Speaker 1: My name is Angela Kinsey and I played Angela Marton.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody out there in podcast land, Welcome back to
Speaker 1: the Office deep Dive. I am your host Brian Baumgartner. Today,
Speaker 1: as you just heard, you will be listening to my
Speaker 1: conversation with Angela Kinsey. Now, let's get something straight. Kevin
Speaker 1: made Angela Martin crazy back in the accountants Corner throughout
Speaker 1: the entire run of the Office. But I am very
Speaker 1: happy to report that Angela Kinsey and I actually became
Speaker 1: very good friends on the set of the Office and
Speaker 1: we are still great friends to this day, thankfully. Um,
Speaker 1: but we actually met many years before the Office. How Ever,
Speaker 1: neither of us remembers it. Okay, So when Angela and
Speaker 1: I were in college, Angela went to Baylor, I went
Speaker 1: to s m U. Hail to the Red and the Blue. Um.
Speaker 1: We had the same spring break and one year we
Speaker 1: both separately went to Acapulco, Mexico. Random, I know, but
Speaker 1: at some point during that trip we ended up in
Speaker 1: the same cab, like the the same van cab with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other people. And long story short, many
Speaker 1: years later, back in our little corner, we figured out
Speaker 1: that we met on that night in the cab in Acapulco, Mexico.
Speaker 1: Even though, like I said, neither of us have any
Speaker 1: memory of it. Um. But luckily for your listening pleasure today,
Speaker 1: we do have a lot of great memories from our
Speaker 1: ten years working together on the office. We truly were Angela,
Speaker 1: Oscar and I. We were the stars of our own
Speaker 1: show over in the accountant's corner. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: it was a great show. At least we thought it
Speaker 1: was a great show. Anyway, Please welcome my bestie Angela, Kinzie,
Speaker 1: Bubble and squeak. I love it. Bubble and squeak on
Speaker 1: Bubble and squeaker, cookie, every moment left over from the
Speaker 1: night before. Oh, I mean I tried you were coming.
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm good? How are you? How's your family?
Speaker 1: I'm waiting for my Christmas car. Everybody's good. Ago, I
Speaker 1: got it. I'm glad. It was so memorable. Hi guys,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm so low, so low. I think
Speaker 1: that's more about your height. Hey, Jenna was just in
Speaker 1: that chair and had no issues. Well, she's taller than
Speaker 1: I am. All right, I do this for a living.
Speaker 1: You know what is going on? This is a microphone,
Speaker 1: you know, it occurs to me, we have you and
Speaker 1: I do this all the time together all the time.
Speaker 1: Are we already recording? I think it's gold is going
Speaker 1: to happen. We're always paired together to do like press
Speaker 1: and always satellite tours. And because we're good together, Bud, Yes,
Speaker 1: we are, we are. How are you good? You look good?
Speaker 1: You have like a snazzy sports jacket I'm wearing us.
Speaker 1: I dressed up for you. Thank you. I like the
Speaker 1: mood lighting. I like what you've done with the room.
Speaker 1: Kind of got a sexy vibe. This is my first
Speaker 1: day in this room, like we could be in a
Speaker 1: lodge maybe like in Vegas, a Vegas lodge. Well, they
Speaker 1: made it, they made it feel like home for me. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here, Brian. I'm happy that you're here.
Speaker 1: It's fun to go back and talk about this. Really fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jenna and I are having so much fun.
