The Bradley Cooper Abbott Elementary Episode Was Weirder than You Might Think

Summary

• Bradley Cooper surprised Abbott Elementary's viewers and staff with a cameo appearance in Episode 6.
• Teachers were stunned by his presence and fawned over him, citing their favorite movies with the actor.
• One of Abbott's stars wasn't actually on the set with Bradley Cooper.

Throughout its modest three-season run, Abbott Elementary has seen a number of famous guest stars, including Ayo Edebiri, Taraji P. Henson and June Raphael. But perhaps the biggest celebrity to step foot on the hit ABC sitcom is Bradley Cooper, who opened Episode 6 of Season 3 a few days ago.

Multiple Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper made a cameo appearance in the Willard R. Abbott episode, which aired immediately following the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10. The Philadelphia native played himself, who was approached on the street by one of Abbott's students and asked to visit the school to help the boy with his homework, which was to bring an interesting person to talk to the class about what they do.

Naturally, the teachers were stunned and asked all kinds of stupid questions that seemed like a real-life situation. But it turns out that the scene was much weirder than it seemed.

Bradley Cooper's Fan Club

As soon as the actor stepped into Ms. Melissa Schemmenti's classroom, much to her surprise, she got all excited and texted the other staff members to come see him. Seemingly, all the main characters joined the scene, discussing their favorite movies starring Bradley Cooper.

As she often does with celebrities, Barbara confused last year's The Holdovers, which she really enjoyed, with Bradley Cooper's The Hangover. When Janine said the actor was in a recent critically acclaimed movie, referring to Maestro, Melissa thought she meant Oppenheimer, in which, according to Ava, every major actor seemed to be starring. Afterwards, Abbott's faculty took a picture with Bradley and he had to leave, which seemed normal, but it wasn't.

An Imposter

According to Lisa Ann Walter, who plays Melissa Schemmenti, Sheryl Lee Ralph did not shoot the scene with Bradley Cooper, unlike the rest of the Abbott Elementary cast. The actress' lines were shot separately and added during editing, which is amazing considering how natural she looks in the photo shoot scene with Cooper and her co-stars. Instead, there was a stand-in who played Barbara there.

'We all knew that she was mad,' Lisa Ann Walter commented on her on-screen work wife being in fact absent from the scene. 'All we heard all day long is, "I'm not going to be there with a Bradley Cooper." And then they had some stand-in. They would go, "We'll Zoom you in." That didn't happen. They had a stand-in playing Barbara in Barbara's clothes and Barbara's 27-piece wig. But you know, Sheryl's there…'

Sheryl Lee Ralph's Barbara Howard will most certainly be a big part of Episode 8 of Abbott Elementary's third season, which will premiere tonight, March 20, before the show goes on a two-week hiatus.

Source: YouTube.