Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Office Deep Dive.
Speaker 1: I am your host, as always, Brian Baumgartner. So as
Speaker 1: this podcast begins to take on well a new look,
Speaker 1: to take new wings and launch into version two point oh,
Speaker 1: which I can't wait to share with you, I have
Speaker 1: to admit I've been thinking a lot about how extraordinarily
Speaker 1: lucky I have been to to get to create all
Speaker 1: of this and to have so many of you respond
Speaker 1: so well to it. You guys, it means so much
Speaker 1: to me. So for a special treat, I am compiling
Speaker 1: the best of the best from the Office Deep Dive
Speaker 1: into a two part episode release. I couldn't include everyone,
Speaker 1: of course, and I truly do love my entire office family,
Speaker 1: So go back and listen to any of the episodes
Speaker 1: you might have missed. But today we're gonna start where
Speaker 1: it all started, across the pond in jolly old England.
Speaker 1: In actually in the land that made the very dish
Speaker 1: that inspired our own Creed Bratton to write this podcast
Speaker 1: theme song, Bubble and Squeak. That is, we are going
Speaker 1: to begin inside the beautiful mind of Ricky Gervais Bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeak. I love it. Bubble and Squeak on bubble
Speaker 1: and Squeaker cooking it every month, left over from the
Speaker 1: night before. Do you remember the first time you met
Speaker 1: Ben Silverman? Yes, I do. I was walking down the
Speaker 1: street in London. I think I was going to see
Speaker 1: my agent, and the phone rang um and he said, Hi,
Speaker 1: it's Ben Silverman. You don't know me. I wanna I
Speaker 1: want to remake the Office for America. And I went, okay,
Speaker 1: all right. He said, can we meet up? He said,
Speaker 1: I'm in town. I went right. He said, where are you.
Speaker 1: I'll come to you. I've gone the cab. I went okay,
Speaker 1: and I looked up and I said right, I'm right
Speaker 1: outside Starbucks in ward Or Street and he went, wait there,
Speaker 1: I'll be down fifteen minutes, and he jumped in a cab.
Speaker 1: He got I've never met anyone like him. He came
Speaker 1: and found me because obviously he knew what he looked
Speaker 1: like because he'd watched the office. And he talked to
Speaker 1: me and I said, well, listen, let me introduce you
Speaker 1: to my agent to get the ball rolling. And I
Speaker 1: took him in to see Duncan Hayes as my UK
Speaker 1: still is my UK agent, and that's and that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of it, and then I can't remember all
Speaker 1: the details or all the phone calls, but I think
Speaker 1: the next big step was we sort of auditions show
Speaker 1: runners and we saw some amazing ones from my favorite
Speaker 1: programs of all time. We we chose Greg, and I
Speaker 1: think we chose Greg not just because of his body's work,
Speaker 1: which was as good as anyone's and he was a
Speaker 1: nice chat but I think I think it was because
Speaker 1: he was the only one that brought up that he
Speaker 1: thought it was a love story that was very important
Speaker 1: for me, that the love story. So you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to I never thought of it was, you know,
Speaker 1: just the sitcom. You know, you traditionally sitcoms were, as
Speaker 1: I say, an ordinary guy getting into capers and ending
Speaker 1: num back at square one, and there wasn't there wasn't
Speaker 1: really romance. But you know, we stole that from America
Speaker 1: because you know, and movies, because you know, there was
Speaker 1: always a love interest in movies and a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans shows have had more romance and love interests than
Speaker 1: than ours. That was usually about a grumpy, middle aged man,
Speaker 1: so we we like that. And then I can't remember
Speaker 1: what all of this this was in, but I think
Speaker 1: it was the Golden Globes where we won for the
Speaker 1: Office and I won Best Comedy Actor. I think that
Speaker 1: was the same week. So we went to Ben Silverman's
Speaker 1: office and I don't know it before and after, but
Speaker 1: then then and Gregg came to London and that I
Speaker 1: think that was nearer the time when we were very
Speaker 1: getting very close to actually start in production. And we
Speaker 1: worked out the translation what was slow in America? You know,
Speaker 1: what was the equivalent of this, and what was the
Speaker 1: equivalent of that? And do we have this? And what
Speaker 1: almost did like a blueprint to you know, just americanizing stuff,
Speaker 1: and then we started. Then we started auditions and and
Speaker 1: that was it. I do remember at one point, I
Speaker 1: think before or auditions, or when we were thinking of
Speaker 1: looking for you know, that David Brent and I think
Speaker 1: Ben Silverman called me and said why don't you plane?
Speaker 1: And I said, well, what were the point of that?
Speaker 1: I did my best? Now I want to rest. Now
Speaker 1: I want some I want some other Schmack to do
Speaker 1: a two D episodes. But mainly my really, apart from
Speaker 1: the fact that I was lazy and I was terrified
Speaker 1: of being working hard for seven years, I said no
Speaker 1: this should be this should be made by Americans for Americans,
Speaker 1: and I was flattered that they even let us being
Speaker 1: involved as we were. But you know, it really took
Speaker 1: off when they started making their own show. Is the
Speaker 1: first episode was basically a remake, but then it just
Speaker 1: got further and further away, and you know, by the end,
Speaker 1: it yeah, it was it was his own show. And
Speaker 1: I remember that people were scared because The Office was
Speaker 1: such a media darling, you know, to a few Americans,
Speaker 1: even its peak. I remember the Office in America, the
Speaker 1: our version. I remember it was the biggest show on
Speaker 1: BBC America and it had something like one point one million, right,
Speaker 1: and Ben Dield was saying, listen, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that haven't seen this that won't be prejudiced. But
Speaker 1: of course, I remember he was worried about the press
Speaker 1: saying this is a you know this, we love the original, um,
Speaker 1: and he came up with a really good thing. When
Speaker 1: they were saying, why would you do a remake for
Speaker 1: this that the original was perfect, he said, well, why
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't make the film of a shitty novel.
