Speaker 1: O gave us the over attention. We need everything you've
Speaker 1: got fast. Waiting on Reparations would be the podcast. Tune
Speaker 1: in every Thursday, Politics and wordplay. We fight for the
Speaker 1: people because they got us in the worst way, from
Speaker 1: the Hill Cooper, the Bomb Bay, from the Left en
Speaker 1: Clave to what the neo Kane Every Thursday the Headie
Speaker 1: Conversation and to break us off with some break because
Speaker 1: we wait in the Rea. Listen to Waiting on Reparations
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcast. On the latest season of The
Speaker 1: Next Question with Katie Correct podcast, Katie dives into Well
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Speaker 1: Moon Murders. The local sheriff believes there may be more
Speaker 1: than one killery. They were afraid just face it out
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Speaker 1: available on February twenty second, and you can follow The
Speaker 1: Pink Moon Murders on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get you a podcast. M My name
Speaker 1: is Chris Hasten and I'm an NBC staff photographer and
Speaker 1: I was the key photographer on the Office and a
Speaker 1: man of Kate Flannery. Hello Office family, Hi everyone, welcome
Speaker 1: to another episode of the Office Deep Dive. I am
Speaker 1: your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today I have a very special
Speaker 1: guest joining me. He was an essential part of the
Speaker 1: crew of the Office, and in many ways he has
Speaker 1: actually helped shape our memories from the show. He's the
Speaker 1: reason that we have so many incredible behind the scene
Speaker 1: photos from our time on set because he was our
Speaker 1: extremely talented and absolutely hilarious NBC staff photographer. That's right,
Speaker 1: we're bringing on the incomparable Chris Hasten. Now what, why
Speaker 1: are you talking to the NBC staff photographer. That doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. Well, Chris was that, but he also has
Speaker 1: become a part of our family. Yes, that's right. He
Speaker 1: became the main man of Kate Flannery a ka Meredith Palmer,
Speaker 1: who actually makes a cameo at the top of this
Speaker 1: episode today. Gosh, I love these two. Everyone in the
Speaker 1: Office community loves these two. Now, in addition to the Office, Chris,
Speaker 1: having worked for NBC since, has worked on some other
Speaker 1: shows you may have heard of maybe, Okay, you've definitely
Speaker 1: heard of them. The TV he's touched is almost unreal,
Speaker 1: you know, like Friends, Seinfeld, Fresh, Prince of bel Air, Community,
Speaker 1: The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He has done it all,
Speaker 1: but only one show really changed his life because I
Speaker 1: mean romantically right. Um. I will tell you also that
Speaker 1: Chris also played a huge role in my upcoming book
Speaker 1: that's right. Welcome to dunder Mifflin is coming out November.
Speaker 1: You can preorder it on Amazon right now, So go
Speaker 1: grab yourself a copy, Grab one for your friends, grab
Speaker 1: one for your family. Get ready to be blown away.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for you guys to read it. And
Speaker 1: Chris offered so many behind the scenes photos that are
Speaker 1: included in this book, so I'm so excited to talk
Speaker 1: to him about those moments. But now get ready to focus.
Speaker 1: Get it like, focus the camera. We're focusing. Well, we're
Speaker 1: focusing on the man behind the camera. Please give a
Speaker 1: warm welcome to the amazing Chris Hasten. Everybody. Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it. Bubble and squeak, Bubble and Squeaker, cooking
Speaker 1: at every month, left over from the night before. What
Speaker 1: is happening? What's up, daddyo? How are you? I'm great man,
Speaker 1: good to see you. Where is your mustache? Oh? I
Speaker 1: haven't had that since COVID. Man, it just got too
Speaker 1: hot and sweaty. If you know what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 1: what she said, But no, I shaved it off just
Speaker 1: because wearing a maut call the time was impossible. Right,
Speaker 1: Oh that's smart. Kate. Would you get out of my
Speaker 1: eye line please? I've always wanted to say that to
Speaker 1: an actor. Get the hell out of my eyeline. Is
Speaker 1: Kate there? Ate there? Right now? Kate, Kate, come here?
Speaker 1: She is there. This is her Mike, this is this
Speaker 1: is where she does her How are you, Kate? What
Speaker 1: is happening? I'm talking to your man, I know, I
Speaker 1: love it. I can barely hear you on the headphones.
Speaker 1: Oh that's okay. It looks like it looks like a
Speaker 1: Broadway show curtain behind you. I mean this is a
Speaker 1: man every night just for him, an audience of one.
Speaker 1: All right, can I get on? Can I get on?
Speaker 1: Are you guys going to talk? I love you too.
Speaker 1: We're being recorded, don't worry. Alright, alright there, Well there's
Speaker 1: a comedy portion of the interview right. Oh, it only
Speaker 1: begins there. It's so good to see. So you're well,
Speaker 1: everybody's okay, yes, yes, absolutely fine? All right, So I
Speaker 1: want to go I want to go backwards in time
Speaker 1: a little bit. How did you get into photography? Well,
Speaker 1: as a kid, you know, you always hear those stories. Oh,
Speaker 1: when I was nine or eleven years old. You know,
Speaker 1: when I was nine, somebody put a camera in my
Speaker 1: hand and I fell in love with it. And when
Speaker 1: you know, all the kids in the neighborhood. I'm from
Speaker 1: southern California, so skateboarding and surfing was it. So when
Speaker 1: everyone else is skateboarding half pipes and pools, I was
Speaker 1: taking photos of everybody, of everybody doing half pipes and
Speaker 1: pool Okay, exactly. So we're still best friends. So you know,
Speaker 1: we we always have our war stories, and mine has
Speaker 1: to do with photography. But it just yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I just started landing jobs here and they're working really
Speaker 1: hard to get into places. And I was going to
Speaker 1: school at the time in Torrance, and UM started working
Speaker 1: for an age to see shooting auto racing. That's my
Speaker 1: first professional gig, shooting auto racing. We shot off road
Speaker 1: racing and eventually road racing, and yeah, it was great.
Speaker 1: I'm self taught. So they had a studio there, which
Speaker 1: is the main reason I wanted to work there, and
Speaker 1: then I taught myself lighting. It's funny, about a year
Speaker 1: before I started at NBC, which, by the way, I
Speaker 1: did this waiting for NBC to open up. Somebody goes,
Speaker 1: do you ever think of shooting people? I go, no way, man,
Speaker 1: I said, people get up and walk out on photo shoots.
Speaker 1: There's no way I'm ever going to shoot people. A
Speaker 1: year later, I'm shooting some of the worst subjects. No,
Speaker 1: no offense, but you know, no, I mean none taken.
Speaker 1: That was the early days. But wait a second. You
Speaker 1: were self taught. I've taught myself lighting. I've taught myself
Speaker 1: about exposure. I've taught myself, you know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: had one year of college that that's all I needed.
Speaker 1: But I went to a small Christian school, so they
Speaker 1: offered nothing. I shot for the newspaper and the yearbook,
Speaker 1: which they were awful. I looked back on that stuff
Speaker 1: and go find O then what I know now you know?
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was just it's it's a learning thing
Speaker 1: all the way. And um, you know, I've been at
Speaker 1: NBC for a really, really long time and now I'm
Speaker 1: the head guy. Now you're it, okay, But before that,
Speaker 1: you're shooting off road racing. So you're shooting cars off
Speaker 1: the road in the desert. We pre run for two
Speaker 1: days and find our spots and then we'd either camp there,
Speaker 1: somebody would drop us off, and then the race would start,
Speaker 1: and you pretty much kind of new, Okay, well there's
Speaker 1: a hundred cars and I've seen about ninety five of
Speaker 1: them on I'm getting the heck out of here. And
Speaker 1: it was dangerous because we were down in Mexico. You know,
Speaker 1: you pull over machine guns in your face and you
Speaker 1: either have a bunch of photos. We had a lot
Speaker 1: of racer photos all the time, or my my boss
Speaker 1: would go get Playboy magazines at garage sales. And it's
Speaker 1: amazing how far you can get with the federal ally
Speaker 1: with a machine gun in your face and a Playboy magazine.