Speaker 1: But I I know, we knew it was a great show,
Speaker 1: that we were part of something special. But getting to
Speaker 1: watch it again and I'm watching it now with like
Speaker 1: no agenda. I hit the mic. You're a professional. I'm
Speaker 1: not Agenda is the wrong word, but I'm watching it
Speaker 1: now just as an audience, Like I'm not thinking about like,
Speaker 1: oh did I get my line right? Or you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just watching it as an audience and I'm just
Speaker 1: loving it and I'm just like, ah, man, we got
Speaker 1: to do that. Do you remember I'm going to go
Speaker 1: out of order here, but do you remember when we
Speaker 1: were almost fired? You mean you mean which time? The
Speaker 1: time with kin Kopas, at the time when we made
Speaker 1: Oscar tell a story really loud under the come one
Speaker 1: where we had Oscar. Oscar gets really animated and he
Speaker 1: gets worked up and he's kind of like a very
Speaker 1: passionate storyteller. Yes, all right, So to set this up,
Speaker 1: show is brand new. We get hired and we're out
Speaker 1: in the parking lot and we're we're supporting casts. We
Speaker 1: are not a big ticket item on the show. We
Speaker 1: are easily replaceable. And Oscar starts telling the story very loudly,
Speaker 1: very loudly, and we were This is when he kind
Speaker 1: of blames me. We were sort of standing over in
Speaker 1: the sun and I'm like, guys, let's go stand in
Speaker 1: the shade, and I scooched us up against the wall
Speaker 1: of the building, apparently right under a window where they
Speaker 1: were filming, yes, and then Oscar continues the story and
Speaker 1: he goes Kinsey almost coping fired because she's like, Oscar
Speaker 1: over here, come down loudly under the window and we
Speaker 1: got yelled at. Ken koppas himself leaned out the window
Speaker 1: our director and said, hey, guys, could you can you
Speaker 1: keep it down? We're trying to film here. We're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're out of here. I have to say what I
Speaker 1: learned really quickly that moment is the fight or flight
Speaker 1: and all of us Oscar I don't know if he
Speaker 1: meant to deer in headlights. He stepped out and looked up.
Speaker 1: My ass hugged the wall. I made myself so small
Speaker 1: I touched into a shadow. I don't think Ken saw me.
Speaker 1: I think he just saw Oscar. You went flat up
Speaker 1: against a dumpster. Who probably I was like, I can
Speaker 1: like stepped out and was like okay, and then he
Speaker 1: was like, um okay. Two thousand and three, Yes, before
Speaker 1: anything related to the office happened. What were you doing,
Speaker 1: oh man? Two thousand and three. I was working at
Speaker 1: Improv Olympic Theater and I performed there anytime they give
Speaker 1: me stage time, so usually about three nights a week.
Speaker 1: I did improv. Um. I was in a show with
Speaker 1: Kate Flannery who ended up playing Meredith on the Office,
Speaker 1: and Kate Wall, Laura Kraft. Really hilarious people were on
Speaker 1: this show. Rich Fulture was our only guy and the
Speaker 1: name of the show was Girl Team Balls, Girl Team
Speaker 1: Balls performing three nights a week. No, no, no, That
Speaker 1: was one of the shows I was in. It was
Speaker 1: like Sunday nights at like ten o'clock, which is like
Speaker 1: really when you want to see comedy. And then I
Speaker 1: had like a few other improv shows I was doing.
Speaker 1: I was all in it. It was like my life.
Speaker 1: I know, Brian's nodding at me like nerd, but so
Speaker 1: you're doing improv Olympic and I'm working. I'm working at
Speaker 1: the theater and I'm performing there and then auditioning, Yeah,
Speaker 1: auditioning like every little thing I could do. I had
Speaker 1: a bunch of national commercials. Those were the days where
Speaker 1: you could get a big national commercial and it would
Speaker 1: like you would make a nice income, especially like I
Speaker 1: just had a tiny, little one bedroom apartment. It's not
Speaker 1: like any big checks. Um. I had a Chevy Blazer
Speaker 1: that my parents had helped me buy out of college
Speaker 1: that Chevy Blazer made it until about oh gosh, around
Speaker 1: Booze Cruise. I was driving back from Long Beach and
Speaker 1: I made a left and my right tire made right,
Speaker 1: rolled right through the intersection. Oh my god. Um, and
Speaker 1: now did you know about the British Office? Of course,
Speaker 1: I was a huge fan. You're a huge fan. I
Speaker 1: thought it was amazing. But you know, I grew up
Speaker 1: with a lot of British television because I grew up overseas,
Speaker 1: and um, that was like I grew up on faulty
Speaker 1: towers and good neighbors and all these that kind of
Speaker 1: sense of humor really appealed to me. Okay, so you
Speaker 1: get called to audition. Well, actually I knew Greg Daniels
Speaker 1: at the time. I was related to Greg by marriage.
Speaker 1: You guys know that out there right. I've talked about it, um,
Speaker 1: And I mean, I just loved Greg. He was so
Speaker 1: supportive of my career. He would come to my improv shows.
Speaker 1: I look back on it now, Brian, and I know
Speaker 1: you you do too, because you have kids. They probably
Speaker 1: had to get a babysitter coming to my show like I.
Speaker 1: But when you're in your twenties, you don't think of that.