Speaker 1: I'd make a film of the best novel I could
Speaker 1: find and I thought that was such a clever counter
Speaker 1: But of course we want to remake of something that's
Speaker 1: really good. At wine, we do a remake of something
Speaker 1: that looks terrible, and then soon you know, people forgot
Speaker 1: that there was original. Some people don't even know there's
Speaker 1: an original. To most Americans that they have no idea
Speaker 1: that this is a remake, and they don't care. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I imagine most people who love the
Speaker 1: American Office, they prefer it to the British version. So
Speaker 1: and which is a great position to be in for me.
Speaker 1: I remember once it was after syndication and someone, someone
Speaker 1: on Twitter sent me a tweet that said, the American
Speaker 1: version of the Office is so much bigger and better
Speaker 1: than yours. How does that make you feel? And I
Speaker 1: sent back, fucking rich, Well, there are certainly worse things
Speaker 1: to feel. So Ricky was in England more than happy
Speaker 1: to let the Office take off in a brand new direction. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: back in the States, some of our cast was still
Speaker 1: keeping a close eye on Ricky's work. Rain Wilson in
Speaker 1: particular had his eye on the prize. Were you aware
Speaker 1: of the British version of the Office? I was, I
Speaker 1: was so my friend Sam Catlin, he had heard about
Speaker 1: it and he had seen a couple episodes and somehow
Speaker 1: gotten some like British DVD or something like that, and
Speaker 1: had like even like an English DVD player or something
Speaker 1: somehow had advanced copies, and like, you've got to see it. Groundbreaking, amazing,
Speaker 1: And so we went over like on a special occasionally
Speaker 1: We've got to watch the Office, and we were blown away.
Speaker 1: So I was really truly one of the first people
Speaker 1: to see it in the United States. It might have
Speaker 1: been one of the first couple of thousand people to
Speaker 1: see it in the United States, and just we loved it.
Speaker 1: And then he would get his hands on a couple
Speaker 1: more episodes and we'd go back and have dinner and
Speaker 1: watched like two or three more episodes. So I loved it.
Speaker 1: And what happened was I got cast in a pilot
Speaker 1: with Jeanine Garoffalo for ABC. Mark Marin was in it
Speaker 1: and Bob oden Kirk was in it. And this was
Speaker 1: this infamous pilot that we did the table read and
Speaker 1: they pulled the plug after the table read. So they
Speaker 1: had sets built, we had locations, we had cast, we
Speaker 1: had plane tickets. We were flying out the next day,
Speaker 1: literally the next morning after the table read starts shooting,
Speaker 1: and uh did the table read? It went terribly, but
Speaker 1: I guess what, I still got paid. And that was
Speaker 1: the same pilot season as The Office, kind of the
Speaker 1: Office didn't really follow a pilot season when it was
Speaker 1: first casting, right. So what happened was Vernon Sanders, who's
Speaker 1: one of the UM executives and NBC executives, right, And
Speaker 1: I ran into him in the parking lot on the
Speaker 1: way to this infamous table read, and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got good news, and I was like, what's that is? Like,
Speaker 1: we got the rights to make the American version of
Speaker 1: the Office, and I was like, outside, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh great, and inside I was like, motherfucker, goddamn it.
Speaker 1: That's fucking sucks. Because I love the British Office so much.
Speaker 1: I didn't have an idea of like even what the
Speaker 1: American Office would be, or what role I would play
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I was just like inside,
Speaker 1: I was just kicking myself. And then the plug gets
Speaker 1: pulled on that, and then I called my people and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, I hear about this Office and they're like, yeah, Well.
Speaker 1: It was a few months to go on that. So
Speaker 1: fortunately that the space was opened and the door was opened.
Speaker 1: The universe works in mysterious ways. Brian, That's right, it does,
Speaker 1: and so you eventually get a call to go in
Speaker 1: and meet correct. I was the first audition for the office.
Speaker 1: I have in my office us at home, framed the
Speaker 1: audition sheet of Alison Jones the first day of the
Speaker 1: auditions for the office. And I was number one on
Speaker 1: that list. So other people on the list, or Jenna Fisher,
Speaker 1: you can find. It's on my Instagram somewhere. It might
Speaker 1: even be in my book in the in the photos
Speaker 1: included in my books, you guys can find it. But uh,
Speaker 1: I think Adam Scott audition. I think there were, um
Speaker 1: there was a lot of great talent that auditioned. My
Speaker 1: story about that I'll share with you really quick was
Speaker 1: when Steve left, Alison Jones came to me where he
Speaker 1: had a little party, a little reception. She came and
Speaker 1: she goes, I was looking for stuff for Steve that
Speaker 1: I thought might be cool. She probably gave that to you,
Speaker 1: like when she was searching around and she hands me
Speaker 1: a sheet and it says Kevin, and it says Brian
Speaker 1: baum Gartner Eric stone Street and Jorge Garcia no kidding.
Speaker 1: So that was like the final three but oh fantastic.
Speaker 1: So you although Eric stone Street is way richer than you,
Speaker 1: he is now he sorry shoot sorry. So yeah. So
Speaker 1: on that first audition, I auditioned for both Michael and Dwight,
Speaker 1: and my Michael was just terrible. It was just simply
Speaker 1: a Ricky Gervais impersonation. And I knew that I had
Speaker 1: more of an affinity for the Dwight role. Uh, And
Speaker 1: I knew that I could really deliver on that. I
Speaker 1: just felt it in my bones. I'm like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is me, this is that is exactly my kind of weird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that I mean, you're but you were so different
Speaker 1: also than Gareth in a British version. I mean he
Speaker 1: was much crook, yeah, weasily and and Dwight way more
Speaker 1: authoritarian and trying to derive power, whereas Gareth seemed more backstabby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're different in a lot of ways and similar in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. And it was this incredible luxury
Speaker 1: to go, Okay, here's Mackenzie Crook, brilliant actor, really strange
Speaker 1: looking dude, and he killed as Gareth and was so
Speaker 1: interesting and I get to steal all of his best stuff,
Speaker 1: and then there's maybe stuff that I can add that's
Speaker 1: more of my own, so it's win win all around.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that Dwight is most known
Speaker 1: for is saying absolutely ludicrous, preposterous stuff with a total
Speaker 1: straight face and a dead pan, without any knowledge that
Speaker 1: what he's saying is ridiculous. And really, Mackenzie did that
Speaker 1: so beautifully and I really just frankly stole that from him.
