Speaker 1: My name is Chris Hasten, and I'm an NBC staff photographer,
Speaker 1: and i was the key photographer on the Office and
Speaker 1: may man of Kate Flannery. Hello, Office family, Hi everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to another episode of The Office Deep Dive. I
Speaker 1: am your host Brian Baumgartner. Today I have a very
Speaker 1: special guest joining me. He was an essential part of
Speaker 1: the crew of the Office and in many ways he
Speaker 1: has actually helped shape our memories from the show. He's
Speaker 1: the reason that we have so many incredible behind the
Speaker 1: scene photos from our time on set because he was
Speaker 1: our extremely talented and absolutely hello areas NBC staff photographer.
Speaker 1: That's right, We're bringing on the incomparable Chris Hasten. Now
Speaker 1: what why are you talking to the NBC staff photographer.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make sense. Well, Chris was that, but he
Speaker 1: also has become a part of our family. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: He became the main man of Kate Flannery a ka
Speaker 1: Meredith Palmer, who actually makes a cameo at the top
Speaker 1: of this episode today. Gosh, I love these two. Everyone
Speaker 1: in the Office community loves these two. Now. In addition
Speaker 1: to the Office, Chris, having worked for NBC since has
Speaker 1: worked on some other shows you may have heard of
Speaker 1: maybe Okay, you've definitely heard of them. The TV he's
Speaker 1: touched is almost unreal, you know, like Friends, Seinfeld, Fresh,
Speaker 1: Prince of bel Air, Community, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1: He has done it all, but only one show really
Speaker 1: changed his life because I mean romantically right. Um. I
Speaker 1: will tell you also that Chris also played a huge
Speaker 1: role in my upcoming book, that's right, Welcome to dunder
Speaker 1: Mifflin is coming out November. You can preorder it on
Speaker 1: Amazon right now, so go grab yourself a copy, Grab
Speaker 1: one for your friends, grab one for your family. Get
Speaker 1: ready to be blown away. I cannot wait for you
Speaker 1: guys to read it. And Chris offered so many behind
Speaker 1: the scenes photos that are included in this book, so
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to talk to him about those moments.
Speaker 1: But for now, get ready to focus. Get it like
Speaker 1: focus the camera. We're focusing, well, we're focusing on the
Speaker 1: man behind the camera. Please give a warm welcome to
Speaker 1: the amazing Chris Hasten. Everybody. Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every moment.
Speaker 1: Left over from the night before. What is happening? What's up, daddyo?
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm great man, good to see you.
Speaker 1: Where is your mustache? Oh? I haven't had that since
Speaker 1: COVID Man, it just got too hot and sweaty, if
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. That's what she said. But no,
Speaker 1: I shaved it off just because wearing a mask all
Speaker 1: the time is impossible. Right. Oh that's smart. Kate. Would
Speaker 1: you get out of my eye line? Please? I've always
Speaker 1: wanted to say that to an actor. Get the hell
Speaker 1: out of my eyeline. Is Kate there? There? Right now? Kate, Kate,
Speaker 1: come here? She is there. This is her mike, this
Speaker 1: is this is where she does her Kate, what is happening?
Speaker 1: I'm talking to your man. I know, I love it.
Speaker 1: I can barely hear you on the headphones. Oh that's okay.
Speaker 1: It looks like it looks like a Broadway show curtain
Speaker 1: behind you. I mean, this is a man every night,
Speaker 1: just for him, an audience of one. All right, can
Speaker 1: I get on? Can I get on? How are you
Speaker 1: guys going to talk? I love you too. We're being recorded,
Speaker 1: don't worry. Alright, alrighty, well, there's a comedy portion of
Speaker 1: the interview. Oh, it only begins there, and it's so
Speaker 1: good to see. So you're well, everybody's okay, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: absolutely fine, all right, So I want to go I
Speaker 1: want to go backwards in time a little bit. How
Speaker 1: did you get into photography? Well, as a kid, you know,
Speaker 1: you always hear those stories. Oh, when I was nine
Speaker 1: or eleven years old, you know, when I was nine,
Speaker 1: somebody put a camera in my hand and I fell
Speaker 1: in love with it. And when you know, all the
Speaker 1: kids in the neighborhood. I'm from southern California, so skateboarding
Speaker 1: and surfing was it. So when everyone else is skateboarding
Speaker 1: half pipes and pools, I was taking photos of everybody,
Speaker 1: of everybody doing half pipes and pool okay, exactly. So
Speaker 1: we're still best friends. So you know, we we always
Speaker 1: have our war stories, and mine has to do with photography.
Speaker 1: But it just, yeah, it just I just started landing
Speaker 1: jobs here and they're working really hard to get into places.
Speaker 1: And I was going to school at the time in Torrance,
Speaker 1: and UM started working for an agency shooting on racing.
Speaker 1: That's my first professional gig, shooting auto racing. We shot
Speaker 1: off road racing and eventually road racing, and yeah it
Speaker 1: was great. I'm self taught. So they had a studio there,
Speaker 1: which is the main reason I wanted to work there,
Speaker 1: and then I taught myself lighting. It's funny. About a
Speaker 1: year before I started at NBC, which by the way,
Speaker 1: I did this waiting for NBC to open up, somebody goes,
Speaker 1: do you ever think of shooting people? I go, no way, man,
Speaker 1: I said, people get up and walk out on photo shoots.
Speaker 1: There's no way I'm ever going to shoot people. A
Speaker 1: year later, I'm shooting some of the worst subjects. No,
Speaker 1: no offense, but you know, no, I mean none taken.
Speaker 1: That was the early days. But wait a second. You
Speaker 1: were self taught. I've taught myself lighting. I've taught myself
Speaker 1: about exposure. I've taught myself, you know. I mean I
Speaker 1: had one year of college that that's all I needed.
Speaker 1: But I went to a small Christian school, so they
Speaker 1: offered nothing. I shot for the newspaper and the yearbook,
Speaker 1: which they were awful. I looked back on that stuff
Speaker 1: and go find no and what I know now you know,
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was just it's it's a learning thing
Speaker 1: all the way, and um, you know, I've been at
Speaker 1: NBC for a really really long time, and now I'm
Speaker 1: the head guy. Now you're you're it, okay, But before that,
Speaker 1: you're shooting off road racing. So you're shooting cars off
Speaker 1: the road in the desert wed pre run for two
Speaker 1: days and find our spots and then we'd either camp
Speaker 1: there someb we would drop us off, and then the
Speaker 1: race would start and you pretty much kind of new, Okay,
Speaker 1: well there's a hundred cars and I've seen about ninety
Speaker 1: five of them. I'm getting the heck out of here.
Speaker 1: And it was dangerous because we were down in Mexico.
Speaker 1: You know, you pull over machine guns in your face
Speaker 1: and you either have a bunch of photos. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of racer photos all the time, or my
Speaker 1: my boss would go get Playboy magazines at garage sales.
Speaker 1: And it's amazing how far you can get with the
Speaker 1: federal ally with a machine gun in your face and
Speaker 1: a Playboy magazine. Isn't that great? It's sounds like the
Speaker 1: federalities are there right now. Actually. Um so yourself taught
Speaker 1: as a photographer and then you're shooting off road and
Speaker 1: then you find out about a job at NBC. This
Speaker 1: is no. In nineteen eighty I found out, okay, okay.