Speaker 1: You're like, I have an Amprov show at Tanna Clack
Speaker 1: that Sunday. But now I think about it and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what like it takes to get out to get to
Speaker 1: someone's whatever it is. So he was always so supportive,
Speaker 1: and he was going to be doing the remake, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, this is when you should come
Speaker 1: in for you should this is kind of in your wheelhouse.
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, and I was nervous. I
Speaker 1: was nervous about what that looked like in the USA
Speaker 1: because I loved the British version and I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: are they gonna But I knew if anyone could do
Speaker 1: it would be Greg because he's he is just brilliant,
Speaker 1: he really is. And so you get the call and
Speaker 1: you go, is there anything specifically you remember about the
Speaker 1: day you went into audition. You were auditioning not for
Speaker 1: Angela and I was auditioning for Pam. I remember it
Speaker 1: very very well because before I went in, Greg said, Angela,
Speaker 1: that sounds kind of funny saying this. Um He's like,
Speaker 1: I am not going to acknowledge you, okay, like we
Speaker 1: don't know each other. He said, trust me on this.
Speaker 1: If they just think you're there just like anyone else.
Speaker 1: It's going to serve you better. He goes, I know
Speaker 1: you can do this. You know you can do it.
Speaker 1: I am not going to in any way let them
Speaker 1: know that I know you and you don't do the same.
Speaker 1: So I was like, Okay, got it, And you don't
Speaker 1: mean my poker face is horrible. So you're walking in
Speaker 1: and you're like, Hi stranger, Hi greg Um. But no.
Speaker 1: I walked in and there was a room full of
Speaker 1: people as a producer session. He was in the back corner,
Speaker 1: and Um, I wore a like a pink turtleneck and
Speaker 1: my hair sort of half up, half down. And I
Speaker 1: had really worked hard on the scene. I felt really
Speaker 1: good about it and it was going great. I was
Speaker 1: reading with Phyllis and there's a moment when Michael fake
Speaker 1: fires Pam in front of Ryan the Timp, and it's
Speaker 1: such a jerk move right, and Pam calls him a jerk.
Speaker 1: She starts to cry and she calls him a jerk
Speaker 1: because you kind of realized that as crappy as this
Speaker 1: job is, she probably needs this job. And when Phyllis
Speaker 1: as Michael fake fires me, I look up and I
Speaker 1: called her a jerk, but I guess I was like jerk.
Speaker 1: Like everyone started laughing, and I remember in my mind
Speaker 1: thinking like I don't think I'm supposed to have laugh
Speaker 1: right there. So you got a laugh on the jersey,
Speaker 1: I got a laugh on the jerk line. But every
Speaker 1: it was like everything was going great. I walked out there,
Speaker 1: Greg really like close to his chest, gave me like
Speaker 1: where no one could see, like a big spile of
Speaker 1: thumbs up, which you know, I was like on cloud nine,
Speaker 1: and I felt great about it. I walked out there.
Speaker 1: I was like whoo, and then I didn't get it.
Speaker 1: Um and like that was that, and you know, you
Speaker 1: go into your next audition. I had an audition for
Speaker 1: a pilot for the Oxygen Channel. Do you remember the
Speaker 1: Oxygen Network. I was a big star on I bet
Speaker 1: you were, but I bet you crushed it over there.
Speaker 1: It was a pilot that was like, um, an improv pilot,
Speaker 1: kind of like Curb your Enthusiasm before curb. And they
Speaker 1: got these phenomenal improv actors and I had auditioned for
Speaker 1: it and got it, and they were flying me to
Speaker 1: New York and I thought I was so fancy getting
Speaker 1: flown first class to New York. We filmed in the
Speaker 1: village and I was like, Oh, this one's the one
Speaker 1: going like this has happened, And I played the slutty receptionist,
Speaker 1: perfect perfect um. And then two months went by I
Speaker 1: was waiting to hear about that, and I got a
Speaker 1: call saying, you know that show the Office, they really
Speaker 1: liked you. They just thought you were a little too
Speaker 1: feisty for Pam and they were like this this woman
Speaker 1: is like like, she works in accounting, and she's sort
Speaker 1: of stuffy. She doesn't really have anything nice to say
Speaker 1: about anybody. And then they said, when you come back in,
Speaker 1: just really downplay your looks, like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: a very drab accountant and a paper company. Instagram, so
Speaker 1: I read with Kim Koppas and it was like one
Speaker 1: line and I'll never forget it because he said, um, well, Angela,
Speaker 1: you know how he talked, Well, Angela, Yeah, you made
Speaker 1: a real meal out of that line. And I was like, wait,
Speaker 1: is that good? I don't know do I want to
Speaker 1: make it me a lot of that line? But I
Speaker 1: felt really good about it. It It was the scene that
Speaker 1: you and I ultimately do. And and then I got
Speaker 1: a call that I got it and I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: it because it was like this thing that I had
Speaker 1: let go. I was like, that's great. And then I
Speaker 1: remember thinking like, well, what about Salon Royale. The pilot
Speaker 1: I did for Oxygen It was called Salt Royal Clan Royal,
Speaker 1: and um, it didn't go. Salon Royale did not go.
