Speaker 1: Hey guys, this is David Denman and I played Roy
Speaker 1: Anderson on the Office. Well, hello friends, welcome once again
Speaker 1: to another episode of the Office Deep Dive. I am
Speaker 1: your host, Brian baum Gartner, and today I am so
Speaker 1: excited about this our guest today, as you know, played well,
Speaker 1: i'd call him iconic. An iconic character on the Office.
Speaker 1: He dated everyone's favorite receptionist, he vandalized a bar, and
Speaker 1: he threw some punches, or he would have if not
Speaker 1: for Dwight's pepper spray. If you catch my meaning, you
Speaker 1: know I am bringing on the incredible David Denman today,
Speaker 1: a k a. Roy Anderson. Now David currently is on
Speaker 1: one of my favorite shows, HBO's Mayor of East Town,
Speaker 1: but before that, he spent many years playing an ordinary
Speaker 1: guy just working in a warehouse. He really has a
Speaker 1: unique perspective on the Office right because his character was
Speaker 1: on and off the show for all nine years, and
Speaker 1: he went through quite a journey during that time. Today
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that, as well as Roy's
Speaker 1: standout moments, his wedding, the Booze Crews, and much much more.
Speaker 1: We're also going to bring up some big questions for David.
Speaker 1: Was Roy a sympathetic character. Do we think he cheated
Speaker 1: on Pam? And most importantly, what was in his trash
Speaker 1: bag from the pilot. It's a good question, right, So
Speaker 1: join me today in welcoming half of Pam and Roy,
Speaker 1: or boy as no one has called them ever, David
Speaker 1: Denman Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak
Speaker 1: on Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every month lift over from
Speaker 1: the night before, David, what's happening? Brother? What is going on?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's been so long. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm good, I know it was weird. Just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out last time I saw you I think was
Speaker 1: at your wedding when I don't remember when that was. Gosh,
Speaker 1: that is just so, that's just disgustingly too long. It's
Speaker 1: all right, Oh my god. All right, well we are.
Speaker 1: We're going to get in to a lot, but I
Speaker 1: want to start back at the beginning. You're from California.
Speaker 1: You end up getting accepted and go to Juilliard, which
Speaker 1: basically what that means to me is you knew what
Speaker 1: you wanted to do pretty early. Is that true? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to be an actress. Since I
Speaker 1: was a kid. I remember I went and saw that
Speaker 1: movie The Black Stallion when I was a kid, and
Speaker 1: I must have been six when it came out, I think,
Speaker 1: and my dad took me. I never forget it, and
Speaker 1: I remember going, I want to be that kid, and
Speaker 1: it was the ongoing joke in the family, like, David,
Speaker 1: You're not going to be a jockey. It's just not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. And then uh, shortly after that ET came
Speaker 1: out and I was like, I want to do what
Speaker 1: that guy's doing, and uh, my family was just like, what,
Speaker 1: we have no idea what to do with you? And
Speaker 1: so yeah, I knew from a young age all these
Speaker 1: pictures of me dressing up in costumes, running around and
Speaker 1: you know, pretend me too. Did you have any family connection,
Speaker 1: I mean, being from California, did you have any family
Speaker 1: connection to the business or anything. No, nothing at all.
Speaker 1: You know, my dad was a draftsman and my mom
Speaker 1: I'm um worked like as a receptionists. Basically, I had
Speaker 1: no connection whatsoever. I actually didn't even hear of Juilliard
Speaker 1: until I was in high school. And I remember there
Speaker 1: was a kid named Michael, his adorf, and he was
Speaker 1: like a real actor because I grew up in Orange County,
Speaker 1: which is about an hour from l A. And he
Speaker 1: would go up and do commercials and do bit parts
Speaker 1: and movies and stuff, and so, you know, I was like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: you're really doing it and uh. And he was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to IM. I'm gonna apply and try
Speaker 1: to go to Juilliard. And I said, what is that. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's an acting school and I was like, there's
Speaker 1: schools for acting. I mean, it was that naive. He
Speaker 1: was like yeah, dude, Robin Williams, Kevin Klein. I was like,
Speaker 1: what they went there? He was like yeah. I was
Speaker 1: like blown away. And then I went because I was
Speaker 1: a terrible student and I knew I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: go to college. None of my family had gone to college.
Speaker 1: And then I you know, went down the rabbit hole
Speaker 1: of like, wait a minute, I can go to school
Speaker 1: for acting. And so a friend of mine went to
Speaker 1: the American Conservatory Theater. They had a summer training congress
Speaker 1: the summer before my senior year. He was a year
Speaker 1: ahead of me, a guy named Craig Brewer, who went
Speaker 1: on to be a writer director of Hustle and Flow
Speaker 1: and Black Snake Moan and Dolomite is my name another one. Anyway,
Speaker 1: he's been very successful. But he was an actor when
Speaker 1: we were in school, and he went and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go there. So my whole senior year was
Speaker 1: all about going to a CT summer program. And then
Speaker 1: once I did that, I wanted to go to the
Speaker 1: you know, the grad program, but they wouldn't let you
Speaker 1: in and for two years you had to have two
Speaker 1: years of college. So I went to junior college for
Speaker 1: two years, and I was like, I'm gonna do as
Speaker 1: many plays as I can do here, and I'll do,
Speaker 1: you know, take some classes and and then I'll apply
Speaker 1: for a c T. And then I figured, well, from
Speaker 1: applying there, I might as well apply to all these
Speaker 1: other schools that I want to go to. And Juliard
Speaker 1: was at the top of the list, and an n
Speaker 1: y U and Harvard had a program, and so I
Speaker 1: went up an audition for Juilliard and Harvard the same
Speaker 1: weekend they did it like in San Francisco, and then
Speaker 1: that monday I got a call from Juilliard saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we'd like to offer you a spot. And that was
Speaker 1: like my top choice. So I was like, what, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, so I didn't even do the other auditions
Speaker 1: and that's awesome. AGA end up getting getting into the
Speaker 1: Harvard program as well, and I was like, thanks guys,
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm gonna go here and stand there like
Speaker 1: good for you. Have fun. That's incredible. So you moved
Speaker 1: to New York? I did. Yeah, I moved to New
Speaker 1: York and yeah, I had no idea when I was
Speaker 1: getting into I mean, like I said, no one in
Speaker 1: my family went to college, so my idea of college
Speaker 1: was Dead Poets Society. I was like, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what New York City was like or what a campus
Speaker 1: was going to be like. And I walked into Lincoln
Speaker 1: Center and I'm like, oh, this is interesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is all before the Internet or you could just
Speaker 1: look everything up. This is like, here's a pamphlet, here's
Speaker 1: a couple of pictures of what are the inside of
Speaker 1: our school? Looks like like, you have no idea. It
Speaker 1: was definitely not Dead Poets Society. There was no beat
Speaker 1: of what was that Princeton I think they shot that
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, beautiful campus. Right At this point, were
Speaker 1: you interested in film and television? I mean you referenced
Speaker 1: your friend who was going and doing commercials and stuff
Speaker 1: or or for you was it was it theater? You know?