Speaker 1: First of all, my senior high school, I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, somebody gets paid to take pictures in the movies.
Speaker 1: And then I really freaked out. And then I ended
Speaker 1: up meeting a guy, went to and went to NBC
Speaker 1: and Burbank and it was the Johnny Carson stage and
Speaker 1: Billy Crystal was doing a pilot It's back when he
Speaker 1: did You Look Marvelous. It was the beginning of that.
Speaker 1: And I was there with a girl and she goes, hey,
Speaker 1: I know that guy down there, and it happened to
Speaker 1: be a friend of her mom's and she knew that
Speaker 1: he worked there. I never knew it, and uh, she
Speaker 1: slipped him a note and he invented invited us down.
Speaker 1: We went into the lab, which was my office for
Speaker 1: twenty five years, and I'm I immediately hit him up
Speaker 1: and he's like, you know, after three months, he's like,
Speaker 1: don't ever call me again. And I bugged him every year.
Speaker 1: I just I knew something. I knew it was going
Speaker 1: to happen, and it was NBC the whole time, because
Speaker 1: that was it, you know, NBC was the network. And finally,
Speaker 1: after five years, they called and said, you're still interested.
Speaker 1: And I went in as a lab guy, wiping everybody's
Speaker 1: nose and taking out their trash. And again I go
Speaker 1: in there, and I learned how they do it big time.
Speaker 1: And what's funny about it is no photographer on staff
Speaker 1: would tell me stay out of an actress, Eyeline, don't
Speaker 1: hit on the actresses, don't don't do this, don't do that.
Speaker 1: And I just went and I got to say and
Speaker 1: I was a nervous wreck, but I never showed it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've worked on some of the biggest
Speaker 1: shows in history. Right, what was the first show that
Speaker 1: you worked on out of the lab, like when they
Speaker 1: let you go on set? Well, Punky Brewster, the original
Speaker 1: Punky Brewster was done on our lot and nobody and
Speaker 1: everyone was bored with a lot of shows and this
Speaker 1: was a kid show, and um, I knew the it.
Speaker 1: There were some old school actors on there, and I thought, man,
Speaker 1: maybe I can handle this, and they said, go, yeah, go,
Speaker 1: grab a camera and go. And we used to use
Speaker 1: these gigantic housings that went around a nikon or a
Speaker 1: cannon that sound proved it. I grabbed it and I
Speaker 1: was fumbling and all that. It was only thirty six frames,
Speaker 1: so you have to you get through thirty six frames
Speaker 1: and then you uh, you know, you gotta switch it out.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I went down there and started doing that,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the pictures were awful. Uh. And then
Speaker 1: the second thing, the second thing was like instantaneous because
Speaker 1: they knew I can handle myself. I started shooting the
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson Show. That was a rotation thing, so everybody
Speaker 1: did it, you know, every fourth or fifth week. However,
Speaker 1: many photographers were in that roster for it, and that was, um,
Speaker 1: that was showbiz, baby. That's how I res when I
Speaker 1: got bit wow, yeah Carson show me right, I mean
Speaker 1: for for comedians at the time, I mean appearing on
Speaker 1: that and you're back there shooting at How amazing was that?
Speaker 1: Not just that, dude. It's like Stephen Wright would come
Speaker 1: into the green room and I'd be sitting there waiting
Speaker 1: for the show to start, and we never shot Johnny's
Speaker 1: monologue unless it was required or asked by the producers,
Speaker 1: and and like Stephen Wright would be there and like
Speaker 1: I'd be like, hey man, I mean it's just like
Speaker 1: you're trying not to like, you know, throw up and uh,
Speaker 1: I would always you know, with the comedians especially, I
Speaker 1: did it with some of the musicians. But I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you want me to send you some photos, which
Speaker 1: you know I didn't have the authority to do that
Speaker 1: in the beginning, but once it was really rolling, I
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, I'd send Stephen write some photos.
Speaker 1: And Jeff Fox were the God. That guy is such
Speaker 1: a great guy. He saw me recently. He goes, Hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't hang a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in my house, but there's a black and white that
Speaker 1: you shot of me and Johnny is belly laughing. He
Speaker 1: goes that hangs right outside my kitchen and it's like
Speaker 1: my Buddha. I touch it every morning. Which man, that's
Speaker 1: that's my payoff right there. That is awesome. Who was
Speaker 1: the coolest person on the on the Tonight Show that
Speaker 1: you shot? Like for you, dude, I mean God. We
Speaker 1: go sit in the audience durring rehearsals and the Chili
Speaker 1: Peppers would play for like an hour and Iggy Pop
Speaker 1: would just come this far from your face and just
Speaker 1: be screaming at you l a singing, and they love
Speaker 1: that stuff because we're an audience of like ten people
Speaker 1: that wanted to see them. I don't know, man, it
Speaker 1: was I mean, Jimmy Stewart. Uh, you know, I can't
Speaker 1: even I can't even think it was all great. So
Speaker 1: you shot Jimmy Stewart and me. So that's pretty much
Speaker 1: all I really talked about. I mean, that's kind of right.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's there's nothing in between those two. Um,
Speaker 1: in addition to the tonight's show. And you mentioned this
Speaker 1: before NBC, was it right? I mean NBC was much
Speaker 1: by the way Warren Littlefield and I we were, We
Speaker 1: were handed hand with each other and he calls me
Speaker 1: his mussy TV photographer. Really, yeah, because I was there
Speaker 1: through that whole era, and I was a go getter
Speaker 1: and young and willing to just do anything. So Cheers.
Speaker 1: You shot Cheers. I shot the end of Cheers. I
Speaker 1: was Leno's photographer when Carson left for the first five years,
Speaker 1: and we flew to Boston and we were in the
Speaker 1: Bull and Finch the night it went off the air,
Speaker 1: but Paramount sent me upstairs above the Bull and Finch
Speaker 1: to be in a room with the cast while they
Speaker 1: watched TV, and they go, you really shouldn't be there,
Speaker 1: but try and get photos the finale. This was the finale.
Speaker 1: They were watching the finale on TV in a hotel
Speaker 1: room in Boston. It wasn't a big room and it
Speaker 1: was really dark, and uh, yeah, it was very intimate.
Speaker 1: I've been in some scary places, Brian. Well, but that
Speaker 1: was I remember that night after the finale. They did
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show afterward, and so you were with them
Speaker 1: through I wash there were a lot of photos I
Speaker 1: did not take that night. In fact, I was with
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, didn't work. I was. I was with the
Speaker 1: cast all day. I was in a limo with Kelsey
Speaker 1: Grammer doing business on his way to the State House.