Speaker 1: Another thing I stole from him was the haircut um.
Speaker 1: I read an interview with him where he said he
Speaker 1: went to like just a local barber shop out in
Speaker 1: like Slough or some you know, suburb of London, and
Speaker 1: he kind of got the haircut that would be the
Speaker 1: least flattering for his head and the most ridiculous haircut.
Speaker 1: And I read that I was like, oh, I want
Speaker 1: to do that. So I spent time in the mirror
Speaker 1: figuring out what's the haircut that is going to make
Speaker 1: me look the most ridiculous. I have a huge forehead,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm going to frame my forehead
Speaker 1: perfectly with these little draperies of hair that will highlight
Speaker 1: the enormity of my carapace. Is that a word? I
Speaker 1: think it is a word. They aren't even listening. Um,
Speaker 1: and then like really short on the sides, and then
Speaker 1: in intense, and then it evolved over time. Yes, the
Speaker 1: office did have some pretty bad haircuts. Glad to know
Speaker 1: that dwite style was on purpose. I wonder what Jim's
Speaker 1: excuse was. Anyways, now reins on board the office crew.
Speaker 1: But what about the rest of the team. Ken Kapas,
Speaker 1: one of our amazing directors, told us about how another
Speaker 1: very important saleswoman came to be a part of the show.
Speaker 1: Tell me about what's true and what's what's lore or
Speaker 1: fairy tale? How did Phillis get cast in the show?
Speaker 1: I well, I will tell you what happened. So, um,
Speaker 1: we were doing uh probably you know, kind of more
Speaker 1: traditional auditions, and in the room Greg, myself, Phyllis Allison,
Speaker 1: and the setup was is that I sat next to
Speaker 1: a video camera and on the other side of the
Speaker 1: video camera, Phillis was sitting and Phillis was reading off
Speaker 1: and Phillis was her casting associate. And I hadn't met Phyllis.
Speaker 1: All I knew is I was sitting next to her
Speaker 1: and there was a camera between us and the actors
Speaker 1: who were auditioning were some of them were kind of
Speaker 1: playing it to the hilt and kind of working a
Speaker 1: little too hard. Phillis, meanwhile, was reading her lines in
Speaker 1: in this very kind of monotonal way, sometimes not even
Speaker 1: looking up at the actors, just looking down at the
Speaker 1: sheet of paper. And I just became fascinated with her
Speaker 1: and started looking at her. And there was a couple
Speaker 1: of actors whose auditions I kind of missed because I
Speaker 1: kept throwing Phillis these glances. And I finally, during a break,
Speaker 1: I took Greg aside and I said, this woman really
Speaker 1: belongs in a paper company. And so we Greg thought
Speaker 1: about it and he said sure, And now there's a
Speaker 1: there is there is one additional detail that's so wonderful,
Speaker 1: and that is that after Greg said sure, let's ask
Speaker 1: her to be in the bullpen, and she agreed to
Speaker 1: do it. That Greg and I had a discussion and
Speaker 1: Greg said, do you know if she can act? And
Speaker 1: I took Phyllis aside and I said, do you have
Speaker 1: a lot of acting experience? And she said not, not really,
Speaker 1: but she said that some years earlier that she had,
Speaker 1: you know, worked in burlesque in Branson, Missouri, and I
Speaker 1: said stop it. And she then later that week brought
Speaker 1: in a photo of herself into like a very you know,
Speaker 1: wonderfully old fashioned burlescout was on her desk for ten years,
Speaker 1: nine seasons and the So that is the Phillis story
Speaker 1: and and I couldn't be happier that she became such
Speaker 1: a beloved member of the ensemble. So now the crew
Speaker 1: had come together and the office was starting to air,
Speaker 1: but we were still very uncertain about what our future
Speaker 1: would be. Every day I felt like we were on
Speaker 1: borrowed time. And then lightning struck. Steve landed a massive role.
Speaker 1: Here's Angela Kenzie to tell us all about it. Forty
Speaker 1: year old virgin, right year old virgin. That was the
Speaker 1: game changer for Steve and Jenna. I have talked about
Speaker 1: this where we had this moment where we're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, our friends Steve is gonna be like real famous,
Speaker 1: like real deal famous. I really felt like they were
Speaker 1: banking on Steve, and I was like, Okay, I will
Speaker 1: attach myself to the Steve wagon. I'm banking on him too.
Speaker 1: I thought that that was a really good sign, but
Speaker 1: I still wasn't confident. I mean I still was like
Speaker 1: when we finished those first six because season one was
Speaker 1: just six, they printed our names on pieces of paper
Speaker 1: and then laminated them and put a piece of velcrow
Speaker 1: on the back and that's what stuck to your door
Speaker 1: of your trailer. And I went up to my ripped that,
Speaker 1: ripped it off and said, I'm gonna save that. That
Speaker 1: was fun because you were sure it was done. I
Speaker 1: just didn't know. I mean, they were putting so much
Speaker 1: at the time. NBC had the show that was like
Speaker 1: our rival sort of show that was this couple, and
Speaker 1: they were on every bus everywhere. We weren't on any
Speaker 1: buses if we weren't anywhere, And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I've put a lot of money on those guys. Yes,
Speaker 1: was not a whole lot of confidence. But Kevin Riley,
Speaker 1: I was about to say, I knew Kevin Riley was
Speaker 1: fighting for us, and I know that's why when we
Speaker 1: ultimately won an Emmy, all you guys lifted him in
Speaker 1: the air and that's the photo that made the l
Speaker 1: a times because we all knew as a cast, we
Speaker 1: stayed on the air because Kevin Riley put his neck
Speaker 1: on the line for us. Right when did you feel
Speaker 1: like we actually had security? I know, distinctly. Ahead Well,
Speaker 1: I remember getting an email that our first Christmas episode
Speaker 1: had become the number one download on iTunes, and I
Speaker 1: was like what, and I said, oh, that's it. Mom
Speaker 1: was getting rid of for Chevy Blazer. And then I
Speaker 1: got a Honda. Um yeah, that that That was a
Speaker 1: huge moment. And it's funny. Before that aired, there was
Speaker 1: a moment that was very significant for you and I,
Speaker 1: which was boost crews when we finally became series regulars. Yep,
Speaker 1: I found out I was going to be a series regular.