Speaker 1: So I went from the slotty receptionist to the prickly accountant.
Speaker 1: What now? What would have if Salon Royale had gone?
Speaker 1: I think I would you would not have been on
Speaker 1: the office. No, And I would have been a lead.
Speaker 1: I would have I would have thought, who I'm like
Speaker 1: one of the leads of Salon Royale. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 1: Well it all worked out. Oh my goodness. So you
Speaker 1: did you know anybody else that had been cast? You
Speaker 1: had worked with some people? Yes, I knew Oscar Nuniez.
Speaker 1: We had done a sketch comedy show called Hot Towel.
Speaker 1: Sketch comedy shows. I'll have weird names because because you're
Speaker 1: in your twenties and you think you're HILARI yes, hot
Speaker 1: the hot towel they hand you like on a plane.
Speaker 1: We were like this, let's be hot towel. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't know because they had flown you first class that
Speaker 1: experience and you were like, oh, let's call it hot towel.
Speaker 1: Oh it actually wasn't. That would be perfect, but it
Speaker 1: actually wasn't my idea. Um, so I knew Oscar and
Speaker 1: then um, Kate Flannery and I had done improv together,
Speaker 1: Dave Keckner. I knew all the improv circles you know.
Speaker 1: Um do you remember having any reaction with Ben Silverman
Speaker 1: or Koppus Coappus. I loved, like right away, he was
Speaker 1: just amazing, And I'll never forget our scene when we
Speaker 1: did the pilot. It was the last shot of the
Speaker 1: day and we had had a long day and I
Speaker 1: could tell Ken was done. He wanted to go home,
Speaker 1: and he has this two line scene and accounting he
Speaker 1: sends everyone home but us. We're over there in the corner.
Speaker 1: You and I have been waiting all day for this moment.
Speaker 1: And I said my line, you said yours and he goes, okay, Um,
Speaker 1: why do you First of all, Ken doesn't say action,
Speaker 1: you know, he goes go in and then you do
Speaker 1: your scene and he's like, you know what, why don't
Speaker 1: you do it again? But like give it half of that,
Speaker 1: like give it half of that. So I say my
Speaker 1: line was like, well, if someone's gonna be fired, I, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's probably gonna be me. And he was like, YEA,
Speaker 1: give it half of that. And I'm like, do I
Speaker 1: sound like some vaudeville commy? Am? I like, if someone's
Speaker 1: going to be fired, I don't probably maybe, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, give it half of that. So I was like,
Speaker 1: someone's gonna be fired, It'll probably be me. And he
Speaker 1: was like and one more less. I'm like what? And
Speaker 1: then and then I remember you and I so I did.
Speaker 1: I said it. I just like gave it nothing right.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, I think we got it.
Speaker 1: And then he left and I turned you and I
Speaker 1: was like, are we going to be fired? And You're like,
Speaker 1: I think we just I think we're fired. I think
Speaker 1: we suck. Oh my gosh. What do you remember that
Speaker 1: was different about shooting the pilot for the Office than
Speaker 1: anything else you'd worked on before. Is there anything different
Speaker 1: that you remember? Well? Sure, I mean there were a
Speaker 1: few things. First of all, like the tone, like just
Speaker 1: the fact that can like made us get there early
Speaker 1: and do work. We were to go to our desks
Speaker 1: and do work like we were filing papers or typing
Speaker 1: something and sit in silence, take a call if you
Speaker 1: want to take a call. It was very method kind
Speaker 1: of go there and work on your desk and he
Speaker 1: just rolled b roll camera. And then also like we
Speaker 1: had no marks, like the sort of um the idea
Speaker 1: that you were on a TV show. It didn't feel
Speaker 1: like that. It didn't feel like any other set I'd
Speaker 1: been on. It almost was like I was on a
Speaker 1: reality TV show and I had been miked untild to
Speaker 1: go work in an office somewhere. Like the feeling of
Speaker 1: the crew, all of that was just like it wasn't there.