Speaker 1: And uh, Kelsey wasn't having a good phone call. He
Speaker 1: was on that phone in a limo behind with the cable,
Speaker 1: you know. And and the door opens and he gets
Speaker 1: out and we walked up the steps of the Statehouse
Speaker 1: for him to bang a gavel, and yeah, it was
Speaker 1: I was. I've been in some places, Brian. And there's
Speaker 1: some other stories will tell when we're not being recorded.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I remember seeing the cast of Cheers that
Speaker 1: night on the Tonight Show and I don't bombed. Weren't
Speaker 1: they I don't bombed. That's exactly how it appeared. Yeah,
Speaker 1: drunk appeared appeared to me. That is so amazing. And
Speaker 1: so also you shot Seinfeld, you shot Saved by the Bell, Fresh,
Speaker 1: Prince of bel Air, Will and Grace. You've spoken to
Speaker 1: me a lot about Friends. You were you were at
Speaker 1: NBC the whole time Friends was on, right, I did, uh,
Speaker 1: Usually I did the pilot gallery. The gallery is there's
Speaker 1: two types of photography. I do as their unit and
Speaker 1: gallery unit is something that you're on a set. You
Speaker 1: shoot images that look like they're coming out of the
Speaker 1: motion picture camera. I take a liberty with that because
Speaker 1: there are sometimes you don't want the camera on a set.
Speaker 1: Could be on the floor shooting this wide room shot,
Speaker 1: but I don't want some actress coming at me going
Speaker 1: that is a terrible photo of me. So I I
Speaker 1: sort of take the liberty of getting better pictures that way.
Speaker 1: But the gallery stuff is kind of the rock and
Speaker 1: roll stuff, and I have been fortunate to do several
Speaker 1: years of galleries of the biggest shows on NBC Wow,
Speaker 1: And the galleries are kind of pre set up shots
Speaker 1: for those listening. That usually happens right before a season starts.
Speaker 1: You'll shoot the cast in various thoses that will be
Speaker 1: used for publicity and marketing throughout the year. Right, So
Speaker 1: the covers you see on TV guides or you're sitting
Speaker 1: at a light and there's a bus next to you,
Speaker 1: that's all the stuff that we do. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: had I'm skipping ahead quite a bit here, but you
Speaker 1: had one of the most famous at least from our show,
Speaker 1: The Office, that George Sarah painting UM Sunday in the
Speaker 1: park on the isle of French words. Um. And you
Speaker 1: thought it was just a reservoir. Isn't that a French word? Right?
Speaker 1: But you you set up the office characters as though
Speaker 1: they were in that painting. One. You're tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about about that or your idea behind that.
Speaker 1: One of our top designers at NBC is named Sean Serrio.
Speaker 1: He's an award winning guy. It was his gig and
Speaker 1: he always gets the real cool gigs. So we got
Speaker 1: together and I took the original painting, not the original,
Speaker 1: but you know, I took that image and and sort
Speaker 1: of traced over and I took out a couple of
Speaker 1: people or added a couple of people, and I placed
Speaker 1: everyone where I thought, you know, with Craig Robinson and
Speaker 1: the hat or Jim and Pam walking in with the
Speaker 1: umbrella or Kate, you know, with a drink in her hand.
Speaker 1: So we sort of designed all of that. We pretty
Speaker 1: much shot everyone singly except Jim and Pam were there
Speaker 1: together and that, I mean, you guys were amazing because
Speaker 1: you look like you're there with a bunch of people.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of photography. Man, it's nothing but a
Speaker 1: big fat lie and production. You can't everyone can't just
Speaker 1: stop what they're doing and walk off set. So we did.
Speaker 1: We did everybody one at a time, and I had
Speaker 1: plenty of time with you guys. We had a really
Speaker 1: good time. Yeah, yeah, we did. What was let's exclude
Speaker 1: the office for a second. What was your favorite other show,
Speaker 1: let's say to shoot at NBC. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: most intense, most incredible shoots for me was Homicide Life
Speaker 1: on the Street. I think it was the third season.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like if Breaking Bad was going
Speaker 1: and they asked me to go do that photo shoot.
Speaker 1: It was like that because it was just rich and
Speaker 1: sets in Baltimore were unbelievable, and I knew the show
Speaker 1: inside and out. And that's another thing too, is I
Speaker 1: really like to know what I'm doing going in. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't pilot. You just don't know. But this one
Speaker 1: I knew. I knew the box was a sacred place
Speaker 1: and that the bad, the worst people in Baltimore were
Speaker 1: inside the box, and Andre Brower was going to be
Speaker 1: really in their face. So those are some pretty phenomenal photos.
Speaker 1: I used to enjoy Third Rock from the Sun because
Speaker 1: Lithgau is one of my favorite people in Hollywood, and
Speaker 1: it was a party, oh e R. We had a
Speaker 1: good time on the R even though it was very tense.
Speaker 1: We I don't know if I should say this, but
Speaker 1: I'm going to Occasionally we'd bring in beer and wine
Speaker 1: and something a little harder sometimes so if somebody requested it.
Speaker 1: But we get everybody lit. When we were shooting on
Speaker 1: the backlot at Warner Brothers late at night, we'd do
Speaker 1: these photo shoots of them coming out the door into
Speaker 1: the ambulance. And yeah, those were crazy, wild parties, dangerous things.
Speaker 1: You didn't we didn't have that on our show. We didn't.
Speaker 1: I guess because you guys had a hundred people on
Speaker 1: your show. Maybe I guess that's true. I guess that's true.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about your your process. So, first off,
Speaker 1: a multi camera show like Cheers or Friends, the cameras
Speaker 1: are set up, do you have pretty much free rome
Speaker 1: to to be able to take photos from anywhere sort
Speaker 1: of in front? Sometimes if you have an actress that
Speaker 1: doesn't want anybody in her eye line or or she'd
Speaker 1: be too I don't even say she. I've had many
Speaker 1: many A guy go hey, I can see you moving,
Speaker 1: and you know, well, okay. I'll just let me start
Speaker 1: by saying a still photographer is the only job on
Speaker 1: set that can be asked not to do their job.
Speaker 1: So you can't have the actor go out, you can't
Speaker 1: have the sound guy leave, you can't have one of
Speaker 1: the camera guys split. So I'm the one person who
Speaker 1: could be asked not do their job. But um, when
Speaker 1: all that's moving, it is one of the most beautiful
Speaker 1: dances you've ever seen. One of my favorite directors in
Speaker 1: the world is Jim Burrows. I have done so many
Speaker 1: projects with Burrows, Will and Grace. I could run up
Speaker 1: to the very front of the lenses and work if
Speaker 1: I wanted to. Uh, I wouldn't do that. I'm big,
Speaker 1: I'm a big dude, and I do take up a
Speaker 1: lot of space. But it's it's a relationship you get
Speaker 1: with the dolly grips. You know, if you've ever seen this,
Speaker 1: if anybody's ever seen the big dollies that cameras roll on,
Speaker 1: those guys will run you over. And those things can
Speaker 1: run you over. There a tank. I've seen other guys
Speaker 1: get clipped and it ain't pretty, but said dance and
Speaker 1: as long as you know how to dance, you will
Speaker 1: survive in that situation. And there are times where Burrows
Speaker 1: is famous for putting his foot on the dolly and
Speaker 1: kicking it and they're his guys are so good they
Speaker 1: start rolling the wheels and the camera follows the actor.
