Entertainment
Brian Jordan Alvarez dissects FX’s subversive school comedy ‘English Teacher’
PASADENA, Calif. – Brian Jordan Alvarez became an overnight sensation around the world with facial filters on TikTok. For now, he’s got a raunchy new comedy series, which he created, wrote and stars in, and where he prays he won’t be educated.
Evan Marquez, a gay high school English teacher in Austin, Texas, gets on the bad side of his principal –Enrico Colantoni, “Veronica Mars”– after an incensed parent catches him kissing his boyfriend in the school parking lot. The 37th birthday was marked by the FX comedy series “English Teacher” Monday, 10 EDT/PDT, streaming on Hulu the next day so encouraged.
Brian Jordan Alvarez dissects FX’s subversive school comedy ‘English Teacher’
At the height of his success, thanks in part to Stephanie Koenig, a writer on “Teacher” who plays the role of history teacher Gwen Sanders, the actor and comic surged to fame in record time with a YouTube series entitled “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo,” back in 2016. He has some 700,000 followers on those TikTok videos, he played Estefan Gloria, the fiance (and subsequently husband) of Sean Hayes’ Jack in thirteen episodes of the NBC revival of “Will & Grace,” and he played Cole, who helped create the terrifying robot in the campy horror movie “M3gan,” which hit theaters in 2022. 52 wordsclear.
That’s a sequel he’s now filming in New Zealand. He talks with USA TODAY about his latest project, and how he learned to master his own show.
Question: A question that is addressed by the tagline of the show is, “Is it possible for you to be your complete self while you are at work?” Do you think that is an accurate way to describe it?
The program takes that approach, and it does really well with that question, according to Brian Jordan Alvarez. It’s a difficult answer.
How much did “English Teacher” take from some of the other classroom comedies that you’ve watched? People might go, “Oh, this is Abbott Elementary.”
It truly is a phenomenal show. Also, the creator, Quinta Brunson, she’s pure genius. No, this show is just something created by its own fiction. It has such a very particular tone of voice.
Frankly, it’s such a heavy comedy. Paul Simms is the executive producer, and he’s always done a great job in ensuring this is a comedy. Through the entire process, we want people laughing.
So, it’s not the same as “The Bear,” then.
A chuckle is heard. You can see a lot of amazing comedies on television. There’s this feeling that goes, “Hey, let’s really go joke, joke, joke here,” and it’s one of the things that I love so much about the show because it still manages to give itself a lot of heart.
Brian Jordan Alvarez dissects FX’s subversive school comedy ‘English Teacher’
The information that you write about the kids is based on what you’ve researched?
I spend a lot of time online. I spend a lot of time scrolling through Instagram and TikTok, and as a result, I feel like I am somewhat up to date with the current state of affairs and the mood of how people are talking at the moment. The sentiments that young people have about older people, as well as the sentiments that older people have toward younger people, are frequently expressed on Twitter. This generation is being blamed for this by some people. It is the fact that different people doing what they believe to be good, yet they disagree with what is good, that really makes the program thrive. At times, the characters are going to make an effort in doing something good, but they are doing something bad.
You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the children, but was that difficult to cast?
We are blessed with a large number of hilarious children, two of whom were acquired mostly through the use of TikTok. Okay. So there’s this guy, Ben Bondurant, and he’s the one young guy who says, “If they’re going to get you, they’re going to get you.” You know, in the pilot episode. And then this kid on TikTok had tagged me in some video he’d done of him saying, basically those words but not quite, “This guy reminds me of you.” Since that, we have been watching this kid’s videos. How funny is he? Just as he is sitting in his car, he will send me a text message that says, “You guys have completely transformed my life.” As a result of the fact that our set is really receptive to ideas and open to people improvising, occasionally they will tell us what they think is cool, or I will ask them, “How would you say that really, or how would you make that feel real for yourself?” Seventy to eighty percent of the children have been cast in that manner.
What is the significance of Evan’s sexual orientation, and how does this circumstance influence the way you approach the show?
The fact that we are able to write from this insider position and that we are able to make jokes that really only make sense when viewed from that perspective is something that I really enjoy about that. so that individuals might perceive authenticity.
How did you gain knowledge from your participation in other television shows, such as “Will & Grace” and “Jane the Virgin”?
Brian Jordan Alvarez dissects FX’s subversive school comedy ‘English Teacher’
The time I spent working on “Will and Grace” was a very remarkable educational opportunity. Our show has this tremendous clarity about an energy that we are attempting to get: people talking over each other and the fast tempo. This is something that we are trying to get off of. Being able to witness the co-creator, Max Mutchnick, as well as the director, Jim Burrows, and the actors, including Sean Hayes, displaying such clarity and confidence while also really going for it and going all the way is just remarkable. And Max, whenever he would be extremely firm about what he wanted, it pushed me to be very clear about what I wanted when we were producing this, and it encouraged me to speak freely.
And are you done with your face filters?
No, I’m just getting started. Four thousand of them, you got to do more.