Speaker 1: It was theater? Was was everything? I mean, I kind
Speaker 1: of like. I remember when I was in junior college
Speaker 1: and having a conversation with a buddy of mine, this
Speaker 1: guy Todd Kolesack, who we were doing Rosenkrantz and Guildensterner Dead,
Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, I just want to do
Speaker 1: theater and something. He's like, what are you talking about, dude,
Speaker 1: why don't you go try to do film and TV?
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, I don't know. And I remember
Speaker 1: one of my teachers, I was like reading this play
Speaker 1: and he was like what do you What are you reading?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, this new play just came out
Speaker 1: of New York And he goes, Okay, you need to
Speaker 1: read more books. I go, what do you mean? He goes,
Speaker 1: why are you reading a play that somebody else already did?
Speaker 1: Why don't you read a book so you can do
Speaker 1: the the original version of it, you know, and some
Speaker 1: movie or something. And I was like, wow, I think
Speaker 1: he's people have a lot more faith in me than
Speaker 1: I have in myself. And and and those those conversations
Speaker 1: did start sparking like, well, maybe I'll go and give
Speaker 1: it a shot. And and then I went to New York.
Speaker 1: I went to school, which was a grind, and I
Speaker 1: saw all these really talented people come out and just
Speaker 1: get beat up. And I went and did a summer
Speaker 1: Shakespeare festival in Utah, and there was a guy who
Speaker 1: had come out of another grad program a few years
Speaker 1: before us, and he had spent I don't know five
Speaker 1: ten years out of grad school doing theater and he
Speaker 1: was just then going to go to l A and
Speaker 1: try to break in. And he was so impassionate about it.
Speaker 1: He was like, don't wait, don't wait, I go what
Speaker 1: he goes. There's one time when you come out of
Speaker 1: school where they're all interested in you. I wish I
Speaker 1: would have capitalized on it when I had the shot,
Speaker 1: and I didn't. And now I'm starting from the ground
Speaker 1: up again, and it's it's going to be brutal. And
Speaker 1: if you get out of school and there's interest, get
Speaker 1: on a plane and go to l A. And so
Speaker 1: that was like the summer before my senior year. And
Speaker 1: so my buddy who would who was also at Utah,
Speaker 1: who was at graduating from Yale School of Drama. He
Speaker 1: had already done the New York thing before he went
Speaker 1: to before he went to um Yale, and so he
Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to l A. We should go together.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you're crazy, what are you? What are
Speaker 1: you talking about? And I had family, you know, in
Speaker 1: Orange County, so it wasn't like that crazy to do.
Speaker 1: But I just thought I would at least spend a
Speaker 1: year in New York and like capitalize on all those
Speaker 1: theater connections and trying to do some regional theater. And
Speaker 1: and then I did one play right when I graduated,
Speaker 1: and like Shakespeare by the Sea, I think it was
Speaker 1: Shakespeare was on the sound. I don't even know. It's
Speaker 1: something real Wheaton, Connecticut. We did so many of these
Speaker 1: same summer things, by the way, that's actually which we've
Speaker 1: never talked about. But anyway, you did one show. I
Speaker 1: did one show. I was making like two d and
Speaker 1: fifty bucks a week. I couldn't even pay my rent.
Speaker 1: It was like that was good. I was good. I
Speaker 1: was like us so excited to get that job finally,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is terrible. This is not
Speaker 1: gonna this is not gonna work, and so I remember July,
Speaker 1: my buddy I was like, hey, I got to go
Speaker 1: to this wedding up in Oregon. You want to take
Speaker 1: a road trip. And I hadn't been home and over
Speaker 1: a year, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come back and let's take that road trip. So I
Speaker 1: came back. Luckily I had an agent that had a
Speaker 1: West Coast office. Come to find out afterwards that that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean anything that she had. She had a meeting
Speaker 1: with me and was like, hey, yeah, if you ever
Speaker 1: feel like coming out to l A, just let me know.
Speaker 1: She was like the owner of the company. And I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, no, seriously, I'm I'm I'm probably gonna
Speaker 1: do that. She was like okay, but she she told
Speaker 1: me later that she was like, you know what, we
Speaker 1: just say that to everybody when we're signing them, but
Speaker 1: like we work as two separate offices, Like if you
Speaker 1: didn't get anything, I would have sent you back and
Speaker 1: really like, well, that's just such a lie. She's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, what are you gonna do again? This is
Speaker 1: like before digital and not only tax but even email.