Speaker 1: Whatever it's it's truly amazing. But I've been in the
Speaker 1: middle of two dollies when that happens, and you're just
Speaker 1: gonna get out of there. Um, do you find that
Speaker 1: you still have the same passion that you did that
Speaker 1: first drew you in? Absolutely? Oh no, man, It's the
Speaker 1: best job in Hollywood. It is the best job in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I love to joke. Uh, you know, you see some
Speaker 1: guys shoving a whole giant piece of pizza down his
Speaker 1: mouth at two in the morning and just to get
Speaker 1: himself home. I'm like, hey, glamorous business, right, um, but
Speaker 1: that I everywhere I go. I mean, I see so
Speaker 1: many people from the office. I just saw Kelly Cantley
Speaker 1: last week. I see guys from Well and Grace all
Speaker 1: the time. I see, you know, even even working like
Speaker 1: America's got talent. I see camera guys that I've known
Speaker 1: for twenty five years, and it's and you know brand,
Speaker 1: it's it's such a small, tiny business, but it's like
Speaker 1: the biggest, tiniest business in the world. So I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna microrect But no, my passion is uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, holy cow, I can't believe I get paid
Speaker 1: to do this. And I just cat will argue with you,
Speaker 1: but I just don't have the ego that photographers normally have.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm I mean, I'm taking photos. I'm
Speaker 1: not a plastic surgeon. I'm a I'm a documentarian in
Speaker 1: a way. It's I love to use that on people. Yes, no,
Speaker 1: but you are you know you are a documentarian. I
Speaker 1: never thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah, but I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not just they're documenting. I'm most of the time
Speaker 1: creating the documentation. Of that. So that's what I love
Speaker 1: about being in a studio and doing a gallery and
Speaker 1: just making It's amazing brain that Sunday in the Park
Speaker 1: with George was such a great famous painting. It's been
Speaker 1: copied so many times. And the fact that it carried
Speaker 1: the weight, that image carries the weight that it does.
Speaker 1: I mean, people like, oh my god, you worked on
Speaker 1: The Office. I'm like, yeah, I'm a photographer and and
Speaker 1: and then I mentioned that, and they think they're talking to,
Speaker 1: you know, a big star. I'm like, that's all. I
Speaker 1: move on to the next thing. Man, I'm not worried
Speaker 1: about it. Obviously, you and I share a passion, which
Speaker 1: is The Office. Two in four, NBC ordered this show. Now,
Speaker 1: were you aware of the British version of the show.
Speaker 1: You know what, when I heard this was coming at us,
Speaker 1: I watched the British Uh, probably in a day or two.
Speaker 1: I watched it all and it was I watched it
Speaker 1: three times only because it was so frustrating and I
Speaker 1: hated it so much. I'm like, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: And then once I started watching it and the characters
Speaker 1: grew on me, then I I loved it. The reason
Speaker 1: I watched it so many times to get it is
Speaker 1: because I had worked on fifty British shows already that
Speaker 1: they were trying to make here that failed. By the way,
Speaker 1: I shot the very first images for the gallery, which
Speaker 1: we can get into if you want. UM. But I
Speaker 1: went to that crappy little warehouse in Culver City and
Speaker 1: we went in there and shot and I shot Pam
Speaker 1: behind the desk, and I did that famous four shot
Speaker 1: of them looking at the computer. UM. So we show
Speaker 1: up and we had an art director who was a
Speaker 1: very like UM he's a very show biz guy. His
Speaker 1: name was Jim and Jim had this very like thunderous
Speaker 1: voice who whatever Jim said Jim wanted and Jim was
Speaker 1: going to get. So we get there and Greg Daniels
Speaker 1: is there and he's walking around and UM, and I
Speaker 1: was confused. I mean, I I you know, Okay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna shoot this. They're all gonna be look at the
Speaker 1: monitor and you know, normally we're having him looking to
Speaker 1: the camera so we can identify them and you know,
Speaker 1: people people connect with them. And then Jim Vince there
Speaker 1: and he goes, all right, uh, hey, you any points
Speaker 1: at Johnny goes you look at the camera and Adam nowhere,
Speaker 1: Greg flies and he goes, if anybody looks at this camera,
Speaker 1: the photo shoot is over. Because it was so new
Speaker 1: in the process that I don't think we wanted to
Speaker 1: give up any secrets and or or break that fourth
Speaker 1: wall for the photos because we weren't quite there yet,
Speaker 1: and this was our first group shot. And I completely
Speaker 1: was with Greg. He knew what he wanted if I
Speaker 1: could jump ahead real quick. There were times where we
Speaker 1: would have a real secret or something that they did
Speaker 1: not want to go out. I developed a relationship with
Speaker 1: Greg and the producers the whole show where I would
Speaker 1: shoot it and we would tag it so it wouldn't
Speaker 1: go out. Like I knew people know that Steve was
Speaker 1: in the finale, right, Can I say that? Finally? Oh?
Speaker 1: Thank god? But I was probably one of five people
Speaker 1: that knew that morning. Uh they warned me, which is
Speaker 1: the greatest thing ever. Somebody doesn't warn you like Carson Show.
Speaker 1: They've never warn us there's a big giant thing that's
Speaker 1: going to fall down and just miss his head. It's
Speaker 1: like you'll miss the shot if you're not ready for it.
Speaker 1: So I was standing just off camera when he says,
Speaker 1: I can't be your best disminch. And I heard Steve
Speaker 1: walk up and I'm just like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is this is I can't tell you how many of
Speaker 1: those moments I've actually been there for so to know that.
Speaker 1: And I didn't even tell Okay, I didn't tell a
Speaker 1: soul because that's I mean, that's the way I am. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh, if you tell me something no one's
Speaker 1: supposed to know, no one's going to know it. If
Speaker 1: the network's not supposed to know about it, They're only
Speaker 1: only one person that the network's going to find out,
Speaker 1: my editor. And I'm gonna say this doesn't go anywhere
Speaker 1: until it airs, which is kind of powerful. But I
Speaker 1: I never thought I'd like, so, wait when you got
Speaker 1: there that day, you knew he was going to be there,
Speaker 1: and they said, don't release not right away, not right away.
Speaker 1: I think when I was geared up and walking on
Speaker 1: walking on a set. Actually I did see him when
Speaker 1: he walked up to the house, so I mean, I
Speaker 1: probably knew about five ten minutes before he walked up.
Speaker 1: So I think when he landed, they said Steve's here,
Speaker 1: right to be so. And by the way, I want
Speaker 1: to say one other thing, and I love telling people
Speaker 1: this when we're on the set. There that very first
Speaker 1: day when Greg said, nobody looks at the camera. I
Speaker 1: had worked at least ten pilots with Correll, and I
Speaker 1: mean I worked on some of the most amazing things
Speaker 1: with him. And when he walked up, I jokingly said
Speaker 1: to my crewmat you guys, Steve Carrell's in this, Let's
Speaker 1: pack it up. We're getting out of here. This ain't
Speaker 1: going anywhere. And he got a really good laugh out
Speaker 1: of it. Steve and I always had the tightest relationship
Speaker 1: because I had known him for so many years, and
Speaker 1: you know, if he if I needed something, if he
Speaker 1: needed something, I was always welcome into his trailer, which
Speaker 1: was the coolest trailer in Hollywood, and you know it was.
