Sheryl Lee Ralph on being 'a little petty' on Abbott Elementary: 'Barbara was a bit stung by that'

Just when you thought you knew Barbara Howard, the longtime kindergarten teacher on Abbott Elementary played by Sheryl Lee Ralph, writers surprised us in season 3, revealing new sides of the character.

Case in point: When Barbara's bestie Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter) secretly became friends with Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti) after he rented a room in her house following a breakup. The result: The faith-filled Barbara revealed her holier-than-thou side.

"I get to play the reality of what happens when you start finding out that who you consider your best friend, your best buddy, is holding secrets from you, but then you moved in with him," the Emmy winner, who earned her third nomination this year for her work on the ABC comedy, tells EW's The Awardist podcast. "'You could have called me, you could have talked to me, but it was a secret. Oh, and you broke up with one of the best boyfriends you've ever had, and you didn't tell me that?! Oh, you're feeling a certain way about yourself and you didn't share it with me?' Mmhmm. Yeah. I think Barbara was a bit stung by that, and she was a little petty."

She, of course, eventually got over it and they made up. But, as we've become used to, we got to see Barbara's warm and loving side, but to new depths after discovering that Gregory Eddie's (Tyler James Williams) mom died when he was young — so she insisted he come to her house for Mother's Day brunch.

"I'm very, very fortunate to be in a position where I'm given freedom to do what many actors don't get a chance to do: I get to act. I get to share my talent. I get to show what I am very good at. They give me comedy and they give me drama," Ralph says of her work on Abbott. "It has been written for me in a way that my character doesn't have one note. My character has a symphony written for her, and it is just amazing that I'm at this point in my life and career where I get to use everything that I have."

That also means physical comedy — which she teases there will be more of in season 4, which debuts Oct. 9.

"The other day I was reading some of the scripts and I said, 'Why am I always having to do these physical things?' Last season you saw me playing basketball, you saw me doing all of the high jinks and running the relay, running through the tunnels. And it was so funny. I said to the writer of that episode, who's also one of our executive producers, I said, 'Ask your mother to do all of that next season,'" she says. "So now this season they've got me doing some stuff. And I said, 'Why me?' And the person turned around and they said, 'Because it's funny.' And I was like, 'Yeah, you're right. I'm on a comedy. It's funny. Not a dramedy. It's a comedy. Yeah, it's funny.'"

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She may be returning to the world of another comedy. Earlier this year, Whoopi Goldberg invited Ralph to be part of Sister Act 3, which is in development. But how, exactly, would Ralph's character Florence Watson — stern mother to Lauryn Hill's Rita in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit — factor into the new movie? Or, would she be a completely new character?

"In the words of somebody in great entertainment said, 'This is entertainment. It can be anything we want,'" she proclaims. "You might just look like somebody in her past. You might be Rita's mom who has now discovered herself and is out singing. It can be anything they want it to be. I just want them to give a green light here, there, or somewhere so we can get number three done.... Whoopi will figure it out. My money's on her."

Listen to Ralph's full interview on The Awardist podcast, below.