Quinta Brunson says mom dropped her phone, 'lost it' when she introduced her to “Young Sheldon”'s Iain Armitage
"When I took the phone back she said, 'Put Sheldon back on.'"
Quinta Brunson has discovered the ultimate life hack for impressing your parents: introducing them to young Sheldon.
The Abbott Elementary creator admitted this week that her parents weren’t initially thrilled with her decision to pursue comedy. But several Emmys and a hit sitcom later, she's put those fears to shame — of course it certainly helps that her job comes with the perk of connecting her mother to famous people.
"I have introduced my mom to mad people, you guys,” Brunson said during her Wednesday appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, explaining that she uses FaceTime to link her up with celebs. "Including Patti LaBelle last week, which is really, really cool. She was so sweet and it was incredible. But you know who my mom freaked out over? Like, dropped her phone? Young Sheldon.”
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Brunson told the story of her recently crossing paths with Young Sheldon star Iain Armitage at a Warner Bros. event and seized the opportunity.
"Iain is incredible — very talented, very sweet,” she told host Seth Meyers. “And my mom, she loves the show. I know she loves it.… We took a picture. I said, ‘You mind if I FaceTime my mom? This will make her day.'"
She added, "I didn’t know that it would make her day so hard that she would have to get a new phone."
Describing the call, Brunson said her mom started “tearing up and crying” upon seeing Armitage. “It was so sweet," she recalled. "I’ve never seen her react that way for anyone. She lost it over him. And then when I took the phone back she said, ‘Put Sheldon back on.’ And I was like, ‘Um, okay.’”
In her mom’s defense, getting starstruck seems to run in the family. Brunson admitted to being dazzled by a celeb herself right after her Emmy win this year, when the singular Carol Burnett — one of her comedy idols — presented the award to her.
"I hope she takes this the right way,” Brunson told Meyers. “She’s so legendary to me that I thought she was like a hologram.”
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The duo shared the stage in January, when Brunson won Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Janine on Abbott Elementary. As shocked as she was over the win, it was Burnett who took her breath away.
"Sometimes people are so legendary you forget they're real,” Brunson gushed. "So just taking her in that night was a bit much.”
To which Meyers quipped, “She told me afterwards, she said, ‘Quinta touched me so many times to see if I was see-through. And I’m like, ‘That’s like a weird thing — she does that around legends.’”
Playing along, Brunson turned to the camera and apologized, joking, “Carol, it’s just the technology these days.”
Thanks to the growing popularity of Abbott, Brunson will have plenty of opportunities to get starstruck again. The sitcom's third season this year has already included a wild lineup of special guests like Bradley Cooper, Jason Kelce, and Kevin Hart. Just last month, Bette Midler used social media to pitch herself for a cameo — and yes, Brunson has seen the post.
"Bette’s an icon and a legend, and I’m over the moon that she even knows what Abbott Elementary is,” Brunson told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview this week. “It’s moments like those with people like that where it’s like, ‘I can’t believe this person is watching this show.’”
Watch Brunson recall her encounter with Burnett and her mom freaking out over Armitage in the clip above.
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