Speaker 1: There were only like the crew felt very small, like
Speaker 1: Skeleton Crew and all the other shows you're on. It
Speaker 1: feels like a production, right, that's very interesting. The idea
Speaker 1: that we didn't have marks, right then, In normal television
Speaker 1: shows they mark where you're supposed to stand so the
Speaker 1: camera can capture you perfectly in your scene and focus
Speaker 1: walking up delivering your lines, and we didn't have that.
Speaker 1: This was a documentary, so the camera was expected to
Speaker 1: find you wherever you happen to land. Yeah, they would
Speaker 1: say walk up to reception and you're going to deliver
Speaker 1: your lines at reception and you know, Angela you're going
Speaker 1: to stand over by the copier and Brian you're going
Speaker 1: to stand over by the coat rack. But they didn't
Speaker 1: within three ft of that area. We could roam around
Speaker 1: and do whatever we wanted. Right. Also, there was no
Speaker 1: there was no missing wall, right we were in and
Speaker 1: in fact the pilot we shot in an actual office space, right,
Speaker 1: and so the walls were not moving. Bowl. They had
Speaker 1: to truly work in the space they were in, which
Speaker 1: I thought was great because it is a documentary. They
Speaker 1: can't fudge that. They have to. Like if the walls
Speaker 1: there on other TV shows, they'd be like, well, fly
Speaker 1: out the wall, move the wall, it's messing up my shot.
Speaker 1: But this you had to work around it. And I
Speaker 1: think like the camera finding you and if it was
Speaker 1: blurry or a little bit, if they missed you and
Speaker 1: then had to find you, all of that was gold
Speaker 1: for this type of show because they didn't want it
Speaker 1: to feel like a polish, polished network television show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how do you feel like choosing Scranton to set the
Speaker 1: space and what do you think that did for us? Well?
Speaker 1: I think it grounded it and made it like any town. Right,
Speaker 1: it could be anywhere, so these things can happen anywhere
Speaker 1: to anyone or just a normal town. I really liked that.
Speaker 1: I also think that a lot of the shows skewed
Speaker 1: towards big cities, and um, I like seeing the smaller towns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that also. I mean, you're right, but I
Speaker 1: think also Greg taking it a step further and saying
Speaker 1: we're going to create in any town by being as
Speaker 1: absolutely true and specific as we can to this town,
Speaker 1: right and it. It is one of the things that
Speaker 1: doesn't make me sad. If if you were going to say,
Speaker 1: what are some regrets about filming The Office, is that
Speaker 1: we never got to film an episode there on location.
Speaker 1: And they tried, they really tried, but it was a
Speaker 1: lot of moving parts to move a whole cast and
Speaker 1: crew and set up for a week. But we tried
Speaker 1: to do the St. Patrick's Day, remember the parade, and
Speaker 1: that would have been so cool. You know what's so
Speaker 1: crazy is that Jenna said the same thing, and I
Speaker 1: said the same thing. It's one of my biggest regrets
Speaker 1: that we never went there as a production. Now we
Speaker 1: all went there and it was I fell in love
Speaker 1: with the place, so did you. I still think you
Speaker 1: should have a bar there called Malons. You should have
Speaker 1: a bar called Malons and Scranton. You and I were
Speaker 1: the first ones to go. We were yes, and then
Speaker 1: we came back and we're like, you guys, you all
Speaker 1: have to go. It's amazing. That is one of my
Speaker 1: favorite weekends of my life. And that is you guys,
Speaker 1: that includes becoming a mother. Like that's how much fun
Speaker 1: this weekend was. It was just a blast. First of all,
Speaker 1: they sent a limo for us. We were in New
Speaker 1: York City doing press and I got in at first.
Speaker 1: They picked me up first, and they were going to
Speaker 1: pick up you. You guys, this is before you texted people.
