If, after all these years, you’re still streaming The Office on a loop, stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have a gift for you. The actors and IRL best friends, who played frenemies Pam Beesley and Angela Martin on the NBC comedy for nine seasons, have reunited in the form of their podcast, Office Ladies. In it, they excitedly recount their time on the show and regale listeners with tales and tidbits from their filming days. The two stars have been teasing this project for weeks on their respective Instagram accounts and now the first episode of Office Ladies is finally here, complete with a new rendition of the show’s theme song. Cue the nostalgia, folks.
Since it’s episode one of the podcast, the 50-minute conversation finds Fischer and Kinsey doing a parallel deep dive into the pilot. They’re sharing stories from their audition days, how they prepared for it, first impressions, and details of how certain scenes came to be, including Michael’s 22-second Six Million Dollar Man slow-motion walk and Jim’s stapler in Jell-O prank. They also dish on Angela’s descent into crazy cat lady and how pilot director Ken Kwapis made the cast decorate their desks with their own personal items.
They also can’t stop giggling about their initial interactions with Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute., beet farmer and assistant to the regional manager. Fischer recalls meeting him during the audition process for the first time when he was fully in character. “I remember thinking this is the weirdest person I have ever met,” she says. For Kinsey, the interaction she remembers most from the filming of the pilot involved Wilson introducing his then-pregnant wife: “This is the woman who is carrying my seed.” Pfft, totally something Dwight would also say.
Most importantly, they make clear, the fandom would be wise to applaud Stephen Merchant, who co-created the BBC’s Office with Ricky Gervais that inspired the American version. Before they started filming, Merchant and Gervais met for lunch with the core cast—Fischer, Wilson, Steve Carrell, John Krasinski, B.J. Novak—and creator Greg Daniels. Merchant advised them that the American version should definitely focus more on the heart of the show: Jim and Pam’s relationship. Remember that the next time you’re weeping during “Niagara.”.
You can listen to the first episode here.
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