"Inside The Office" Panel Discussion 2009 (FULL)

hi everybody I used to be a professional moderator so this is pretty easy for me well let's start at the beginning with Daniel's the of the American version does that qualify or drive you crazy no the beginning is is thirty years before I came along and the actual creators of the show were River Basin Stephen Merchant from from England what was the development process like of the show and and how were you brought into it well there had a show I got a tape of it from my agent and watched it and thought it was a really cool brilliant show and didn't really think it would ever be on American television but I thought it'd be a cool meeting to take just to meet those guys and then it turned out that they were big fans of American television in general and specifically of the Simpsons and they had really liked an episode that I'd written of The Simpsons and we kind of got along and eventually I was hired to adapt their work and Steve at what point did you come into the process because this this show is so sort of dependent on your character I still haven't come into the progress well I I auditioned like everybody else and the auditions were very different than any other show I'd ever auditioned for they were more of a workshop and you never got to see generally when you get to a point you know a network audition when there there will be a bunch of people from the network sort of weighing in on on how it's going this was very unlike that it was just Ken wapis and the other actors and a camera and he really shot the audition like a documentary so that that was sort of my first taste as to what it would be like but I met with Greg and we talked briefly before I auditioned probably a week or so before but I had never seen the show I'd only heard how great it was and I kept my I didn't for the sole purpose that I heard it was so great and that Ricky was so fantastic that did and I would have an inclination to copy him if I watched it and I essentially I would I try to emulate what he did and I wanted to try to go in with as clean as slate as I could you just not watch the English one I won't watch it until we're done with this here oh you've never seen any of them no because I know he'll be so great it'll make me sick so I well then as as passed built I mean how how was the cast built sort of in what like how was it you know how would the space is filled and sort of what kind of timing Steve actually was the first person suggested for the role and we said all that sounds great let's just hire our casting director first and then we'll we'll take a meeting when some soon as she's on board and Alison Jones was the casting director who cast freaks and geeks and I was very interested in working with her after Freaks and Geeks I thought that was the best cast TV show I had seen in years and everything so we managed to get her interested in the project I think the first person that we hired was BJ and BJ was a great stand-up comedian that still is and I had seen him I thought he was a great person to have an intern at he was also a comedy writer so we hired him as a writer and an actor and that started the the mini tradition of writer performers that that we had and I and then then I guess we the next person I think was Kent Pappas who joined the team who was our director and would be great if he was here directed the pilot and many of the great first episodes and he had really been interested to hire because he had started Larry Sanders and the shooting style and Larry Sanders and the kind of spirit of that show I thought would be good to have somebody like that on board and then as as Steve pointed out we did a lot of screen tests with a cast like this I mean that so much of the writing seems to be tailored to the personalities of the people and it all and it seems and I think it's one of the strengths of the show is that everybody seems to be speaking in a that even at least us sitting at home seems like their own I remember the leap that we made when we did the batch of episodes 2 through 6 were very different I think the pilot was very strong and got us on the air but after that when the staff got together and started breaking the rest of the stories having seen Steve Carell and Jenna and John and rain and caught glimpses of all these other people it was easier to picture how even if Steve was ignorant of Ricky's what was different between Ricky and what he ended up doing we could picture Steve in the role in not Ricky and it became much easier to write and sort of little nuances or quirks of the characters could of the actors could become quarks of the characters I think the writer performer thing is a big is a big deal and that's that was something that got us into trouble often in the sense that from the writers room it would get severely depopulated in the middle of the season when you know BJ and Mindy and Paul were all on stage and so that was that would be tough but but I think that the good thing about it is is that people who you know there was a lot of commingling of the two groups and my experience with bad TV is that often with bad TV there's two camps and the writers don't trust the actors and the actors don't trust the writers right well Paul can you talk about that like it was there the difficulty of being a writer performer I mean is it were you just writing things for yourself like you know all these big dance number things like that I've almost never read something for myself Mindy Mindy's kind of a the king of Toby I think I thought you're going to say she just writes first I think Greg's idea to get the writer to to break down this wall as part of his concept and which were you members which did you consider writer I've been a writer for a long time now and this is the first acting I've ever done and I go and I kind of show show Toby's rules of acting mounted on the wall and they in the writers room and his rules of acting is it Toby's or Paul all the bags acting go through I can't remember all of that there's uh I think rain if you have a water bottle on the table you have to bring it underneath the table as if it might not be cleared don't uh don't react don't react to anything that's going on don't laugh don't laugh break don't laugh