‘Abbott Elementary’ Star Lisa Ann Walter on Embracing Curves, Prayer Texts and ‘Funny Complaining’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Plus, she opens up about her love of dance, Italian cooking and how she releases stress
Before she became the sassy-talking, second grade South Philly teacher on the hit ABC show Abbott Elementary, Lisa Ann Walter captivated viewers as the beloved nanny and housekeeper, Chessy, who helped raise identical twin girls in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. And as real life will often imitate art, Lisa’s own identical twins share the same birthdate as her celluloid babies—October 11.
“I wasn’t a star then,” the 61-year-old cover girl tells Woman’s World (get your copy here!) of her oft-recognized character Chessy. But oh, how times have changed! With her spot-on portrayal of Philadelphia school teacher Melissa Schemmenti, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series, Walter’s comedy and writing has become a sought-after commodity.
Born in Silver Spring, MD., Walter has been bringing laughs for decades. Not only beloved for her stand-up acts, she’s also beloved for creating and executive producing the reality weight-loss competition series Dance Your Ass Off. She’s additionally appeared in such films as Shall We Dance, War of the Worlds and Bruce Almighty. Her comic memoir, The Best Thing About My Ass Is That It’s Behind Me, gave her comic career a boost. A trained dancer, despite her childhood years of ballet dreams dashed, she gave a dramatic turn on Rizzoli & Isles as a ballet coach.
Here, the actress who wears many hats sat down with Woman’s World to talk about her current role, self-confidence, cooking and making people laugh.
Woman’s World (WW): Your accent on Abbott Elementary is spot on, I’d think you were from Philadelphia. What else do you bring to your character, Melissa Schemmenti, that makes her authentic?
Lisa Ann Walter: Thank you for that lovely compliment because I work really hard on being authentic in the character with the accent because I’m a fan of accents and have been ever since I was in school in D.C. The Philly people are very proud of their neighborhoods—the South Philly neighborhood—and I have to do honors to that. It made me feel great that the people accepted me as one of their own.
Another thing that comes naturally is my love of food because of my mother’s Sicilian background, so they wrote that in the first week when shooting the pilot. I was bringing people food—ziti, meatballs, and handing it out to the crew and characters. It was Easter week, so I was making Sicilian Easter dessert.
Another thing I bring to her is she’s a big sports fan and I love the NFL. I think that’s really right for the character, so I like that they wrote that. And from the outside, she’s this tough broad that everyone sees, but she really is sentimental and protective of those who she loves and I think that I bring part of myself into that.
WW: Your character seems so comfortable in who she is and confident in what she has to contribute to the school. I read that you felt out of place in show biz years ago. How do you cultivate that confidence now?
LAW: Part of it is maturity. You realize that all of those really unrealistic beauty standards that were pushed on all of us—not just me and not just actors–but all of those gals who grew up in that time frame. I was a kid in the 60s and 70s and even young women in the 70s and 80s, there was such stringent shoving that magazine and TV idea of what a beautiful woman was, which was this stringbean with big boobs. It was unattainable for most of us, so there was this whole generation of women who grew up with body image issues and eating disorders.
When I created the show Dance Your Ass Off, it was because I was told when I was a kid I wasn’t allowed to take ballet and I love dance. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a little ballerina. The Russian teacher said, “No, this one is too fat.” Isn’t that crazy and antithetical to how we should be thinking about dance and exercise? It should be, do the best you can, move your body, be the best version of yourself. So that was kind of the thought process behind creating Dance Your Ass Off.
Some of the things I took along the way as I matured were, oh, there are beautiful and different body types all over the world. What is thought of to be an attractive person depends on where you are in the world and what point in history.
It’s so funny because my mother said, “Why is it everything you create has to have the word ‘ass’ in it?” I said, “Well, it’s because I’ve had such an issue with my own because I was told growing up that it was big, that it was ugly and girls shouldn’t have it.” Now we’re at a point in time where women are spending money trying to get it.
It just seems to me to be so arbitrary and that we spend so much of our time and energy trying to achieve this nebulous, whack-a-mole, changing everyday kind of idea of what we’re supposed to be. Wouldn’t it be so much better if we spent that time and energy on other positive things that could help us and maybe help the world? On top of all of that, I got on a show at this point in my life where postmenopausal women’s bodies change. My boss said don’t lose weight…we want you to look realistically like a teacher in South Philly. What that brought to me and the awareness of what I’ve been doing to myself all these years was pretty phenomenal, so I’ve embraced it, I feel great, I don’t feel I need to be skinny in order to do a good job.