Speaker 1: This really dates us. But I had like a BlackBerry
Speaker 1: and I was trying to tell Brian we were We
Speaker 1: had arrived to pick him up, and I was like,
Speaker 1: we're in a stretch limo that looks like a truck,
Speaker 1: like an suv. It was, and they had it all
Speaker 1: the stuff in there because we were gonna then drive
Speaker 1: to Scranton. And I was like, Brian, what is happening?
Speaker 1: Where are we going? Yeah? I that first time in Scranton. Actually,
Speaker 1: you and I it was like we were the Beatles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we went up to a rooftop in Scranton because they said, oh,
Speaker 1: a few people from the city want to meet you.
Speaker 1: Love some drinks. We went up there and they were
Speaker 1: like four thousand people on the roof and it was
Speaker 1: just me and you no, I know, yeah, And then
Speaker 1: when we all went back, everyone was like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: I remember ed. Helms turned to me. He wanted to
Speaker 1: go into this train store and we had to go
Speaker 1: out the back entrance because the store had been surrounded
Speaker 1: by people, and he said, angel this might be the
Speaker 1: closest will ever be to being a beatle um. I've
Speaker 1: been talking to people a little bit about creating their characters.
Speaker 1: Was there because your training was an improv Well, I
Speaker 1: did theater like all through you know, high school and college.
Speaker 1: I did theater, But my love and passion was improv
Speaker 1: and comedy and sketch comedy, right, And so creating the
Speaker 1: character of Angela, did you? Was there like a special
Speaker 1: sauce that you had about creating her physically or well?
Speaker 1: The way I dressed for my second audition. When I
Speaker 1: came back in for what would end up being Angela,
Speaker 1: they asked me if I could bring my own clothes
Speaker 1: to the pilot. I wore my own clothes in the pilot,
Speaker 1: So yeah, I guess my gray on gray that I
Speaker 1: what I had in my closet ended up being a
Speaker 1: color scheme for her. Um. I brought a photo of
Speaker 1: myself and my grandmother, Lena Mackenzie, and my eyes are
Speaker 1: closed in the photo and it's a black and white picture,
Speaker 1: and I just thought it was really funny that she
Speaker 1: would frame that it said I Heart Grandma, and that's
Speaker 1: what I because Ken really wanted us to decorate our workspace,
Speaker 1: and I put that on my desk, and so, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess in my mind I saw her as this
Speaker 1: sort of stuffy gal, but she wasn't malicious. She just
Speaker 1: took work very seriously and she was here to do work.
Speaker 1: She wasn't there for shenanigans, you know, And that's sort
Speaker 1: of how I approached her. The one line Greg told
Speaker 1: me is she probably doesn't have a lot of nice
Speaker 1: things to say about everyone. And then I had a
Speaker 1: prop on my desk that was a paper clip holder
Speaker 1: that was kind of a big cat laying on its side.
Speaker 1: I still have that to this day. So I thought like, well,
Speaker 1: I have this photo of me and my grandmother, this
Speaker 1: her grandma, her best friend. I don't know. I have
Speaker 1: this cat paper clip holder. I'm wearing all gray, and
Speaker 1: I know she probably doesn't have a lot of nice
Speaker 1: things to say, so that just sort of informed me.
Speaker 1: I started to put her together. And then you know,
Speaker 1: in the pilot, I improvised the whole Sprinkles thing. Kin
Speaker 1: Koppas wanted me to pass around papers in the background
Speaker 1: of a scene and I asked him what what papers said,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, and I doodled a little cat and
Speaker 1: I said, you're invited to Sprinkle's first birthday party. And
Speaker 1: I sort of made it up that I had found
Speaker 1: this cat in the parking lot and I invited everyone
Speaker 1: but Jim. I just figured Jim would have made fun
Speaker 1: of me or something. And that was all stuff I
Speaker 1: was doing on my own. You know, you saved the
Speaker 1: sprinkles and posted I still have the sprinkles posted not.
Speaker 1: You gave me the one that was on the partition
Speaker 1: when we wrapped. You gave me that, and I like,
Speaker 1: I love it so much. You kept it. No one
Speaker 1: else kept Kevin. Kevin my my the person that drove
Speaker 1: me crazy is kept was sentimental and in a weird way. Um,
Speaker 1: do you remember seeing the pilot for the first time? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what did you think of it? I thought it was
Speaker 1: really funny. I thought it was really funny, and I thought, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we have a chance. But for me, when I
Speaker 1: really thought oh this is we've got something was Diversity
Speaker 1: Day and that scene of all of us in the
Speaker 1: conference room with those note cards on our forehead. I
Speaker 1: was Jamaica, you know, and I think you do want
Speaker 1: to stop it. You and I had that great scene. Um.