Speaker 1: And there's a photo that, um, I think Oscar took
Speaker 1: of Jenna and I when I found out. We're jumping
Speaker 1: up in the air holding hands. And I mean up
Speaker 1: until then, we were basically like week to week. Like
Speaker 1: I remember in Halloween episode when they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna actually fire one person, We're all like, okay, Hi,
Speaker 1: how's it going. I petitioned for it to be you.
Speaker 1: I want you to know. I remember saying to my mom,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Mom, you know pretty much anyone can go
Speaker 1: really And she was like, well, every office needs a bitch,
Speaker 1: That's what she said to you. Yeah, She's like, every
Speaker 1: office needs the bitch. I'm like, your mom was confident
Speaker 1: that it wouldn't be you. My mom was you haven't
Speaker 1: you know Bertie Kinzie. She's like, don't speak it, don't
Speaker 1: speak it put out the positive. Oh man, So at
Speaker 1: this time, so this happens, Um, we shoot Booze cruise
Speaker 1: in airs. After Christmas. Christmas episode happens on TV. It's
Speaker 1: our largest audience ever ever. Then iTunes streaming. We become
Speaker 1: number one in that and then Steve wins the Golden Globes.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that night of us at
Speaker 1: the Golden Globes? Um? I remember I got a spray
Speaker 1: tan because I thought I was really white, like too
Speaker 1: white in my dress, and so people were like, get
Speaker 1: a spray tan. And then Rain made fun of me
Speaker 1: so much. He was like how what what? So one
Speaker 1: day on the office, Angela Martin is like pale, and
Speaker 1: the next day you look like orange. He was like, Angela,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know me. And then um,
Speaker 1: we weren't allowed to sit in the main room. Only
Speaker 1: Steve got invited into the main room where the fancy
Speaker 1: people were. We were in the annex and we watched
Speaker 1: him win like on TV, and we were we we
Speaker 1: about like fell out of our chairs, literally we fell
Speaker 1: out of the stuff. But we made such a scene
Speaker 1: that other fancy people were like those guys we were screaming,
Speaker 1: were so excited. And when the party lets out, it
Speaker 1: lets out into the room we were in, and we
Speaker 1: like we tackled Steve. We're so excited. We were all
Speaker 1: so excited. It's hard to put into words how special
Speaker 1: it was for our little show to finally start taking
Speaker 1: off and for Steve, our our show dad, to start
Speaker 1: turning into such a massive star. You know, these days,
Speaker 1: with how popular the Office has become, it almost feels
Speaker 1: like it's always been that way, but it hasn't. And
Speaker 1: I think having our own special way of doing things
Speaker 1: really helped to make that happen. A big part of
Speaker 1: that was having so many of our writers double as
Speaker 1: our ensemble cast. So here's mos, Mike. Sure, when was
Speaker 1: the decision made for writers to start acting in the
Speaker 1: show from the before the before the pilot? I mean
Speaker 1: Greg coming from SNL, Greg wanted SNL is very um.
Speaker 1: The membrane between writers and actors is very thin, and
Speaker 1: all the actors right stuff and a lot of the
Speaker 1: writers are in sketch is and stuff, and almost everyone
Speaker 1: there's a writer performer, even if he or she is
Speaker 1: only on staff as a writer or something. And he
Speaker 1: liked that, and he wanted to get rid of the
Speaker 1: false dichotomy of writers and actors. So he hired Mindy
Speaker 1: specifically because she was a performer. She was in a
Speaker 1: play called Mattin Band that she had written in New York.
Speaker 1: He hired b J because BJ was a stand up
Speaker 1: and a writer. He and then like we made Paul
Speaker 1: against his will play Toby in the first season, like
Speaker 1: we forced it. He did not want to do it.
Speaker 1: He hated it, he hated acting, but we forced him
Speaker 1: to do it because it was so funny to have
Speaker 1: him be the guy that Michael Scott hates more than anybody.
Speaker 1: But it was that was always the design. I think
Speaker 1: he wanted everybody to to write and perform, ideally except
Speaker 1: for me, because he made me a freak. Most famously
Speaker 1: and most annoyingly to me, played the character most shrewd.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. We never talked about most Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I I assumed it was gonna be your first question.
Speaker 1: I I know I have a whole section on it.
Speaker 1: But you were so great. Um, all right, well then
Speaker 1: just very quickly, sure you were cast as most I was,
Speaker 1: and you're happy about that. Now. I hated it. I
Speaker 1: hated every second of it. Why did you hate it?
Speaker 1: Because I was wearing wool clothes and had a neck
Speaker 1: beard and it was always really hot and I didn't
Speaker 1: The joke was I didn't talk, and that's not a
Speaker 1: funny joke. And it was always like I had to
Speaker 1: get up at four thirty in the morning and drive
Speaker 1: to the middle of nowhere and wear wool clothes, and
Speaker 1: it was. And then the joke became with the writers
Speaker 1: because they knew how much I hated it. They loved
Speaker 1: like what if your shirtless, what if you're on a
Speaker 1: see saw? What if you're on a trampoline, What if
Speaker 1: you're running as fast as you can alongside a car
Speaker 1: like a dog. I was at parks and wreck and
Speaker 1: they would call me and they like, we need most
Speaker 1: and I was like, I have a job, I have
Speaker 1: a life, I have young children, and they would just
Speaker 1: make me do it. They would compete with each other
Speaker 1: to see what was the most humiliating possible thing they
Speaker 1: could have me do. But that that episode Paul. So
Speaker 1: Paul wrote that episode where they where Jim and Pam
Speaker 1: go to shoot farms, and he wrote in the in
Speaker 1: the script, it literally says, Mose appears out of nowhere
Speaker 1: and runs along the side of the car like a dog.
