-Tyler James.
Do I call you Tyler James or Tyler?
-Tyler is fine.
My mother loves the James. -She does.
-She wants the whole full name in there.
-Yeah, it was great to see your mom backstage.
-Yeah, yeah. -And your dad?
-Yeah.
-They're very supportive parents.
-Very. I mean, in order to be a child actor,
you need really supportive parents.
You can't get to the jobs by yourself.
-That's true, yeah.
Apparently, we met almost.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah,
We met about 20 years ago on "SNL."
We did a -- we did a sketch that got cut last minute.
I was 10, so I look a little different.
-Yeah. I'm slightly taller
than I was the time, but yeah, yeah, we did.
-You have a picture here of you and Tracy Morgan?
-Mm-hmm.
So I did a few sketches on "SNL" at the time.
That's the one with me with Tracy.
That's in my mother's house, by the way, so...
She framed it. -She framed it,
it's sitting there.
-Is my picture next to Tracy?
-It's going to be. -It's going to be.
-Oh, my God! Mom! -It's gonna get the wall.
You're gonna make the wall. -Mom, you didn't hang me up?
I didn't make the wall?
-You're gonna now. -You're going to now.
-What a good guy Tracy is. -Such a good dude.
-He took care of me when I was first on "SNL."
Like, barely, actually, when I was first, he was like,
"You want me show you the ropes? Come on.
You here with your dad? Come and get in my limousine."
And we got in the back of his limo, he take us to a party.
Like, he's the best guy.
He was -- I remember him being super respectful.
He refused to curse around me at the time.
-Wow. -Even in all the rehearsals.
-That is so hard for Tracy Morgan.
-I know. It's very, very hard. -That's amazing.
-Yes, yes. -You got to get an experience
with one of your idols at the Golden Globes.
You won a Golden Globe. First of all, congratulations.
-Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
-You won a Golden Globe. -I know.
For the rest of your life, you have that.
-It's still setting in.
-For the rest of your life, that's part of your intro.
-Yeah, yeah. -Golden Globe winner.
-I'm going to have them do that at, like, dinner reservations.
-[ Laughs ] Everything.
-Everything, you have to say it.
-So you're at -- you're in the room.
-I'm in the room -- -Actually, before the room.
-I'm at the carpet, right?
And they stop me from going on the carpet,
and someone's cutting the line and I'm, you know,
I'm about -- my ego's about to go off.
But then it's Eddie Murphy, and I'm like,
well, yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense. Yes, let him go.
And we have a brief moment on the carpet.
Someone says, Can you guys take a photo together?
And I'm like, "That's completely up to Eddie Murphy."
That's -- he gets to decide that, and he was fine with it.
And that could -- the night
could have ended for me right there.
I would have been done at that.
I had a photo with Eddie Murphy, it's going to go
on my mother's wall. I think it's already up.
[ Laughter ]
That's -- that was it. -It's already on mom's wall.
-It's already on mom's wall. -You never met Eddie Murphy.
-I had seen him in passing.
I just really wasn't aware that he knew who I was,
to be completely honest with you.
-Really? -Really. I just -- I don't know.
You don't imagine somebody like Eddie Murphy
watching anything that you would do.
-You idolize Eddie.
-Yes, 100%.
I think every -- every Black actor who does comedy
is stealing from Eddie Murphy,
in the same way Black actors who do drama
ultimately are stealing from Sidney Poitier.
It's just a lot of, like, heists.
That's what we're doing with our performances.
-Every -- yeah.
Eddie Murphy is the -- he's the top.
-He's the golden standard, man.
It doesn't get any better than that.
-Yeah, and did he say anything to you or...?
-Silence. -Yeah.
-That's the way Eddie is, though.
-He's cool guy, he's quiet. -He's super cool.
He's like -- -When it's time
to turn it on, I'll turn it on.
-He gave me a thumbs up. Good enough for me.
-Thumbs up. That's big for Eddie.
-That's good enough for me. -Eddie doesn't do thumbs up.
-No. I got a thumbs up. I could have gone home.
-Well, something even cooler than thumbs up happened
to you from Eddie Murphy.
You win, and you didn't know this even.
You win, you did your speech. -I had no idea.