Speaker 1: It was a good relationship to have with him. Such
Speaker 1: a great guy, right well, I think I think also
Speaker 1: going back to that first day, you know, a big
Speaker 1: thing I know for Greg early on was he wanted
Speaker 1: to establish these characters or these people, meaning Jim and
Speaker 1: Pam and Michael and Dwight, and and this idea that
Speaker 1: that they were not actors, right, and so actors pose
Speaker 1: for the camera, Actors look into the camera and and
Speaker 1: do you know, glamour shots or whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, Whereas if you're a bunch of people at
Speaker 1: a mid level slash small regional paper company, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: look into the camera. You would be doing what you're
Speaker 1: doing and hoping to capture it. That's really fascinating to
Speaker 1: me that it started even before we started shooting the pilot,
Speaker 1: when they were you were doing the gallery. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: So you shot like ten pilots you mentioned with Steve Carrell.
Speaker 1: Was there anybody else from the office that you had
Speaker 1: shot prior to the office. Yeah. I was on a
Speaker 1: pilot one time and we're working in this great old
Speaker 1: school building near downtown and I walk in and there's
Speaker 1: these two geeks that are there. One of them is
Speaker 1: playing a robot, one of them is playing the robot's friend.
Speaker 1: And it was a pilot. And I treat pilots the same.
Speaker 1: You get in, you do your thing, and get out.
Speaker 1: And this one guy comes up to me goes, you
Speaker 1: know what I'd really like for you to do. I'd
Speaker 1: like you to do this, that and the other. And
Speaker 1: I turned to him and I go, look, pal, this
Speaker 1: is a pilot. If this show is picked up, I
Speaker 1: will kiss your ass and do whatever you want. And
Speaker 1: it was Rain Wilson. Are you serious? It was his
Speaker 1: very first pilot he ever did. And to this day,
Speaker 1: when anybody's introduced to me by Rain, he goes, this
Speaker 1: guy shot me on my very first pilot. And we
Speaker 1: never have talked about me telling him that, but he
Speaker 1: respected me and he went with it at that moment. Now, wait,
Speaker 1: but let me ask you this. Did you so you
Speaker 1: were there early on? Did you like the show? You
Speaker 1: know I were? I was worried. I was worried at
Speaker 1: first because I, uh, you know, like I said, I'd
Speaker 1: been on so many shows that didn't think it worked,
Speaker 1: and um, I felt that the first two episodes of
Speaker 1: the British Office were so British, and I worried that,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, this is just like it. But I
Speaker 1: didn't understand. And of course since then I have found
Speaker 1: I mean, I know how brilliant all of our top
Speaker 1: notch people were, like all of our above the line
Speaker 1: people were, and I've grown to really open up my
Speaker 1: eyes now when I go on set, like those guys
Speaker 1: are geniuses. Greg Daniels is a genius, a fearless genius,
Speaker 1: and it was breaking my heart even back then that
Speaker 1: it was, you know, six episodes and we might give
Speaker 1: you one more episode. And when I see that now
Speaker 1: I scream at people. You know, I'm like, are you
Speaker 1: guys gonna do how many episodes? And while they're adding
Speaker 1: three more, like how dare they? Don't they realize they're
Speaker 1: sitting on a gold mine. Yeah. Now, on the office,
Speaker 1: there was well, there were four walls, which there usually
Speaker 1: are in a space. There was no place to hide,
Speaker 1: and because of the way the show was shot, the
Speaker 1: cameras moving around all of the time, so there is
Speaker 1: a huge dance between you know, a lot of times
Speaker 1: really three people excluding yourself are in the space. There's
Speaker 1: a boom operator, you've got mix on people, and you've
Speaker 1: got two camera guys who are swinging the camera around
Speaker 1: and so then into that they bring your big bond
Speaker 1: Like so so glad you asked this question. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: how how do you you know? It's one thing, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's one thing to have this huge dolly that you know,
Speaker 1: if you stay behind the dolly, they're not going to
Speaker 1: shoot you because there's an audience behind you and everything else.
Speaker 1: But in this you're having to learn the dance along
Speaker 1: with the camera guys and the sound guys. How how
Speaker 1: different was that for you doing your job on our show? Well,
Speaker 1: Brian and I we occupied the same three inch square
Speaker 1: on every floor, and that's hard to do at least
Speaker 1: Brian soundner, sound guy, who's an amazing mixer now. But
Speaker 1: he and I were in the same spot. And when
Speaker 1: we were in a corner in that conference room or something,
Speaker 1: that conference room was ten thousand times smaller when you've
Speaker 1: got a photograph. It. We just managed and Brian, he
Speaker 1: just jokingly rolled his eyes every time he saw me
Speaker 1: and I, I'm very gracious, and I asked permission. I
Speaker 1: would always ask Randall or Matt if I could be,
Speaker 1: you know, in a certain place, and uh, I managed.
Speaker 1: I mean again, that's where a longer lens will come
Speaker 1: into play and you're able to sort of get in
Speaker 1: and I'll try to do two passes on every scene.
Speaker 1: I'll try to go wide and include everyone, and then
Speaker 1: I try to get it fits. An argument at the
Speaker 1: copier or Pam's talking to Michael at the desk, I'll
Speaker 1: get I'll go in tight on that with a longer lens,
Speaker 1: that's easy to get. Randall, God bless that guy. Those
Speaker 1: him and Matt Man. Those guys are the two best
Speaker 1: I've ever worked with. Sorry for all you other guys
Speaker 1: I've worked with, but like, I learned this on the
Speaker 1: Er on the R where it was a little sort
Speaker 1: of island in the middle of the emergency room, and
Speaker 1: when they were on a handhole handheld, they would do whips,
Speaker 1: and um, I was okay. And there I watched and
Speaker 1: if if I saw him open his eye, I knew
Speaker 1: he was coming that way. Well, Randall and I developed
Speaker 1: a thing where and Matt two. I think Randall gave
Speaker 1: me a sort of a little click or or up,
Speaker 1: and the moment he did that, I hit the deck.
Speaker 1: I literally would drop to the floor and Matt would
Speaker 1: actually whip through me. He didn't care, like, because you know,
Speaker 1: whip you can't. You don't even if even if you
Speaker 1: stop the frame on your on your recording, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna You're not gonna see anything. I'm just a big
Speaker 1: I wear black all the time, so it's just a black,
Speaker 1: black white interesting but it was, Yeah, it was. And
Speaker 1: that makes you feel like a rock star. That makes
Speaker 1: you feel like, man, I am on the best set
Speaker 1: in Hollywood, and and I'm here making it happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a moment um several years ago that actually
Speaker 1: it was right when Steve left. What when Steve left,
Speaker 1: we I had management at NBC and they brought in
Speaker 1: a guy over me who wasn't as qualified as myself
Speaker 1: and my other partner that were there. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: they were making life difficult. So some of the rock
Speaker 1: star stuff was taken away from me, and the galleries
Speaker 1: were being done by this other guy. Um, and the
Speaker 1: new season was coming along, and um, you know I
Speaker 1: I don't pay attention to anything until they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this shoot. So um, I knew the
Speaker 1: office shoot was coming up though, that was the one
Speaker 1: I knew was coming up. And then John and I
Speaker 1: had a conversation and he told me that he said
Speaker 1: that unless Chris Hasten does this gallery, we're not doing it,
Speaker 1: and that my friend is a powerful producer on a show,
Speaker 1: and that my friend is somebody I will take a
Speaker 1: bullet for and if he if he needs me to
Speaker 1: do anything in life, he can call me at any
Speaker 1: hour and I'll be there. Because that that was a
Speaker 1: true friendship move. And Krasinski, man, I'm so glad he's
Speaker 1: such a huge rock star now and won't talk to me.