WW: I understand you’re a gourmet cook. What are you making for dinner tonight—a signature dish?
LAW: I actually made this last night. I had some people over and made Italian red sauce, meatballs and sausage and baked rigatoni, salad. I don’t need recipes for many things these days. I started cooking for the family when I was 13 because my mother worked full time, so I like to make a lot of different foods—I like to make Indian food, Chinese, Mexican…I just love to cook.
It’s very therapeutic, so I don’t know if it’s the chopping and prepping. You have to time out when things are ready, so it really takes your mind off everything else. It’s relaxing really. It’s kind of a zen type of thing.
WW: Do you think that cooking for people is a way you show love?
LAW: One hundred percent. You know, when I think about who my partner will be if I’m ever in a relationship again, it is always some kind of a big guy with an appetite. Growing up in an Italian household like mine, we simultaneously give the message of—to the girls anyway—the message that you need to be in great shape but we feed our children a lot. We kind of force feed and give portions that would choke a horse, so I’ve dialed that back a little bit but I will absolutely say I feel the best when people are eating my meals and really enjoying it and sitting around the table and everything that goes along with it—conversation, playing a game. We try to do it every Sunday with the family that’s here and it’s always fun and really important.
WW: What stresses you out and what are a few ways you relieve that stress?
LAW: That’s a great question. I think I’m a worry wart in general. One of the birth rights of a Sicilian background is they tend to worry about everything. We’re kind of a pessimistic people and I have to remind myself when I start going on a tangent and it happens—“Well what if this happens and then this is going to happen and then those things will happen?” So I have to remind myself that it hasn’t happened and to not borrow trouble and relax. The one thing I can’t get past is worrying about my kids. I worry about them daily. The two that came home during the pandemic because their colleges were interrupted in their second year, they’ve both gone back to school. They are my identical twins. They seem to be doing really well.
I have a prayer buddy—the buddy texts me every morning and we share a prayer for the day. She says what she’s going to pray for and I say what I’m going to pray for and she’s a wonderful friend. When I was on the parade route in Philadelphia, somebody came up and just said to me, “I just learned this about my friend’s child, so can you pray for her?” It was a health issue. I thought that was really sweet that she asked me for that boost. I’m a believer. Whether you believe in prayer or not, there’s nothing wrong in sending out positive energy to people, so I texted my friend: ”Hey, there’s this little girl, so put her on the list.” By that afternoon, my friend had a prayer said for her in her church. That’s one of the things you can do. But there’s nothing like going into action.
I find that when I have stress, deep breaths are great and I will definitely do that—take a deep breath and a little five-minute meditation after. I can’t do long ones because I’ll jump out of my skin. Honestly, my set thing because this is who I am at my core, is make a list and start doing. Okay, I’m upset about this or this, and then what can I do to change it? Then I just start doing it. Action.
WW: You wrote a comic memoir, did stand up early on…what does laughter do for you that nothing else can and do you think it’s an important part of overall health and longevity?
LAW: Speaking of what you can do when you’re stressed—I made a career out of “funny complaining.” That’s what comics do. They observe stuff, usually something they have a problem with and moan about it on stage, but it’s fun. It is about a shared experience and that’s what makes it fun for all of us.
Many times what comics do is touch upon feelings we have all felt, experiences we’ve all had and that shared experience among human beings is what brings us together. So we’re all experiencing that together and laughter travels…it’s chemical. It starts in the front of the room, goes to the back of the room…this wonderful release. Just like a cry is. I cried this morning and felt so much better afterwards. I think laughter is the same thing. The fun is for the people; I want them to laugh. It feeds my soul too. That’s why I wanted to be a performer in the first place, because I looked out into that audience and I saw them laugh, I saw them cry. I thought this was the most wonderful job in the world.
WW: What are you most looking forward to this year?
LAW: Creating the other shows that I want to see happen. My whole pride in my career has been expressing the experience of women because I am a woman. I think I write other characters really well also, but I like to make funny women because I think we need it—maybe now more than ever. So I’m going to continue doing that. Honestly, I am mostly looking forward to finishing decorating my house and having my kids over.
Conversation
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