-You did the whole thing. You just, what?
You just kind of zone out and you leave.
-Okay. So when you get up there and you win,
what no one tells you is that the lights are really bright.
-Please tell me what it's like.
[ Laughter ]
I guess -- I guess I'll never experience it.
I guess I'll never experience it.
Please tell me when you win an award what's it like.
-It's coming. -No, it's not.
It's going to happen. I believe in you.
-You were great. So, you're up there.
-I'm up there, lights are really bright, right.
So I can't really see anything.
And I don't know, people talk through that --
that award wrap it up thing,
because it starts blinking immediately.
It's distracting, yeah. -It's really red
and it's anxiety inducing, so I'm just trying
to get off of stage as fast as I can.
And it wasn't till I got back to my seat that there was
a bunch of text messages of people saying,
"Eddie stood for you."
And I was like, "What does that mean?"
It's like, What?
And then they sent me the photo, and...
I'm still trying to process this.
Eddie Murphy gave you a standing ovation.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Come on, that's --
that's what I'm talking about.
-I still don't -- It still hasn't set in.
Like, I'm looking at that, and I'm like,
Wow, Gerard really must have done something great.
-[ Laughs ] That was for you.
-That couldn't have been for me, and I --
So I spent the next three or four days
after the Globes trying
to get in contact with Eddie Murphy.
Say, hey, I didn't see you. I'm so sorry.
-Yeah. -But you mean, like,
the world to me?
So I'm just now processing the Globe
because I spent so much time trying to process that.
-Yeah, well, Eddie usually watches the show.
So, Eddie, you did a good thing right here.
-Thank you. -This guy loves you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Tyler, you're so great on "Abbott Elementary."
-Thank you. -It was the funniest show on TV.
It's so great. -Thank you.
-Quinta Brunson, genius. So good.
-The best. -Great show.
Yes, it is a great, great, funny show.
100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
You crush it. You're so good.
You're so funny on that. -Thank you.
It just got announced, got picked up
for a third season. -Season three.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Are you -- do you get different reactions
from people on the street now that you're on this hit show?
-[ Sighs ] Yes.
So, I've been "famous" for a lot of my life.
-Yeah. -I started on the show
called "Everybody Hates Chris."
That was about 15 years ago. [ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
So since then, I've had, like,
a lot of experiences of seeing people
try to figure out what I'm from on the street.
-Okay. -And depending on what
their face does, I'll then know
because it's like they hit, like, three seconds.
I'm walking by them.
You know, they have to -- the brain has to make
all the connections. -Yeah, moves very fast.
-Very, very fast.
So now it's really fun to watch
and try to see what people know me from
based on their reactions.
-Give me an example. -Okay.
So, like, the face always starts the same, right?
It's always a...
[ Laughter ]
If it's "Everybody hates Chris,"
because I'm like everybody's cousin, it's...
[ Laughter ]
You know, that's -- So I'm like, yeah, yeah, from that.
-Yeah, that's right. -I did a show called
"The Walking Dead" for a while.
If it's that, it'll be a...
Because they just saw me die, and I'm like it's okay, y'all.
-I guess that's the reaction.
-The new one is fun. -Oh.
-It's...
-Oh!
It's oh, you just seen me on "Abbott."
You think I'm sexy. Thank you, I appreciate it.
-That's what I'm talking about. [ Cheers and applause ]
That's exactly right. -[ Laughs ]
I want to show everyone a clip. Here is Tyler James Williams
in next week's episode of "Abbott Elementary."
Take a look at this.
-Gregory. -Hmm.
-So, how's your relas going with your student's parent?
-Worst possible way to phrase that.
Former students parent, and it's going well.
It's me and Amber's first Valentine's Day,
so I want to get it right. Brought three gifts.
And I'm still trying to decide which two to send back.
-Oh, nail biter.
Well, I do fancy myself quite the gift giver.
So, if you need help, I --
-No. -Hello, everyone.
So I found this Valentine in my mailbox.
It's from, "a secret admirer,"
Candy heart with my name on it.
Is this from one of you guys?
-Tyler James Williams.
"Abbott Elementary" airs Wednesdays at 9:00 P.M. on ABC.