Speaker 1: That's what it says. That's I'm a human being. And
Speaker 1: so we did that scene. It was a hundred and
Speaker 1: forty degrees. I was in woolf clothes and and old
Speaker 1: work boots that like didn't fit properly, and that sprint
Speaker 1: is probably a hundred and fifty yards down that dirt
Speaker 1: road from the time I come out to the time
Speaker 1: I had to run all the way up into Shrewt farms.
Speaker 1: It of course cuts off long before I ever get there,
Speaker 1: but they were like, you got it. Paul was directing,
Speaker 1: was like, you gotta run all the way there. So
Speaker 1: I did over and over and over again, probably twelve
Speaker 1: or fourteen takes because Paul delighted in it so much.
Speaker 1: And then later in that episode, I'm in Jurassic Park
Speaker 1: pajamas that don't fit me properly. And then Greg pitched
Speaker 1: the thing where he was like, what if there's a
Speaker 1: loud noise and Pam goes to the window and looks
Speaker 1: at it, and Moses in the outhouse with his pants
Speaker 1: down and the doors flapping clothes. I mean it was
Speaker 1: like it was aggressive. It was. They knew I never
Speaker 1: should have been. If I had said, like, I love
Speaker 1: doing this, they never would have put me in the
Speaker 1: show again. But because I hated it so much and
Speaker 1: was so vocal about hating it, Well, you have confirmed something.
Speaker 1: Moses a is a fan favorite. You hear about people
Speaker 1: loving most. Okay, let me tell you something. What I
Speaker 1: have always said is I think Moses a writer's room joke. Oh,
Speaker 1: you have now confirmed without a doubt. Then it was
Speaker 1: literally a writer's room jo meant to torture, you meant
Speaker 1: specifically to make me miserable. Yes, yes, I was in
Speaker 1: a coffin. I was like hanging upside down somewhere like.
Speaker 1: There were a bunch of things that we did that
Speaker 1: were then just cut out of the show. I was
Speaker 1: riding a moped over like trying to jump a bunch
Speaker 1: of cars. They made me do that moped thing. I
Speaker 1: don't know how to drive a moped. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to drive a moped. No one taught me how
Speaker 1: to drive. They were like just get on and just
Speaker 1: rev the thing, because the point was if I wipe out,
Speaker 1: it will be really funny now, and then run across
Speaker 1: the roofs of these cars again. If you slip and
Speaker 1: fall and break your pelvis, it'll be really funny. Like
Speaker 1: there was the subtext was always the worst this goes
Speaker 1: the fun year it will be when it happens. Well,
Speaker 1: I this was after you left. I mean sort of
Speaker 1: from the beginning, but then more and more Kevin started
Speaker 1: having a lot of physical comedy type stuff, and there
Speaker 1: would be times where I would go to the writer's
Speaker 1: room and say, I don't remember if you were ever there,
Speaker 1: but I would say, you guys are writing for Homer
Speaker 1: Simpson right now and a cartoon you can force to
Speaker 1: do whatever you'd like him to do. He can do whatever, right,
Speaker 1: but I can't. My body doesn't work that way. No
Speaker 1: one's does, right. Like the most painful, I feel like
Speaker 1: I still have pain from it. Is the most innocuous.
Speaker 1: You would never ever ever know. The office workers have
Speaker 1: to go to the warehouse and move boxes, so they
Speaker 1: decide are gonna put remember that episode yeah boiled down?
Speaker 1: So they could move boxes to get to the troll
Speaker 1: and everyone thought the big guy falling is really funny.
Speaker 1: So I just kept falling slipping and which means on
Speaker 1: a concrete surface with oil kneecap on concrete over and
Speaker 1: it's like, guys, I can't keep You've gotta liked Yeah,
Speaker 1: there has to be some other um. We had a
Speaker 1: we had a similar thing on Parson Wreck where Nick
Speaker 1: Offerman's character Ron Swanson was a sort of he was
Speaker 1: a little cartoonish in his abilities to do various things,
Speaker 1: and we wrote this joke where he wanted to get
Speaker 1: he was eating a he got lunch and he was
Speaker 1: eating his hamburger and and the joke was he wanted
Speaker 1: to get out of the lunch as quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: So in the script, he shoved the entire hamburger into
Speaker 1: his mouth and ate it in one bite. So they
Speaker 1: Dean Holland was directing it, and he was like, okay
Speaker 1: action and Nick did his best, but then Dean was like,
Speaker 1: you you really need to eat the whole thing in
Speaker 1: one bite, and he was like, this is a like
Speaker 1: a half pound hamburger. Okay, Like I maybe the character
Speaker 1: can do this, but a human can. Yeah all right,
Speaker 1: yeah right, sorry, yeah, you're not your character, Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: I I almost wiped out super hard on that moped.
Speaker 1: Like well, first of all, the joke was someone pulls
Speaker 1: up in the car. It was the Garden Party episode.
Speaker 1: Someone pulls up in the car and I'm the valve
Speaker 1: Mos the Valet, and I get in and they're like,
Speaker 1: just get in and tear off down this road, right,
Speaker 1: And the joke at the time is why is most
Speaker 1: driving so fast and so insistent? And so I did,
Speaker 1: and like, I tore off down the road and I'm
Speaker 1: not a stunt driver. I don't know, like and suddenly
Speaker 1: I'm going sixty five on a dirt road and on
Speaker 1: a set and the back tires fish tail because it's
Speaker 1: a dirt road, and I like slow down and was like,
Speaker 1: oh right, I'm not This isn't a no one's gonna
Speaker 1: like save me. If I crashed this car, I'll die.
Speaker 1: Because I also got in and didn't put my seatbelt
Speaker 1: on because the joke was you get in and take
Speaker 1: off off, and I was like, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: just I forgot for a second that I'm not fictional.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm not fictional. I'm a human could suffer
Speaker 1: consequences mine very similar to that was. I think it
Speaker 1: was when there's the storyline of Dwight telling Holly that
Speaker 1: that Kevin is slow, and there was a scene we
Speaker 1: did a number of different ways. This didn't end up
Speaker 1: in but where I'm driving and she's like you're driving.