Speaker 1: I remember looking around and being like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing this on TV right now. We're the
Speaker 1: only people doing this here and this feels really special. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And do you remember anything about getting the call that
Speaker 1: the show was picked up for a series. I do.
Speaker 1: I was. I mean, I I thought, oh my god.
Speaker 1: My first thought was, well, I guess I could go
Speaker 1: down to part time at the theater, like because I
Speaker 1: just didn't know, Like nothing for me had ever stuck.
Speaker 1: And I remember being I was excited, but being nervous
Speaker 1: if it meant I should quit the other job. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we finished the first season and then we come
Speaker 1: back for season two. What do you remember that changed? Um?
Speaker 1: Hair and makeup. The hair and makeup was like a
Speaker 1: like if my my grandpa that used he used to
Speaker 1: like try to make things with wood. The makeup area
Speaker 1: was like someone who put together a few pieces of
Speaker 1: plywood and like clamped a light on it that looked
Speaker 1: like an electrical hazard in the middle of an empty warehouse.
Speaker 1: Season two, we had a trailer. You walked inside and
Speaker 1: it was a hair and makeup trailer, and there was
Speaker 1: music playing and you sat in a chair and there
Speaker 1: were lights, and then we moved to an actual sound
Speaker 1: stage and then fourty year old Virgin, right year old Virgin.
Speaker 1: That was the game changer for Steve and Jenna and
Speaker 1: I have talked about this where we had this moment
Speaker 1: where we're like, oh my god, our friends Steve is
Speaker 1: gonna be like real famous, like real Dale famous. I
Speaker 1: really felt like they were banking on Steve, and I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I will attach myself to the Steve wagon.
Speaker 1: I'm banking on him too. I thought that that was
Speaker 1: a really good sign, but I still wasn't confident. I
Speaker 1: mean I still was like when we finished those first
Speaker 1: six because season one was just six, they printed our
Speaker 1: names on pieces of paper and then laminated them and
Speaker 1: put a piece of velcrow on the back and that's
Speaker 1: what stuck to your door of your trailer. And I
Speaker 1: went up to mine, ripped that, ripped it off and said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna save that. That was fun because you were
Speaker 1: sure it was done. I just didn't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: they were putting so much at the time, NBC had
Speaker 1: the show that was like our rival sort of show
Speaker 1: that was this couple, and they were on every bus everywhere.
Speaker 1: We weren't on any buses if we weren't anywhere, And
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, the putting a lot of money
Speaker 1: on those guys. Yes, there was not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of confidence. But Kevin Riley, I was about to say,
Speaker 1: I knew Kevin Riley was fighting for us, and I
Speaker 1: know that's why when we ultimately won an Emmy, all
Speaker 1: you guys lifted him in the air and that's the
Speaker 1: photo that made the l a times because we all
Speaker 1: knew as a cast we stayed on the air because
Speaker 1: Kevin Riley put his neck on the line for us.
Speaker 1: Right when did you feel like we actually had security?
Speaker 1: I know distinctly remember well. I remember getting an email
Speaker 1: that our first Christmas episode had become the number one
Speaker 1: download on iTunes and I was like what and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: that's it. Mom was getting rid of for Chevy Blazer
Speaker 1: and then I got a Honda. Um yeah that that
Speaker 1: That was a huge moment, and it's funny. Before that aired,
Speaker 1: there was a moment that was very significant for you
Speaker 1: and I, which was boost Crews. Yes, when we finally
Speaker 1: became series regulars. Yep. I found out I was going
Speaker 1: to be a series regular. And there's a photo that, um,
Speaker 1: I think Oscar took of Jenna and I when I
Speaker 1: found out. We're jumping up in the air holding hands.
Speaker 1: And I mean up until then, we were basically like
Speaker 1: week to week. Like I remember in Halloween episode when
Speaker 1: they were like, yeah, we're gonna actually fire one person.
Speaker 1: We're all like, okay, Hi, how's it going. I petitioned
Speaker 1: for it to be you. I want you to know.