Speaker 1: I mean this is like right when email is started. Man,
Speaker 1: I had a page that exactly. I'd get a pager
Speaker 1: to say, hey, you got an audition, called the page
Speaker 1: your number back and be like, what is it? And
Speaker 1: then I had to go to the office to print
Speaker 1: out the sides and print out the appointment sheet. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I long story short, I came in and I booked
Speaker 1: my first audition, which was for e Er and at
Speaker 1: the time that was like the number one show on TV.
Speaker 1: And my agent was like, you should consider staying and uh,
Speaker 1: and I said, all right, my buddy was already here
Speaker 1: and he wanted to stay. He was like, let's get
Speaker 1: an apartment. So we got an apartment and I never
Speaker 1: went back. I mean I went back, god twenty years
Speaker 1: later to work, but never, you know, to go live.
Speaker 1: You were l a based based immediately. Yeah, within a
Speaker 1: couple of months of graduating from school. So and then
Speaker 1: so you get this role on the Er and so
Speaker 1: things were just really easy from then on out right.
Speaker 1: I mean you just just you just exactly, It's just
Speaker 1: you never stopped working. No, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: good first year and then a good second year. I
Speaker 1: got that movie The Replacements about a year after I graduated,
Speaker 1: and that was the one that was the big shocker
Speaker 1: when I'm doing that movie and it's a you know,
Speaker 1: one of those big studio films, and you think this
Speaker 1: is the life. This is I'm just gonna leave this
Speaker 1: set and I'm gonna go to the next one and
Speaker 1: then the next one, and I'm on my way. And
Speaker 1: then I didn't work for a year, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh no, this is this is not gonna this is
Speaker 1: really gonna be tough. But you know, you get little
Speaker 1: gigs here and there, a couple of little guest stars
Speaker 1: on TV shows and you know, a voice over a
Speaker 1: commercial that you know, you know, it's just like you
Speaker 1: someone told me a long time ago. You're like juggling,
Speaker 1: you know, all these different aspects of your career, and uh,
Speaker 1: you gotta have all of them going, and because when
Speaker 1: one of them is down, the other one hopefully is up,
Speaker 1: and you just gotta keep juggling him until something happens.
Speaker 1: So I got lucky. Yeah, you know, it was grateful.
Speaker 1: So this British show called The Office comes out with
Speaker 1: Ricky Gervais. Now did you watch the show when it
Speaker 1: first came out? Available? So I had a buddy of
Speaker 1: mine from New York who we did to talk with
Speaker 1: Theater Festival another summer stock. He called me and it
Speaker 1: was like, David, you've got to watch the show. It's
Speaker 1: right up your alley. It's hilarious. And I hear they're
Speaker 1: doing an American version of it. You've got to get
Speaker 1: on it. And I was like, okay, And he never
Speaker 1: does that. He never did that with any he's never
Speaker 1: done a sense so you were done, Okay, I'll just
Speaker 1: get on like, I'll make a call. And I did
Speaker 1: watch it. I was like, oh my god, this is genius.
Speaker 1: And I called my agent immediately and my agent said,
Speaker 1: do you want to do that? And I go what
Speaker 1: I think? Well, they're just looking for like improv comedians,
Speaker 1: and like I could improv a Juilliard what what do
Speaker 1: you talk? Just because I didn't go to UCB or
Speaker 1: whatever doesn't mean I don't I can't do that or
Speaker 1: don't want to do that. And in his defense, at
Speaker 1: that point, that was like the third incarnation of a
Speaker 1: British TV comedy that was somewhat successful that they had
Speaker 1: brought over and they've bombed over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and so he was just like, here, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: another one of those. And uh, I said, just get
Speaker 1: me an appointment, and at that point they'd already cast
Speaker 1: John and Jenna and all those guys they were and
Speaker 1: so he called me back and he was older. There
Speaker 1: they have the part of Roy. When you want to
Speaker 1: go in for that, it's a guest star, and I said, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: get me in. So I went in and gave my
Speaker 1: audition for all those guys, and which people can see
Speaker 1: on the internet. They call back and give me the job.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've I've done a bunch of movies
Speaker 1: at that point, a bunch of TV. But without a doubt,
Speaker 1: that's the thing that everything we just shifted. It's like
Speaker 1: you get on the number one show, even though it
Speaker 1: wasn't number one right away, it took a long time,
Speaker 1: but you get on a show that one was talking
Speaker 1: about and all of a sudden doors opened up and
Speaker 1: opportunities and talk about that big break. But it's like
Speaker 1: I had a lot of breaks along the way to
Speaker 1: get me there, and a lot clear I had more
Speaker 1: breaks afterwards. You know, like you gotta keep getting those brakes.
Speaker 1: They someone's got a smile on you somewhere too, to
Speaker 1: keep it going, because it doesn't doesn't just keep happening.
Speaker 1: You know, had you done much comedy at all, or no,
Speaker 1: I've done comedic movies at all, dramatic television. That was
Speaker 1: the irony the second I did the Office, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, everybody wanted you to come to comedy and
Speaker 1: I was like, great, I'm happy to do it. And
Speaker 1: then the thing that drove me crazy and I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if it happened to YouTube. I'm sure
Speaker 1: it did. I would walk into these auditions and they
Speaker 1: would go, I had just improv it like to do
Speaker 1: in the office, and I would go, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm on the office. So I can tell you for
Speaker 1: a fact, this isn't all improved. There's actually really amazing
Speaker 1: writers that are writing all these jokes and they're throwing
Speaker 1: them at us, and you know what, they're even adding
Speaker 1: more jokes to it when we do another take. This
Speaker 1: isn't all just our genius that made that show work. Hello, guys, like,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to do that for you, But if you
Speaker 1: want me to write your show, that's a different job title.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to perform it, but but it's but don't
Speaker 1: don't say like they do in the office. There was
Speaker 1: improv for sure, but the majority of that was scripting.
