Abigail Spencer (‘Extended Family’): ‘This is not a show about divorce; it’s about family’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
It surprises people to learn that Abigail Spencer had never been a regular presence on a situation comedy before her role in the NBC sitcom “Extended Family.” She’s a TV acting veteran of more than a quarter-century with 63 credits to her name on IMDB, getting her start on “All My Children” just before the turn of the millennium and going on to star in the 2006 Lifetime drama series “Angela’s Eyes.” She’s also recurred on “Mad Men,” on “Grey’s Anatomy” and on “Suits.” Long known as a drama queen, however, Spencer is now having the time of her life in a comedy playing opposite Jon Cryer and Donald Faison. And she loves it. “I really do feel liberated in that space,” she asserts. “A lot of my very good friends have been wanting me to do comedy and work on a sitcom for a long time and can’t believe it’s taken so long.” But all indications are that Spencer has taken to it like the proverbial duck to water. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
Perhaps part of the reason that Spencer looks to be such a sitcom natural is that she so closely relates to the material and her character. “Extended Family” finds her portraying Julia, a divorced mother whose ex-husband is Jim (Cryer). She also has a fiance’, Trey (Faison). The unusual part of this setup is that Julia and Jim’s divorce is a wholly amicable one, so amicable that they practice “nesting” (the term describing the exes taking turns staying with the kids in the same household rather than shifting them between homes. The series, created by Mike O’Malley (the longtime star of “Yes, Dear”), is inspired by the real-life relationship between Boston Celtics majority owner Wyc Grousbeck and his wife Emilia along with her ex-husband George Geyer (all three of whom are executive producers on the sitcom).
It happens that Spencer herself went through a divorce roughly a decade ago and vouches for the realism in the concept of the civil post-divorce relationship. “I really do believe that there is a way to do divorce differently,” says Spencer, who is co-parenting her 15-year-old son with her ex. “Part of me wanting to be a part of this show was to put something out there in the zeitgeist. A sitcom is the quickest injection of cultural relevance into the zeitgeist with everyday things becoming heightened.”
While the idea of nesting might seem to some incredibly liberated and forward-thinking (and perhaps, given the acrimony in most dissolutions involving young children, unrealistic), it’s also played mostly for laughs in “Extended Family.” However, Spencer maintains that it all carries an undercurrent of seriousness and heart. “People start to believe something’s possible when it’s reflected back to them in the culture,” she says. “That’s what this show does. It shows something that could be possible (on a wider level). Something that I really feel is that this is not a show about divorce. It’s about family. And it’s not fantasy. It’s a contemporary family dynamic that is happening more and more. This is what my friends are doing and trying to do it really well.”
The comedy comes out of the fact that the adults in the show, well-meaning as they are, are much more inept than the children in their charge. The shifting of roles makes for abundant fodder. Spencer has felt a whole new collection of acting muscles develop from portraying such a goofball on the show. “This is he first sitcom I’d ever read and went out for,” she notes. “Luckily, I’d had a long enough history with NBC and Lionsgate for them to consider me, because I’d ridden this golden wave of television cable and streaming very happily for a long time, But I wanted to try something else. And now that I’m in, I want to keep doing it…I think the world needs laughter right now. I think we’re in a particular moment where the medicine is laughter and escapism and rom-coms, and I’m up for all of it.”
Spencer is also greatly appreciative of the phenomenal exposure and career boost she’s received from the resurgence of “Suits” over the past year or so since it landed on Netflix in reruns. She recurred in 125 episodes. “It’s so wild,” she confirms. “I think it’s showing how our industry is changing and living on, and that things can catch at any moment.”
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