Speaker 1: Isn't that great? It's sounds like the federalities are there
Speaker 1: right now. Actually, um so yourself taught as a photographer
Speaker 1: and then you're shooting off road and then you find
Speaker 1: out about a job at NBC. This is no In
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty I found out, okay, okay, first of all
Speaker 1: my senior high school, I'm like, wait a minute, somebody
Speaker 1: gets paid to take pictures in the movies. And then
Speaker 1: I really freaked out. And then I ended up meeting
Speaker 1: a guy, went to and went to NBC and Burbank
Speaker 1: and it was the Johnny Carson stage and Billy Crystal
Speaker 1: was doing a pilot It's back when he did You
Speaker 1: Look Marvelous. It was the beginning of that. And I
Speaker 1: was there with a girl and she goes, hey, I
Speaker 1: know that guy down there, and it happened to be
Speaker 1: a friend of her mom's and she knew that he
Speaker 1: worked there. I never knew it, and uh, she slipped
Speaker 1: him a note and he invented invited us down. We
Speaker 1: went into the lab, which was my office for twenty
Speaker 1: five years, and I'm I immediately hit him up and
Speaker 1: he's like, you know. After three months, he's like, don't
Speaker 1: ever call me again. And I bugged him every year
Speaker 1: just I knew something. I knew it was going to happen.
Speaker 1: And it was NBC the whole time, because that was it,
Speaker 1: you know, NBC was the network. And finally, after five
Speaker 1: years they called and said, you're still interested. And I
Speaker 1: went in as a lab guy, wiping everybody's nose and
Speaker 1: taking out their trash. And again I go in there
Speaker 1: and I learned how they do it big time. And
Speaker 1: what's funny about it is no photographer on staff would
Speaker 1: tell me stay out of an actress, Eyeline, don't hit
Speaker 1: on the actresses, don't don't do this, don't do that.
Speaker 1: And I just went and I got to say it,
Speaker 1: and I was a nervous wreck, but I never showed it.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've worked on some of the biggest
Speaker 1: shows in history. Right, what was the first show that
Speaker 1: you worked on out of the lab, like when they
Speaker 1: let you go on set? Well, Punky Brewster, the original
Speaker 1: Punky Brewster was done on our lot and nobody and
Speaker 1: everyone was bored with a lot of shows, and this
Speaker 1: was a kid show. And I knew that there were
Speaker 1: some old school actors on there, and I thought, man,
Speaker 1: maybe I can handle this, and they said, go, yeah,
Speaker 1: go grab a camera and go. And we used to
Speaker 1: use these gigantic housings that went around a nikon or
Speaker 1: a cannon that sound proved it. I grabbed it and
Speaker 1: I was fumbling and all that. It was only thirty
Speaker 1: six frames, so you have to you get through thirty
Speaker 1: six frames and then you uh, you know, you got
Speaker 1: to switch it out. But anyway, I went down there
Speaker 1: and started doing that, and I'm sure the pictures were awful. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then the second thing. The second thing was like
Speaker 1: instantaneous because they knew I can handle myself. I started
Speaker 1: shooting the Johnny Carson Show. That was a rotation thing,
Speaker 1: so everybody did it, you know, every fourth or fifth week. However,
Speaker 1: many photographers were in that roster for it, and that was, um,
Speaker 1: that was show biz, baby, That's how I re's when
Speaker 1: I got bit wow, yeah Carson Show, right, I mean
Speaker 1: for for comedians at the time, I mean appearing on
Speaker 1: that and you're back there shooting at How amazing was that?
Speaker 1: Just that dude. It's like Stephen Wright would come into
Speaker 1: the green room and I'd be sitting there waiting for
Speaker 1: the show to start, and we never shot Johnny's monologue
Speaker 1: unless it was required or asked by the producers, and
Speaker 1: and like Stephen Wright would be there and like I'd
Speaker 1: be like, hey, man, I mean, it's just like you're
Speaker 1: trying not to like, you know, throw up. And uh.
Speaker 1: I would always you know, with the comedians especially, I
Speaker 1: did it with some of the musicians. But I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: if you want me to send you some photos, which
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't have the authority to do that
Speaker 1: in the beginning, but once it was really rolling, I
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, I send Stephen Wright some
Speaker 1: photos and Jeff Fox were the God. That guy is
Speaker 1: such a great guy. He saw me recently. He goes, Hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't hang a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in my house, but there's a black and white that
Speaker 1: you shot of me and Johnny is belly laughing. He goes,
Speaker 1: that hangs right outside my kitchen and it's like my Buddha.
Speaker 1: I touch it every morning. Which, man, that's that's my
Speaker 1: payoff right there. That is awesome. Who was the coolest
Speaker 1: person on the on the Tonight Show that you shot?
Speaker 1: Like for you, dude? I mean god, we go sit
Speaker 1: in the audience durring rehearsals and the Chili Peppers would
Speaker 1: play for like an hour, and Iggy Pop would just
Speaker 1: come this far from your face and just be screaming
Speaker 1: at you l a singing, and they love that stuff
Speaker 1: because we're an audience of like ten people that wanted
Speaker 1: to see them. I don't know, man, it was I
Speaker 1: mean Jimmy Stewart, Uh, you know, I can't even I
Speaker 1: can't even think it was all great. So you shot
Speaker 1: Jimmy Stewart and me, So that's pretty much all I
Speaker 1: really talked about. I mean, that's kind of right. I
Speaker 1: mean that's there's nothing in between those two. Um, in
Speaker 1: addition to the tonight's show. And you mentioned this before NBC,
Speaker 1: was it right? I mean NBC was us. By the way,
Speaker 1: Warren Littlefield and I we were, we were handed hand
Speaker 1: with each other and he calls me his mussy t
Speaker 1: the photographer. Really yeah, because I was there through that
Speaker 1: whole era, and I was a go getter and young
Speaker 1: and willing to just do anything. So Cheers. You shot Cheers.
Speaker 1: I shot the end of Cheers. I was Leno's photographer
Speaker 1: when Carson left for the first five years, and we
Speaker 1: flew to Boston and we were in the Bull and
Speaker 1: Finch the night it went off the air, but Paramount
Speaker 1: sent me upstairs above the Bull and Finch to be
Speaker 1: in a room with the cast while they watched TV.
Speaker 1: And they go, you really shouldn't be there, but try
Speaker 1: and get photos the finale. This was the finale. They
Speaker 1: were watching the finale on TV in a hotel room
Speaker 1: in Boston. It wasn't a big room, and it was
Speaker 1: really dark, and yeah, it was very intimate. I've been
Speaker 1: in some scary places, Brian Well, but that was I
Speaker 1: remember that night after the finale. They did the Tonight
Speaker 1: Show afterward, and so you were with them through I was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of photos I did not take
Speaker 1: that night. In fact, I was with I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: didn't work. I was. I was with the cast all day.
Speaker 1: I was in a limo with Kelsey Grammer doing business
Speaker 1: on his way to the State House. And uh, Kelsey
Speaker 1: wasn't having a good phone call. He was on that
Speaker 1: phone in a limo behind with the cable, you know,
Speaker 1: And and the door opens and he gets out and
Speaker 1: we walked up the steps of the Statehouse for him
Speaker 1: to bang a gavel, And yeah, it was. I was.