Speaker 1: It really well scripted. When you started working on the show,
Speaker 1: so you you had seen the British version, you were
Speaker 1: a fan of that, and we start working on the pilot.
Speaker 1: What were your first impressions, either with working with people
Speaker 1: or on how things went during that pilot shoot, because
Speaker 1: you had way more experienced than me, but more experienced
Speaker 1: than a lot of the folks, right, so how was
Speaker 1: it to you? What were your first impressions? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I only have like that one scene in
Speaker 1: the pilot, right, come in with the trash bag, which
Speaker 1: you don't know what is in that trash bag, whether
Speaker 1: it's human hand or something. It was just for some reason,
Speaker 1: the timing wasn't working. Something was off, and I remember
Speaker 1: Ken Coppas was like, hey, let's take a break and
Speaker 1: we went downstairs, and of course I was panicking and
Speaker 1: what happened? What did I do? You know? And John
Speaker 1: was like, no, man, they're doing this all the time.
Speaker 1: They're like there, We're constantly taking breaks to just clear
Speaker 1: the air and then come back at it. And I
Speaker 1: think a big part of that is because you know,
Speaker 1: we had those of us who had seen the show.
Speaker 1: It's hard not to have that impression, you know. And
Speaker 1: when you start imitating somebody else you know as well
Speaker 1: as I do, you're in trouble because you're never going
Speaker 1: to do it as good as the person who did
Speaker 1: it originally. Um, So you've got to do your own
Speaker 1: thing and you've got to find your own voice in it.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if that had something to do
Speaker 1: with it or what, or it just happened to be,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, let's just shake it up. And so
Speaker 1: we went downstairs, came back up and did like one
Speaker 1: more take and it was like, great, we got it.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, oh, that was easy. And then
Speaker 1: it was you know, a year later before were we
Speaker 1: studied homing. You know, it's like we had to wait
Speaker 1: to get picked up and then wait and wait. It
Speaker 1: was like, actually, no, we shot that stuff. It was
Speaker 1: in the fall. It was a year later that it aired.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until like April or whatever that we found
Speaker 1: out how the show would turn out. Right. Jenna had
Speaker 1: a conversation with me about backstory. She had a journal
Speaker 1: about your relationship with the relationship between Pam and Roy
Speaker 1: and her history. Did you work with her on your
Speaker 1: initial backstory or were you Were you involved with that
Speaker 1: at all. I was receptive to her ideas. It was
Speaker 1: her show more than it was my show. I was
Speaker 1: just a guest star on it. But we did talk
Speaker 1: about it, you know, with all of those things, it's
Speaker 1: so important to create a backstory. But yeah, we did
Speaker 1: have to go how long have we been together? And
Speaker 1: you know when we start dating? And how did it?
Speaker 1: You know, we did. We did share those conversations, and
Speaker 1: I don't know that too much of what I said
Speaker 1: shifted anything. I was just more amenable her ideas, you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I think that's probably right. I
Speaker 1: think they probably kind of fell into this thing and
Speaker 1: then they kind of got into a rut and just
Speaker 1: kept going along, and you know, clearly they weren't happy
Speaker 1: in the relationship, or at least Roy wasn't happy enough
Speaker 1: to propose. And then, you know, the nice the fun
Speaker 1: thing about that show is those talking heads where you
Speaker 1: you could hear characters in her thoughts, you know, and
Speaker 1: so often in television, you're not the characters don't evolve.
Speaker 1: They want the same thing every week, and they want
Speaker 1: to see that dynamic and how it plays out. But
Speaker 1: they don't see a character make a shift or a change,
Speaker 1: and so I was lucky enough to have this like,
Speaker 1: oh no, Roy's gonna lose her, try to win her back,
Speaker 1: and it was like this different character to play in
Speaker 1: season three and that was really fun to do. And
Speaker 1: and then when I found out that he didn't ever
Speaker 1: really truly evolve by the end of it, you were like,
Speaker 1: oh no, the old Roy's back. And then they, you know,
Speaker 1: they nicely gave me a great little send off in
Speaker 1: the you know, final season of the Evolved Roy or whatever,
Speaker 1: which was cool. Right. You talk about how trying to
Speaker 1: imitate somebody else's performance, right, so it's was Lee in
Speaker 1: the British version. Did you feel like pretty quickly, you know,
Speaker 1: the character of Roy evolved from that original British version
Speaker 1: or became more tied to you and your sensibilities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think so. I mean, you know, there's also that
Speaker 1: British the reserve, you know, like that guy could be
Speaker 1: just stoic and just kind of like, uh and didn't
Speaker 1: say much that that Lee character was kind of like
Speaker 1: that and uh. And they gave me more more things
Speaker 1: to do, more funnier things to say, and be a
Speaker 1: more of a meat head, you know. And you know,
Speaker 1: I went to high school with a bunch of meat heads,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them I didn't like. So this
Speaker 1: was my opportunity to make fun of them. I got
Speaker 1: to carry that with me for the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: you know. But but yeah, I mean it was they did.
Speaker 1: They did right to that. I think also the whole
Speaker 1: show just sort of evolved after those first six episodes.