Oh remember you would have a coffee mug in one scene and then I was learning slowly that wasn't even part of it I was shocked I was actually shocked when Brian brought that up for the first time like maybe mill season three like look at the way your city okay then after about 30 ever our teams are pretty worried about that that's someone else's job it's something within a clinic or to say that actually foster a goal that might be a good time for Dave to comment I've no comment well actually it is it is it does bring up an interesting thing with such a naturalistic show with people kind of just I mean I know because Kate and I have been friends for a million years she's told me like there is a lot of computer solitaire seriously being played there so there's a lot of people I think just living I mean it does that present a lot of problems for you or there's a whole thing on the CD he's the editor by the way so you build you guys struggling oh they got that in the intros I think Creed Creed's character is the only one who he plays solitaire you can see it on his screen and he's like we're allowed to see his everybody else you know they call action they have to you know change their screens but they're I mean these guys will tell you on the set it's fully functional with instant messaging and email and and stuff like that I'm like gambling I thanks the war but uh and put on porn he says like but the cast doing things like they're they're pretty good matching you know I'm always looking for takes where you know they do something they have to you know do it again the same way so I can cross between takes and our show has a lot of improv in it but I mean I can't say enough about this cast what you see on the air is 2130 hours sent hour at first assemblies like 38 minutes I mean so these are long long shows but I mean they they do a great job everybody you know really just great reign the character that you play Dwight is the the your English analog I don't know the actor's name I Mackenzie Crook McKenzie yeah had you ever seen him before uh before you passed him and unlike Steve I had I watched every episode of the BBC show and I tried to copy him as much because he was so friggin brilliant I just do a very bad job of imitating the Iraqi I don't think will you so that's how we ended up with you but when you started out wasn't was that not a daunting sort of task is that just a dumb question yeah oh it's terrifying he's so singular looking and an odd in his own way and it's like uh you know I'm obviously a little bit singular looking and out in my own way but I needed to find a way to make it you know come to life yeah I really I you know I kind of joked about this in interviews and stuff before but I really think for me like no I'm Alyssa I was a theatre actor for ten years in New York before I did any TV or or film or anything like that and you know I really think that for me it really started with the haircut and they got picking the right glasses and kind of went all when the short sleeve shirt and the calculator watch and everything like I kind of feel like my grandmother could play Dwight you know you have the little clip and the thing and like anyone can do it try it try it go home Jim and Jenna how is it being sort of like the romantic engine of a sitcom I mean it just it would seem to have its pluses and minuses go romantic engine well you know I'm gonna literally like are they or aren't any morrow well you know what I mean like the it's the are they or aren't they you know it that kind of real you know like the promo department's dream come true I mean what did that feel like to have so much attention on that and and what did you end up getting out in the real world as it was going on I guess I could make a joke but I can't because I'm not quick enough but also also because you know the truth is I've said this a hundred times and it's absolutely true unlike what other people have said especially for Jenna and I think it's all writers 100% all the time I mean these people committed to this relationship as being super dynamic in its own way and also extremely subtle in its own way and you know I just remember that one episode when we were on the booze cruise and when I saw the episode and they had allowed that incredibly long pause when one character really wanted to say that he loved Pam and then he couldn't I just thought from then on I have full and total trust in anything they have to do because anybody who can take that bigger risk and they don't write for ratings and they don't write for drama they don't write for what anybody wants to see they're right for what's real for the character namely brave and and it's just an incredibly be for up we go and there's a lot of other romances that have come out on the show too there's you know the love triangle of Angela and Dwight and Andy and um you know the the Ryan and Kelly and Michael and Ryan so I don't I don't feel like we're like this loan engine I think one of the neat things about the show is that they sort of investigate the there's comedy but then all these people are all striving for love and you know connection and that comes out a lot Edie what can I do for you Andy Richter how was it coming into something that was already up and running like this I'll say for my part it was very daunting because I was already a big fan of the show and I was very anxious it's very excited because I loved the show but but I was very nervous because I didn't know how I would fit into the kind of vibe and very early on like my second episode or something and if you recall my my I was introduced to the show in one of Jim's sort of storylines off at the Stanford branch and I said I was sort of opening up to John somehow about my anxiety and just sort of feeling that like nervous about it and and he was like come dude we're all here like to support you or something like than that but yeah that was way more I bet you said dude you know there's something like we're a basket and you just feel like you can Nestle into it or something are you talking about a basket I don't think anyway but it actually it was such a nice sentiment and it was so genuine and it totally put me at ease and then as I got more kind of entrenched in the show and I moved over to