Broadway actress discusses her role opposite Tracy Morgan in Paramount+ series that brings authentic New York energy to television
Adrianna Mitchell has built an impressive resume that spans from Tony-nominated Broadway productions to television dramas like Snowfall and Grey’s Anatomy. Now the versatile actress takes on a new challenge as Jamilah in Crutch, the Paramount+ comedy series that serves as a spinoff to CBS’s hit show The Neighborhood. Executive produced by Cedric The Entertainer, all eight episodes dropped on the streaming platform November 3rd.
In Crutch, Mitchell stars opposite comedy legend Tracy Morgan, who plays her father in this Harlem-set family sitcom. The show follows Francois “Frank” Crutchfield, a beloved shop owner whose life changes when his daughter and her kids move back home after her separation from a gambling-addicted husband.
What drew you to play Jamilah and how does Crutch stand apart from other family comedies?
I think this show stands apart because it’s like the East Coast counterpart to The Neighborhood. The neighborhood is set in South LA and we’re in Harlem, but I feel like there are a lot of shows that claim Harlem either in the title or in the atmosphere, but I feel like we’re a show that is really an open love letter to Harlem down to the specifics.
Down to the pictures on the wall and the theater camp in one of the episodes, down to the brownstone and Tracy Morgan who plays my dad and his flooring store, the kids on bicycles. There’s just like these little nuggets that people who are New Yorkers will appreciate and feel like this show is representing and really taking that texture of Harlem and bringing it to the show.
A lot of the cast is born, raised, bred in New York. I’m from Atlanta originally but I moved here for the first time in 2013 so I’ve been here a while, lived East Harlem, West Harlem. I live in the South Bronx now so I’m an uptown girly, I know what it is.
How did you find your rhythm playing opposite Tracy Morgan and his wild comedic energy?
For me it’s nonstop laughter on that set. I wish they would publish some of the bloopers, some of the outtakes. There was a lot of improvised moments where someone would pitch an idea, Jermaine who plays my brother would pitch an idea, and they’re like okay let’s try it and then all these little things would come up.
It’s nonstop laughs with Tracy because that’s just how his brain works. The way he processes things is how to make you laugh. For me I felt very privileged to be on a set with comedians so that I didn’t feel like I had to be a comedian. Obviously I’m a comedic actress, I’ve worked a lot in theater and television and have had opportunities to be comedic.
I felt like my job is to really kind of be a foil to Tracy, to help lift Tracy up. Tracy got comedy covered all the way down the block. I felt like my skill set was to really ground the relationships, to be a part of this family chemistry with Kecia Lewis who’s Tony and Grammy award-winning, and also a phenomenal actress from the theater. Then you have Jermaine who is both a grounded actor but also a comedian.
Your character deals with heavy topics like separation and moving back home with kids. How do you balance real emotional weight with comedy?
The writers did a great job of being real about stuff that I feel like we’re dealing with in the world right now. It’s rough out here, it’s tough. The Con Edison bills are Con Edison billing. The prices of groceries are going up. There’s a lot of things that are more expensive to get by today than I think it was when our parents grew up.
I think generationally that’s what’s so great about the show, it is an intergenerational story. I feel like there should just be a lot of grace because of just the economy and the world that we’re living in, that you might be 30-something and have to go home for a second and just hang tight.
When I moved to New York several years ago and I packed up all my stuff, I loved that my parents would always call me, they’d be like look you’re having your adventure but you can always come home. I thankfully at this point have not had to but I loved feeling like that support system is there.
As Jamilah’s arc, she’s dealing with a lot of heavy stuff like dealing with her husband who’s a gambling addict and dealing with very self-aware children. Having to be like hey what if we spend some time in Harlem and also trying to find purpose because it seems like she had the kids pretty young.
It’s humbling. The word that I used in the pilot is it’s embarrassing and I really felt that when the writers wrote that in. That’s the word because it’s so vulnerable to be like I need help and I feel like I should not need help because I’m grown but I do and I think that is very relatable.
But then there’s also funny and comedy like because Black people, something happens, people are laughing at the funeral. You can’t just sit there and stay in that place. Things are happening to us all the time, we have to navigate and process anything emotionally, psychologically, societally, so we have to laugh. The only alternative is to laugh.
How does performing in front of a studio audience affect your approach to the character?
I was super excited about that because I’ve only done single cam dramas where you’re kind of doing it all on a closed set. But I also come from the theater. I’ve done Fat Ham on Broadway, Off-Broadway and other Off-Broadway opportunities and I love the connection with the audience.
What’s different about sitcoms is that you don’t have as much rehearsal as you have in theater. By the time I get to meet an audience I’ve rehearsed it probably dozens of times to the point that I’m not really thinking about it in that way anymore. But sometimes we might get a new script today and the audience will be here at 3 o’clock.
We would have moments where our scripts were in the microwave, our scripts were in the drawers in the kitchen and we would have to kind of like okay let’s do that again. The audiences were so gracious because this is like a work day. You’re not coming to see a finished show, you’re coming to see us shoot and work.
There’s a real reciprocity experience where you get to feel their energy but they also kind of have to stay in it with you. They’re gonna do this scene for the fifth time and we have to still listen and respond. People were happy to be there. There hasn’t been a sitcom shot in New York in 12 years I think so people were really excited to have that experience.
What’s next for you?
I would love to do a feature or a limited series with just some amazing actors. This journey as an artist is long and so I want to be like “look, you can see me on Severance on Apple TV Plus, you can see me in a really wild dystopian world or you could see me on a period piece like a Bridgerton. There’s so much to explore and there’s so much great content.”
I’m so blessed to be in an industry where I’m still learning and so I’m enjoying the learning curve of it and enjoying learning what else I can do.
Where can people watch Crutch and how can they find you?
You should watch Crutch, you can watch it on all eight episodes dropped on premiere day on Paramount+ streaming exclusively. Get your Paramount+ app out on your computer, your phone, your TV and throw it on, make some dinner and enjoy it as a family.
The reason why you should watch it is because I feel like it’s important to have just feel-good family television. It’s still a good show about family, about intergenerational chaos, about making tough decisions and still loving each other through it and I think that’s important to see. It’s an ode to Harlem that feels specific and it’s important to see a family that isn’t all peaches and roses but actually we still love each other even though you get on my nerves.
It kind of reminds me of the shows that I used to grow up watching like Fresh Prince and we shot on the Cosby Show stages so I think that has a good omen to it. It’s a classic I hope and so I hope people enjoy it like a classic.
You can find me on TikTok sometimes and more consistently on Instagram. I love to be on there, I love to connect with fans. My name is adriannamitchell_, you can find me on Instagram and I share little bits of my life, share about my work and I like to stay in community with people there.