Speaker 1: It got its own voice when they didn't have those
Speaker 1: scripts to to go to and and they had to
Speaker 1: write for us, and they did, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're at least aware, you know that there
Speaker 1: has been a lot of sympathy toward Roy actually and
Speaker 1: his plight. You know, for a long time what what
Speaker 1: would you call emotional cheating that she wanted to be
Speaker 1: with someone else. My question is is that was that
Speaker 1: a conscious decision? I mean, I guess talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the importance of bringing that humanity to Roy,
Speaker 1: which gave him a depth that maybe on other shows
Speaker 1: wouldn't have existed. Well, I gotta say, you know that
Speaker 1: was Greg Daniels. We had a conversation between season two
Speaker 1: and three, and he uh said, I want to make
Speaker 1: Roy more of a rival to Jim, And I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know how we're going to do that because
Speaker 1: he's a he's pretty much a meat head, and we've
Speaker 1: pretty much painted him into a corner that I don't
Speaker 1: know how anyone would ever want to be with this guy.
Speaker 1: And he laughed and said, well, I think we can,
Speaker 1: and I know that you can as an actor, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna write towards it. We're gonna try to make
Speaker 1: it happen. And I said, look, in my opinion, the
Speaker 1: only way that there's a chance at that is if
Speaker 1: Roy is able to realize he's screwed up and try
Speaker 1: to make amends or make it better somehow, and then
Speaker 1: you might have a shot of rooting for him. Unless
Speaker 1: he does that, I don't know how you can because
Speaker 1: he's so thick headed. And he said, yeah, I agree
Speaker 1: to I agree with that, and that's what I was thinking.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, cool, and then we had it
Speaker 1: like in this season three, Like first episode there's a
Speaker 1: talking head of the wedding has been called off and
Speaker 1: and he just has this one moment where he says,
Speaker 1: I gotta winner back. Yeah. It was definitely a conscious
Speaker 1: effort of you know, this guy was you don't realize
Speaker 1: how much you miss something and until they're gone. And
Speaker 1: but at the same token, like I don't necessarily know
Speaker 1: that they were the right match for each other. I
Speaker 1: think it's also like you're gonna lose that thing, and
Speaker 1: so you don't want to lose it. And so you know,
Speaker 1: he was definitely in the doghouse trying to trying to
Speaker 1: win her back, and you know, and there are moments
Speaker 1: that they got to where you're like, oh, maybe this
Speaker 1: is gonna happen, like maybe they'll push it off for
Speaker 1: another couple of seasons of them getting together, but no,
Speaker 1: it was the season three arc. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. I always say, like, because early on, man,
Speaker 1: I get a lot of hate on the social media.
Speaker 1: You're such a jerk. I hate you. But I would
Speaker 1: always say, just please everyone, don't ever forget that, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm cheated on Roy. Like he may have been a
Speaker 1: numb soul and not a great boyfriend, but come on, like,
Speaker 1: Roy isn't the guy that was doing that. Do you
Speaker 1: think Roy never cheated I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I never thought about it, but I never did on camera.
Speaker 1: You never did on camera. That's that we don't know
Speaker 1: what that character did. I think Roy probably cheated early
Speaker 1: on in their relationship. I would be I would guess
Speaker 1: he just treated her so poorly. Yeah, he didn't really
Speaker 1: have much respect for her, and I think it was
Speaker 1: probably when she called it off that all of a
Speaker 1: sudden did have respect for him, and it was like,
Speaker 1: oh okay, right. So in Booze Crows, I mean, it
Speaker 1: occurs to me as you're talking that it feels like
Speaker 1: really about you sensing something between Jim and Pam and
Speaker 1: just wanting to stop it as opposed to really wanting
Speaker 1: to be with her. Is that is that how you
Speaker 1: viewed it? Did you talk to Greg about it at all? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't. We didn't talk about it, but it felt
Speaker 1: that way, and when we shot it and that it
Speaker 1: was a rivalry, it was also h I have to
Speaker 1: do this, you know, and he saw them flirting with
Speaker 1: each other and just blurting it out. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: didn't really talk about it. But yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: fair to say that he was more interested in shutting
Speaker 1: that down than really being so madly in love with
Speaker 1: Pam I don't think that that was the case. And
Speaker 1: also he had quite a few drinks, you know, and
Speaker 1: was like festive and like all right, let's just do
Speaker 1: this thing, you know, like just do it. We could
Speaker 1: deal with the ramifications later. I'm sure he woke up
Speaker 1: the next morning and was like, oh, no, we did
Speaker 1: so boy, what do we do? Um? There's fan theories.
Speaker 1: Do you think Roy Ever cheated on PAM with Angelo?
Speaker 1: Definitely did not. You know, I don't even think he
Speaker 1: knew Angela's name. I really don't. I don't think. I
Speaker 1: don't think he was. It was that invested. But I
Speaker 1: haven't watched them back since we originally did them, so
Speaker 1: maybe there's a lot more in there that they edited. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: but there's also a fan theory that Kevin is a
Speaker 1: secret genius who embezzled millions of dollars from dunder Mifflin
Speaker 1: and and he knew what was going on the whole time.
Speaker 1: So it's certainly possible that that they know more than
Speaker 1: I do. I do have to ask you about this.
Speaker 1: It has become, I guess, one of my favorite stories
Speaker 1: in life. But right around this time, mid season two,
Speaker 1: Steve gets nominated for a Golden Globe Award, And do
Speaker 1: you remember that we met at my house and you
Speaker 1: drove us too. You drove a group of us to
Speaker 1: the Beverly Hilton, and my recollection is a Honda Civic
Speaker 1: and we showed up like the Beverly Hillbillies to the
Speaker 1: Beverly Hilton for the Golden Globes where we were on
Speaker 1: the rooftop, not allowed in the actual room. And we
Speaker 1: drove up and they were like, you morons, like there's
Speaker 1: no valet, this is a red carpet and we're not
Speaker 1: taking your car. And you were like, no problem, guys,
Speaker 1: I'll go park, and you like had to park miles
Speaker 1: away and walk back. Do you remember this story? I
Speaker 1: swear to you I do not, But I'm not surprised.