Speaker 1: You have a car, and I'm like, yeah, I have
Speaker 1: a car. And at one point they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: so do that, but then get out of the car,
Speaker 1: but leave it running, like leave it, leave it like,
Speaker 1: leave it, leave it in gear. So like as you
Speaker 1: step out, the car is gonna move forward and then
Speaker 1: we'll have somebody else who can jump in and stop it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did, like profound Meanwhile, it's vedas car, right, like
Speaker 1: her real car. I uh. That joke that they did
Speaker 1: with Kevin in the later years where he didn't know
Speaker 1: the alphabet elemento. Paul pitched that in season two and
Speaker 1: we were like, Paul, that's insane, Like you can't say
Speaker 1: that he doesn't know that he's an accountant. He's a
Speaker 1: working accountant. Like he might not be the best accountant,
Speaker 1: he's an accountant. It made Paul laugh so hard, and
Speaker 1: the second that Paul took over the show, that joke
Speaker 1: aired and I was like well that's he got what
Speaker 1: he wanted six years later. Well, at least someone was
Speaker 1: having fun. But look, we all have a part to play,
Speaker 1: am I right, even if our parts happened to be
Speaker 1: more dangerous than others like Oscar. I don't remember Oscar
Speaker 1: doing any crazy stunts or being turned into an indestructible
Speaker 1: office cartoon. Right, he had the honor of being the
Speaker 1: one who always got to keep his composure. You, and
Speaker 1: certainly over in accounting, you were really the straight man,
Speaker 1: like you had your idiosyncrasies, yes, I think so, but
Speaker 1: in the office you were you were the barometer of
Speaker 1: reason very often Jim and myself. Yes, which is what
Speaker 1: they're talking about in the coalition of reason. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: Are you you know, if you're if you're looking at
Speaker 1: sort of the history of comedy in a way, how
Speaker 1: does what is it? Oh? Come on, you can do it, Brian,
Speaker 1: I believe. And you ask you a question, the archetype
Speaker 1: of the straight man sort of in the history of comedy.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that a little bit? Is that
Speaker 1: is that easier for you to do or is that harder? Oh?
Speaker 1: They're both good. It's apples and oranges. It's lovely. It
Speaker 1: was a lovely character because he's he's a straight man,
Speaker 1: but he still has a little bit delusions of grandeur,
Speaker 1: which you need because that you need that, right right,
Speaker 1: that well, nobody's perfect or nobody totally straight exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Angela was a little off too. She was almost there,
Speaker 1: but then she was a little off. Everybody was a
Speaker 1: little off, right, Toby, every single even Jim. He was
Speaker 1: too much of a prankster. He didn't take the job seriously.
Speaker 1: He was a little too right, juvenile. But you you know,
Speaker 1: I think so many of the scenes between you and
Speaker 1: Steve were so special because you know you had to
Speaker 1: be at Yeah, yeah, did you just sit there and
Speaker 1: stare at him, just stare at him? Well, and you
Speaker 1: would do that, well he said things. You would get
Speaker 1: the laugh because you did that. Yeah, that's all you
Speaker 1: had to do, stare at him. And people at home go,
Speaker 1: what is he thinking? He can't say anything, it's his job,
Speaker 1: he's being good, and now he's excusing themself, thank you
Speaker 1: and just get up and leave, right because he's like Oscar,
Speaker 1: and it's the build up, the fucking Correll build up. Oscar,
Speaker 1: can I see you from moments? It down, Um, I
Speaker 1: ask you something, Um, I'm going to go in for
Speaker 1: a colonoscope, And I was, what can I do to
Speaker 1: make it more comfortable for him or me? And he
Speaker 1: just trails it off and just leaves it like it's
Speaker 1: like it's a solid, like a reasonable question to ask me.
Speaker 1: And I'm supposed what am I supposed to tell him?
Speaker 1: I think, I think I just excuse myself. I'm like, okay, Mike,
Speaker 1: I just got up and left. So we're making the
Speaker 1: office right, and we're starting to get some fans, but
Speaker 1: then it turns out that some of our fans will
Speaker 1: actually be joining our Motley crew, like the wonderful Ellie Kemper.
Speaker 1: Did you watch The Office, Brian? Did I watch The Office?
Speaker 1: I devoured The Office. I was an enormous Office fan.
Speaker 1: You don't know what this is like, because obviously you
Speaker 1: were on it from the start. But I loved The Office.
Speaker 1: I watched it every week. It's very strange to go
Speaker 1: from watching a television show that you happen to love
Speaker 1: and then being in the room with everybody. I actually
Speaker 1: the first day, of course, felt surreal for many reasons,
Speaker 1: but it's it's weird when you I think maybe anyone
Speaker 1: has had this experience. If you watch someone on a
Speaker 1: screen and then you see them in person, it feels otherworldly.
Speaker 1: And particularly because I already loved everyone on it and
Speaker 1: admired them so much, it felt even stranger because yeah,
Speaker 1: I was a huge fan. It's very weird. I really
Speaker 1: tried to play it cool. Well, So, wait, literally, you
Speaker 1: watched it Thursday nights. Yes, yes, I did. I lived
Speaker 1: in New York at the time, and we always my
Speaker 1: my whole family was a fan of the Office. Have
Speaker 1: I believe Mose Mike Sure reminded us of my older
Speaker 1: brother John college, like when John was in college, so
Speaker 1: we had like a big joke about that. But yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I lived in New York and I watched The Office
Speaker 1: every Thursday. And had you met Alison Jones before? No,
Speaker 1: So I met with Greg and Mike. Greg Daniels and
Speaker 1: Mike Sure. I think I was meeting with them for
Speaker 1: Parks and Recreation. This was before Parks and Recreation was
Speaker 1: had aired, and I think that's what it was about.
Speaker 1: I really don't know. It was sort of just a
Speaker 1: general hello. And after that I met Alison when I
Speaker 1: actually read for Parks and Recreation, which it wasn't called
Speaker 1: Parks and Recreation. It was like untitled make Sure Project.