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. No, we we talked some. Yeah, we talked
Speaker 1: recently about something. So, yeah, that's amazing. He's he's a
Speaker 1: class act. He really is. Yeah. Yeah, Just so you know,
Speaker 1: I I would have done whatever they asked me to do,
Speaker 1: whether you were there or not. Just to be clear, Okay,
Speaker 1: you talked about your relationship with Steve. You've known him
Speaker 1: for a while. How accommodating was he to work with
Speaker 1: throughout his time on the show. He was probably the
Speaker 1: most intense and uh, I mean he has a big
Speaker 1: movie star by the time things really started rolling. In fact,
Speaker 1: he might have been the only one. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1: You know, here's an example. I was in his office once.
Speaker 1: I was between Matt and Randall and Brian was somewhere
Speaker 1: with his boom, and I hadn't watched the rehearsal. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's I don't want to be in a tight little
Speaker 1: space like that for rehearsals. But I didn't know he's
Speaker 1: going to cry in the scene. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if he knew he was going to cry in the
Speaker 1: scene in the beginning, and that soundproof housing wasn't sound
Speaker 1: prof housing. So it was like, you know, click click click,
Speaker 1: and it was you can barely hear it. But a
Speaker 1: man who has to cry on cue he heard it,
Speaker 1: and uh, he didn't even look up, but he just
Speaker 1: goes Chris and I and it's like you might as
Speaker 1: well hear that out of a out of a fog horn.
Speaker 1: It's like great, and I'm like, I'm so sorry, Steve.
Speaker 1: And all you can do is apologize and leave and
Speaker 1: just you know, safe face. I mean, trust me, man.
Speaker 1: There are other actors who are like if I told
Speaker 1: you once, it's like you haven't told me once. There
Speaker 1: was somebody else on the show later on, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to mention his name, but they'll really let
Speaker 1: you have it. But and so unfortunately, at this point,
Speaker 1: the room is so small Matt has to get up
Speaker 1: off of his box, turn Brian has to get out
Speaker 1: of the way so I can get the heck out
Speaker 1: of the room. Oh god, So it's humiliating. It's humiliating.
Speaker 1: But you know something, Brian, you can't take it personal.
Speaker 1: It's hard not to um, but it's it's just a job.
Speaker 1: So that's the the way I've looked at it. It's
Speaker 1: your job and don't take it personal and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1: What was your favorite memory being on set of The Office?
Speaker 1: I was afraid you were gonna ask me this, because
Speaker 1: I know you asked so many people this question. One
Speaker 1: of the funniest things that happened on a regular basis.
Speaker 1: Kate loves the fact that I hung out in the
Speaker 1: fake men's room. But the fake men's room was the
Speaker 1: route to the real men's room because there was no
Speaker 1: back wall, and I'd be sitting there editing on my
Speaker 1: computer or whatever, and uh, Leslie, David Baker did it
Speaker 1: ten times. If he did it once, they opened the
Speaker 1: door like, oh sorry, I'm like, I'm not taking a
Speaker 1: ship here, dude. The restrooms right there, keep going um um.
Speaker 1: You know what. I hate to be so cliche, but
Speaker 1: it's like any day I walked in the door there, man,
Speaker 1: it was a good day. And then, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: in the middle of the second season, Kate and I
Speaker 1: hooked up, so it's like I had a place to
Speaker 1: eat my lunch, now, you know what I mean? How
Speaker 1: how did this start? Like, was there a moment, was
Speaker 1: there was there music playing in the background, or did
Speaker 1: someone captured on film? I'm just wondering. You know. She
Speaker 1: kept inviting me to see the lamp Shades, her comedy act,
Speaker 1: which is absolutely brilliant. It's that's Kate Flannery brilliance all
Speaker 1: the way. And I was, you know, uh, I'm invited
Speaker 1: all the time. Hey, I go to band, you want
Speaker 1: to come see my band? And I'm like whatever, whatever,
Speaker 1: But she kept inviting me. And one night I happened
Speaker 1: I was going to be at this club in Hollywood
Speaker 1: to see some other girl and just somebody I was
Speaker 1: hanging out with. And then um, I said, well, I'm
Speaker 1: busy on Saturday. And I got, well, what time because
Speaker 1: the thing I was going to was later. She goes
Speaker 1: eight o'clock. I go, oh, I can make that work.
Speaker 1: And I go, uh, where's it at? She goes right
Speaker 1: on Hollywood Buever. I go, We're on Hollywood Blue. Where
Speaker 1: she goes, it's in in prov Olympic. I go, that's
Speaker 1: where I'm going to be at ten o'clock to that
Speaker 1: same night, I said, this is meant to be and um,
Speaker 1: we you know, it's funny. She she knew I had kids,
Speaker 1: she didn't know if I was divorced or married, and uh,
Speaker 1: after the show, we went and got a drink, and
Speaker 1: five minutes in, I'm like, you and I should be dating,
Speaker 1: and I am not that smooth. I had never said
Speaker 1: that to anybody else, but I had connected with her
Speaker 1: in such a way, and I knew she was brilliant.
Speaker 1: I think she was very attracted to me. She invited
Speaker 1: me a lot, and she invited you a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like every time it was, and it was she used
Speaker 1: to do it every Saturday night. So but I think
Speaker 1: the one moment that that we first had eye contact
Speaker 1: is I used to go around like for almost every
Speaker 1: time I was there, I would do portraits to you guys,
Speaker 1: just because that's always really good filler if they're going
Speaker 1: to do a story or whatever. And I think this
Speaker 1: one time I don't even remember, but it was the
Speaker 1: Christmas episode of TV Guide. They were going to do
Speaker 1: photos of everybody because it was the show was picking
Speaker 1: up steam, and there's a picture of her holding up
Speaker 1: a Santa Claus doll and uh. And other times I
Speaker 1: got her pulling a bottle of vodka of the out
Speaker 1: of the thing, looking up at me and just she
Speaker 1: was adorable and um, it's funny. I met her as
Speaker 1: Meredith and then I saw her as her character on
Speaker 1: stage and I'm like, and my friends like, look at her,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, take it easy, take it easy. And
Speaker 1: then she comes out walking like Kate Flanner. I'm like,
Speaker 1: now we're talking. That's why five minutes and I go,
Speaker 1: you and I should be dating. You said that to her.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. Apparently a recent interview she gave, she
Speaker 1: said that the two of you are like Jim and
Speaker 1: Pam because you worked together but didn't start dating until
Speaker 1: the end of season too. Yeah, that's about it. That's
Speaker 1: about right, yea. But she was never as mean to
Speaker 1: me as Pam was to Jim. Just kidding, I'm just
Speaker 1: talking storyline here. Yeah, in the in the finale of
Speaker 1: The Office, um, Greg, let you dance with Meredith during
Speaker 1: Dwight and Angela's wedding. How cool is that? You know,
Speaker 1: Kate wanted me in the wanted me in the show,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, I didn't think
Speaker 1: it was gonna happen. And then she wanted me to
Speaker 1: be I think would be one of the cops that
Speaker 1: takes crete out at the end, but those were real
Speaker 1: motor cops that stopped traffic for us. Those are real
Speaker 1: L A. P. D guys. Um. So I was fine,
Speaker 1: you know, with just being her her boyfriend at the
Speaker 1: at the wedding, and then you know, end up they
Speaker 1: gave me a line in the warehouse when Pam reveals
Speaker 1: her mural, and which here's a great story. She's gonna
Speaker 1: be so mad when I tell you this. So Copus
Speaker 1: comes up and he goes, hey, just say what a
Speaker 1: photographer would say, Oh yes, sir, And uh so, Pam's like,
Speaker 1: all right, anybody, let's do this photo. And then everybody
Speaker 1: gets in and I said, all right, everybody right here.