Speaker 1: That is an awful answer, don't I wish? I wish
Speaker 1: I remember that. I remembered us being upstairs at that party,
Speaker 1: having quite a few drinks, and when when Steve won,
Speaker 1: like it was like we won the Super Bowl, like
Speaker 1: so humped and so excited for him and the show.
Speaker 1: But now that you're saying, and I'm putting it all together,
Speaker 1: like literally right now, and I do remember being at
Speaker 1: your house, you don't remember. I'm sure I did, and
Speaker 1: I had God, I had an old beat up Honda
Speaker 1: was a Chord, a Chord. It was a four door.
Speaker 1: It was old and beat up though, I mean it
Speaker 1: was my old, agents old car. My car broke down
Speaker 1: and I needed a car. I said, can I can?
Speaker 1: I can I buy your car? And she was like, uh, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: just uh just pay me back when you can. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I need a job and she was like okay, Like
Speaker 1: she I was driving her car around for a couple
Speaker 1: of months before I had enough money to pay it off.
Speaker 1: It was only like or something, but it was like
Speaker 1: it was an old, beat up car. So we pulled
Speaker 1: up like along the side of Wilsher Boulevard and you
Speaker 1: were like, you guys, get out, I'll go park who
Speaker 1: always in the car with us, Oscar and Angela At
Speaker 1: least I can't fully remembering. It's become one of my
Speaker 1: favorite memories of the time. And um, that line. I
Speaker 1: wish we knew we were in the good old days
Speaker 1: while they were happening, because that, for me, it's just
Speaker 1: kind of just the purity of that no limo, no
Speaker 1: red carpet. I didn't even know that we were invited
Speaker 1: on the red carpet. We may have kind of walked
Speaker 1: through and people were like, who are they don't you're
Speaker 1: not allowed in the room. Nobody knew we were. I
Speaker 1: was surprised that we even got the invite to the
Speaker 1: NBC party on the roof. You know, so many of
Speaker 1: those parties, like early on shortly after that, we did
Speaker 1: get like cars to go to like the SAG Awards
Speaker 1: and things like that. Right, yes, no, yes, we didn't
Speaker 1: remember ever driving to another one of those parts. No,
Speaker 1: that was it. That was it. I think that was it.
Speaker 1: I do remember we went to the SAG Awards. I
Speaker 1: think it was the year later maybe, and we partied
Speaker 1: so hard. It was like we thought that that party
Speaker 1: was for us, Like the open bar. We were like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, this is amazing, and everyone's looking at
Speaker 1: us like, oh my god, you guys, and we're dancing.
Speaker 1: We took over the the the dance floor and like
Speaker 1: it was so much fun. And now when I go
Speaker 1: to those parties, I always see those like first year
Speaker 1: shows and those kids doing the same thing. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing that anywhere because now I know it's a work party.
Speaker 1: Have a drink, say hello, everybody you know, and keep
Speaker 1: your head down. But like, yeah, that innocence of us
Speaker 1: was pretty palpable and everyone everyone was smiling and having
Speaker 1: a good time with us. What was it like coming
Speaker 1: back to the show when you would be gone for
Speaker 1: a bit and then you would come back. Well, those
Speaker 1: early days, because I wasn't in every episode, you guys
Speaker 1: were so stir crazy, like stuck in that room with
Speaker 1: the same faces to look at for twelve hours a day,
Speaker 1: all day long. So when I would come in, you
Speaker 1: guys were so like, hey, even, oh my god, there's
Speaker 1: another person here, and you guys were so excited to
Speaker 1: see me. It was so much fun. Um it was.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious. Yeah, you know, that show evolved over
Speaker 1: time and everybody's evolved with it, and everyone's kind of
Speaker 1: star broke out in different ways and different things, and
Speaker 1: it was a different show. It was a different show
Speaker 1: those later years. Everyone was still very nice, but you
Speaker 1: were there. We weren't driving to an awards ceremony and
Speaker 1: your beat up Honda everyone. Yeah, I remember that, Like,
Speaker 1: what was it, season three? All of a sudden everyone
Speaker 1: pulls up in new cars and like it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: all right, I guess everybody. The st is gonna be
Speaker 1: around a little bit. Yeah, did you have any conversations
Speaker 1: with Greg when you agreed to come back with your
Speaker 1: new fiancee? Uh, and you invite Jim and Pam to
Speaker 1: your wedding? Did you have any conversations with Greg about
Speaker 1: what you wanted in terms of resolution to the character?
Speaker 1: That was all then. I mean I did come to
Speaker 1: find out like that John was always sort of pitching
Speaker 1: to try to get me around, uh, stir up some
Speaker 1: of that conflict that they had those early years. That
Speaker 1: was fun stuff for us to play. But no, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know there was I did that one episode in
Speaker 1: five and then and then they brought me in for
Speaker 1: the threat level midnight or something midnight, Yes, and uh,
Speaker 1: and they cut me out of that episode, so I'm
Speaker 1: only in the extras of that. And then they called
Speaker 1: me that was the crazy one. Was that Jim and
Speaker 1: Pam's wedding. They called me with that crazy pitch that
Speaker 1: now is out there. I was shooting a movie up
Speaker 1: in Maine and they were like, can you come in
Speaker 1: to do this Niagara false thing? And I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'll be able to. Like we
Speaker 1: had to carve it out of the skin edgule, And
Speaker 1: so then they did carve it out, and the last
Speaker 1: second they called and said it's not happening. And I
Speaker 1: was like at all and they're like, it' not happening.