Speaker 1: And then I didn't get a part on Parks and Recreation.
Speaker 1: But then they called me back later for the office
Speaker 1: and your first day on set? Were you nervous? I
Speaker 1: was so nervous. I first, Okay, I can't remember the
Speaker 1: actual very first person I met. I remember telling John Krasinski,
Speaker 1: who I had read was a turn at Conan and
Speaker 1: I had been an Internet Conan because my first scene,
Speaker 1: John is making a Jim Jim, excuse me, it's making
Speaker 1: a copy at the copy machine, and I'm like sitting
Speaker 1: there and I was like, like, in between takes, I
Speaker 1: was like, so, um, yeah, um, you'ven turned to Conan, right?
Speaker 1: Why did I feel the need to strike up conversation.
Speaker 1: I am the new person. I think I should stay
Speaker 1: quiet until've spoken to But I was unusually bold and
Speaker 1: he said, oh, yeah, you know Conan, and I said
Speaker 1: I had turned there too. That was it. I don't
Speaker 1: know if somebody walked away, somebody saved me, because I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have. I wouldn't have kept that conversation going very well.
Speaker 1: And then and then the big news Brian I had
Speaker 1: to dye my hair that day. I have red hair,
Speaker 1: and as soon as I got there, they were like,
Speaker 1: you have to dye your hair brown. And I remember, Mindy,
Speaker 1: I saw in the morning and I started in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and I had brown hair in the afternoon, and she said,
Speaker 1: why did you let them do that? I would never
Speaker 1: let anyone dye my hair like us because in my
Speaker 1: first jobs ever, they can do whatever they want. Anyway,
Speaker 1: why did they dye your hair? Well, you know, I
Speaker 1: still don't know. I think the reason was they said
Speaker 1: it looked that this new character's hair looked too close
Speaker 1: to Pam's color. But I PAMs never Jenna. But I
Speaker 1: mean the character Pam. Pam didn't have red hair, did
Speaker 1: she like? Was it chest study? Yeah, I guess I'm
Speaker 1: not real good at hair. I'll be honest with you, honestly.
Speaker 1: Apparently neither of mind. But anyway, Yeah, first day memories
Speaker 1: are sort of blurry because I was so I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can relate to this feeling, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, you were there from the start, but
Speaker 1: it was just so it was first day of school,
Speaker 1: but to the millions of degree because it was like
Speaker 1: I already I'm like in awe of all these people,
Speaker 1: and I'm the new girl, don't mess anything up, And
Speaker 1: of course she didn't. But there was another new girl,
Speaker 1: well woman, who came into the office family a little
Speaker 1: later on Amy Ryan and you our fans welcomed her
Speaker 1: with such open arms. I think maybe that was because
Speaker 1: she did the one thing no one thought could be done.
Speaker 1: She completed Michael. But come on, don't we all kind
Speaker 1: of wish she'd completed Kevin instead. You came in ultimately
Speaker 1: to be a love interest for Michael. But I have
Speaker 1: to tell you the storyline between you and I on
Speaker 1: the show. Um gets talked about a lot, and I
Speaker 1: think in the history of table reads that we had
Speaker 1: on the show, it was never more laughed because of
Speaker 1: the how long that joke and maybe he used to
Speaker 1: set up. And you know when I get asked now
Speaker 1: about moments in the entire show where I could not
Speaker 1: stop laughing, was Hugh and the but it is literally
Speaker 1: if you with the change, this is the nickel, this
Speaker 1: is this is a button. And there was something about
Speaker 1: the sweetness on your face and you just very genuinely
Speaker 1: explaining to Kevin that this was a button made me
Speaker 1: smile every single time, and I was like, I can't
Speaker 1: do it, and they're right there with the Cam'm like,
Speaker 1: I can't do it, and basically then just turned it
Speaker 1: into a grin to say I'm gonna I'm gonna bang you.
Speaker 1: But that Yeah, do you think that story could play now?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so much of The Office that I
Speaker 1: don't know if it could play now. Um, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: So I just happen to watch that episode because my
Speaker 1: ten year old daughter and all her friends at school
Speaker 1: are really into the Office. And my daughter is a
Speaker 1: little behind the rest of her friends because I think
Speaker 1: it's weird for her. But but anyway, so my husband
Speaker 1: Eric and I like we're just out of her eyeline.
Speaker 1: But here comes your line like I'm totally going to
Speaker 1: bang her, and you know, I'm like, we look at
Speaker 1: each other, like and then you look over at her
Speaker 1: face as she registered that, you know, no, because somehow
Speaker 1: it's going right over their head, I think, or she
Speaker 1: maybe shouldn't you know. Um, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I hope a lot of it still plays
Speaker 1: because I think it's well intentioned. I don't think we
Speaker 1: were cruel statistic people on this show. I mean, but
Speaker 1: the stuff that doesn't play. It's interesting to think about
Speaker 1: as we all think we're like well intentioned, liberal minded,
Speaker 1: caring people, and the stuff that we didn't pay attention to.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you're asking me, is it okay
Speaker 1: to make fun of a person who we think is
Speaker 1: mentally handicapped? Probably not, but it was really funny then
Speaker 1: so what do we do with it? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where that lives. Um, I certainly don't
Speaker 1: want to offend anybody. I mean, I think the joke
Speaker 1: is upon the person who made the mistake, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like it's how could Holly be that
Speaker 1: thick head or or that well, you know white? Really,
Speaker 1: I mean that it's really that it's Dwight who But
Speaker 1: I'm I'm in the middle there of not using my
Speaker 1: own good judgment or maybe asking for a second opinion
Speaker 1: or you know, I mean, we all we're all judgmental.
