NBC Hosts Superstore FYC

NBC hosted a Superstore FYC yesterday in Hollywood. Moderated by Judith Light, the cast and crew attended the Emmys FYC event.

The event came the day after it was announced that the show had been renewed for a fifth season and with the new episode returning on March 7, the audience were treated to a special screening before Light and cast took to the stage.

America Ferrera who plays Amy on the show talked about the episode where her character loses her maternity leave.  “Jackie Clarke wrote and directed the episode” where Amy has a baby and has to go back to work two days later. Clarke  who was also on stage talked about how women responded to the episode saying, “that was my story.” Clarke said, “We don’t have protection for working parents in this country and my heart bleeds. But I’m also laughing because it was one of the things we wanted to do.” She added, “It was so personal.”

Ferrera who had just given birth to her son in real life said, “That was not a hard scene for me to do.” She said, “To put that out there and to have people laughing and deeply relating saying, ‘I’ve never seen a portrayal of a new mother trying to go back into the workplace on broadcast television that was so painful that I was laughing and crying because it was so relatable.’ It’s moments like that for me, that I love about the show.”

Nico Santos hot off playing Oliver in last year’s Crazy Rich Asians talked about his character Mateo being an undocumented worker said, “I thought it was genius being an immigrant and Filipino myself. The Filipino story is that every Filipino in this country knows someone who is undocumented. When the conversation surrounds undocumented immigrants it always surrounds the Latino and border crossing immigrants that get the spotlight.” He said. “The reality is that there are millions of undocumented immigrants in this country who are just every day contributing citizens or workers who are just trying to get by their day and trying to provide for their family.  Members of my own family were at one point also undocumented so this story was so close to my heart and I relished the idea of playing Mateo through that lens.” He said. “Given the chance to play a character that celebrates the fullness of my identity, I really couldn’t have asked for a better role.”

Ben Feldman reflected on the season opener, the Back to School episode and why he finds the show to be as great as it is said, “On the surface, I was being congratulated and I got nicknames. I was a walking high five all day.” Turning to Ferrera he said, “Your character was being ignored.” He said, “This culture of the sexual conquest and the old fashioned trope of the guy getting away with something, the woman has been taken from and the guy was getting high fives. You don’t see that on a sitcom on broadcast TV, but you don’t notice that that’s what’s really being discussed because you’re just laughing at how funny it is that Amy wants a nickname too.” He added, “That’s a funny line, but in reality, she’s upset that she wasn’t respected as a human but that’s one of the interesting things about this show and how they sneak in the really important stuff under the goofiness.”

Superstore returns to NBC tomorrow night. Check out photos from the event below