Speaker 1: Riding in on a horse in the middle of the way.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was so crazy. I'm so glad somebody
Speaker 1: stepped in. It was like, guys, I think they were
Speaker 1: jump on the shark here. This is a little bit
Speaker 1: too much. It did not feel at all like what
Speaker 1: Roy would have done either when I was being pitched
Speaker 1: it or told it. But I didn't have any any
Speaker 1: say in that at all. But I was so grateful
Speaker 1: that they that they pivoted at the end, and I
Speaker 1: thought that that episode was a beautiful episode and I
Speaker 1: loved how it ended. And sometimes people get locked into
Speaker 1: an idea and they think that's the best thing, and
Speaker 1: then and then when when they're forced to pivot on something,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, something even more beautiful comes out
Speaker 1: of it that you don't anticipate often. And I think
Speaker 1: that's a perfect example of of of an episode that
Speaker 1: turned out that way. Yeah, well, it's so crazy because
Speaker 1: I think that bond of our early times we got
Speaker 1: so close, Like you know, even when you would leave
Speaker 1: for a while, we may have jumped to you because
Speaker 1: we wanted somebody else to look at, but it was
Speaker 1: never like, oh, that guy is back, like you were
Speaker 1: always a part of the ensemble. I'm sure that has
Speaker 1: to do with how the show started and what we
Speaker 1: were born out of. I've always felt that way. I
Speaker 1: couldn't agree more. I did. Never. Yeah, people's excitement was
Speaker 1: not nothing about like anything other than a new face
Speaker 1: to look at and talk to me, like what have
Speaker 1: you been up to? But it was But we did
Speaker 1: all bund even for me, who was not in all
Speaker 1: of the episodes. But those early years I remember so
Speaker 1: much just hanging out and playing video games and the
Speaker 1: trailers and yeah, I mean, but you know, a big
Speaker 1: part of that too is who was steering the ship
Speaker 1: of Steve. You know, he was the most humble guy.
Speaker 1: And here he was by the time we shot the
Speaker 1: pilot and by the time it aired that second season,
Speaker 1: one of the biggest movie stars around at that on
Speaker 1: the planet, and he was still the same guy, humble
Speaker 1: down to earth, excited about the same things. Creatively, would
Speaker 1: listen to you with you know, it was just like
Speaker 1: and that's he's still that guy today. I mean I
Speaker 1: remember I just ran into him, not just but like
Speaker 1: right before COVID. We were in the parking lot. We
Speaker 1: talked for like an hour, like and it was just
Speaker 1: like like no time had passed between the last time
Speaker 1: I saw him and then. And I've been in a
Speaker 1: lot of shows that a lot of people, and people
Speaker 1: is famous as he is, and that is not always
Speaker 1: the case at all. He's a special human And I
Speaker 1: always say he's my favorite actor I've ever worked with
Speaker 1: and been around because his talent as as he is,
Speaker 1: he's just that nice as a human being. Yeah, Basically
Speaker 1: every single person that I've talked to over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years up said exactly the same thing. Kind
Speaker 1: of just doesn't get any better in terms of his
Speaker 1: talent or just his decency as a person. Had a
Speaker 1: tremendous impact on not just the show but all of
Speaker 1: us individually. And it's hard to it's hard to put
Speaker 1: that into words with other shows, and people have asked,
Speaker 1: but I can't put my finger on it other than
Speaker 1: just being a professional, always showing up on time, doing
Speaker 1: his job, and always making everyone's day better. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: is exactly what it is. He always showed up, he
Speaker 1: always worked as hard as he possibly could and was
Speaker 1: working harder than anyone else, and was still decent and
Speaker 1: kind to everyone that he interacted with forever. And you know,
Speaker 1: he taught me a really important lesson him. And I
Speaker 1: mean it's like name drops Central, but Robin Williams as well,
Speaker 1: this sort of mantra of it takes just as much
Speaker 1: energy to be nice than it does to be an ass.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of as simple as that, do
Speaker 1: your job and do it excellently and at the same
Speaker 1: time be kind to everyone around you. Yeah, it seems
Speaker 1: so simple, but it isn't always the case, you know.
Speaker 1: I know. So after the office, you've been busy, continuing
Speaker 1: to work hard and returned to some drama. I wanted
Speaker 1: just for a few minutes, because this is selfish. I
Speaker 1: loved your performance and the show, Mayor of Easttown, So
Speaker 1: congratulations on that show. How was that to work on
Speaker 1: for you? Just as lovely as you can imagine. Kate
Speaker 1: is as great as Steve is. Kate's equal part as
Speaker 1: a human being and as an actress. She's just so
Speaker 1: down to earth and so great. Yeah, all of those things.
Speaker 1: You know I just said about Steve, just take them
Speaker 1: and dump them right on over to Kate. The thing
Speaker 1: it was great from talking about background and all that
Speaker 1: stuff the Jedda was doing with her character from the
Speaker 1: get go. You know, we had to do all that
Speaker 1: stuff with our characters because we had twenty plus years
Speaker 1: of a relationship and a lot of stuff that had
Speaker 1: gone down that we had to know and had to
Speaker 1: figure out. And so you know, that was our rehearsal.
Speaker 1: That's all we did. We got together and we just
Speaker 1: talked with her and I and Uh and Jeans Smart
Speaker 1: and Gawery, with a writer and a director and just
Speaker 1: flushing out all of that history because you have to
Speaker 1: have that history to play that subtext. And if you
Speaker 1: if we're not both thinking about the same thing when
Speaker 1: she's saying our grandson is blinking again, if we both
Speaker 1: don't know that's the same thing and our son did,
Speaker 1: you don't have that history, you don't you can't play
Speaker 1: that moment. So yeah, we got to do all of
Speaker 1: that stuff. And it was a crazy experience just in
Speaker 1: the sense of we had to get shut down for
Speaker 1: COVID for six months and then come back and then
Speaker 1: I had more hair at the beginning of the season
Speaker 1: than I did at the end. But we shut it
Speaker 1: all together, and you know it's like stuff like that.
