Speaker 1: Hi am Laverne Karacouz, and I was the department head
Speaker 1: makeup artist on the Office. Hello everybody, and welcome back.
Speaker 1: Uh it's a new week and that means it's time
Speaker 1: for another episode of the Office Deep Dive. As always,
Speaker 1: I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today we are bringing
Speaker 1: on a guest that I don't have to make up
Speaker 1: because she made me up. Because she does make up,
Speaker 1: get it. She is also the one who made us
Speaker 1: look fresh, well, sometimes made us look like we had
Speaker 1: extremely bad sunburn or in my case my worst week
Speaker 1: on the show, like Michael Moore, let me tell you,
Speaker 1: fake hair on the face not comfortable. Uh. This woman
Speaker 1: had all of the skill to give you a black
Speaker 1: eye or to make you look good even if you were, say,
Speaker 1: under a waterfall at Niagara Falls. Laverne Kara Kusi Laverne
Speaker 1: was the makeup department head on the Office, which, let
Speaker 1: me tell you, this was a huge task, right. We
Speaker 1: had a huge cast, so there were a lot of
Speaker 1: people to get ready every day and not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of time. In fact, the battle plan she used
Speaker 1: then is still used across the board on so many shows.
Speaker 1: But she was so much more than that she was
Speaker 1: a friend, a a therapist, a shoulder to lean on.
Speaker 1: Really just someone to look forward to seeing every single day,
Speaker 1: usually around five o'clock in the morning. And honestly, she
Speaker 1: probably knows more secrets about the Office cast than anyone.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about it. She got hours of one
Speaker 1: on one time with all of the actors day in
Speaker 1: and day out, just getting closer and closer all of
Speaker 1: the time. But don't get any ideas our secrets are
Speaker 1: definitely safe with her. You'll find her work on so
Speaker 1: many shows, from Judging Amy to Monk to The West
Speaker 1: Wing and Animal Kingdom. But perhaps her greatest professional achievement
Speaker 1: thus far was getting her name on a Volunteer of
Speaker 1: the Year plaque that was placed behind Creed's desk in
Speaker 1: one of our episodes. So there's a fun little Easter
Speaker 1: egg for you. But in all seriousness, Laverne I love her.
Speaker 1: She was a joy to have on our crew. I
Speaker 1: was so happy to reconnect with her for the first
Speaker 1: time in many years. So get ready to be dolled
Speaker 1: up with the one, the only Laverne Kara Kusi. I
Speaker 1: love it. The Squiger Bubble and Squiager Cookie every moon
Speaker 1: lift over from the nut before I know, it's been
Speaker 1: so long. Oh my god, I'm so happy to see
Speaker 1: my body. I knows changed. I remember when I used
Speaker 1: to give you coffe. God, I have to put glasses
Speaker 1: on too if I have to look at it to
Speaker 1: look at No, you don't have to look at anything.
Speaker 1: I just have to look at you. Now. You when? Okay?
Speaker 1: When did you start on the Office? Okay? So I
Speaker 1: started the Office when it was the pilot and the
Speaker 1: first six episodes, which you guys considered to be a
Speaker 1: first season, which in as we know in the normal
Speaker 1: TV world, is not the first season. So I or
Speaker 1: did after that sixth episode, So you you was just
Speaker 1: the first six that you weren't there, correct? But I
Speaker 1: was there from the very beginning, Like I remember specific things,
Speaker 1: like I remember exactly where I was on the freeway
Speaker 1: when my telephone rang and You're like, I hear You're
Speaker 1: not coming back to the office. What's going on? And
Speaker 1: you started talking to me and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm not invited back. And then it started
Speaker 1: this whole big thing. And then when I spoke to
Speaker 1: Ken Zivornac, he was like, well, you know, Brian and
Speaker 1: Leslie David, and I think it was mostly you two
Speaker 1: were really rallying for me to go ahead and be there,
Speaker 1: which I was so grateful for it. And then I
Speaker 1: remember you and I were still on the phone even
Speaker 1: by the time I got home, and I was kind
Speaker 1: of like walking around in my front yard like thinking
Speaker 1: about it, like, yeah, I still want to be there
Speaker 1: if I'm welcome back there, you know. Right. And then
Speaker 1: but what were you doing right before you did Freaking Geeks? Right?
