You dont have a lot of time for sentimentality.
Life has other plans.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Jimmy doesnt worry about a lot of things that most other characterswouldworry about.
Credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC
I knew hes got a dry wit and loves Maya and his kids.
Thats all I had to go on.
Not necessarily in an edgy way.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
Just in a very unflappable way.
This is not a guy who sweats the small stuff.
Then he wrote me this beautiful speech that is something his father said to him.
But he just does not care.
It really is liberating.
The show also has very real discussions about what its like to live with someone who has a disability.
Even the silly stuff has a kernel of truth to it.
Its just the kind of show I like to watch, let alone be on.
If you just keep following that to its logical end, it just gets funnier and funnier and funnier.
Eventually, everyone is wearing a blindfold and whipping each other with pool noodles.
It was the most crowded Ive ever seen it.
Those kids were great and just so game and willing to try anything.
Micah [Fowler] was having the time of his life.
It was a really, really fun day of shooting.
Have you heard from fans who are differently abled or their family members?Yeah.
The community has really embraced us in a way that is incredibly moving.
For instance, when we did the Oscar party episode, a couple of the kids had cerebral palsy.
We had a young man with autism.
This is as it should be.
Theyre allowed to be kids, and theyre allowed to be viewed as occasionally really obnoxious.
In the pilot episode, Micah flips me off.
He flips off his father!
Now I have children, and my sons recently learned the middle finger at school.
He has, in a fit, flipped me off.
Now is that appropriate or okay?
Of course not, but its realistic.
These are things that happen and that real kids do.
We just havent had a chance to see kids with disabilities be that real.
JJ is a regular teenager in terms of having all that attitude.Hes incredibly snotty!
And he has this wonderful laziness.
We dont allow for any gray area between those two extremes.
I like these little short-term goals he sets for himself.
We had a stunt double that day.
So I love these little short-term goals he makes to make his life more interesting and fun.
Thats a really fun thing to play.
But he sets these fun little short-term projects for himself and then occasionally follows through.
I love that about him.
What would you want fans to take away from this?Oh, goodness.
To do 23 episodes of anything good is just a huge, huge effort.
So Im really, really proud of the 23 we did.
If thats it, then it will remain a complete and total career peak for me personally.
Speechlesshas beenrenewedfor a second season.