this Grant in office and kind of got to know more people it was sort of I think it was nice to have a slow introduction to because it didn't over it wasn't overwhelming for me or anyone so it was scary at first and then ultimately amazing Angela if I can include both you guys in this you guys characters tend to kind of insane a little bit do people kind of expect you to be your character out in the world I would think sometimes people are afraid to approach me which is just so silly to me but I realized they are only seeing me as Angela Martin in real life I'm a little bit of a goofball and usually then when they do come up and finally say hi then I overshare and it's awkward I'll be at Target and someone's finally like oh my gosh it's it's you and it's nice to meet you I'm like oh really how are you where'd you get those flip-flops are they owned I'll talk I didn't see them and I really wanted to make beads Beth what's going on how are you here's what you mil I mean it's weird Jen hi ensalada who is a writer on the show well producer wait you bet you're right is there usual Genesis for the ideas for each episode are they based on like a you know like a plot point on a comedy bit or do they come from different places they I guess they can come from anywhere I mean it's like you can see there's like a unusual kind of quirk or something happened you know in real life and then you you know bring that in and um trying to think of an example any other right maybe that great one so nice I don't know the I am ii don't know sometimes i mean i think the you know the actors inspire a lot of ideas just you know through you know their characters and what anybody think of something that happened on set that became a that became a script sometimes we accidentally called greg because he's our boss is a writer michael that will happen sometimes yeah yeah we'll do that it's so humiliating and you feel terrible because what were the connotations greg used to do this thing or we could get hot in the writers room and you try to take off his outer layer his fleece and he'd do that thing where he kind of pulled off all of his layers right like his naked torso open and we were like oh it was so weird yeah later Michael and Pam accidentally when you said come in to the office you saw his penis and fun rug so we'll take an event that is just a mildly awkward sometimes and we'll exaggerate it to something that's like truly horrifying I love that I head on I'd like to recreate that scene for you too well Brian tell me what it was like to start out as as one of the supporting characters and as time went on obviously taking more of the the plot load I mean how that I always thought of myself as the lead before I had seen all of the episodes of the British version and it was so in love with it and actually had had just I like rain again had been doing theatre for about about 10 years and had just moved to Los Angeles about three months before the office started and I knew the British version and I heard that NBC was going to do it and I decided that that was the show that I was going to be on and it's a gray area now Frank really weird Greg and I talked about this but not for a long long time but I actually came in to read for the role of Stanley but I had seen and I was a cannibal and I was actually you guys probably are constantly getting cast in each other that was the resemblance well and I was a much much better Stanley but anyway I I had seen the British version and I knew what the American version was and I had read and I went in to see Alison Jones again who was fantastic and Phyllis and I they gave me Stanley and I knew that if I was going to get cast in the show that it was going to be as the Kevin character so I I went in and read the role of Stanley like how I saw Kevin mm-hmm and was lucky enough that they saw something in that too right they let me come back yeah Phyllis uh who was well go ahead you why was the casting associate on the show oh wow yeah I did not know that they did all this know little train was actually the first person to audition I believe for producers and you said no I actually was being auditioned for the show and didn't know it I was being was a casting associate and I actually was reading with John and some other guy that was auditioning for Dwight who didn't make it and and I had no idea but I believe I don't know brick where did you had Jeremy live with me in the early Verdi tests you read the character of Dwight in my get in scenes with John and I did such a great job that's why you didn't want him yes I was going for Dwight I think it would have made an excellent way I think that the as soon as we realize that that was even a possibility everybody was very excited by but I think Ken coppice was the one actually that he actually loved the idea first yeah Randall Einhorn is the director of photography on the side now this show is about kind of the mundane nature of office life I mean there's it's obviously has its hills and valleys comedic Lee but but at its root it's about you know the mundane nature is it hard to make a mundane themed show pretty I enjoy observing people and I think it's a very just kind of sit back and take it off type of thing and looking for the beauty in such a mundane place that being said we don't really strive to make the office look beautiful because I think it should be about that place which is a little oppressive and mundane but there is some beauty that happens there and that's between the people austere high you have the odd distinction of being the one openly gay character in the show which by the way did not come from anything real that may or may have happened totally fabricated by mr. Daniels I don't know you got a you know that whole protest too much then you got to be careful with that Touche now does that does that overlap into real life ever I mean do you find yourself now let's come up and kiss me and then they asked are you I'm like I'm not gay I just play it but thank you um no it doesn't people get it they know we're yeah yeah characters and and yeah it's so at what point in the run of the show did you know huh the third how did you did you find out that in fact your character was gay and had you been playing him gay all along I was just