Speaker 1: You're like, God, this took a lot longer than anyone anticipated.
Speaker 1: Kate was so so specific about detail, and you know,
Speaker 1: like she would do these things and it's like most
Speaker 1: people wouldn't, you know, wouldn't appreciate it. But as an actor,
Speaker 1: I'm watching her and I'm just going, oh my god,
Speaker 1: she's she's doing that, and it's all behavior stuff like
Speaker 1: she grabs the cheese it and she puts the cheese
Speaker 1: wiz on and I remember and I just watched her
Speaker 1: in the moment when we did the rehearsal. She goes,
Speaker 1: I gotta have I need like, like, what's that cheese
Speaker 1: spread stuff? Like I need that. I want to put
Speaker 1: her like on a cheese it or something. And they
Speaker 1: were like, Okay, let's find some cheese whiz and and it.
Speaker 1: I mean, she must have done twenty takes of that,
Speaker 1: pouring it on and eating it and they never saw
Speaker 1: her eat it like it cuts right before and I
Speaker 1: was like, no, she she almost puked that day just
Speaker 1: to get that bit and you didn't even use it
Speaker 1: her mind working, you know, in such creative ways of
Speaker 1: of really digging into that character. And she spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time with you know, detectives and being in
Speaker 1: that area. I I got to listen to accents of
Speaker 1: people in that region and it was an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: It was great. It was all the stuff you hope
Speaker 1: it would be when you sign on to do one
Speaker 1: of those. Yeah, you talked about behavior, because we've talked
Speaker 1: about that quite a bit. That character behavior was so
Speaker 1: much a basis of what The Office was. And I
Speaker 1: think it's really about the characters and those behaviors and
Speaker 1: not painting the quote unquote bad guys as bad guys
Speaker 1: or the idiots as just idiots. That there's a complexity
Speaker 1: and a depth to the character that is so vitally important.
Speaker 1: I think I agree with that sentiment about The Office absolutely.
Speaker 1: I just love that type of comedy too, that's grounded
Speaker 1: in reality but makes you so uncomfortable you have to
Speaker 1: you have to laugh or some people can't take it.
Speaker 1: I have friends and be like, I can't watch that stuff.
Speaker 1: It's just too it's so uncomfortable. What he what he says,
Speaker 1: those things, and I just eat that up. But it's
Speaker 1: it's grounded in reality behavior, and it's about also character
Speaker 1: development and obviously a huge journey and arc with Roy,
Speaker 1: but so much of the work that you have done
Speaker 1: over the years that that attention to detail Allen character
Speaker 1: is there throughout. And I admire you so much as
Speaker 1: an actor, and you know want you to know how
Speaker 1: our even if you don't fully remember our Honda car ride,
Speaker 1: those early days and the time that we shared and
Speaker 1: getting to watch you work was always such a pleasure
Speaker 1: for me. So thank you David so much for your
Speaker 1: work and and for for joining us today. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you so much. Right back at you, I've always been
Speaker 1: a fan and I'm excited for you to be doing
Speaker 1: these deep dives. I mean, like, it's crazy how long
Speaker 1: this thing has lasted. It's a beautiful thing. I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for it. It's crazy it is. I'll close by asking you, then,
Speaker 1: why do you think that this show is bigger now
Speaker 1: than it ever was when we were shooting? Oh boy?
Speaker 1: I mean I would just go back to something Steve
Speaker 1: said when we first started doing it, and he was like,
Speaker 1: this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
Speaker 1: We have to let people find this show. If we
Speaker 1: try to make it like what's already out there, and
Speaker 1: it's not gonna work. We have to do our own
Speaker 1: thing with it. They had done office comedies before, and
Speaker 1: they'll do them again in the future, but ours was
Speaker 1: unique at the time, you know, reality TV was had
Speaker 1: been in our our our universe, so that we could
Speaker 1: use that format that I don't think anyone had really
Speaker 1: used that format that. I think that's that's unique about it.
Speaker 1: And frankly, because you have streaming, no one is going
Speaker 1: to try to do this right now, because why would
Speaker 1: you If you could just go watch the Office, You're
Speaker 1: not going to try to do the same thing. So
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna last. It's going to continue to last,
Speaker 1: I think, and so many people go back to this
Speaker 1: like comfort food. It's like me putting on Sports Center
Speaker 1: to that and just relax, you know. Awesome, Thank you
Speaker 1: David so much. Thanks for coming on the problem brother.
Speaker 1: Good to see again. David, You're the best. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: that so much. You are an actor's actor, and I
Speaker 1: for one am fascinated by you and all of the
Speaker 1: characters you have created with such intelligence, depth and sincerity.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much, and for talking all about Roy,
Speaker 1: who I dare say is one of the most overlooked
Speaker 1: characters on the Office. Thank you for joining me, my friend,
Speaker 1: it was indeed my pleasure. The rest of you well,
Speaker 1: see you soon for new episodes in the Brian bamb
Speaker 1: Gartner podcast Machine. Is that a thing? I don't know,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I'll see you next week for another episode
Speaker 1: of the Office Deep Dive. Until then, be very very well,
Speaker 1: my friends. The Office Deep Dive is hosted and executive
Speaker 1: for used by me, Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Emily Carr and Diego Tapia, and our
Speaker 1: intern is Hannah Harris. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode
Speaker 1: was mixed by seth Olandski