Extra innings? Abbi Jacobson has a lot of stories to tell in Prime Video’s A League of Their Own — and is making it count in season 1.
‘A League of Their Own’ Cast: Where Are They Now?
“I think that we know a lot of tent poles of where we would go if we were able to do more seasons, but it’s just tricky now. I’ve never been the kind of person that operates where I just will get another season of anything. So my mind doesn’t operate like that,” the Broad City alum, 38, exclusively tells Us Weekly. “I think for season 1, we were very much like, let’s tell as much of this as we can and make us as meaty and juicy and full in every way. Every character’s as full as we can make them in case we don’t get to make more.”
Abbi Jacobson Scott Kirkland/Shutterstock
“But the end really, you know, we end on such cliffhangers, kind of in both sides of our world here,” she adds. “So I really hope we get to make more.”
Celeb Kids Following in Parents’ Athletic Footsteps
Jacobson co-created the series with Will Graham. Although it’s reimagined from the 1992 beloved film of the same name, it’s based more on the history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The series also focuses more on sexuality and racism compared to the Penny Marshall-directed movie, which was led by Geena Davis and Lori Petty.
The Disenchantment actor plays Carson Shaw in the comedy, a married woman who joins the league while her husband (Patrick J. Adams) is serving in World War II. Amid joining the Rockford Peaches and training, the catcher explores her sexuality and connection with teammate Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden).
Melanie Field, Abbi Jacobson, and D’Arcy Carden Nicola Goode/Prime Video
“Our main baseball coach was Justine Siegal, who was the first woman to be hired in an MLB coaching staff. And she was sort of the head of the trainers, but all the other trainers below her were women who basically would be the modern-day** equivalent of the characters we were portraying on screen,” Jacobson explained to Us. “So it was this really incredible opportunity to be coached by them and to see what their lives are like and to see their athleticism and they’re incredible — to see them on the field was just sort of mind-blowing because all of us came to this show with different levels of skills.”
Although Jacobson “played softball as a kid,” she was well aware that she was never going “to be able to look like them” fully on the field.
“But we could learn the dynamics of our specific positions,” she noted. “Batting would be first thing in the morning and just sort of what your body needs to do to be the best athlete. What your body needs to do and the movements and the dynamics of the moves of being a catcher, of being a heavy hitter. Like, what goes into that. And so we had a lot of help. Everyone has doubles for sliding and bigger moves and stuff like that, but it was so helpful. I definitely improved from beginning to end. I’m not a professional still, but it was a pretty great experience.”
Abbi Jacobson
Jacobson and Carden, 42, star alongside Chanté Adams, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Roberta Colindrez, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado, Molly Ephraim, Melanie Field, Kate Berlant, Dale Dickey and Nick Offerman.
A League of Their Own premieres on Prime Video on Friday, August 12.
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