play him regular and I felt I was a little bit nervous about it and John Krasinski came up and he said or another essay you're a little piece of candy and we're pinata I was just playing regular and then there was a rumor people where you're gonna make the character gay and I'm like that's ridiculous I think the writers think I'm gay I think they do Jenn no I forgot there was a room and they're like they're gonna make him gay and then the strip the physical script was there the where I became gay and then Greg Daniels comes up to mangoes Oscar c'mere yeah I mean on the desk and he's like do you mind if we make a cast about the script what you think he's gonna not write it let me ask you but uh but yeah I mean I don't care I'm like yeah that's great and it was funny cuz he was I don't know if you remember he was very anxious about the script you kept asking me he's a good script and I'm like it's not a good script it's a great script it's a great script and yeah and that's it they made him gay and then I had to like like not be gay because I was you're right I was playing him already as a person so I'm like it's just the same person Kate tell me about how your character Meredith like how I mean it obviously started out smaller and then it you found out more and more about Meredith and and tell me about your just guy like discovering her what that was like well it's it's funny I found out I was going to flash Michael and be topless but basically like two days before it happens so I didn't have time to like get in shape or anything good uh you know um yeah they really are getting in shape that you can do for your breasts like getting back in shape oh alright that like fat back but you know that was kind of a major shock to the system but you know it's like you know by the third I've been out oppas three times and now like the last time was with like with Harold Ramos or thank him why thank you so much what Harold Ramis was directing it and I was really close to him cuz it was during a talk talking head and by that time I'm like oh no we got to get the side of the boob otherwise a joke is lost can we just you know I'm like suddenly I'm an expert in how to be topless it's really good but why that was interesting is like last season sort of a season I I got like very accident-prone and you know when I heard I was getting hit by car was actually nervous that I was like I actually asked if I was going to make it because I didn't know and you know I I don't know I think getting hit by a car was kind of the best thing that ever happened to me agreed do you always understand what your character is doing this this times when you do stuff and I have no idea what it's about I'd like to set this straight first of all I'm actually in my late 40s this makeup is like I'm like these still Getty of these people here and I'm in this show finally runs it's I will be like fifty years old right right we'll go on outlive them all and I am British uh-huh and I had to work very hard to lose the accent sure so but no Cree doesn't have a clue yeah yeah I don't have a clue like a couple episodes ago he left the blood ban obviously shovel pocket what was he going to do with that pudding okay Grizzard ms blood uh it was everybody's blood you know actually I Randall I cries like they're well I came under and I said it reads gotta steal something he said I got it covered you steal a bag of blood yeah I said great okay that was a book Leslie or the last serves what you prefer Leslie um as as a kind of the complaint well no I think the complainer of oh well he doesn't complain early but Stanley's always there front and center with the with the question about you know Ann Lee is the bottom line of what the worst possible scenario sub-conscience sees a sharp shooter each this right they are serving this time in the trenches until he can be liberated by retirement all right well that blows the question I so I because I was I was just going to say like you ever sort of get worried that you know that the writing staff used you as someone who's just too good complaining no they've all worked in corporate America they know what it's like so there's lotsa surley yet to come have you worked in corporate america god yes yeah yeah I was just drawing on a lot of drawing on a lot of insanity and get to bring all of that pathology and actually act it out and get a paycheck for it yeah wonderfully cathartic I'm if the show were to come out today would it have the possibility of staying on the air you know uh I frankly and Greg was talking about casting and assembling all of these people I give him so much credit for for I I don't why I mean I think it all starts with him and I I think it speaks to the success of the show that that five years in we all really like each other a lot and not just cast but crew everybody gets along incredibly well and that started with Greg Greg new to choose not only are you embarrassed please don't use name shoes people not only you know based on how he thought they would be on the show but I think also the dynamic that they would work together personally and I it's I played such an overused and cliche kind of thing to say but it does feel like a family and we do look forward to seeing each other every day so I think I think that comes through as well and I think that helps in the work that helps with the writing because the writers and the actors are all friends as well and we we understand each other to a certain extent where is the show going I mean what what what can we look forward to syndication that's right hundred episodes right I believe we'll see how again in the season finale I go meet up car radio standard television obstacles people get what they want sometimes not other time way to sell it dude I know I know it's a it's a lousy question like where do you see it going it's a no I'm the BS question from a BS moderator right I don't know stop it stop you haven't ever fun but actually that is we have hit our allotted time I'd like to thank you all for coming out and I'd like to thank you all for being here and for having me do this and keep making such a wonderful wonderful show there there aren't enough of them on the air and it's it's a it's a fantastic place to stop and rest thank you very much

