sure if i should ask Tyler you know because he’s a super fit guy. And then she goes around the corner and sees he left like pieces of the cheesecake on the plate and was like Tyler what are you doing you left out the best part, and he’s like it was too hard on my teeth. It was like straight out of the show. So i’m over here watching this like is anyone seeing this? And it was so funny. And they’re all so friendly and warm. But beyond all of that, they’re super professional.  It’s a tight ship over there. So you’ve got to show up ready to work because everyone’s prepared and ready to go. And that’s the crew and the cast. But they still manage to be fun and goofy and warm.

The Knockturnal:
If you had a different career path and you had the full training for any of these options, which of your characters’ career paths would you choose- a teacher, a chef, or a nurse?

Luke Tennie:
I’m cooking food. What’s cool about that is in regards to Shrinking, those writers pay such close attention to the actors that they bring on board and they invite the actors to share parts of themselves. The reason why Sean cooks on the show is that I told them I love to cook and they ended up working that into his character. That’s a skill that Bill [Lawrence] has developed. He’s learned when it’s appropriate to steal from the actors’ lives on behalf of their characters. And what’s cool about Abbott is the reason why I was able to identify that one moment where I was like, oh, this is like an episode of Abbott is probably because the writers are paying attention to the sensibilities of their actual performance. That’s probably why these characters feel so real, because there are some parts of them that are real.

The Knockturnal:
And I think that’s why everyone widely across the board agrees the show has gotten better and better. The characters have only gotten richer as everyone has gotten to know each other. So that’s really made it such a joy to watch.

Luke Tennie:
Yeah, I feel the same way because I’m watching as a fan every week. My wife and I just binged three episodes at once and we’re so mad. We thought there was going to be a fourth, but we miscounted. Now we have to wait. But it’s something to look forward to. We’re true fans.

New episodes of Abbott Elementary air Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. PT on ABC.