WEBVTT - David Denman 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.160 Hey guys, this is David Denman and I played Roy 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:19.599 Anderson on the Office. Well, hello friends, welcome once again 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.400 to another episode of the Office Deep Dive. I am 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.920 your host, Brian baum Gartner, and today I am so 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:31.920 excited about this our guest today, as you know, played well, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.760 i'd call him iconic. An iconic character on the Office. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.680 He dated everyone's favorite receptionist, he vandalized a bar, and 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.360 he threw some punches, or he would have if not 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:50.839 for Dwight's pepper spray. If you catch my meaning, you 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:55.400 know I am bringing on the incredible David Denman today, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:00.639 a k a. Roy Anderson. Now David currently is on 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.560 one of my favorite shows, HBO's Mayor of East Town, 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:09.240 but before that, he spent many years playing an ordinary 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:13.000 guy just working in a warehouse. He really has a 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.000 unique perspective on the Office right because his character was 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.680 on and off the show for all nine years, and 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:24.520 he went through quite a journey during that time. Today 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.520 we're going to talk about that, as well as Roy's 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:32.679 standout moments, his wedding, the Booze Crews, and much much more. 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.399 We're also going to bring up some big questions for David. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.640 Was Roy a sympathetic character. Do we think he cheated 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.480 on Pam? And most importantly, what was in his trash 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.680 bag from the pilot. It's a good question, right, So 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:54.440 join me today in welcoming half of Pam and Roy, 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:58.920 or boy as no one has called them ever, David 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:08.120 Denman Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:14.840 on Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every month lift over from 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:31.360 the night before, David, what's happening? Brother? What is going on? 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.880 Oh my god, it's been so long. How are you. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.560 I'm good, I know it was weird. Just trying to 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:39.040 figure out last time I saw you I think was 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:43.000 at your wedding when I don't remember when that was. Gosh, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:48.480 that is just so, that's just disgustingly too long. It's 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.280 all right, Oh my god. All right, well we are. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.120 We're going to get in to a lot, but I 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:59.880 want to start back at the beginning. You're from California. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.520 You end up getting accepted and go to Juilliard, which 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.120 basically what that means to me is you knew what 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.320 you wanted to do pretty early. Is that true? Yeah? No, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.200 I knew I wanted to be an actress. Since I 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.120 was a kid. I remember I went and saw that 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.120 movie The Black Stallion when I was a kid, and 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.440 I must have been six when it came out, I think, 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:23.639 and my dad took me. I never forget it, and 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:25.800 I remember going, I want to be that kid, and 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.040 it was the ongoing joke in the family, like, David, 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.120 You're not going to be a jockey. It's just not 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.639 gonna happen. And then uh, shortly after that ET came 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:36.000 out and I was like, I want to do what 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.040 that guy's doing, and uh, my family was just like, what, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:41.920 we have no idea what to do with you? And 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.080 so yeah, I knew from a young age all these 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.800 pictures of me dressing up in costumes, running around and 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.760 you know, pretend me too. Did you have any family connection, 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.760 I mean, being from California, did you have any family 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.640 connection to the business or anything. No, nothing at all. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.640 You know, my dad was a draftsman and my mom 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.720 I'm um worked like as a receptionists. Basically, I had 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.720 no connection whatsoever. I actually didn't even hear of Juilliard 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:08.280 until I was in high school. And I remember there 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.760 was a kid named Michael, his adorf, and he was 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:13.960 like a real actor because I grew up in Orange County, 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.000 which is about an hour from l A. And he 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:19.799 would go up and do commercials and do bit parts 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.080 and movies and stuff, and so, you know, I was like, oh, wow, 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:25.640 you're really doing it and uh. And he was like, well, 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:27.400 I'm gonna go to IM. I'm gonna apply and try 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.960 to go to Juilliard. And I said, what is that. Okay, 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:31.800 so it's an acting school and I was like, there's 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.960 schools for acting. I mean, it was that naive. He 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.120 was like yeah, dude, Robin Williams, Kevin Klein. I was like, 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.560 what they went there? He was like yeah. I was 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:44.359 like blown away. And then I went because I was 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.120 a terrible student and I knew I wasn't going to 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:48.200 go to college. None of my family had gone to college. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.920 And then I you know, went down the rabbit hole 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:52.600 of like, wait a minute, I can go to school 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.279 for acting. And so a friend of mine went to 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.400 the American Conservatory Theater. They had a summer training congress 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:02.720 the summer before my senior year. He was a year 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.400 ahead of me, a guy named Craig Brewer, who went 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.839 on to be a writer director of Hustle and Flow 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:13.760 and Black Snake Moan and Dolomite is my name another one. Anyway, 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.280 he's been very successful. But he was an actor when 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.839 we were in school, and he went and I was like, 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.440 I'm gonna go there. So my whole senior year was 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:26.799 all about going to a CT summer program. And then 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.479 once I did that, I wanted to go to the 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:32.039 you know, the grad program, but they wouldn't let you 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.320 in and for two years you had to have two 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.479 years of college. So I went to junior college for 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.680 two years, and I was like, I'm gonna do as 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:40.720 many plays as I can do here, and I'll do, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.960 you know, take some classes and and then I'll apply 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.000 for a c T. And then I figured, well, from 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.000 applying there, I might as well apply to all these 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:51.920 other schools that I want to go to. And Juliard 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.080 was at the top of the list, and an n 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.760 y U and Harvard had a program, and so I 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.680 went up an audition for Juilliard and Harvard the same 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.880 weekend they did it like in San Francisco, and then 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.760 that monday I got a call from Juilliard saying, hey, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.200 we'd like to offer you a spot. And that was 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:11.680 like my top choice. So I was like, what, yeah, 0:06:11.720 --> 0:06:13.720 of course, so I didn't even do the other auditions 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.120 and that's awesome. AGA end up getting getting into the 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.240 Harvard program as well, and I was like, thanks guys, 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.040 but I'm I'm gonna go here and stand there like 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:27.120 good for you. Have fun. That's incredible. So you moved 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.120 to New York? I did. Yeah, I moved to New 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:33.440 York and yeah, I had no idea when I was 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.839 getting into I mean, like I said, no one in 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.360 my family went to college, so my idea of college 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.640 was Dead Poets Society. I was like, I didn't know 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:42.680 what New York City was like or what a campus 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:44.520 was going to be like. And I walked into Lincoln 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.440 Center and I'm like, oh, this is interesting. I mean, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.080 this is all before the Internet or you could just 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.360 look everything up. This is like, here's a pamphlet, here's 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.000 a couple of pictures of what are the inside of 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.800 our school? Looks like like, you have no idea. It 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.800 was definitely not Dead Poets Society. There was no beat 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.600 of what was that Princeton I think they shot that 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.320 or something. Yeah, beautiful campus. Right At this point, were 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:11.040 you interested in film and television? I mean you referenced 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:13.400 your friend who was going and doing commercials and stuff 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:16.360 or or for you was it was it theater? You know? 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.560 It was theater? Was was everything? I mean, I kind 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.400 of like. I remember when I was in junior college 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.280 and having a conversation with a buddy of mine, this 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:28.360 guy Todd Kolesack, who we were doing Rosenkrantz and Guildensterner Dead, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.040 and I was like, yeah, I just want to do 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.720 theater and something. He's like, what are you talking about, dude, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.360 why don't you go try to do film and TV? 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.280 Like I don't know, I don't know. And I remember 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.040 one of my teachers, I was like reading this play 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:43.520 and he was like what do you What are you reading? 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.280 And I'm like, oh, this new play just came out 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.440 of New York And he goes, Okay, you need to 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.280 read more books. I go, what do you mean? He goes, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.920 why are you reading a play that somebody else already did? 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.480 Why don't you read a book so you can do 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.080 the the original version of it, you know, and some 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.800 movie or something. And I was like, wow, I think 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.720 he's people have a lot more faith in me than 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:06.760 I have in myself. And and and those those conversations 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:08.720 did start sparking like, well, maybe I'll go and give 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.400 it a shot. And and then I went to New York. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.840 I went to school, which was a grind, and I 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.640 saw all these really talented people come out and just 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.000 get beat up. And I went and did a summer 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.160 Shakespeare festival in Utah, and there was a guy who 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:26.720 had come out of another grad program a few years 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.280 before us, and he had spent I don't know five 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.280 ten years out of grad school doing theater and he 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.160 was just then going to go to l A and 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.839 try to break in. And he was so impassionate about it. 