Channel: CheesyPita

Views: 1,537,252

Keywords: the office, dunder mifflin, steve carell, rainn wilson, john krasinski, jenna fischer, brian baumgartner, angela kinsey, leslie david baker, mindy kaling, bj novak, greg daniels, paul lieberstein, oscar nunez, creed bratton, kate flannery, phyllis smith, ed helms, michael scott, dwight schrute, jim halpert, pam beesly, pam halpert, jim and pam, the office cast, andy bernard, behind the scenes, interview, writers, hollywood, q&a

Id: zER6ms8noB4

Length: 30min 2sec (1802 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 06 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Orphan_Babies]

Thanks for the time stamp

[u/evanthesquirrel]

Why so many The Office TIL today?

[u/bobbysr]

Qualbity..quabity.....

[u/curzon176]

Is this "What people in the background of The Office were doing during filming" week?

[u/ElBomberoLoco]

Angela is so much hotter out of character.

[u/thatguysteveb]

That's probably the most Creed thing to do.

[u/ExtraSmooth]

Creed Bratton (that's the actor's real name) was also a member of the band "The Grass Roots" in the 1960s, who had a major hit with "Midnight Confessions" in 1968.

[u/EmptySavage]

And probably stroking it under the desk...

[u/MTAlphawolf]

Merideth's screen always has soliare on it too. Nothing else.