How Quinta Brunson Really Feels About Jimmy Kimmel Disrupting Her Emmys Speech

The late-night host owes her a huge apology.

While the internet has criticized Jimmy Kimmel for distracting attention during Quinta Brunson’s acceptance speech for her first Emmy award, the actress says she's not upset with the late-night funny man….for now.

In the bit, Will Arnett dragged Kimmel onto the stage to present the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series under the guise that he "got into the skinny margaritas" at the theater's bar. When Brunson won for her series, Abbott Elementary, Kimmel didn’t get up and leave the stage with Arnett. Instead, Brunson had to step around Kimmel to get to the mic stand. She tried to rouse the late-night host by saying, "Jimmy, wake up. I won!" But Kimmel remained on the floor until Brunson finished her speech and the program cut to commercial. Arnett eventually dragged Kimmel off the stage in a moment TV viewers didn't see.

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"I felt like the bit didn't bother me that much,” she later said backstage. “I don’t know what the Internet thinks. I know him. Honestly, Jimmy gave me my first big late night spot and was one of the first people to see Abbott. And he Instagram messaged me that he saw this comedy and thought it was one of the greatest comedies of all time and he was so excited it was gonna be an ABC.”

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In the moment, Brunson said, “I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there. I kind of consider him one of the comedy godfathers."

She reserved the right to be mad today—and said she will have the opportunity to confront Kimmel later this week.

“I’m going to be on his show on Wednesday,” she said. “So I might punch him in the face. We'll see what happens.”

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