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.080 He was like, don't wait, don't wait, I go what 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.000 he goes. There's one time when you come out of 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.240 school where they're all interested in you. I wish I 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.240 would have capitalized on it when I had the shot, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.480 and I didn't. And now I'm starting from the ground 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.959 up again, and it's it's going to be brutal. And 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:57.920 if you get out of school and there's interest, get 0:08:57.960 --> 0:08:59.800 on a plane and go to l A. And so 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.800 that was like the summer before my senior year. And 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.960 so my buddy who would who was also at Utah, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:09.600 who was at graduating from Yale School of Drama. He 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:12.160 had already done the New York thing before he went 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.240 to before he went to um Yale, and so he 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.720 was like, I'm going to l A. We should go together. 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.800 And I'm like, you're crazy, what are you? What are 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.240 you talking about? And I had family, you know, in 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.439 Orange County, so it wasn't like that crazy to do. 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.360 But I just thought I would at least spend a 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.760 year in New York and like capitalize on all those 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.200 theater connections and trying to do some regional theater. And 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.240 and then I did one play right when I graduated, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.040 and like Shakespeare by the Sea, I think it was 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:43.120 Shakespeare was on the sound. I don't even know. It's 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.720 something real Wheaton, Connecticut. We did so many of these 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.000 same summer things, by the way, that's actually which we've 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.960 never talked about. But anyway, you did one show. I 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.160 did one show. I was making like two d and 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.360 fifty bucks a week. I couldn't even pay my rent. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.320 It was like that was good. I was good. I 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.880 was like us so excited to get that job finally, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.280 and I was like, this is terrible. This is not 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.520 gonna this is not gonna work, and so I remember July, 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:11.679 my buddy I was like, hey, I got to go 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.640 to this wedding up in Oregon. You want to take 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:15.920 a road trip. And I hadn't been home and over 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.320 a year, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:20.280 come back and let's take that road trip. So I 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.600 came back. Luckily I had an agent that had a 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.280 West Coast office. Come to find out afterwards that that 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.840 doesn't mean anything that she had. She had a meeting 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.200 with me and was like, hey, yeah, if you ever 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:33.920 feel like coming out to l A, just let me know. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.320 She was like the owner of the company. And I 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.520 was like, yeah, no, seriously, I'm I'm I'm probably gonna 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.640 do that. She was like okay, but she she told 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:44.120 me later that she was like, you know what, we 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.120 just say that to everybody when we're signing them, but 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.600 like we work as two separate offices, Like if you 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.000 didn't get anything, I would have sent you back and 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.760 really like, well, that's just such a lie. She's like, well, 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:57.640 you know, what are you gonna do again? This is 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.560 like before digital and not only tax but even email. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.800 I mean this is like right when email is started. Man, 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.920 I had a page that exactly. I'd get a pager 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:10.120 to say, hey, you got an audition, called the page 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.120 your number back and be like, what is it? And 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.079 then I had to go to the office to print 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.160 out the sides and print out the appointment sheet. But anyway, 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.000 I long story short, I came in and I booked 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.760 my first audition, which was for e Er and at 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:25.640 the time that was like the number one show on TV. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.880 And my agent was like, you should consider staying and uh, 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.480 and I said, all right, my buddy was already here 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:34.800 and he wanted to stay. He was like, let's get 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.079 an apartment. So we got an apartment and I never 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.320 went back. I mean I went back, god twenty years 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:44.200 later to work, but never, you know, to go live. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:49.400 You were l a based based immediately. Yeah, within a 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:51.680 couple of months of graduating from school. So and then 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.679 so you get this role on the Er and so 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.480 things were just really easy from then on out right. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:01.520 I mean you just just you just exactly, It's just 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.840 you never stopped working. No, it was. It was a 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.760 good first year and then a good second year. I 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.319 got that movie The Replacements about a year after I graduated, 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.200 and that was the one that was the big shocker 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.000 when I'm doing that movie and it's a you know, 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.079 one of those big studio films, and you think this 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.560 is the life. This is I'm just gonna leave this 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:24.120 set and I'm gonna go to the next one and 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.160 then the next one, and I'm on my way. And 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.600 then I didn't work for a year, and I was like, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.720 oh no, this is this is not gonna this is 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.240 really gonna be tough. But you know, you get little 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.360 gigs here and there, a couple of little guest stars 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.720 on TV shows and you know, a voice over a 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.000 commercial that you know, you know, it's just like you 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.400 someone told me a long time ago. You're like juggling, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.840 you know, all these different aspects of your career, and uh, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.640 you gotta have all of them going, and because when 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.959 one of them is down, the other one hopefully is up, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.240 and you just gotta keep juggling him until something happens. 