Speaker 1: I remember saying to my mom, I'm like, Mom, you
Speaker 1: know pretty much anyone can go really And she was like, well,
Speaker 1: every office needs a bitch, That's what she said to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: She's like, every office needs the bitch. I'm like, your
Speaker 1: mom was confident that it wouldn't be you. My mom
Speaker 1: was you haven't you know Bertie Kinzie, She's like, don't
Speaker 1: speak it, don't speak it put out the positive. Oh man,
Speaker 1: So at this time, so this happens, Um, we shoot
Speaker 1: boost Cruise. It airs after Christmas. Christmas episode happens on TV.
Speaker 1: It's our largest audience ever ever. Then iTunes streaming. We
Speaker 1: become number one in that and then Steve wins the
Speaker 1: Golden Globes. What do you remember about that night of
Speaker 1: us at the Golden Globes? Um? I remember I got
Speaker 1: a spray tan because I thought I was really white,
Speaker 1: like too white in my dress, and so people were like,
Speaker 1: get a spray tan. And then Rain made fun of
Speaker 1: me so much. He was like how what what? So
Speaker 1: one day on the office, Angela Martin is like pale
Speaker 1: and the next day you look like orange. 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. It. We made such a scene
Speaker 1: that other fancy. People were like, oh, little guys. We
Speaker 1: were screaming, We're so excited. And when the party lets out,
Speaker 1: it lets out into the room we were in, and
Speaker 1: we like, we tackled Steve. We're so excited. And then
Speaker 1: season two happens, and then that year we win the Emmy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was so cool, and now we're you know, at
Speaker 1: least in terms of the Emmys. What do they know,
Speaker 1: but we're now the number one show, um, And so
Speaker 1: we've gone from do we even have a job? Are
Speaker 1: they going to let us do one more? Two now suddenly?
Speaker 1: Or a hit? Do you think that that changed anything? Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure, it changed everything as far as the network
Speaker 1: was concerned. I think that the show was fantastic. I
Speaker 1: think our fans were there, but it really made us
Speaker 1: bankable for the network, and then we started getting the
Speaker 1: bigger orders. Um. And then creatively the show started finding
Speaker 1: its form in terms of we're gonna have a cold open,
Speaker 1: the episodes are going to take place more or less
Speaker 1: in a day. What do you think the cold opens
Speaker 1: allowed the show to do. I think they allowed to
Speaker 1: show other departments, other little just relationships and worlds within
Speaker 1: dunder Mifflin. Well, Yeah, they could be character studies too
Speaker 1: and not have to be tied to anything to any storyline, right.
Speaker 1: I mean the Kevin making his chili. It's never discussed again.
Speaker 1: There's never any conversation. At least once a year Kevin
Speaker 1: says he brings in the chili. He never brings it
Speaker 1: in again. He does it one time, he spills it
Speaker 1: and that's it. Um. But I think in terms of
Speaker 1: it allowed the show to do something for pure comedy,
Speaker 1: for a character study. Yeah. I feel like there are
Speaker 1: a lot of ways that our show did that that
Speaker 1: I loved, and I think that was Greg Daniels, you know,
Speaker 1: just doing his thing. I mean, there would be nuggets
Speaker 1: dropped in a monologue like a talking head and you're
Speaker 1: like what, and it's never revisited again. But it's just information.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, we all know that Creed did
Speaker 1: action movies in Hong Kong, what you know? Like whatever?
Speaker 1: I mean, Dwight has some really good ones too, um.
Speaker 1: But I love that about the chili. It's just assumed information.
Speaker 1: And and we start in the middle we don't explain
Speaker 1: to you everything. I was just rewatching um the Halloween
Speaker 1: episode and when Michael leaves he walks right past Hank.
Speaker 1: Never introduced Hank. That's just where he sits. That's who
Speaker 1: he is, his security downstairs. But there weren't these big
Speaker 1: like now we must introduce this and this is a thing.
Speaker 1: It was just like their life, all right, you guys.
Speaker 1: That's it for now. We are out of time, as
Speaker 1: they say, but we will be back with more of Angela,
Speaker 1: I promise in a future episode. And until then, we
Speaker 1: have a bunch more great interviews coming your way. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for listening, and please please just for me,
Speaker 1: have a great 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 associate
Speaker 1: producer is Emily Carr, and our assistant editor is the
Speaker 1: A goo Topia. My main man in the booth is
Speaker 1: Alec Moore. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
Speaker 1: my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed
Speaker 1: by seth Olandski