SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “Winter Break,” Season 4, Episode 8 of “Abbott Elementary,” now streaming on Hulu.
Lisa Ann Walter is at the center of the “Abbott Elementary” Christmas episode “Winter Break,” which gives fans a nuanced lens into her character, the stubborn, pull-no-punches Melissa Schemmenti. The Melissa-focused episode reveals the fraught family dynamics created by her overbearing mother, played by “Godfather” actor Talia Shire. This marks the first time we’ve seen Melissa’s mother on screen.
Walter says the Schemmenti family dynamics captured in the Christmas special mirror those in her own Italian family.
“I don’t know if your family actually tells you that they love you and gives you unsolicited praise, but that does not happen in a Sicilian household,” Walter says. “There’s a lot of judgment. Very rarely is there a straight-out compliment. So it felt very familiar to me coming from that kind of family.”
Gilles Mingasson
“The Parent Trap” star recalls meeting Shire the day before filming. Shire, she says, repeatedly inquired about Melissa’s romantic options on the show during their first interaction together.
“She was in character immediately,” Walter says with a laugh, adding that she appreciated Shire’s questions. “She was very maternal. That was our relationship from the get.”
Walter says Shire also proceeded to ask about her children in real life, and how Walter plans to decorate her new house. Being interrogated by Shire cultivated their mother-daughter dynamic on set, Walter says.
Melissa’s sister Kristin Marie (Lauren Weedman) is a recurring character “Abbott Elementary,” having first appeared in the Season 2 episode “Wrong Delivery” — but the rest of her extended family was new to the show. The ensemble imbues societal pressures and cultural expectations for Melissa, specifically how the Schemmenti family grill her for not being married and having kids.
“Melissa takes all of that heat and she turns it into ‘Oh yeah? Well I’m gonna show you,’” Walter says. “She insists on making this [dinner] a spectacular success.”
In the previous episode, “Winter Show,” Melissa approached the culinary preparation with a rigorous mentality, which is directly tied to Melissa’s desire to impress her loved ones. “Along the way, you see she’s deeply in need of her mother’s acceptance and approval,” Walter says. “When she gets that slight, tiniest of compliments from mom, it changes her world. She has won Christmas. That felt very, very familiar to me.”
Walter says that fellow Abbott teacher Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) has become, in a sense, found family for Melissa.
Gilles Mingasson
Early on in the episode, Melissa’s uncle Archie makes a racist comment upon the arrival of Barbara and her husband Gerald. Melissa reprimands her relative immediately, and sends him upstairs before profusely apologizing to the Howards.
“Throughout the episode, she’s tolerating all the ribs, she’s tolerating all of the back-handed compliments and outright insults,” Walter says. “But as soon as this guy opens his mouth to Barbara, she’s ready to fight.”
Walter adds that one especially significant moment in the episode comes when the guests are leaving Melissa’s home. As each character says their goodbyes, Barbara embraces her and offers words of encouragement. She tells Melissa that although her family may never acknowledge Melissa’s successes directly, she has proven them wrong.
“When Barbara is leaving, she walks out the door and gives [Melissa] a hug. The first time she did it and hugged me, she said ‘They might not tell you but I will. You did that,’” Walter says about how well the dinner turned out. “There was such love in a Sheryl hug for Lisa that I just teared up.”
Walter says that after a chaotic three days of production for the scenes at Melissa’s house, this gesture from her co-star held immense meaning for her off-screen.
“There’s room for the actors to have moments,” Walter says. “Whether they’re on the page or whether they just build because of how we all feel about each other now, they give room for us to have genuine, truthful moments of heartfelt emotion.”
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