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.800 So I got lucky. Yeah, you know, it was grateful. 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:07.040 So this British show called The Office comes out with 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.520 Ricky Gervais. Now did you watch the show when it 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.120 first came out? Available? So I had a buddy of 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:15.840 mine from New York who we did to talk with 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:20.200 Theater Festival another summer stock. He called me and it 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:23.000 was like, David, you've got to watch the show. It's 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.880 right up your alley. It's hilarious. And I hear they're 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.679 doing an American version of it. You've got to get 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:30.160 on it. And I was like, okay, And he never 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:31.800 does that. He never did that with any he's never 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.120 done a sense so you were done, Okay, I'll just 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.640 get on like, I'll make a call. And I did 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:40.320 watch it. I was like, oh my god, this is genius. 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:43.120 And I called my agent immediately and my agent said, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.320 do you want to do that? And I go what 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.280 I think? Well, they're just looking for like improv comedians, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:51.480 and like I could improv a Juilliard what what do 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.360 you talk? Just because I didn't go to UCB or 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.319 whatever doesn't mean I don't I can't do that or 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.520 don't want to do that. And in his defense, at 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.199 that point, that was like the third incarnation of a 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:06.160 British TV comedy that was somewhat successful that they had 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.200 brought over and they've bombed over and over and over again, 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.959 and so he was just like, here, it's gonna be 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.160 another one of those. And uh, I said, just get 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.880 me an appointment, and at that point they'd already cast 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.960 John and Jenna and all those guys they were and 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.200 so he called me back and he was older. There 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.040 they have the part of Roy. When you want to 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.600 go in for that, it's a guest star, and I said, yeah, yeah, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.960 get me in. So I went in and gave my 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.360 audition for all those guys, and which people can see 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.120 on the internet. They call back and give me the job. 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.000 So you know, I've I've done a bunch of movies 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.680 at that point, a bunch of TV. But without a doubt, 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.040 that's the thing that everything we just shifted. It's like 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.040 you get on the number one show, even though it 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.000 wasn't number one right away, it took a long time, 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:51.600 but you get on a show that one was talking 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.040 about and all of a sudden doors opened up and 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.640 opportunities and talk about that big break. But it's like 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:58.440 I had a lot of breaks along the way to 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:00.640 get me there, and a lot clear I had more 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.760 breaks afterwards. You know, like you gotta keep getting those brakes. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.640 They someone's got a smile on you somewhere too, to 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.280 keep it going, because it doesn't doesn't just keep happening. 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:14.720 You know, had you done much comedy at all, or no, 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.920 I've done comedic movies at all, dramatic television. That was 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:21.920 the irony the second I did the Office, all of 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:24.760 a sudden, everybody wanted you to come to comedy and 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.480 I was like, great, I'm happy to do it. And 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:29.640 then the thing that drove me crazy and I don't 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:31.560 I don't know if it happened to YouTube. I'm sure 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.880 it did. I would walk into these auditions and they 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.040 would go, I had just improv it like to do 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.440 in the office, and I would go, no, no, no, no, no, no, 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.360 I'm on the office. So I can tell you for 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.880 a fact, this isn't all improved. There's actually really amazing 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.680 writers that are writing all these jokes and they're throwing 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.720 them at us, and you know what, they're even adding 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.960 more jokes to it when we do another take. This 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:56.480 isn't all just our genius that made that show work. Hello, guys, like, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.200 I'm happy to do that for you, But if you 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.680 want me to write your show, that's a different job title. 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:07.440 I'm happy to perform it, but but it's but don't 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.560 don't say like they do in the office. There was 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.240 improv for sure, but the majority of that was scripting. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:35.360 It really well scripted. When you started working on the show, 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.720 so you you had seen the British version, you were 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.880 a fan of that, and we start working on the pilot. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.760 What were your first impressions, either with working with people 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:46.960 or on how things went during that pilot shoot, because 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:51.640 you had way more experienced than me, but more experienced 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.320 than a lot of the folks, right, so how was 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.800 it to you? What were your first impressions? Well, you know, 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.400 I think I only have like that one scene in 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.760 the pilot, right, come in with the trash bag, which 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:03.600 you don't know what is in that trash bag, whether 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:08.560 it's human hand or something. It was just for some reason, 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.959 the timing wasn't working. Something was off, and I remember 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:13.879 Ken Coppas was like, hey, let's take a break and 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.240 we went downstairs, and of course I was panicking and 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:18.560 what happened? What did I do? You know? And John 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:20.680 was like, no, man, they're doing this all the time. 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.240 They're like there, We're constantly taking breaks to just clear 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.320 the air and then come back at it. And I 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.679 think a big part of that is because you know, 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.639 we had those of us who had seen the show. 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.159 It's hard not to have that impression, you know. And 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.399 when you start imitating somebody else you know as well 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:40.239 as I do, you're in trouble because you're never going 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:41.800 to do it as good as the person who did 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.120 it originally. Um, So you've got to do your own 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:45.800 thing and you've got to find your own voice in it. 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.439 So I don't know if that had something to do 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.199 with it or what, or it just happened to be, 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.479 you know, hey, let's just shake it up. And so 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:54.480 we went downstairs, came back up and did like one 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.359 more take and it was like, great, we got it. 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.120 I was like, oh, oh, that was easy. And then 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.520 it was you know, a year later before were we 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.440 studied homing. You know, it's like we had to wait 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.080 to get picked up and then wait and wait. It 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:08.840 was like, actually, no, we shot that stuff. It was 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.200 in the fall. It was a year later that it aired. 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.720 It wasn't until like April or whatever that we found 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.600 out how the show would turn out. Right. Jenna had 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:22.720 a conversation with me about backstory. She had a journal 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:28.280 about your relationship with the relationship between Pam and Roy 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.560 and her history. Did you work with her on your 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.800 initial backstory or were you Were you involved with that 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.800 at all. I was receptive to her ideas. It was 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.000 her show more than it was my show. I was 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:42.760 just a guest star on it. But we did talk 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.640 about it, you know, with all of those things, it's 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.320 so important to create a backstory. But yeah, we did 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.000 have to go how long have we been together? And 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:51.920 you know when we start dating? And how did it? 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:54.680 You know, we did. We did share those conversations, and 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:57.560 I don't know that too much of what I said 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.280 shifted anything. I was just more amenable her ideas, you know, 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:02.879 I was like, yeah, I think that's probably right. I 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:04.960 think they probably kind of fell into this thing and 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:06.919 then they kind of got into a rut and just 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.240 kept going along, and you know, clearly they weren't happy 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.240 in the relationship, or at least Roy wasn't happy enough 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.080 to propose. And then, you know, the nice the fun 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.440 thing about that show is those talking heads where you 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.840 you could hear characters in her thoughts, you know, and 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:26.080 so often in television, you're not the characters don't evolve. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.120 They want the same thing every week, and they want 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.480 to see that dynamic and how it plays out. But 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.000 they don't see a character make a shift or a change, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.120 and so I was lucky enough to have this like, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.240 oh no, Roy's gonna lose her, try to win her back, 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.199 and it was like this different character to play in 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:45.200 season three and that was really fun to do. And 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.080 and then when I found out that he didn't ever 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.040 really truly evolve by the end of it, you were like, 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.080 oh no, the old Roy's back. And then they, you know, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:56.920 they nicely gave me a great little send off in 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.439 the you know, final season of the Evolved Roy or whatever, 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.439 which was cool. Right. You talk about how trying to 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:08.040 imitate somebody else's performance, right, so it's was Lee in 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.040 the British version. Did you feel like pretty quickly, you know, 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:16.399 the character of Roy evolved from that original British version 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:21.280 or became more tied to you and your sensibilities. Yeah, 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.080 I think so. I mean, you know, there's also that 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.040 British the reserve, you know, like that guy could be 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.879 just stoic and just kind of like, uh and didn't 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.239