SUPERSTORE: Ben Feldman Previews How Jonah is Handling a Global Pandemic

As SUPERSTORE returns for the sixth season, the Cloud 9 employees find themselves in an unexpected position: essential workers.

As the colleagues adjust to the new realities imposed by COVID-19, they have to contend with shifting work requirements (and a lack of PPE), customers desperate to stock up on things like toilet paper, and trying to take care of themselves.

And while Jonah (Ben Feldman) has frequently been the most alarmed about potential global catastrophes, his take on the pandemic isn’t exactly what viewers might expect.

“You know what’s funny, he’s not as obnoxious about it, as far as everything that we’ve shot and written, as you might expect him to be,” Feldman says with a laugh. “And because we’re trying to not just bombard everybody with actors covered in masks at every second, he’s not necessarily the most diligent about wearing one—I just assumed, going into the season, he’d be wearing a hazmat suit from the second we call action until we wrapped. But that is not the case.”

The upcoming exit of America Ferrera’s Amy, Jonah’s frequent partner in crime, also plays into how the writers are having Jonah handle things. “With America’s absence, you lose one of the two kind of sane viewpoints in the cast,” Feldman points out. “You can’t go too crazy with Jonah this season, or too character-y, because he also needs to kind of weigh down reality for everybody. So, I think that’s one of the things that’s happening. But he’s not a lunatic [about the pandemic.]”

Off-screen, the pandemic is preventing Feldman from stepping behind the camera again in season 6. (He previously helmed season 3’s “Lottery” and season 5’s “Carol’s Back.”)

“I will not be directing this season, just because it’s physically impossible at this point,” he says. “The amount of protocols and the amount of restrictions just based on where we can be and who we can even be in contact with…there’s so many different things that, as an actor, you show up and you can only be in your one spot until it’s time to not be in that spot anymore. Whereas the director has to spend two weeks talking to every single department and every department head, and being everywhere on set with the actors and on set with the crew. It’s just physically impossible, so it’s not happening.”

SUPERSTORE, Season Premiere, Thursday, October 29, 8/7c, NBC; Seasons 1-5 Now Streaming on Peacock

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• SUPERSTORE Bosses Reveal Cut Season 1 Finale Storyline, HAMILTON Near-Miss, and More
• A Beginner’s Guide to SUPERSTORE
• SUPERSTORE Post-Mortem: Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller on the Jonah-Amy Twist and Season 6
• SUPERSTORE Post-Mortem: Did ‘Customer Safari’ Set Up Amy’s Exit?
• SUPERSTORE Post-Mortem: Ben Feldman on Embracing the Horror Tone of ‘Carol’s Back’
• SUPERSTORE: Ben Feldman on Stepping Behind the Camera for ‘Carol’s Back’
• SUPERSTORE: 5 Ways Amy Could Leave the Show
• How SUPERSTORE Nabbed That Unexpected Emily Deschanel Cameo
• SUPERSTORE: Kris Lefcoe Reflects on Making Her Directorial Debut with ‘Cereal Bar’
• SUPERSTORE Creator Explains the Show’s Unconventional Original Title
• Inside SUPERSTORE’s Cloud 9 Pop-Up at Comic-Con
• On the Set of SUPERSTORE: Check Out Props and Costumes from the Comedy’s History
• SUPERSTORE: Colton Dunn Crashes Ben Feldman’s Interview

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