Speaker 1: We say we don't, but we judge everybody that walks
Speaker 1: down the block, you know, in our heads, in a
Speaker 1: little private tapes, in our Okay, she's right, of course,
Speaker 1: we judge people. We try not to, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: what we try to do is something very different. We
Speaker 1: try to find truth and beauty in every single part
Speaker 1: of our lives. And why well, that goes back to
Speaker 1: the captain of our ship, the man we put all
Speaker 1: our faith in. Our showrunner and creator, Greg Daniels. A
Speaker 1: few people talked to me about one of your core ideas,
Speaker 1: which is the idea of truth and beauty. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was my thing with Randall, the truth and beauty, Truth
Speaker 1: and beauty, yea. And what does that? What does that
Speaker 1: mean to you? Um? Well, you know to me, that
Speaker 1: was I think that's some romantic poet. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: where that came from, somebody like John Keats or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I don't even know what he
Speaker 1: meant by it. But the way I used to use
Speaker 1: it with Randall was that's what we're going for in
Speaker 1: the camera, right, Let the camera seek out truth. That's
Speaker 1: what it's trying to find. That's the point of a documentary.
Speaker 1: What's the truth? And also not like a cynical negative
Speaker 1: truth like also where's the beauty? It's like another principle
Speaker 1: of photography of like a good photograph is, you know,
Speaker 1: a little sprig of weed coming through the cracked concrete
Speaker 1: or whatever, you know what I mean? It's like, where
Speaker 1: are you gonna do something that's a little bit inspiring
Speaker 1: but find it in a truthful way out in the
Speaker 1: real world. Right Well, Mike sure talked about it, and
Speaker 1: you told a story about um a parking lot, an
Speaker 1: endless parking lot with lines and parking spaces, and in
Speaker 1: one crack there's a little flower, a little dandelion. He
Speaker 1: said that it's funny. I just made the same. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that that, you know. I like the notion
Speaker 1: of aesthetic, like what do you searching for in art?
Speaker 1: And the Japanese have interesting aesthetics with a cracked pot?
Speaker 1: Did you mention that to use that a lot? So?
Speaker 1: I think it's called woo. I'm not sure, but it's
Speaker 1: the notion of a perfect pot is okay? You know,
Speaker 1: and we in the West probably value a per pot,
Speaker 1: but a cracked pot where the crack suddenly makes you
Speaker 1: feel the history of the pot and the people who
Speaker 1: have used it in their family and have treasured it
Speaker 1: and kept it even with the crack in it, like
Speaker 1: it suddenly cracks through you know it, suddenly we'll we'll
Speaker 1: touch you. It's those little details often of imperfections, that's
Speaker 1: like a it's just a cool sort of philosophy. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have this so far off topic, but a number
Speaker 1: of years ago, my parents were moving out of their
Speaker 1: house and I went for a week and I was
Speaker 1: like helping them and throwing out all of this trash.
Speaker 1: And we go into like the corner of the closet
Speaker 1: and a guest room that no one ever slept in,
Speaker 1: And in the closet there was a big piece of
Speaker 1: paper that was folded up and I I unfolded it
Speaker 1: and it was a Kennedy poster that my dad had
Speaker 1: like handed out or seen or collected or whatever. And
Speaker 1: I remember saying to him, can I have this? And
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, it's like all torn or whatever. And
Speaker 1: I took it and I framed it and I took
Speaker 1: it to this place and they were like, oh, we
Speaker 1: can you know, do this or that, and I was
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, the crack has to stay there
Speaker 1: and the wrinkle, the folded marks just as lightly as
Speaker 1: you can matt this on something and enclose it, because
Speaker 1: I want that history of it. I don't know that
Speaker 1: idea well. Also, like I mean, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: get too psychological, but you know, when you think about
Speaker 1: your dad right, you're so the relationship that you have
Speaker 1: with your father, the fact how old that they are,
Speaker 1: and just the sense of like passage of time being
Speaker 1: important to that relationship and fragility of it and knowing
Speaker 1: that it may not be around forever, and that I
Speaker 1: can completely see why a tear in your dad's poster
Speaker 1: adds to the emotion of it. Yeah, right, yeah, totally. Um, well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot about writing that isn't necessary really only
Speaker 1: about the office, but you know, like when you have
Speaker 1: a set of principles that you're trying to do for
Speaker 1: the show, right, if you're going to say, all right,
Speaker 1: I want to be realistic, I want to be relatable.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, I want to be observational. If you're
Speaker 1: going to follow those principles, you're gonna end up commenting
Speaker 1: on what's around you. And this to me goes back
Speaker 1: a long way. It isn't unique to the show necessarily,
Speaker 1: but like when I was on The Simpsons, which is
Speaker 1: this is you know, complete cartoon, but the way that
Speaker 1: one Simpsons writer one respect from another Simpsons writer when
Speaker 1: I was there, was you did something super real. You
Speaker 1: had a line that just found like it just came
Speaker 1: out of a teenager and it was just perfectly you know,
Speaker 1: real to the situation and somehow, in contrast to the
Speaker 1: cartooning nois of it, that always seemed to be like
Speaker 1: a cool thing. And then when I got to King
Speaker 1: of the Hell, we used to do a lot of research.
Speaker 1: We would go to Texas. I'd take the writers to
Speaker 1: Texas every season and we'd fan out with our reporters notebooks,
Speaker 1: and we you know, we'd try and dig up unique
Speaker 1: stories because I always felt like the shows that I
Speaker 1: really liked, the stories were original, like something had happened
Speaker 1: to one of the writers or you know, they weren't
Speaker 1: just going like, well what did what did Cheers do?
Speaker 1: Let's do a version of that or something. You had
Speaker 1: to go out and do your own work and dig
Speaker 1: up your own stories. Well, Greg, I, for one, I
Speaker 1: am so grateful for the stories you dug up, and
Speaker 1: I know that I'm not alone. Thank you to everyone
Speaker 1: who was a part of this episode, and to all
Speaker 1: of you out there listening. Join us next week for
Speaker 1: another stroll down memory Lane with some more of our
Speaker 1: favorite episodes and guests. In the meantime, all of you
Speaker 1: have a fantastic week. The Office Deep Dive is hosted
Speaker 1: and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner alongside our executive
Speaker 1: producer Langley. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Liz Hayes and Diego Topi. My main man in
Speaker 1: the booth is Alec Moore. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode
Speaker 1: was mixed by Seth Olandsky