Speaker 1: I did Free some Geeks the shot that at Raley Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and I always thought when I did Freaks and Geeks,
Speaker 1: I always thought, God, what a great experience. Am I
Speaker 1: ever going to experience this same kind of feeling again.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when you finish a job and
Speaker 1: you go like, oh my god, am I ever going
Speaker 1: to work again? Yeah? I feel that, But it was
Speaker 1: that kind of feeling that I thought, Okay, Freaks and Geeks,
Speaker 1: am I ever going to experience that again? And then,
Speaker 1: as you know, we're like siblings, you know, everybody's almost
Speaker 1: kind of arguing with one another, and it's like everybody
Speaker 1: was getting in everybody else's business because they felt like
Speaker 1: they were entitled because we had been around each other
Speaker 1: for over twelve hours a day. I mean, that's the thing,
Speaker 1: is that the the hair and makeup department. What people
Speaker 1: don't realize maybe is like in terms of people on
Speaker 1: the crew who are closest with the cast, there's nobody
Speaker 1: closer because you you hear and see everything, right, I
Speaker 1: think that hair and makeup are definitely the closest to
Speaker 1: the cast. That's why I try to run as tight
Speaker 1: of a ship as I can, where it's like, whatever
Speaker 1: information you hear from anybody, regardless of who it is
Speaker 1: that walks in and out of that door, is not
Speaker 1: to be left from that trailer or to you know,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. You know, I know, yes,
Speaker 1: we're the first person you see in the morning, and
Speaker 1: so you know, you could be having a bad day,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day you have to
Speaker 1: leave that outside the trailer doors and kind of go
Speaker 1: in with a smiley face, and then when everybody leaves,
Speaker 1: you can break down in tears or whatever you need
Speaker 1: to do. It's it's intimate work at times, you know,
Speaker 1: to be working with someone on their face or an
Speaker 1: issue that they might have or whatever else, and and
Speaker 1: it it just sort of it's not intentional, and I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe it violates rules, but it does become
Speaker 1: almost a therapist type situation too, when you're talking about
Speaker 1: people's outside lives getting neglected at times, and you know,
Speaker 1: the work being so important and on that show. I
Speaker 1: think also the work was really important to everybody. Everybody
Speaker 1: wanted to be good, not for themselves, but it really
Speaker 1: was more a team. I feel like, I feel like
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to be there. It wasn't like they were
Speaker 1: forced to be there. It wasn't like, oh, I need
Speaker 1: a job, so therefore I'm going to go ahead and
Speaker 1: you know, just take this job. Everybody truly wanted to
Speaker 1: be there. And you know, gosh, there were plenty of
Speaker 1: times that not only did you know you have that
Speaker 1: one on one with an actor where they're spilling their
Speaker 1: guts to you, but you're also spilling your guts to
Speaker 1: them because you feel that bond with them. I mean,
Speaker 1: plenty of times, you know I had been in tears
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, you know, I would be like, oh,
Speaker 1: we'd just sit there and talk. It's almost like the
Speaker 1: old timey hair salons, right, I mean, I understand you
Speaker 1: did make up, but right like the or like the
Speaker 1: barber shops or like you go in there and it's
Speaker 1: this like safe zone that you can talk about anything absolutely,
Speaker 1: because it's like when you see those old school movies,
Speaker 1: you know, you see like the girls that are in
Speaker 1: the nail salons and they're getting their nails done and
Speaker 1: they're talking very privately to their person that's doing their nails. Right,
Speaker 1: that's what we did. You guys came in early in
Speaker 1: the morning, and because we had everybody working and up
Speaker 1: at one time, we pretty much had everybody in the trailer.
Speaker 1: And even when we didn't, you guys would still go
Speaker 1: back to your trailer and do something, and you knew
Speaker 1: your friends were going to come in an hour later.
Speaker 1: So we'd always have like this big commotion of things
Speaker 1: kind of going on in the trailer and always have
Speaker 1: the A. D s come in there and say, okay,
Speaker 1: how much longer, how much longer? Well, we have to
Speaker 1: finish this story, and then we'd listen to Rain and
Speaker 1: Oscar go back and forth at one another. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what people don't realizes, you know. On our show. By
Speaker 1: the end, we had four cup artists and four hair people. Right. Well,
Speaker 1: we originally started out the show where they thought that
Speaker 1: we could go ahead and get everybody ready at one time,
Speaker 1: would just I think it started out two and two,
Speaker 1: and then it was like, oh, well, we'll just go
Speaker 1: ahead and have three and three, and then it was
Speaker 1: like four and four and then remember we had that chart.
Speaker 1: It was our battle plan where it was color coded
Speaker 1: as to what actor was going to get their makeup
Speaker 1: done and who was going to get their hair done,
Speaker 1: and then the swapping of the chairs and they were
Speaker 1: done in fifteen minute increments, which makes me laugh now
Speaker 1: because since after The Office, I've gone on to other
Speaker 1: shows where they have that same chart and they'll go, oh,
Speaker 1: we have a battle plan, and I go, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's interesting because I think you took that from our
Speaker 1: show way back. When it's kind of like when you
Speaker 1: see these shows that are doing, you know, talking heads,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, really the talking Heads started originally with us.
Speaker 1: I almost kind of get a little bit territorial, right. Well,
Speaker 1: we had I mean, at times like sixteen to twenty
Speaker 1: actors that needed to be ready at the same time,
Speaker 1: So there are four you know, there's four hair and
Speaker 1: four makeup and then people have to flip flop. But
Speaker 1: that's still only eight people, so you guys would create
Speaker 1: this grid that people had to start coming in at
Speaker 1: you know, five o'clock, four thirty in the morning just
Speaker 1: to get everybody ready on time, right exactly. And there
Speaker 1: was no type of buffer scene like a normal TV
Speaker 1: so to speak. Not that our show wasn't normal TV,
Speaker 1: but you never had like those buffer scenes where you
Speaker 1: could go like, oh, let's go ahead and get half
Speaker 1: the people ready, and then we have a buffer scene
Speaker 1: to then go ahead and get more people ready. It
Speaker 1: was like our buffer scene was a talking head and
Speaker 1: that literally, as you know, was only one person. So
Speaker 1: that only gave us a certain amount of time. So
Speaker 1: I thank the office for that very reason because it's
Speaker 1: forced me as an artist to go ahead and really
Speaker 1: gain my speed because when they'll be like, oh, we
Speaker 1: have eight people we need to get ready, I was like, ah,
Speaker 1: that's a walk in the park. I can go ahead
Speaker 1: and do that. We used to get sixteen and twenty
Speaker 1: people ready at one time. How did you get into makeup? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: I always painted a kid, you know. I used to
Speaker 1: go with my face just painted, so I knew like
Speaker 1: the idea of like color theory and how like different
Speaker 1: materials kind of worked with each other. And I would
Speaker 1: walk from my house in Toluca Lake to this woman's
Speaker 1: house and she used to paint in her garage, and
Speaker 1: uh so that kind of started. And I always wanted
Speaker 1: to be in the arts in one capacity or another.
Speaker 1: And then after I graduated high school, I went to
Speaker 1: community college, and then I moved to London, and then
Speaker 1: I got a degree in fashion design, and then I
Speaker 1: still kind of dabbled a little bit in the arts
Speaker 1: and you know, doing makeup and stuff like that. I
Speaker 1: started originally doing commercials and I worked with one director
Speaker 1: for many, many years um in commercials. And then my
Speaker 1: first real TV job with Freaks and Geeks. And Freaks
Speaker 1: and Geeks was where I met Paul Fie and Jake
Speaker 1: Kasden and Seth Rogan and on and on and on.
Speaker 1: So how did you get that job? I got that
Speaker 1: job from I was doing a commercial and in between
Speaker 1: going ahead and doing commercials, I had been day playing
Speaker 1: on movies and TV stuff, and a friend of mine
Speaker 1: called me and said, Hey, by the way, I need
Speaker 1: somebody to work with me on this new TV show
Speaker 1: called Freaks and Geeks. It's really simple makeup. These kids
Speaker 1: are young and I thought, okay, and so I had
Speaker 1: to be really straightforward and said, well, I just want
Speaker 1: to let you know that I'm pregnant with my first daughter.
Speaker 1: I would love to go ahead and do the show.
Speaker 1: So basically, I that's how I got the job, and
Speaker 1: I did Freaks and Geeks and um got to know
Speaker 1: everybody there. Then I had the baby in January, and
Speaker 1: then you know, years later I started running into like
Speaker 1: Linda Cardelini and Jason Siegel and people like that, and
Speaker 1: they would always ask how Vannah doing, How Savannah doing,
Speaker 1: and just because I was, you know, pregnant with her
Speaker 1: and I had worked the whole show being pregnant, So
Speaker 1: that was like a special moment for me. Whereas it
Speaker 1: was like even on the office when I would see
Speaker 1: like Angela being pregnant, it reminded me of when I
Speaker 1: went back to Freaking Geeks and when I was pregnant,
Speaker 1: right right, and the hair and makeup world, I mean,
Speaker 1: it really is about the relationships, right, Like you met
Speaker 1: this makeup artist who brought you onto Freaking Geeks, and
Speaker 1: then you you meet people and that's how it happens, right,
Speaker 1: it pretty much does. I mean, I feel if you
Speaker 1: have a good attitude. It's really about relationships because, as
Speaker 1: we know, there's a lot of you know, jobs that
Speaker 1: you often say to yourself, I wonder how they got
Speaker 1: that job, you know what I mean. And that's no
Speaker 1: disrespect to anybody. It's just the way that it is.
Speaker 1: You know, if you are a people person and you
Speaker 1: can do your job sufficiently, you know, and you have
Speaker 1: a good attitude, then obviously you're going to get brought
Speaker 1: onto the next one. Right. Yeah, do you remember anything
Speaker 1: about those early years and we had did six episodes
Speaker 1: and then we did six more and we were sent home.
Speaker 1: And I mean, it occurs to me that the tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of trust and courage that you showed kind of
Speaker 1: stick with it over periods where you know, we were
Speaker 1: working oddly and we didn't know if we were going
Speaker 1: to keep going, but there was a trust in you
Speaker 1: to kind of stick with it through that time. Well.