Speaker 1: I've been in some places, Brian, and there's some other
Speaker 1: stories will tell when we're not being recorded. I'm sure
Speaker 1: I remember seeing the cast of Cheers that night on
Speaker 1: the Tonight Show, and I don't bombed. Weren't they I
Speaker 1: don't bombed. That's exactly how it appeared. Was drunk appeared
Speaker 1: appeared to me. That is so amazing. And so also,
Speaker 1: you shot Seinfeld, you shot Saved by the Bell Fresh,
Speaker 1: Prince of bel Air, Will and Gray. You've spoken to
Speaker 1: me a lot about friends you were. You were at
Speaker 1: NBC the whole time, friends was on right, I did, Uh,
Speaker 1: Usually I did the pilot gallery. The gallery is there's
Speaker 1: two types of photography. I do as their unit and
Speaker 1: gallery unit is something that you're on a set. You
Speaker 1: shoot images that look like they're coming out of the
Speaker 1: motion picture camera. I take a liberty with that because
Speaker 1: there are sometimes you don't want the camera on a set.
Speaker 1: Could be on the floor shooting this wide room shot,
Speaker 1: but I don't want some actress coming at me, going
Speaker 1: that is a terrible photo of me. So I I
Speaker 1: sort of take the liberty of getting better pictures that way.
Speaker 1: But the gallery stuff is kind of the rock and
Speaker 1: roll stuff. And I have been fortunate to do several
Speaker 1: years of galleries of the biggest shows on NBC Wow.
Speaker 1: And the galleries are kind of pre set up shots
Speaker 1: for those listening that usually happens right before a season starts.
Speaker 1: You'll shoot the cast in various poses that will be
Speaker 1: used for publicity and marketing throughout the year. Right, So
Speaker 1: the covers you see on TV guides, or you're sitting
Speaker 1: at a light and there's a bus next to you,
Speaker 1: that's all the stuff that we do. Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: had I'm skipping ahead quite a bit here, but you
Speaker 1: had one of the most famous at least from our show,
Speaker 1: The Office, that George Sarah painting UM Sunday in the
Speaker 1: park on the isle of French words um, and thought
Speaker 1: it was just a reservoir. Isn't that a French word? Right?
Speaker 1: But you you set up the Office characters as though
Speaker 1: they were in that painting. One you're tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about about that or your idea behind that.
Speaker 1: One of our top designers at NBC is named Sean Serrio.
Speaker 1: He's an award winning guy. It was his gig and
Speaker 1: he always gets the real cool gigs. So we got
Speaker 1: together and I took the original painting, not the original,
Speaker 1: but you know, I took that image and and sort
Speaker 1: of traced over and I took out a couple of
Speaker 1: people or added a couple of people, and I placed
Speaker 1: everyone where I thought, you know, with Craig Robinson in
Speaker 1: the hat, or Jim and Pam walking in with the umbrella,
Speaker 1: or Kate, you know, with a drink in her hand.
Speaker 1: So we sort of designed all of that. We pretty
Speaker 1: much shot everyone singly except Jim and Pam were there together.
Speaker 1: And that I mean, you guys were amazing because you
Speaker 1: look like you're there with a bunch of people. That's
Speaker 1: the beauty of photography. Man, it's nothing but a big
Speaker 1: fat lie and U production. You can't. Everyone can't just
Speaker 1: stop what they're doing and walk off set. So we did.
Speaker 1: We did everybody one at a time, and I had
Speaker 1: plenty of time with you guys. We had a really
Speaker 1: good time. Yeah, yeah, we did. What was let's exclude
Speaker 1: the office for a second. What was your favorite other show,
Speaker 1: let's say to shoot at NBC. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: most intense, most incredible shoots for me was Homicide Life
Speaker 1: on the Street. I think it was the third season.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like if Breaking Bad was going
Speaker 1: and they asked me to go do that photo shoot.
Speaker 1: It was like that because it was just rich and
Speaker 1: sets in Baltimore were unbelievable, and I knew the show
Speaker 1: inside and out. And that's another thing too, is I
Speaker 1: really like to know what I'm doing going in. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't pilot. You just don't know. But this one
Speaker 1: I knew. I knew the Box was a sacred place
Speaker 1: and that the bad, the worst people in Baltimore were
Speaker 1: inside the box and Andre Brower was going to be
Speaker 1: really in their face. So those are some pretty phenomenal photos.
Speaker 1: I used to enjoy Third Rock from the Sun because
Speaker 1: lith Gao is one of my favorite people in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and it was a party, oh e R. We had
Speaker 1: a good time on the R even though it was
Speaker 1: very tense. We I don't know if I should say this,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to. Occasionally we'd bring in beer and
Speaker 1: wine and something a little it or sometimes if somebody
Speaker 1: requested it, but we get everybody lit. When we were
Speaker 1: shooting on the backlot at Warner Brothers late at night,
Speaker 1: we'd do these photo shoots of them coming out the
Speaker 1: door into the ambulance. And yeah, those were crazy, wild parties,
Speaker 1: dangerous things. You didn't we didn't have that on our show.
Speaker 1: We didn't. I guess because you guys had a hundred
Speaker 1: people on your show. Maybe I guess that's true. I
Speaker 1: guess that's true. Talk a little bit about your your process. So,
Speaker 1: first off, a multi camera show like Cheers or Friends,
Speaker 1: the cameras are set up, do you have pretty much
Speaker 1: free rome to to be able to take photos from
Speaker 1: anywhere sort of in front? Sometimes if you have an
Speaker 1: actress that doesn't want anybody in her eye line, or
Speaker 1: she'd be too. I don't even say she. I've had
Speaker 1: many many A guy go hey, I can see you moving,
Speaker 1: and you know, well, okay, I'll just let me start
Speaker 1: by saying, a still photographer is the only job on
Speaker 1: set that can be asked not to do their job.
Speaker 1: So you can't have the actor go out, you can't
Speaker 1: have the sound guy leave, you can't have one of
Speaker 1: the camera guys split. So I'm the one person who
Speaker 1: could be asked not do their job. But um, when
Speaker 1: all that's moving, it is one of the most beautiful
Speaker 1: dances you've ever seen. One of my favorite directors in
Speaker 1: the world is Jim Burrows. I have done so many
Speaker 1: projects with Burrows, Will and Grace. I could run up
Speaker 1: to the very front of the lenses and work if
Speaker 1: I wanted to. Uh, I wouldn't do that. I'm I'm big.
Speaker 1: I'm a big dude, and I do take up a
Speaker 1: lot of space. But it's it's a relationship you get
Speaker 1: with the dolly grips. You know, if you've ever seen this,
Speaker 1: if anybody's ever seen the big dollies that cameras roll on,
Speaker 1: those guys will run you over and those things can
Speaker 1: run you over. There a tank. I've seen other guys
Speaker 1: get clipped and it ain't pretty, but it's a dance
Speaker 1: and as long as you know how to dance, you
Speaker 1: will survive in that situation. And there are times where
Speaker 1: Burrows is famous for putting his foot on the dolly
Speaker 1: and kicking it and they're his guys are so good
Speaker 1: they start rolling the wheels and the camera follows the actor.
Speaker 1: Whatever it's it's truly amazing. But I've been in the
Speaker 1: middle of two dollies when that happens, and you just
Speaker 1: gotta get out of there. Um, do you find that
Speaker 1: you still have the same passion that you did that
Speaker 1: first drew you in? Absolutely? Oh no, man, It's the
Speaker 1: best job in Hollywood. It is the best job in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I love to joke. Uh you know, you see some
Speaker 1: guys shoving a whole giant piece of pizza down his
Speaker 1: mouth at two in the morning and just to get
Speaker 1: himself home. I'm like, hey, glamorous business, right, Um. But
Speaker 1: that I everywhere I go. I mean, I see so
Speaker 1: many people from the office. I just saw Kelly Cantley
Speaker 1: last week. I see guys from welland Grace all the time.