Speaker 1: That looks great. That looks great, you know. And then
Speaker 1: they cut and Kate goes and you're all standing right there,
Speaker 1: and this was a nervous moment for me anyway, and
Speaker 1: Kate goes, you can't talk, and I was just like
Speaker 1: I was told I can talk. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Kelly Cantley, who's this tall, walks through and she goes,
Speaker 1: you can talk, and she looks at her she goes,
Speaker 1: he can talk, and then she she takes off and
Speaker 1: then uh, Kate was just like oh no, oh no.
Speaker 1: So and then what happened was they didn't have a
Speaker 1: funny enough line, and Greg brought me into a d
Speaker 1: R and I think you might have been there. I
Speaker 1: don't know, no was it was Angela, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to add um, just a couple of dozen more, which
Speaker 1: a photographer would never say, because the whole reason I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say that this is because you guys get bored
Speaker 1: with what's happening and you go upstairs brilliant writing. And
Speaker 1: so I meant, I'm at Universal one day and they're like,
Speaker 1: you need to go do a d R. I'm like what.
Speaker 1: And I went in and Angela is doing her thing
Speaker 1: and then for some reason, Brian and God bless actors, man,
Speaker 1: God bless you guys. I could not say that line
Speaker 1: to save my life. I was. I was a bumbling idiot.
Speaker 1: It was like I had a couple, just a couple
Speaker 1: dozen more, And and Greg got right here and he's like,
Speaker 1: say it, say it, You could say it. And I
Speaker 1: should have just put my full trust in this genius
Speaker 1: who I had watched for the last nineteen years be
Speaker 1: the most absolute genius. And I and finally I mumbled
Speaker 1: it out. And the moment I'm done, he's all right,
Speaker 1: we got it. And I turned and Rain does like
Speaker 1: a cop kick in the door and he's screaming my
Speaker 1: line because he was coming in to do a d
Speaker 1: R after me, and I'm like, I'm like, let's just
Speaker 1: have Rain do it. You know. It was a funny moment,
Speaker 1: but my god, I felt like an idiot. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: Do do when you're out with Kate? Do people make
Speaker 1: jokes to you about about dating Meredith? They don't even
Speaker 1: see me? No, you know a few things have happened since. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, when Syndication happened, when it started hitting
Speaker 1: regular uh like a cable thing, uh, Kate started getting
Speaker 1: bothered all the time by so many people. And then
Speaker 1: when it hit Netflix, she was mid byte and people
Speaker 1: would stop and say, can we get a photo of
Speaker 1: that kind of thing? But now people are stopping me
Speaker 1: like if it's it doesn't happen all the time. But
Speaker 1: somebody goes, hey, weren't you in the finale? I saw
Speaker 1: you in the finale and the oven like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: It's really weird for me because I'm all about you know,
Speaker 1: I can spot somebody spotting Kate from a mile away,
Speaker 1: and we have a little code word which I'm not
Speaker 1: going to tell you, but it's from the show. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not going to private. I'm gonna tell you private.
Speaker 1: You'll find out private. But um I let her know, Okay,
Speaker 1: in coming, you know what I mean. So, but that's
Speaker 1: not the code word. What's the code not gonna will
Speaker 1: be mad at me if I tell you. Um, well, listen,
Speaker 1: I've been talking to people, you know for now the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, which has been amazing, and how
Speaker 1: willing people are now after eight years of the show
Speaker 1: being done talking about it. And as you just mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, the sustained not just success, but you know,
Speaker 1: as I say, not just survived, but it's thriving now
Speaker 1: all of this time later and this exploration that I've
Speaker 1: been going through. Now we have collected it all together
Speaker 1: and uh, and we're coming out with a book that's
Speaker 1: going to be launched really soon. And you are a
Speaker 1: huge part of that book because there are hundreds of
Speaker 1: never before seeing photos that you took on set in
Speaker 1: some of the most intimate moments during the show. So
Speaker 1: when we started talking about photos for the book, I went,
Speaker 1: wait a second. There was a cast book that I
Speaker 1: understand you helped put together at the end of the show.
Speaker 1: That was like it was one of those things like
Speaker 1: right in front of me the whole time. It's like
Speaker 1: right in my living room on my coffee table. It
Speaker 1: has been for the last eight years. And so I
Speaker 1: started looking through a book. How did how did that
Speaker 1: come about? That that creation of that amazingly beautiful book.
Speaker 1: That happens a lot, like when Willie and Grace was
Speaker 1: wrapping up, I did, Uh, I did that. Almost every
Speaker 1: show doesn't now, And I think that that is the
Speaker 1: greatest gift you can get as a rap gift. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the great the great thing about being a photographer
Speaker 1: in general. Like even if you're at a party or
Speaker 1: an event, you're going to talk to every single person
Speaker 1: in the room. That was my chance to work with
Speaker 1: every person, and a lot of people try to ditch
Speaker 1: you and not you know, but I was pretty sneaky
Speaker 1: and I was able to get people. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's always something really fun to do. It's a so
Speaker 1: much work, especially at the end of a run. But uh,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, like what you're saying right now, it's like
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable. Well, it's it's so it's so beautiful and
Speaker 1: so for you know, the last eight years, when people
Speaker 1: you know, come over to my house and we're talking
Speaker 1: about the show, always refer to the book and they
Speaker 1: look through it and they're like, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: can't believe you have these photos. Well, now everyone in
Speaker 1: the world can't come to my house to look at
Speaker 1: my book. But now so many of these photos are
Speaker 1: going to be in this book. And so I'm we're
Speaker 1: gonna I feel like Conan O'Brien here, but we're gonna
Speaker 1: play a little game. All right, We're gonna play game.
Speaker 1: Describe that picture hashtag, hashtag copyright, hashtag Brian Baumgartner, hashtag
Speaker 1: the Office, deep dive. I don't know if that covers it,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna make these photos available on my Instagram
Speaker 1: so other people can can mention it. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: show you a series of photos and this can be
Speaker 1: fast round. You can say one word, you can describe
Speaker 1: something that you remember from some of these iconic photos
Speaker 1: of the show. So the first photo Steve Carrell sitting
Speaker 1: at what looks like a dinner party with the st
Speaker 1: Holy girl. Uh, you know, light up thing behind that
Speaker 1: sign was so bright, man, it was so bright, which
Speaker 1: was the joke but in a still or you want
Speaker 1: the actor to look good, so the signs blown out.