Speaker 1: I just kind of feel as freelancers, whether you're above
Speaker 1: the line or below the line, you're a gypsy. You
Speaker 1: take your stuff, you show up at work. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't know. I've been on plenty of shows prior
Speaker 1: to the office where they're like, okay, we shoot up
Speaker 1: till Christmas, you know, and then sometimes they would come
Speaker 1: to you and be like, oh, sorry, it was picked
Speaker 1: up for the back nine, but now we're canceled, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, But they're was I think it
Speaker 1: goes back to the whole trust thing. I just always
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, especially with Greg being our leader,
Speaker 1: I always felt that he was always so genuine and
Speaker 1: he would have said if there was anything that he
Speaker 1: could foresee that was coming up, that he would have
Speaker 1: said something to us. But I loved the whole cast,
Speaker 1: so there was no reason for me not to be
Speaker 1: excited about coming back. It didn't matter which way you went,
Speaker 1: because it was always an uncertainty, you know. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's just something that we as individuals in
Speaker 1: this business thrive on, like oh gosh, you know that
Speaker 1: almost like an angst all the time, right right right
Speaker 1: right right, you know. And I truly believe that if
Speaker 1: you're good at what you do, you will always be
Speaker 1: provided for. It may not be the ideal job, but
Speaker 1: you don't know who you're going to meet along the
Speaker 1: way that's going to go ahead and take you onto
Speaker 1: the next thing, or not sure what differences are there
Speaker 1: between being a makeup artist in fashion or whatever, like
Speaker 1: what makes TV and film different and or why do
Speaker 1: you like to do that or why have you chosen
Speaker 1: to do that? I think that compared to say fashion
Speaker 1: or commercials, you work at a completely different pace. Whereas
Speaker 1: in television and film, as you know, we don't shoot,
Speaker 1: you know, day one, night one, day two, so you
Speaker 1: have to remember continuity basis. So when it comes to,
Speaker 1: say a commercial, it's like I'm getting somebody ready and
Speaker 1: I'm doing their makeup for a taco bell commercial, you'll,
Speaker 1: let's say, But when you're doing television or film, there's
Speaker 1: sometimes script wise where you may get them ready for
Speaker 1: day one and then say day two, there's something specifically scripted,
Speaker 1: like a person gets hit in the face with the
Speaker 1: ball and they need to have a black eye, or
Speaker 1: you know, they have a split lip or whatever it
Speaker 1: happens to be. So you have to be really diligent
Speaker 1: and stay on top of it, and you're also you
Speaker 1: have a script that you're going by in television and
Speaker 1: film opposed to fashion or commercials. But also in the
Speaker 1: fashion world sometimes it's super high fashion, so it's thinking
Speaker 1: outside the box opposed to going ahead and doing maybe
Speaker 1: a straight makeup. It just all depends. And then there's
Speaker 1: also differences between going ahead and doing a regular beauty
Speaker 1: makeup opposed to doing special effects makeup or you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes a tattoo is required, or I mean, you know
Speaker 1: how it was when we did our certain episodes of
Speaker 1: the Office where it would be like, oh, it's Halloween,
Speaker 1: so and so it is gonna look like blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, you're gonna make me miserable by by putting
Speaker 1: by putting hair all over my face as Michael Moore.
Speaker 1: But oh my gosh, because I had ahead, I had
Speaker 1: to listen to you wine about the fact that I
Speaker 1: had to have this stuff on my face one more time. However, okay,
Speaker 1: now listen when your manager saw you, what was the
Speaker 1: response that your manager had to say? Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I thought that was Michael Moore. So I rest my case. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. People think you guys are nice and
Speaker 1: you all you do is torture us. That's really, That's
Speaker 1: what it is. No. I it's so crazy because on
Speaker 1: the Office, so much of it was straight makeup, you know,
Speaker 1: and downplayed, and you know, them not wanting to come
Speaker 1: in or touch up or do anything because they wanted
Speaker 1: this very sort of realistic look. But along with that,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of crazy stuff that you guys
Speaker 1: had to do in terms of that, or in terms
Speaker 1: of injuries or when Kate got burned because she fell
Speaker 1: asleep from yeah burned or yeah, I mean that must
Speaker 1: make it fun, right? Oh? Absolutely? Every time I would
Speaker 1: look at the script, I'd get super excited and be like, Oh,
Speaker 1: what's in the script this week? And I always knew
Speaker 1: that when Halloween rolled around that there was always going
Speaker 1: to be something fun to actually do. But also to
Speaker 1: there's like this misconception of when people say to you,
Speaker 1: we want no makeup, Okay, well you need to be
Speaker 1: a little bit more specific when you say no makeup.
Speaker 1: There's a difference between a no makeup look where you're
Speaker 1: actually putting on makeup but making them look like they
Speaker 1: don't have makeup, opposed to not putting anything on their face. Right,
Speaker 1: what was this specific direction that you were given in
Speaker 1: terms of how the character should look. They're supposed to
Speaker 1: look natural their everyday people that work in an office.
Speaker 1: Also to keeping in mind Scranton. Because of Scranton, there's
Speaker 1: a very different everyday look in Scranton as there would
Speaker 1: be to an everyday look in l A or New
Speaker 1: York or Dallas or wherever it happened to be. So
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we never got any notes saying,
Speaker 1: oh it's too much. You know, when we go into
Speaker 1: do a you know myself as an artist, somebody sits
Speaker 1: in your chair and you kind of look at them
Speaker 1: and you're given the direction of natural. You then at
Speaker 1: that point say, okay, do I just conceal under their eyes?
Speaker 1: Are we going to keep the facial hair? We're going
Speaker 1: to shave the facial hair. Are we're gonna whatever it
Speaker 1: happens to be. Are there eyebrows to light that we
Speaker 1: might have to darken a mint a bit. I think
Speaker 1: that Greg was so great at going ahead and giving
Speaker 1: saying a natural look, but then not micromanaging, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. He let us go ahead and have
Speaker 1: a free range within parameters of what it was that
Speaker 1: we as individuals felt. And you know, Greg, he was
Speaker 1: always such a great leader. I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: not of him? And you know, we had a little
Speaker 1: bit of leeway and we just kind he kind of
Speaker 1: left it up to us. Um, you know, because obviously
Speaker 1: when you're in a trailer, going ahead and getting people
Speaker 1: ready is very different to when you then take them
Speaker 1: outside onto the set, of which I'm a huge advocate for.
Speaker 1: If you're in a trailer, you try to go ahead
Speaker 1: and have your lighting set up to how your lighting
Speaker 1: is on the inside of a set. Did you do that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we would. We would call in the electric department when
Speaker 1: we would start the new season and say, we need
Speaker 1: to pull these lights because they don't hold the trailer
Speaker 1: from season to season. So we would have the electrical
Speaker 1: department come in take those lights out because they'd always
Speaker 1: put in those lovely fluorescence and put in what was
Speaker 1: color accurate to what it was that we were actually
Speaker 1: shooting inside the set. And then there were some times
Speaker 1: that because you know, certain people were always sitting in
Speaker 1: front of a computer, sometimes having certain colors on a
Speaker 1: computer inter screen always plays a little bit with the
Speaker 1: coloring on people, skin tones, underneath their eyes, any little
Speaker 1: things that you maybe want to color correct. So we
Speaker 1: would have a collaboration, or I did with Steve hutch
Speaker 1: to go ahead and make sure you turn the screen
Speaker 1: to white so that you almost are blowing out the
Speaker 1: color in somebody's face, and then it will be my
Speaker 1: job as an artist to go in and deposit the
Speaker 1: color back into the face because the blue would be
Speaker 1: really throwing you off. Right, that's so interesting. I had
Speaker 1: no idea that you guys were doing that with the
Speaker 1: electric department. That's that's super cool. I mean, that makes
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. Well, I try to
Speaker 1: go ahead, and I figured that out kind of early on,
Speaker 1: and I do that now moving forward on different shows.
Speaker 1: I try to be, you know, go to the electrical
Speaker 1: department and be like, oh, by the way, can you
Speaker 1: just let me know what it is, what type of
Speaker 1: lighting you're using on set, so that uh, you're not
Speaker 1: having to go ahead and make corrections. It's like, why
Speaker 1: go ahead and make a step forward and then have
Speaker 1: to go a step back right. And obviously, if you
Speaker 1: know we're shooting outside or you know, in a different location,
Speaker 1: like things are going to change. But when you have
Speaker 1: a show like ours that takes place largely in this
Speaker 1: one space, obviously they know the gist of how it's lit.
Speaker 1: I think that there were times that you know, I
Speaker 1: would we would be so early in the morning and
Speaker 1: they would take us on our little road trips down
Speaker 1: you know that one street that We would always drive
Speaker 1: down um or we would be shooting on the back
Speaker 1: side of the stages to implement wherever it was that
Speaker 1: we were supposed to be shooting, and you'd put a
Speaker 1: foundation on somebody's face and then you'd get outside and it,
Speaker 1: you know, takes a minute for the skin to warm
Speaker 1: up and for everything to kind of settle. And then
Speaker 1: there were times that I would get people outside and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, no, what have I done? I think
Speaker 1: I need to correct us a little bit because this
Speaker 1: doesn't look quite right. How is the office different than
Speaker 1: any show you had been on before that? Do you
Speaker 1: remember anything different? I just felt there was always that
Speaker 1: great feeling of of being with your family. You know,
Speaker 1: you're away from your family all the time we would
Speaker 1: walk into the trailer, there was always that feeling of like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's my there's my other brother, there's my other sister,
Speaker 1: and you know how it was like over nine years,
Speaker 1: of course, there's going to be those things that we
Speaker 1: all like, we all start getting in each other's business,
Speaker 1: and that's just what happens. I mean over nine nine years,
Speaker 1: that's obviously what happens. But there was just I think
Speaker 1: across the board, you know, you always felt that level
Speaker 1: of you could go and talk to on a one
Speaker 1: on one with an actor and you knew that whatever
Speaker 1: you were talking about was always kept secret and it
Speaker 1: was just between the two of you, you know. Walking
Speaker 1: into editing, we could always talk to them, and they
Speaker 1: were always great about showing us stuff that was being
Speaker 1: edited together of what we had shot before. And the
Speaker 1: doors in the writer's office were always open. We could
Speaker 1: always walk upstairs and walk in on them and they would,
Speaker 1: you know, greet you, Oh hey, Laver, and how you doing,
Speaker 1: you know, blah blah blah blah, And then I would
Speaker 1: be like, I'm so sorry, I'm interrupting in the middle
Speaker 1: of writing, but I had this question. So I always
Speaker 1: felt like there was an open door policy for everybody
Speaker 1: across the board. Is that unique? Very unique? And I
Speaker 1: think I think it's because of the actors that we had,
Speaker 1: the crew that we had, because we were only really
Speaker 1: located in two buildings that we had to like just
Speaker 1: cross a parking lot to go into editing or the
Speaker 1: writers or whatever. And when you work in these bigger studios,
Speaker 1: as you know, you know, Universal, Warren Brothers, whatever, everything's
Speaker 1: kind of spread out all over the place, and I
Speaker 1: feel like everybody was always open to listen to you.
Speaker 1: They never were like, oh god, I don't have the
Speaker 1: time right now, you know. I always felt like there
Speaker 1: was an open door policy. See. Yeah. Eventually, once we
Speaker 1: sort of broke the CEO with the big super Bowl episode,
Speaker 1: then we started getting some big guest stars. Do you
Speaker 1: have any specific recollections about any of those guys? Well,
Speaker 1: we had Draws Elva, we had Cathy Bates, we had
Speaker 1: Will Ferrell, Will Ferrell, James Spader, Yeah, James Spader. Oh gosh,
Speaker 1: James Spader so funny, so many times, like talking about
Speaker 1: times of when he grew up and you know, just
Speaker 1: funny intimate points in time. Cathy Bates, I couldn't help
Speaker 1: it to be in awe because you know, she's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite actresses. And so I was like, do
Speaker 1: I say something? Do I not say something? Is it
Speaker 1: going to be professional? Is it not going to be professional?
Speaker 1: And I couldn't help it to be like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I just have to save us and I'm sorry, and
Speaker 1: I don't mean it to come out to be unprofessional,
Speaker 1: but I have to tell you how much I love you,
Speaker 1: And you know, she just had a big smile on
Speaker 1: her face. And I feel like all those actors that
Speaker 1: we had that came in, whether they came in, you know,
Speaker 1: for one time, or came in for five episodes or
Speaker 1: you know, however many episodes. We always had such a
Speaker 1: great group of guest stars. And Will I had known
Speaker 1: from before, you know, doing a movie called Stranger Than
Speaker 1: Fiction with him, and so when he came onto the
Speaker 1: office I was like, oh, my gosh, here he is again.
Speaker 1: So it's funny how it's like you'll you'll work with
Speaker 1: an actor and then you may not see him for
Speaker 1: a really long time for whatever reasons. Then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you see him again. You're like, hey, what's
Speaker 1: going on? Okay? I know, well, because the relationship is
Speaker 1: real and it's it's intimate, and I mean obviously your
Speaker 1: relationships with people that you work with for longer recognize you.
Speaker 1: And then there's others where you're thinking to yourself, do
Speaker 1: they really recognize me or they just like trying to
Speaker 1: put it together, like where did I work with them on? Oh?
Speaker 1: For sure, and for sure, by the way, I've done that,
Speaker 1: Like people, who did you do that? Like when you
Speaker 1: saw me today the ship? No, no, but I it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what job because you don't know or care.
Speaker 1: But I there was some job recently. No, not really
Speaker 1: because I won't remember any of the details now because
Speaker 1: I didn't know who she was. But I went somewhere
Speaker 1: and it wasn't Debbie or Kid or Jerry Berry or
Speaker 1: Kenneth Paul or anybody else, but there was someone she
Speaker 1: was like, Oh I worked on the show. UM. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I'm so what show did you work on? And if
Speaker 1: she had said the office, I would have been like, oh,
Speaker 1: of course she was like the office, and I was, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I mean my light was on, but there was nobody
Speaker 1: home up there. I didn't know. I was like, I don't.
Speaker 1: But you know, people who came on, you know, Day
Speaker 1: played for two or three episodes one season, and then
Speaker 1: they went on to something else they might remember. The
Speaker 1: thing is is that sometimes, even as a makeup artist,
Speaker 1: to all run into makeup artists and they go, don't
Speaker 1: you remember I was on your show? And I'm thinking, no,
Speaker 1: I've never seen you before in my body. We've talked
Speaker 1: to some people about probably one of the toughest times,
Speaker 1: sort of most emotional times for us on the show, UM,
Speaker 1: which was the writer's strike and us losing a hundred
Speaker 1: days in there, and we came back and made up
Speaker 1: some afterward. But do you remember anything about the difficulty
Speaker 1: of that time? And I specifically remember where we were
Speaker 1: shooting when we were told that the writers were going
Speaker 1: to go on strike. Um, we were on location. We
Speaker 1: were shooting it, I believe jim apartment, and if I
Speaker 1: remember correctly, the trailers were parked along the street. It
Speaker 1: was b J and Mindy's trailers right there. Obviously they
Speaker 1: were the writers or some of the writers, and everybody
Speaker 1: was a little bit nervous about going ahead a writer's strike.
Speaker 1: But then we were told, we really apologize that we
Speaker 1: have to do this, but this is what we have
Speaker 1: to do. You know. It was like, we have to
Speaker 1: do this because we have to state, we have to
Speaker 1: make a point, but we also want you to know
Speaker 1: that you're appreciated. And you know, getting a check out
Speaker 1: of Greg daniels personal checking account to each crew member,
Speaker 1: what was that? Yeah, we were am I allowed to
Speaker 1: talk about that? Okay? Greg Daniels went into his personal
Speaker 1: checking account and wrote the crew each an individual check
Speaker 1: because we were to be out of work. I mean,
Speaker 1: you knew that it was his personal checking account, because
Speaker 1: when you received the check, it had the address up
Speaker 1: in the corner. And then we got another check after
Speaker 1: that from you. Remember how you guys always used to
Speaker 1: as cast members, always thought of a Christmas gift for
Speaker 1: the crew, and you guys also gave us money on
Speaker 1: top of that. So there was just that loyalty. Sorry,
Speaker 1: there's just that loyalty that came along with why wouldn't
Speaker 1: you want to go ahead and keep working for these people?
Speaker 1: You know, regardless of how long the strike is. You're
Speaker 1: taking care of us now, So why wouldn't we go
Speaker 1: ahead and do it later on? So it just strikes
Speaker 1: it like my tears are more tears of joy because
Speaker 1: I felt so appreciated at that point. And there were
Speaker 1: people I spoke to even after that that said to me,
Speaker 1: you know when we talked about the writer's strike, and
Speaker 1: they were like, oh, you know, how was it on
Speaker 1: the office, And I would tell them and people were
Speaker 1: just like their jaws dropped to be like, that's pretty amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that you had your chief so to speak,
Speaker 1: Greg Daniels, and your cast all come together and and
Speaker 1: you knew that it was genuine and even to this day,
Speaker 1: I have the utmost respect for him, you know, as
Speaker 1: we all do. How do you not love Greg Daniels. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: one of the other things. It was just a time
Speaker 1: when there were issues sort of happening across the board,
Speaker 1: right with the actors and with the writers and the directors,
Speaker 1: and the writer's contract came up first, and you know,
Speaker 1: the fight that they were fighting was kind of like
Speaker 1: across the board. But they, you know, we showed up
Speaker 1: at work. We because I called them. They said, no,
Speaker 1: you you have to go to work. You're not on strike.
Speaker 1: You don't get to show. If you don't show up,
Speaker 1: they can fire you or whatever else. And so we
Speaker 1: all showed up to work. I remember being there and
Speaker 1: then Steve I just didn't show up. And I found
Speaker 1: out he got calls from the network and from lawyers
Speaker 1: that said, you have to go to work. There's an
Speaker 1: episode that's been written and you have to shoot it.
Speaker 1: And he said no, no, And Greg, I think told me,
Speaker 1: you know, he was getting calls from the network and Steve,
Speaker 1: and he knew that there was a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on Steve, and he called Steve and said, you know,
Speaker 1: how are you doing. Steve said, I'm fine. I'm here
Speaker 1: playing with the kids. He was like, are you He
Speaker 1: was like, no, I'm fine. How is it working with
Speaker 1: him so intimately for for so many years? Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Steve's a gem, as we know, always super professional. He'd
Speaker 1: always come in, sit down, and I was always amazed
Speaker 1: at the amount of dialogue that he had and how
Speaker 1: like just a photographic memory, yeah, and how much he
Speaker 1: could remember. But he would just like do it so effortlessly,
Speaker 1: always and always, you know. I just remember certain times too.
Speaker 1: I remember one time in particular which this always stood out,
Speaker 1: and you'll remember it too. I can't remember what episode
Speaker 1: it was, but we were shooting. All the actors were
Speaker 1: in big coats and we had a limousine that we
Speaker 1: had shot outside them on the other stages, and I
Speaker 1: remember there were a couple of actors that were still
Speaker 1: at Craft Service, and I remember Steve specifically went over
Speaker 1: to Craft Service and said to them, you realize that
Speaker 1: you're being disrespectful because you have a bunch of actors
Speaker 1: that are standing outside in the boiling hot sun in
Speaker 1: coats waiting for you while you're at Craft Service. I
Speaker 1: love him. He's professional and just always on it and
Speaker 1: just a real people person. And I think there is
Speaker 1: something to be said about the fact that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: when you have actors that start out and their careers
Speaker 1: just take off as when they're young, opposed to as
Speaker 1: they get older. I think, as you know, with Steve,
Speaker 1: his career didn't start until he was a little bit older,
Speaker 1: you know, not a teenager, and so he got it.
Speaker 1: And he always was such a gentleman. We go on location,
Speaker 1: we'd be getting out of a van. He would come
Speaker 1: around and always put his hand out to help people
Speaker 1: out of the van, had no problem carrying somebody's chair
Speaker 1: their setback. Just I don't know, you know how we
Speaker 1: all feel about Steve. Yeah, no, I know. Do you
Speaker 1: remember hearing that he was leaving? Yes, I remember, And
Speaker 1: we would have many conversations with him in the chair
Speaker 1: and he would like love to push my buttons, and
Speaker 1: you go, only six more episodes, only five more episodes,
Speaker 1: and I go, shut up, don't talk about it. And
Speaker 1: then when he actually did end up going ahead and leaving,
Speaker 1: and how Nancy was there and how he had a
Speaker 1: went down the list of each department and he had
Speaker 1: a that's what she said moment, and I thought it
Speaker 1: was brilliant how we retired number one on the call sheet.
Speaker 1: When Steve left um and the dynamics of the show changed.
Speaker 1: I think after Steve left, people started getting maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit see, you know, are we going to do
Speaker 1: an eighth season? Are we going to do a ninth season.
Speaker 1: I kind of felt like Steve was the glue that
Speaker 1: kind of kept everything together. And like you know, we
Speaker 1: always say the speed of the team is a speed
Speaker 1: of the leader, and I think in that respect, Steve
Speaker 1: was definitely it was almost like everybody wanted to be
Speaker 1: on really good behavior because Steve Grill was there right right,
Speaker 1: even though it wasn't because he wasn't a big famous
Speaker 1: star before. It wasn't it wasn't it was always Steve.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know, you just made that joke, but
Speaker 1: like it was Steve was there, and just the the
Speaker 1: power of his generosity of spirit and work ethic and preparedness,
Speaker 1: it was just like, oh, yeah, we can't screw this
Speaker 1: up now, right, like if he yeah, exactly. It wasn't
Speaker 1: like we went, oh, it's Steve Carrell, so we have
Speaker 1: to be great behavior. It was like, oh, Steve, because
Speaker 1: of the way he was, how professional he was how
Speaker 1: prepared he was that everybody. It was like, you know,
Speaker 1: having a teacher and all of your kids, and everybody
Speaker 1: wants to make sure that you're all on good behavior
Speaker 1: because the teachers coming in the room. So I think
Speaker 1: that's kind of what it was. It had nothing to
Speaker 1: do with whether, you know, Steve was a big superstar
Speaker 1: or not a big superstar. Was more about the fact
Speaker 1: that everybody, because of how he was, we all wanted
Speaker 1: to not disappoint. So part of what we're talking about
Speaker 1: here is that. And I don't know if you experience
Speaker 1: it through your kids or anything else, but you know,
Speaker 1: here we are, and we haven't filmed the show in
Speaker 1: six years. Has it already been six years? Oh my god?
Speaker 1: And right now it's the biggest show on television. I
Speaker 1: can't even tell you how many times people just go, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, my kids have watched all the episodes of
Speaker 1: the Office. You worked on the Office, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: it must have been so much fun. So, you know,
Speaker 1: and they'll like almost kind of drill you, which in
Speaker 1: a suite enduring way, not in like a bad way.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, when I start thinking about it, I'm like,
Speaker 1: how long has it been I'm like six years, like
Speaker 1: it feels like just yesterday, and it's maybe just because
Speaker 1: I've kept I've tried to make a conscious effort of
Speaker 1: staying in touch with with certain people. You know. I've
Speaker 1: kept in touch with Greg Daniels over the years. I've
Speaker 1: kept in touch with Justin Spitzer over the years. I
Speaker 1: did the pilot in the first season of Superstore with him.
Speaker 1: You know. I kept in touch with Craig Robinson, silly Craig,
Speaker 1: love him though. You know, we did a movie he
Speaker 1: was guest starring, and then he said he was going
Speaker 1: to be doing this, um his own show. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: how's that going, because I had heard about it, like
Speaker 1: a little bit of the rumbling right as we were
Speaker 1: starting to finish the office. Yeah, He's I said, Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, that would be so fun to go ahead
Speaker 1: and work on that. And then just blue, no phone call,
Speaker 1: just an email from a producer saying, oh, I can
Speaker 1: I send you the script for Craig Robinson's new show.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that was just so random, Like he didn't
Speaker 1: even say, hey, do you want to do it? We
Speaker 1: just got in touch with them, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the script ended up in my email, what
Speaker 1: what is working on the Office mean to you? I
Speaker 1: wish that we could do it all over again. It
Speaker 1: holds a very very special, um, a very special part
Speaker 1: in my heart that you know, I don't think that,
Speaker 1: but I said that also when Freaks and Geeks ended
Speaker 1: that I don't know if we'll ever experience that again.
Speaker 1: I hope. I do. You know certain actors that you
Speaker 1: know I've kept in touch with a long way that
Speaker 1: have been really supportive to me, And you were super
Speaker 1: supportive to me when you know, he wanted me to
Speaker 1: go ahead and stay on. So I feel, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I always like to stay in touch with you, and
Speaker 1: then I feel like we'll always be friends. Um. But
Speaker 1: it was just a very unique point in time where
Speaker 1: I when I first got called to do this tiny
Speaker 1: little show called The Office, I never thought it would
Speaker 1: be the phenomenon that it ended up going ahead and being.
Speaker 1: And now, as you're saying six years later, to then
Speaker 1: realize that six years have already gone by, because like
Speaker 1: I said, it really is like it just happened yesterday,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I mean, it holds a very very
Speaker 1: special place in my heart. I feel a lot of loyalty,
Speaker 1: and you know, would it be great to go ahead
Speaker 1: and you know, get a group of us together to
Speaker 1: to do something different. Absolutely, would I just be a static? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Would I stick through it if we had another writer
Speaker 1: strike that they're anticipating. Absolutely, Yeah, It's just one of
Speaker 1: those was great shows that you know. Now it's just
Speaker 1: become such a cult following, like you know, looking over
Speaker 1: there and seeing cheers like one of those, it definitely is.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming in. I feel like
Speaker 1: it was just yesterday seeing your face, and I love
Speaker 1: you and I will never ever ever take for granted
Speaker 1: the relationship and the closest that I feel to you,
Speaker 1: and all the time that we spent together. I know
Speaker 1: I feel the same way. I remember that one time
Speaker 1: that you were panicking because you couldn't get your daughter
Speaker 1: from school, and you said to me, I need to
Speaker 1: get her from school, and I said, well, I'll just
Speaker 1: have somebody watch the set and I'll just drive there.
Speaker 1: And I remember pulling up in my car with all
Speaker 1: the school busses and telling her, come on, come along.
Speaker 1: I got to take you back to work for your dad.
Speaker 1: And anyway, you are one of my favorites. You already
Speaker 1: know that, and uh, I absolutely love and adore you,
Speaker 1: and I don't want another six years to pass before
Speaker 1: I know you know under these circumstances. Well, there you
Speaker 1: have it, folks, Laverne is amazing. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming on and sharing your story with all of us.
Speaker 1: We all are the better for it. And to my listeners,
Speaker 1: thank you so much as always for tuning in week
Speaker 1: to week. Don't forget to leave me a review or
Speaker 1: give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter. I'll be
Speaker 1: back with another episode sooner than you think. All right,
Speaker 1: circle back later this week, same time, same place, but
Speaker 1: new interview for the other half of the crew that
Speaker 1: made us look so good, the charming and talented Debbie
Speaker 1: Pierce and Kim Ferry from the Office hair Department. They're
Speaker 1: bringing on a new perspective to all of the behind
Speaker 1: the scenes beauty of the office and trust me, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna want to miss that one. So on that note,
Speaker 1: I will bid you adieu, Potato Patano. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening everyone, and have a great one. The
Speaker 1: Office Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior
Speaker 1: producer is Tessa Kramer. Our producers for this episode are
Speaker 1: Liz Hayes and diego Topia. My main man in the
Speaker 1: booth is Alec Moore. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 1: performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode
Speaker 1: was mixed by Seth o'landskipper