Speaker 1: I see, you know, even even working like America's got talent.
Speaker 1: I see camera guys that I've known for twenty five years,
Speaker 1: and it's and you know, brand, it's it's such a small,
Speaker 1: tiny business, but it's like the biggest, tiniest business in
Speaker 1: the world. So I'm so excited. I'm not gonna micrrect,
Speaker 1: but no, my passion is uh. I mean, holy cow,
Speaker 1: I can't believe I get paid to do this. And
Speaker 1: I just Kay will argue with you, but I just
Speaker 1: don't have the ego that photographers normally have. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I mean, I'm taking photos. I'm not a plastic surgeon.
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a documentarian in a way. It's I
Speaker 1: love to use that on people. Yes, no, but you are, No,
Speaker 1: you are a documentarian. I never thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm not just they're documenting. I'm most of
Speaker 1: the time creating the documentation of that. So that's what
Speaker 1: I love about being in a studio and doing a
Speaker 1: gallery and just making It's amazing brand. Sunday in the
Speaker 1: Park with George was such a great famous painting. It's
Speaker 1: been copied so many times, and the fact that it
Speaker 1: carried the weight that image carries the weight that it does.
Speaker 1: I mean people like, oh my god, you worked on
Speaker 1: the office. I'm like, yeah, I'm a photographer, and and
Speaker 1: and then I mentioned that and they think they're talking to,
Speaker 1: you know, a big star. I'm like, that's all. I
Speaker 1: move on to the next thing. Man, I'm not worried
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Speaker 1: you and you could be me for just one hour,
Speaker 1: if you could find a way to get inside each
Speaker 1: other's mind. Walk a mile in my shoes. Welcome mile
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Speaker 1: dot org. Brought to you by the AD Council. Welcome
Speaker 1: out in the shoes. Obviously you and I share a passion,
Speaker 1: which is the Office. Two thousand four, NBC ordered this show.
Speaker 1: Now were you aware of the British version of the show?
Speaker 1: You know what? When I heard this was coming at US,
Speaker 1: I watched the British probably in a day or two.
Speaker 1: I watched it all, and it was. I watched it
Speaker 1: three times only because it was so frustrating and I
Speaker 1: hated it so much. I'm like, I don't get it.
Speaker 1: And then once I started watching it and the characters
Speaker 1: grew on me, then I I loved it. The reason
Speaker 1: I watched it so many times to get it is
Speaker 1: because I had worked on fifty British shows already that
Speaker 1: they were trying to make here that failed. By the way,
Speaker 1: I shot the very first images for the gallery, which
Speaker 1: we can get into if you want. UM. But I
Speaker 1: went to that crappy little warehouse in Culver City and
Speaker 1: we went in there and shot and I shot Pam
Speaker 1: behind the desk, and I did that famous four shot
Speaker 1: of them looking at the computer. UM. So we show
Speaker 1: up and we had an art director who was a
Speaker 1: very like UM. He's a very show biz guy. His
Speaker 1: name was Jim and Jim had this very like thunderous
Speaker 1: voice who whatever Jim said Jim wanted and Jim was
Speaker 1: going to get So we get there and Greg Daniels
Speaker 1: is there and he's walking around and UM, and I
Speaker 1: was confused. I mean, I I you know, Okay, you're
Speaker 1: gonna shoot this. They're all gonna be look at the
Speaker 1: monitor and you know, normally we're having him looking to
Speaker 1: the camera so we can identify them and you know,
Speaker 1: people people connect with them. And then Jim Vince is
Speaker 1: there and he goes, all right, uh, hey, you hating
Speaker 1: points at Johnny goes you look at the camera, and
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, Greg flies and he goes, if anybody
Speaker 1: looks at this camera, the photo shoot is over. Because
Speaker 1: it was so new in the process that I don't
Speaker 1: think we wanted to give up any secrets and or
Speaker 1: or break that fourth wall for the photos because we
Speaker 1: weren't quite there yet and this was our first group shot.
Speaker 1: And I completely was with Greg. He knew what he
Speaker 1: wanted if I could jump ahead real quick. There were
Speaker 1: times where we would have a real secret or something
Speaker 1: that they did not want to go out. I developed
Speaker 1: a relay and ship with Greg and the producers the
Speaker 1: whole show where I would shoot it and we would
Speaker 1: tag it so it wouldn't go out. Like I knew.
Speaker 1: People know that Steve was in the finale, right, can
Speaker 1: I say that finally? Oh? Thank god? But I was
Speaker 1: probably one of five people that knew that morning. Uh
Speaker 1: they warned me, And which is the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 1: Somebody doesn't warn you like Carson Show. They've never warned
Speaker 1: us there's a big giant thing that's going to fall
Speaker 1: down and just miss his head. It's like, you'll miss
Speaker 1: the shot if you're not ready for it. So I
Speaker 1: was standing just off camera when he says I can't
Speaker 1: be your best to Sminch, and I heard Steve walk
Speaker 1: up and I'm just like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: this is I can't tell you how many of those
Speaker 1: moments I've actually been there for so to know that.
Speaker 1: And I didn't even tell Kay. I didn't tell a
Speaker 1: soul because that's I mean, that's the way I am. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm like, uh, if you tell me something no one's
Speaker 1: supposed to know, no one's gonna know it. If the
Speaker 1: network's not supposed to know about it, They're only only
Speaker 1: one person that the network's going to find out, my editor.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna say this doesn't go anywhere until it iss,
Speaker 1: which is kind of powerful. But I never thought i'd
Speaker 1: so wait when you got there that day, you knew
Speaker 1: he was going to be there, and they said, don't
Speaker 1: release not right away, not right away. I think when
Speaker 1: I was geared up and walking on walking on a set.
Speaker 1: Actually I did see him when he walked up to
Speaker 1: the house, so I mean I probably knew about five
Speaker 1: ten minutes before he walked up. So I think when
Speaker 1: he landed, they said, Steve's here, right to be ready.
Speaker 1: So and by the way, I want to say one
Speaker 1: other thing, and I love telling people this when we're
Speaker 1: on the set there that very first day, when Greg said,
Speaker 1: nobody looks at camera I had worked at least ten
Speaker 1: pilots with Correll, and I mean I worked on some
Speaker 1: of the most amazing things with him. And when he
Speaker 1: walked up by jokingly said to my Crema, you guys,
Speaker 1: Steve Carrell's in this. Let's pack it up. We're getting
Speaker 1: out of here. This ain't going anywhere, and he got
Speaker 1: a really good laugh out of it. Steve and I
Speaker 1: always had the tightest relationship because I had known him
Speaker 1: for so many years, and you know, if he if
Speaker 1: I needed something, if he needed something, I was always
Speaker 1: welcome into his trailer, which was the coolest trailer in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and um, you know it was. It was a good
Speaker 1: relationship to have with him. Such a great guy, right well,
Speaker 1: I think I think also going back to that first day,
Speaker 1: you know, a big thing I know for Greg early
Speaker 1: on was he wanted to establish these characters or these people,
Speaker 1: meaning Jim and Pam and Michael and Dwight, and and
Speaker 1: this idea that that they were not actors, right, and
Speaker 1: so actors pose for the camera, actors look into the
Speaker 1: camera and and do you know, glamour shots or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. Whereas if you're a bunch
Speaker 1: of people at a mid level slash small regional paper company.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't look into the camera. You would be doing
Speaker 1: what you're doing and hoping to capture it. That's really
Speaker 1: fascinating to me that it started even before we started
Speaker 1: shooting the pilot, when they were doing the gallery. That's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you shot like ten pilots you mentioned with Steve Carrell.
Speaker 1: Was there anybody else from the office that you had
Speaker 1: shot prior to the office. Yeah. I was on a
Speaker 1: pilot one time and we're working in this great old
Speaker 1: school building near downtown and I walk in and there's
Speaker 1: these two geeks that are there. One of them is
Speaker 1: playing a robot, one of them is playing the robot's friend.
Speaker 1: And it was a pilot. And I treat pilots the same.
Speaker 1: You get in, you do your thing, and get out.
Speaker 1: And this one guy comes up to me goes, you
Speaker 1: know what I'd really like for you to do. I'd
Speaker 1: like you to do this, that and the other. And
Speaker 1: I turned to him and I go, look, pal, this
Speaker 1: is a pilot. If this show was picked up, I
Speaker 1: will kiss your ass and do whatever you want. And
Speaker 1: it was Rain Wilson serious. It was his very first pilot.
Speaker 1: E ever did. And to this day, when anybody's introduced
Speaker 1: to me by Rain, he goes, this guy shot me
Speaker 1: on my very first pilot and we never have talked
Speaker 1: about me telling him that, but he respected me and
Speaker 1: he went with it at that moment. Now, wait, let
Speaker 1: me ask you this. Did you so you were there
Speaker 1: early on? Did you like the show? You know I were?
Speaker 1: I was worried. I was worried at first because I, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, I'd been on so many
Speaker 1: shows that didn't think it worked, and um, I felt
Speaker 1: that the first two episodes of the British Office were
Speaker 1: so British, and I worried that, wait a minute, this
Speaker 1: is just like it. But I didn't understand. And of
Speaker 1: course since then I have found I mean, I know
Speaker 1: how brilliant all of our top notch people were, like
Speaker 1: all of our above the line people were, and I've
Speaker 1: grown to really open up my eyes now when I
Speaker 1: go on set, like those guys are geniuses. Greg Daniels
Speaker 1: is a genius, a fearless genius. And it was breaking
Speaker 1: my heart even back then that it was, you know,
Speaker 1: six episodes and we might give you one more episode.
Speaker 1: And when I see that now I scream at people.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like, are you guys gonna do how
Speaker 1: many episodes? And we are they're adding three more, Like
Speaker 1: how dare they? Don't they realize they're sitting on a
Speaker 1: gold mine. Yeah. Now on the office, there was well,
Speaker 1: there were four walls, which there usually are in a space.
Speaker 1: There was no place to hide, and because of the
Speaker 1: way the show was shot, the cameras moving around all
Speaker 1: the time, so there is a huge dance between you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of times, really three people excluding yourself are
Speaker 1: in the space. There's a boom operator, you've got mix
Speaker 1: on people, and you've got two camera guys who are
Speaker 1: swinging the camera around and so then into that they
Speaker 1: bring your big bond Like, I'm so so glad you
Speaker 1: asked this question. Yeah, so how how do you you know?
Speaker 1: It's one thing, Yeah, there's one thing to have this
Speaker 1: huge dolly that you know, if you stay behind the dolly,
Speaker 1: they're not going to shoot you because there's an audience
Speaker 1: behind you and everything else. But in this you're having
Speaker 1: to learn the dance along with the camera guys and
Speaker 1: the sound guys. How how different was that for you
Speaker 1: doing your job on our show? Well, Brian and I
Speaker 1: we occupied the same three inch square on every floor,
Speaker 1: and that's hard to do. At least Brian, Brian the
Speaker 1: sound who's an amazing mixer now, but he and I
Speaker 1: were in the same spot, and when we were in
Speaker 1: a corner in that conference room or something, that conference
Speaker 1: room was ten thousand times smaller when you've got a photograph. It.
Speaker 1: We just managed and Brian, he just jokingly rolled his
Speaker 1: eyes every time he saw me, and I, I'm very gracious,
Speaker 1: and I asked permission. I would always ask Randall or
Speaker 1: Matt if I could be, you know, in a certain place,
Speaker 1: and uh, I managed. I mean again, that's where a
Speaker 1: longer lens will come into play and you're able to
Speaker 1: sort of get in and I'll try to do two
Speaker 1: passes on every scene. I'll try to go wide and
Speaker 1: include everyone, and then I try to get it fits.
Speaker 1: An argument at the copier or Pam's talking to Michael
Speaker 1: at the desk, I'll get I'll go in tight on
Speaker 1: that with a longer lens, that's easy to get. Randall,
Speaker 1: God bless that guy. Those him and Matt Man. Those
Speaker 1: guys are the two best I've ever worked with. Sorry
Speaker 1: for all you other guys. I've worked with, but like
Speaker 1: I learned this on the er on the R where
Speaker 1: it was a little sort of island in the middle
Speaker 1: of the emergency room, and when they were on a
Speaker 1: handhol handheld they would do and um, I was okay.
Speaker 1: And there I watched and if if I saw him
Speaker 1: open his eye, I knew he was coming that way. Well,
Speaker 1: Randall and I developed a thing where and Matt two.
Speaker 1: I think Randall gave me a sort of a little
Speaker 1: click or or up, and the moment he did that,
Speaker 1: I hit the deck. I literally would drop to the
Speaker 1: floor and Matt would actually whip through me. He didn't care, like,
Speaker 1: because you know, whip you can't. You don't even if
Speaker 1: even if you stop the frame on your on your recording,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna You're not gonna see anything. I'm just
Speaker 1: a big I wear black all the time, so it's
Speaker 1: just a black black white interesting But it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. And that makes you feel like a rock star.
Speaker 1: That makes you feel like, man, I am on the
Speaker 1: best set in Hollywood and and I'm here making it happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was a moment um several years ago that actually
Speaker 1: it was right when Steve left. What when Steve left.
Speaker 1: We had management at NBC and they brought in a
Speaker 1: guy over me who wasn't as qualified as myself and
Speaker 1: my other partner that were there, and so they were
Speaker 1: making life difficult. So some of the rock star stuff
Speaker 1: was taken away from me, and the galleries were being
Speaker 1: done by this other guy. Um, and the new season
Speaker 1: was coming along, and you know, I don't pay attention
Speaker 1: to anything until they're like, Okay, we're gonna do this shoot.
Speaker 1: So um, I knew the office shoot was coming up though,
Speaker 1: that was the one I knew was coming up. And
Speaker 1: then John and I had a conversation and he told
Speaker 1: me that he said that unless Chris Hasten does this gallery,
Speaker 1: we're not doing it, and that my friend is a
Speaker 1: powerful producer on a show, and that my friend is
Speaker 1: somebody I will take a bullet for and if he
Speaker 1: if he needs me to do anything in life, he
Speaker 1: can call me at any hour and I'll be there.
Speaker 1: Because that that was a true friendship move. And Krasinski, man,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad he's such a huge rock star now
Speaker 1: and won't talk to me. I'm kidding. No, we we
Speaker 1: talked some. Yeah, we talked recently about something so yeah,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. He's he's a class act. He really is. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just so you know, I I would have done whatever
Speaker 1: they asked me to do, whether you were there or not.
Speaker 1: Just to be clear. Okay, you talked about your relationship
Speaker 1: with Steve. You've known him for a while. How accommodating
Speaker 1: was he to work with throughout his time on the show.
Speaker 1: He was probably the most intense and uh, I mean
Speaker 1: he has a big movie star by the time things
Speaker 1: really started rolling. In fact, he might have been the
Speaker 1: only one. Yeah, I was. You know, here's an example.
Speaker 1: I was in his office once, I was between Matt
Speaker 1: and Randall and Brian was somewhere with his boom, and
Speaker 1: I hadn't watched the rehearsal. Sometimes it's I don't want
Speaker 1: to be in a tight little space like that for rehearsals.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know he's going to cry in the scene.
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he knew he was going
Speaker 1: to cry in the scene in the beginning. And that
Speaker 1: soundproof housing wasn't sound proof housing, so it was like,
Speaker 1: you know, click click, click, and it was you can
Speaker 1: barely hear it. But a man who has to cry
Speaker 1: on cue, he heard it, and uh, he didn't even
Speaker 1: look up, but he just goes Chris and I'm and
Speaker 1: it's like, you might as well hear that out of
Speaker 1: a out of a fog horn. It's like and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, Steve, And all you can do is
Speaker 1: apologize and leave and just you know, safe face. I mean,
Speaker 1: trust me, man. There are other actors who are like,
Speaker 1: if I told you once, It's like, well, you haven't
Speaker 1: told me once. There was somebody else on the show
Speaker 1: later on, but I'm not going to mention his name,
Speaker 1: but they'll really let you have it. But and so unfortunately,
Speaker 1: at this point, the room is so small, Matt has
Speaker 1: to get up off of his box turn Brian has
Speaker 1: to get out of the way so I can get
Speaker 1: the heck out of the room. Oh god. So it's humiliating.
Speaker 1: It's humiliating. But you know something, Brian, you can't take
Speaker 1: it personal. It's hard not to um, but it's it's
Speaker 1: just a job. So that's the way I've looked at it.
Speaker 1: It's your job, and don't take it personal, and you'll
Speaker 1: be fine. Hi. I'm Hillary Clinton, and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: be back with a new season of You and me both.
Speaker 1: You know, when we started this podcast, we were going
Speaker 1: through some tough times, and let's face it, we still are.
Speaker 1: But I am a firm believer we're stronger together. So
Speaker 1: please join me for more conversations with people who will
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Speaker 1: you on a search, a search for love. Hard working
Speaker 1: Latina seeks cool, down to earth guy. Swipe swipe slide.
Speaker 1: It's hard out there for a girl to find Mr Right.
Speaker 1: I have to meet a lot of Mr Wrong's. He'd
Speaker 1: invite me over to have dinner with his family. I
Speaker 1: knew he didn't tell them that it was transgender. Dating
Speaker 1: as a trans woman can be complicated, but there were
Speaker 1: other reasons. I felt like I couldn't always be myself.
Speaker 1: And he's asking me things about my family, like my
Speaker 1: mom's in prison, my grandmother was arrested for working with
Speaker 1: the Mexican drug cartel. This is Crumbs, My love story.
Speaker 1: It's a show about the things we set up for
Speaker 1: and the bits of ourselves that make us who we are.
Speaker 1: Listen to Crumbs as part of the Michael la podcast Network,
Speaker 1: available on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. M Hi, I'm Elizabeth Dutton
Speaker 1: and I'm Elizabeth Dutton. Wait sorry, Zaron, do you want
Speaker 1: to say your name? No, I'm good. Good, go ahead.
Speaker 1: We're the hosts of Ridiculous Crime. People love true crime, right,
Speaker 1: the mystery, the intrigue, the human frailty, totally. But what
Speaker 1: a lot of us don't like is the blood and
Speaker 1: the guts and the mayhem. Wait wait, wait, wait, some
Speaker 1: of us do like the mayhem. Okay, but let's be real,
Speaker 1: there's nothing funny about murder. Okay, that's our show gives
Speaker 1: you stories like the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. And
Speaker 1: the Max Headrooms signal hijacking. Oh so you mean ridiculous
Speaker 1: stories like the UK cat Shaver and Pablo Escobars cocaine hippos. Yeah,
Speaker 1: stories like the dudes who stole Buzzy the animatronic whatever
Speaker 1: he was from Disney World and the woman whose husband
Speaker 1: tried to kill her but came back from the dead
Speaker 1: and surprised him at her own funeral. Yeah. That does
Speaker 1: sound good. You can find this new podcast, Ridiculous Crime
Speaker 1: all over the place, the I Heart Radio app, the
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I don't
Speaker 1: know how you live Ridiculous Crime. What was your favorite
Speaker 1: memory being on set of the Office. I was afraid
Speaker 1: you were gonna ask me this, because I know you
Speaker 1: asked so many people this question. One of the funniest
Speaker 1: things that happened on a regular basis. Kate loves the
Speaker 1: fact that I hung out in the fake men's room.
Speaker 1: But the fake men's room was the route to the
Speaker 1: real men's room because there was no back wall and
Speaker 1: I'd be sitting there editing on my computer or whatever,
Speaker 1: and uh, leslie, David Baker did it ten times. If
Speaker 1: he did it once, they opened the door like, oh sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not taking a ship here, dude. The
Speaker 1: restrooms right there, keep going um um. You know what.
Speaker 1: I hate to be so cliche, but it's like any
Speaker 1: day I walked in the door there, man, it was
Speaker 1: a good day. And then, of course, you know, in
Speaker 1: the middle of the second season, Kate and I hooked up,
Speaker 1: so it's like I had a place to eat my lunch. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, what I mean, how did this start? Like,
Speaker 1: was there a moment, was there was there music playing
Speaker 1: in the background, or did someone captured on film. I'm
Speaker 1: just wondering. You know. She kept inviting me to see
Speaker 1: The lamp Shades, her comedy act, which is absolutely brilliant.
Speaker 1: It's that's Kate Flannery brilliance all the way. And I
Speaker 1: I was, you know, uh, I'm invited all the time. Hey,
Speaker 1: I go to and you want to come see my band?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, whatever, whatever, But she kept inviting me.
Speaker 1: And one night I happened I was going to be
Speaker 1: at this club in Hollywood to see some other girl
Speaker 1: and just somebody I was hanging out with. And then um,
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm busy on Saturday. And I go, well,
Speaker 1: what time because the thing I was going to was later.
Speaker 1: She goes eight o'clock. I go, oh, I can make
Speaker 1: that work. And I go, uh, where's it at? She goes,
Speaker 1: right in Hollywood Bullever. I go, We're on Hollywood Bluehere.
Speaker 1: She goes, it's in prov Olympic. I go, that's where
Speaker 1: I'm going to be at ten o'clock to that same night,
Speaker 1: I said, this is meant to be and um, we
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny. She she knew I had kids,
Speaker 1: she didn't know if I was divorced or married. And uh,
Speaker 1: after the show, we went and got a drink and
Speaker 1: five minutes and I'm like, you and I should be dating.
Speaker 1: And I am not that smooth. I had never said
Speaker 1: that to anybody else, but I had connected with her
Speaker 1: in such a way, and I knew she was brilliant.
Speaker 1: I think she was very attracted to me. She invited
Speaker 1: me a lot, and she invited you a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like every time it was, and it was she used
Speaker 1: to do it every Saturday night. So but I think
Speaker 1: the one moment that that we first had eye contact
Speaker 1: is I used to go around like for almost every
Speaker 1: time I was there, I would do portraits to you guys,
Speaker 1: just because that's always really good filler if they're going
Speaker 1: to do a story or whatever. And I think this
Speaker 1: one time I don't even remember, but it was the
Speaker 1: Christmas episode of TV Guide. They were going to do
Speaker 1: photos of everybody because it was the show was picking
Speaker 1: up steam, and there's a picture of her holding up
Speaker 1: a Santa Claus doll and uh. And other times I
Speaker 1: got her pulling a bottle of vodka of the out
Speaker 1: of the thing looking up at me and just she
Speaker 1: was adorable, and um, it's funny. I met her as
Speaker 1: Meredith and then I saw her as her character on
Speaker 1: stage and I'm like and my friends like look at her,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, take it easy, take it easy. And
Speaker 1: then she comes out walking like Kate and I'm like,
Speaker 1: now we're talking. That's why five minutes and I go,
Speaker 1: you and I should be dating. You said that to her.
Speaker 1: That is amazing. Apparently a recent interview she gave, she
Speaker 1: said that the two of you are like Jim and
Speaker 1: Pam because you worked together but didn't start dating until
Speaker 1: the end of season two. Yeah, that's about it. That's
Speaker 1: about right. Yeah, but she was never as mean to
Speaker 1: me as Pam was to Jim. Just kidding, I'm just
Speaker 1: talking storyline here, Yeah, exactly. In the in the finale
Speaker 1: of the Office, Um, Greg, let you dance with Meredith
Speaker 1: during Dwight and Angela's wedding. How cool is that? You know,
Speaker 1: Kate wanted me in that wanted me in the show,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, I didn't think
Speaker 1: it was gonna happen. And then she wanted me to
Speaker 1: be I think would be one of the cops that
Speaker 1: takes crete out at the end. But those are real
Speaker 1: motor cops that stopped traffic for us. Those are real L. A. P. D. Guys. Um.
Speaker 1: So I was fine, you know, with just being her
Speaker 1: her boyfriend at the at the wedding, and then you know,
Speaker 1: end up they gave me a line in the warehouse
Speaker 1: when Pam reveals her mural, and which here's a great story.
Speaker 1: She's gonna be so mad when I tell you this.
Speaker 1: So Coopus comes up and he goes, hey, just say
Speaker 1: what a photographer would say, Oh yes, sir, And uh
Speaker 1: so Pam's like, all right, every real, let's do this.
Speaker 1: But and then everybody gets in and I said, all right,
Speaker 1: everybody right here. That looks great. That looks great, you know,
Speaker 1: and then then you cut and kick goes and you're
Speaker 1: all standing right there, and this was a nervous moment
Speaker 1: for me anyway, and Kate goes, you can't talk, and
Speaker 1: I was just like I was told I can talk.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, Kelly Cantley, who's this tall,
Speaker 1: walks through and she goes, you can talk, and she
Speaker 1: looks at her she goes, he can talk. And then
Speaker 1: she she takes off and then uh, Kate was just
Speaker 1: like oh no, oh no, so and then what happened
Speaker 1: was they didn't have a funny enough line and Greg
Speaker 1: brought me into a d R and I think you
Speaker 1: might have been there. I don't know it was it
Speaker 1: was Angela, but they wanted to add um just a
Speaker 1: couple of dozen more, which a photographer would never say,
Speaker 1: because the whole reason I wouldn't say that is because
Speaker 1: you guys get bored with what's happening and you go
Speaker 1: upstairs brilliant writing. And so I meant, I'm at Universal
Speaker 1: one day and they're like, you need to go do
Speaker 1: a d R. I'm like what. And I went in
Speaker 1: and Angela is doing her thing, and then for some reason,
Speaker 1: Brian and God bless actors, man, God bless you guys.
Speaker 1: I could not say that line to save my life.
Speaker 1: I was. I was a bumbling idiot. It was like
Speaker 1: just a couple dozen more, and and Greg got right
Speaker 1: here and he's like, say it, say it, you could
Speaker 1: say it. And I should have just put my full
Speaker 1: trust in this genius who I had watched for the
Speaker 1: last nineteen years be the most absolute genius and I
Speaker 1: and finally I mumbled it out and the moment I'm done,
Speaker 1: he's all right, we got it. And I turned and
Speaker 1: Rain does like a cop kick in the door and
Speaker 1: he's screaming my line because he was coming into do
Speaker 1: a d R after me, And I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's just have Rain do it. You know. It was
Speaker 1: a funny moment, but my god, I felt like an idiot.
Speaker 1: It is amazing. Do do when you're out with Kate?
Speaker 1: Do people make jokes to you about about dating Meredith?
Speaker 1: They don't even see me? No, you know a few
Speaker 1: things have happened since. Well, first of all, when Syndication happened,
Speaker 1: when it started hitting regular uh like a cable thing, uh,
Speaker 1: Kate started getting bothered all the time by so many people.
Speaker 1: And then when it hit Netflix, she was mid bite
Speaker 1: and people would stop and say, can we get a
Speaker 1: photo of that kind of thing? But now people are
Speaker 1: stopping me like if it's it doesn't happen all the time.
Speaker 1: But somebody goes, hey, weren't you in the finale? I
Speaker 1: saw you in the finale. I've been like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's really weird for me because I'm all about you know,
Speaker 1: I can spot somebody spotting Kate from a mile away.
Speaker 1: And we have a little code word which I'm not
Speaker 1: going to tell you, but it's from the show, a
Speaker 1: little I'm not I'm not going to private. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you private what he'll find out private. But um
Speaker 1: I let her know, okay, in coming, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So, uh, but that's not the code word.
Speaker 1: What's not gonna Kate will be mad at me if
Speaker 1: I tell you. Um, well, listen, I've been talking to people,
Speaker 1: you know for now the last couple of years, which
Speaker 1: has been amazing, and how willing people are now after
Speaker 1: eight years of the show being done talking about it,
Speaker 1: and as you just mentioned, you know, the sustained not
Speaker 1: just success, but you know, as I say, not just survived,
Speaker 1: but it's thriving now all of this time later and
Speaker 1: this exploration that I've been going through. Now we have
Speaker 1: collected it all together and uh, and we're coming out
Speaker 1: with a book that's going to be launched really soon.
Speaker 1: And you are a huge part of that book because
Speaker 1: there are hundreds of never before seeing photos that you
Speaker 1: took on set in some of the most intimate moments
Speaker 1: during the show. So when we started talking about photos
Speaker 1: for the book. I went, wait a second, there was
Speaker 1: a cast book that I understand you helped put together
Speaker 1: at the end of the show. That was like, it
Speaker 1: was one of those things like right in front of
Speaker 1: me the whole time. It's like right in my living
Speaker 1: room on my coffee table. It has been for the
Speaker 1: last eight years. And so I started looking through a book.
Speaker 1: How did how did that come about? That that creation
Speaker 1: of that amazingly beautiful book. That happens a lot, like
Speaker 1: when Will and Grace was wrapping up, I did, Uh,
Speaker 1: I did that. Almost every show doesn't now, And I
Speaker 1: think that that is the greatest gift you can get
Speaker 1: as a rap gift. I mean, that's the great the
Speaker 1: great thing about being a photographer in general. Like even
Speaker 1: if you're at a party or an event, you're going
Speaker 1: to talk to every single person in the room. That
Speaker 1: was my chance to work with every person. And a
Speaker 1: lot of people try to ditch you and not you know,
Speaker 1: but I was pretty sneaky and I was able to
Speaker 1: get people. But yeah, that's that's always something really fun
Speaker 1: to do. It's us so much work, especially at the
Speaker 1: end of a run. But uh, it's yeah, like what
Speaker 1: you're saying right now, it's like it's unbelievable. Well, it's
Speaker 1: it's so, it's so beautiful and so for you know,
Speaker 1: the last eight years, when people you know come over
Speaker 1: to my house and we're talking about the show, always
Speaker 1: refer to the book and they look through it and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh my god, I can't believe you have
Speaker 1: these photos. Well, now everyone in the world can't come
Speaker 1: to my house to look at my book. But now
Speaker 1: so many of these photos are going to be in
Speaker 1: this book. And so I'm we're gonna I feel like
Speaker 1: Conan O'Brien here, but we're gonna play a little game. Okay,
Speaker 1: We're gonna play a little game. Describe that picture hashtag,
Speaker 1: hashtag copyright, hashtag Brian Baumgartner, hashtag the Office, deep dive.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that covers it, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make these photos available on my Instagram so other people
Speaker 1: can can mention it. But I'm gonna show you a
Speaker 1: series of photos and this can be fast round. You
Speaker 1: can say one word, you can describe something that you
Speaker 1: remember from some of these iconic photos of the show.
Speaker 1: So the first photo, Steve Carrell sitting at what looks
Speaker 1: like a dinner party with the st holy girl. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, light up thing behind sign was so bright, man,
Speaker 1: it was so bright, which was the joke. But in
Speaker 1: a still you want the actor to look good, so
Speaker 1: the signs blown out. That was one of the most
Speaker 1: unforgettable nights of my life. I can't even believe how
Speaker 1: hard we laughed. And and that's hard when as the photographer. Man,
Speaker 1: there were tears. Just my whole shirt was wet from
Speaker 1: just laughing so hard with that stupid TV, the plasma TV,
Speaker 1: plasma TV. Yeah, but this was this was intense. You know,
Speaker 1: if I had one word for this intense because that
Speaker 1: fight was intense, I'll try to give you one word answer. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can describe more. I'm just saying it can be fast. Okay,
Speaker 1: photo too, Oh Jesus Christ, Meredith with intense infusing because
Speaker 1: it's never made. There was never a reason in the
Speaker 1: episode of why her face looked like she was dropped
Speaker 1: into a pizza oven. Okay, so so go ahead, you
Speaker 1: can say this is her go ahead. Yeah, so there
Speaker 1: was she got was it sunburned or if we're extremely
Speaker 1: sunburned and we even did a big shot. I hope
Speaker 1: to not ruin another photo, but there's a group shot
Speaker 1: in the warehouse and she looks like this, and um,
Speaker 1: there was no explanation why because the storyline was cut.
Speaker 1: So I think a valuable lessons were learned during this
Speaker 1: episode that you know, if you have something like this,
Speaker 1: you better back it up. Yes, do you. She's just
Speaker 1: as beautiful there as the moment you met her. Beauty
Speaker 1: is skin deep. Brian, Oh no, no, no, she's she's
Speaker 1: she's lovely. She's lovely, all right. Photo three, Okay, a
Speaker 1: group of people, Oh yeah, around a giant one hundred.
Speaker 1: Tell me about this. I think Phyllis's hair speaks for
Speaker 1: all of us. It was so hot and dusty there. Um,
Speaker 1: we were out at the cow. Let me go ranch,
Speaker 1: I think. And you guys, uh, usually when they cut
Speaker 1: a cake like this, they're telling you about your next pickup,
Speaker 1: and that might have been what happened this day. But
Speaker 1: all I knew is I never got any cake. You
Speaker 1: never got any cake, and a gigantic cake like that,
Speaker 1: I know. This is Uh. This was the celebration of
Speaker 1: the hundredth episode, huge milestone in a show huge. I've
Speaker 1: been there for hundreds of them. Yes, Company, Company, picnic
Speaker 1: and you see Greg they're cutting the cake. But yes,
Speaker 1: we were all we were all very very very very
Speaker 1: hot out there in Malibu, alright. Picture four, Oh Jesus,
Speaker 1: Yeah that was scary. Will Ferrell dunking of basketball over
Speaker 1: me sitting on the ground. What do you remember about
Speaker 1: this day? You know what, Brian, and it's I'm not
Speaker 1: bullshitting you, but I could have easily shot that in
Speaker 1: a way to see his face, but I wanted you
Speaker 1: in there looking like you're about to get crushed. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this this was the shot to me, even though he
Speaker 1: used his right hand and covered his face. That was
Speaker 1: a pretty crazy day. Yeah, that was a classic Will
Speaker 1: Ferrell day where you keep you keep checking yourself like
Speaker 1: is this really happening? Yes, he's amazing, he is amazing. Alright,
Speaker 1: this picture here, Picture five, This is our final tablet reading.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was I was crying as hard then as
Speaker 1: I was when Steve left, but just seeing everyone's emotion
Speaker 1: and everything else, and a lot of you guys held
Speaker 1: it together. But again, I've been at a million of
Speaker 1: these things too, a million of the last table read,
Speaker 1: but this one, man, this was like, you know, finding
Speaker 1: out that your grandparents are are both gonna doctor or something.
Speaker 1: I always feel that way at the end of a show.
Speaker 1: It's like there's a death in the family, but we're
Speaker 1: still going to see each other down the road. But
Speaker 1: it's always is that sad. Yeah, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people have this photo and yeah, well, Chris Workman called
Speaker 1: me and said, hey, I'd love to do this gift
Speaker 1: for the cast, and uh he blew it up big.
Speaker 1: But I remember I walked around the entire room made
Speaker 1: sure I get all the faces. But this one has
Speaker 1: so many great expressions and and it was you know,
Speaker 1: and Chris just blew it up for everybody, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's hanging in everyone's house. And that's how
Speaker 1: I I love to to judge my work by not
Speaker 1: how much money I make or where my pictures are published,
Speaker 1: but where they're hanging. That's important to me. That's awesome. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: picture six and seven, oh Man, rough night. H that
Speaker 1: was a very touching moment when she took that off
Speaker 1: the wall. Um, but you know, I everyone always posts
Speaker 1: pictures like the one on the right of you know,
Speaker 1: when Steve laft I shot that famous shot at him
Speaker 1: with the slate and uh and I got a wide
Speaker 1: shot and everyone are bawling their eyes out so hard.
Speaker 1: This was the equivalent of that. I do have another
Speaker 1: picture of Pam doing the very last shot was Pam's
Speaker 1: talking head. It doesn't appear and the show. That is
Speaker 1: the last thing that I think her taking the picture. No,
Speaker 1: it's as by the tree outside, right, But anyway, I
Speaker 1: was outside of the conference room and I have a
Speaker 1: photograph of everyone's silhouetted watching that final Have I not
Speaker 1: sent that to you? It's everyone watching her talking head
Speaker 1: through the window of the conference room. It's a beautiful shot.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it, but I'll send it to I'll
Speaker 1: send it to Yeah, Chris, thank you so much, oh
Speaker 1: my pleasure for talking, for being so candid and open
Speaker 1: about your no, your experience, not just on our show,
Speaker 1: but but your time I'm at NBC. I appreciate you
Speaker 1: and your friendship. So thank you so much for coming
Speaker 1: in and talking to me. And Yeah, onwards and upwards
Speaker 1: to the next show, right to the next office on NBC.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if anything will rise to that occasion,
Speaker 1: but we'll see, all right. Thanks, thanks buddy, And there
Speaker 1: you have it. What a guy, Chris Daddy. Oh, it
Speaker 1: was so great having you on. Thank you for sharing
Speaker 1: your story with all of us. And I know that
Speaker 1: you're a fan of this podcast, So my only question
Speaker 1: is after today, what is your favorite episode? To all
Speaker 1: of you listeners out there, thanks for coming back. Now.
Speaker 1: If you come back next Tuesday, then you'll find we'll
Speaker 1: be talking to another man that you all have been
Speaker 1: dying to hear from. Hint, his first name starts with
Speaker 1: the same letter as Chris's. Five seconds, okay, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you it's Craig. Craig Robinson, the funniest man I have
Speaker 1: ever seen on a stand up stage. That's right, Mr
Speaker 1: Darryl Philbin himself. But until then, have a great week everyone.
Speaker 1: The Office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
Speaker 1: me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our
Speaker 1: producers for this episode are Liz Hayes and Diego Tapia.
Speaker 1: My main man in the booth is Colin Tadeshi. Our
Speaker 1: theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great friend
Speaker 1: Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by Seth o'landski.
Speaker 1: Have you ever felt depressed about work only to have
Speaker 1: your dad be like, why you're so down, So you
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