Speaker 1: That was one of the most unforgettable nights of my life.
Speaker 1: I can't even believe how hard we left. And and
Speaker 1: that's hard when as the photographer, man, there were tears.
Speaker 1: Just my whole shirt was wet from just laughing so
Speaker 1: hard with that stupid TV, the plasma TV. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: this was this was intense. You know, if I had
Speaker 1: one word for this intense because that fight was intense,
Speaker 1: I'll try to give you one word answer. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can describe more. I'm just saying it can be fast. Okay,
Speaker 1: photo too, Oh Jesus Christ Meredith with intense infusing because
Speaker 1: it's never made. There was never a reason in the
Speaker 1: episode of why her face looked like she was dropped
Speaker 1: into a pizza oven. Okay, so so go ahead, you
Speaker 1: can say this is her go ahead. Yeah, so there
Speaker 1: was she got was it sunburned or for extremely sunburned?
Speaker 1: And we even did a big shot I hope to
Speaker 1: not ruin another photo, but there's a group shot in
Speaker 1: the warehouse and she looks like this, and um, there
Speaker 1: was no explanation why because the storyline was cut so
Speaker 1: I think a valuable lessons were learned during this episode
Speaker 1: that you know, if you have something like this, you
Speaker 1: better back it up. Yes, do you. She's just as
Speaker 1: beautiful there as the moment you met her. Beauty is
Speaker 1: skin deep. Brian, Oh no, no, no, she's she's she's lovely.
Speaker 1: She's lovely, all right. Photo three? Okay, a group of people,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, around a giant one. Tell me about this.
Speaker 1: I think Phyllis's hair speaks for all of us. It
Speaker 1: was so hot and dusty there. Um, we were out
Speaker 1: at the Calamugos ranch, I think. And you guys, uh,
Speaker 1: usually when they cut a cake like this, they're telling
Speaker 1: you about your next pickup, and that might have been
Speaker 1: what happened this day. But all I know is I
Speaker 1: never got any cake. You never got any cake, and
Speaker 1: a gigantic cake like that. I know. This is this
Speaker 1: was the celebration of the hundredth episode, huge milestone in
Speaker 1: a show huge. I've been there for hundreds of them. Yes,
Speaker 1: company company picnic and you see Greg they're cutting the cake.
Speaker 1: But yes, we were all we were all very very
Speaker 1: very very hot out there in Malibu, alright. Picture four,
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus, yeah, that was scary Will Ferrell dunking a
Speaker 1: basketball over me sitting on the ground. What do you
Speaker 1: remember about this day? You know what, Brian, and it's
Speaker 1: I'm not bullshitting you, but I could have easily shot
Speaker 1: that in a way to see his face, but I
Speaker 1: wanted you in there looking like you're about to get crushed.
Speaker 1: But yeah, this this was the shot to me, even
Speaker 1: though he used his right hand and covered his face.
Speaker 1: That was a pretty crazy day. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 1: classic Will Ferrell day where you keep you keep checking
Speaker 1: yourself like is this really happening? Yes, he's amazing, He
Speaker 1: is amazing. Alright, this picture here, picture five. This is
Speaker 1: our final table Street. Yeah, that was I was crying
Speaker 1: as hard then as I was when Steve left, but
Speaker 1: just seeing everyone's emotion and everything else, and a lot
Speaker 1: of you guys held it together. But again, I've been
Speaker 1: at a million of these things too, a million of
Speaker 1: the last table read but this one, man, this was like,
Speaker 1: you know, finding out that your grandparents are are both
Speaker 1: gonna doctor or something. I always feel that way at
Speaker 1: the end of the show. It's like there's a death
Speaker 1: in the family, but we're still going to see each
Speaker 1: other down the road. But it's always that sad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have this photo and yeah,
Speaker 1: well Chris Workman called me and said, hey, I'd love
Speaker 1: to do this gift for the cast, and uh, he
Speaker 1: blew it up big. But I remember I walked around
Speaker 1: the entire room made sure you get all the faces.
Speaker 1: But this one has so many great expressions and and
Speaker 1: it was you know, and Chris just blew it up
Speaker 1: for everybody, and it's fantastic. I'm sure it's hanging in
Speaker 1: everyone's house. And that's how I I love too, to
Speaker 1: judge my work by not how much money I make
Speaker 1: or where my pictures are published, but where they're hanging.
Speaker 1: That's important to me. That's awesome. Yeah, alright, picture six
Speaker 1: and seven, oh Man, rough night. H That was a
Speaker 1: very touching moment when she took that off the wall. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, I everyone always posts pictures like the
Speaker 1: one on the right of you know, when Steve left,
Speaker 1: I shot that famous shot at him with the slate
Speaker 1: and uh, and I got a wide shot and everyone
Speaker 1: are bawling their eyes out so hard. This was the
Speaker 1: equivalent of that. I do have another picture of Pam
Speaker 1: doing the very last shot was Ham's talking head. It
Speaker 1: doesn't appear and the show. That is the last thing
Speaker 1: that I think her taking the picture. No, it's as
Speaker 1: by the tree outside, right, But anyway, I was outside
Speaker 1: of the conference room and I have a photograph of
Speaker 1: everyone's silhouetted watching that final Have I not sent that
Speaker 1: to you? It's everyone watching her talking head through the
Speaker 1: window of the conference room. It's a beautiful shot. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen it, but I'll send it to I'll send
Speaker 1: it to Yeah, Chris, thank you so much, oh, my
Speaker 1: pleasure for talking, for being so candid and open about
Speaker 1: your no, your experience not just on our show, but
Speaker 1: but your time at NBC. I appreciate you and your friendship.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for coming in and talking
Speaker 1: to me. Pleasure and pleasure. Yeah, onwards and upwards to
Speaker 1: the next show, right to the next on NBC. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if I don't think will ride to that occasion,
Speaker 1: but we'll see, all right. Thanks, Thanks buddy, and there
Speaker 1: you have it. What a guy, Chris Daddy. Oh, it
Speaker 1: was so great having you on. Thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: your story with all of us. And I know that
Speaker 1: you're a fan of this podcast. So my only question
Speaker 1: is after today what is your favorite episode? To all
Speaker 1: of you listeners out there, thanks for coming back now.
Speaker 1: If you come back next Tuesday, then you'll find we'll
Speaker 1: be talking to another man that you all have been
Speaker 1: dying to hear from. Hint, his first name starts with
Speaker 1: the same letter as Chris's. Five seconds. Okay, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you it's Craig. Craig Robinson, the funniest man I have
Speaker 1: ever seen on a stand up stage. That's right, Mr
Speaker 1: Darryl Philbin himself. But until then, have a great week everyone.
Speaker 1: The Office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
Speaker 1: me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers
Speaker 1: for this episode are Liz Hayes and Diego Tapia. My
Speaker 1: main man in the booth is Colin Tadeshi. Our theme
Speaker 1: song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,
Speaker 1: and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski