EP. 29 — Gay Witch Hunt w/ Oscar Nuñez

OFFICE-029-20200420-GayWitchhunt-SKv07-DYN.mp3

[00:00:04] JENNA FISCHER I’m Jenna Fischer.

[00:00:05] ANGELA KINSEY I’m Angela Kinsey.

[00:00:06] JENNA FISCHER We were on “The Office” together.

[00:00:07] ANGELA KINSEY And we’re best friends.

[00:00:08] JENNA FISCHER And now we’re doing the Ultimate Office re-watch podcast just for you.

[00:00:12] ANGELA KINSEY Each week we will break down an episode of “The Office” and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

[00:00:19] JENNA FISCHER We’re the “Office Ladies”. Angela Kinsey.

[00:00:27] ANGELA KINSEY Hi Jenna Fischer.

[00:00:28] JENNA FISCHER We are on Season 3 of “The Office”.

[00:00:31] ANGELA KINSEY Can you believe it?

[00:00:32] JENNA FISCHER Can you believe we’ve broken down two full seasons and here we are about to start breaking down Season 3?

[00:00:39] ANGELA KINSEY I can’t believe it. I feel like maybe it’s because we’re having such a good time that it just went by so fast.

[00:00:44] JENNA FISCHER This is Season 3, Episode 1, “Gay Witch Hunt”.

[00:00:48] ANGELA KINSEY This is a pretty big episode because we had some very juicy Season 2 cliffhangers.

[00:00:54] JENNA FISCHER This episode was written by Greg Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis. And this is kind of significant because Ken Kwapis directed the Season finale, “Casino Night”. So it was really great that we had the same director directing all those cliffhangers and then directing all of the answers here in our Season 3 opener, I think.

[00:01:15] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah, I think that’s really important, you guys, because, you know, Ken so knew the world and we felt so protected by him as actors. And I felt like you and John really had to put yourself out there. So then I think it’s great that Ken was there with you to sort of get you to the other side of that story.

[00:01:32] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. There were certain directors that always made me feel particularly safe and protected and free to play around. And that one of those was Ken, for sure.

[00:01:43] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:01:43] JENNA FISCHER All right. I have a summary for this episode. Here we go. “Gay Witch Hunt”. Michael-.

[00:01:49] ANGELA KINSEY You didn’t ask me if I wanted a summary.

[00:01:52] JENNA FISCHER I didn’t.

[00:01:52] ANGELA KINSEY You told me to point it out.

[00:01:54] JENNA FISCHER You gave me such grief on that other podcast about asking if I should give a summary or asking if I should give Fast Facts. And I got all in my head about it. So now I’m just doing it. I just plowing forward.

[00:02:05] ANGELA KINSEY OK, as your BFF, now it just tickles me and delights me when you say, “Angela, would you’d like to hear a summary”?

[00:02:13] JENNA FISCHER All right. Angela, would you like to hear a summary?

[00:02:16] ANGELA KINSEY I really would.

[00:02:17] JENNA FISCHER Well, in “Gay Witch Hunt”, Michael gets in trouble for using homosexual slurs at work. This results in an H.R. nightmare. Toby has to deal with him and Oscar is reluctantly forced out of the closet. Meanwhile, we watch Jim adjust to his new life and new job in Stamford.

[00:02:39] ANGELA KINSEY That was a fantastic summary.

[00:02:41] JENNA FISCHER All right. Let’s-. Angela, can I do Fast Facts?

[00:02:43] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:02:44] JENNA FISCHER Oh, yay. OK. Fast. Fact Number One: we’ve got two big new characters on the show. We have Andy Bernard, played by Ed Helms and Karen Filippelli, played by Rashida Johnes.

[00:02:56] ANGELA KINSEY Yes. This is a big deal, you guys. Big deal. They’re gonna be with us for a while. As you know, fans of the show, and we were really excited.

[00:03:06] JENNA FISCHER Oh, this was so cool. So I had a chance to talk to Ed Helms.

[00:03:11] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:03:12] JENNA FISCHER And-.

[00:03:13] ANGELA KINSEY I love him.

[00:03:14] JENNA FISCHER I know. We got on the phone and we chitty chatted about his debut on “The Office” and he told me a bunch of really cool stuff.

[00:03:21] ANGELA KINSEY And I texted with Rashida. So I’ve got some really great Karen behind the scenes stuff to share with you guys.

[00:03:28] JENNA FISCHER I love it. All right. So here’s what Ed told me. Ed told me it was a huge fan of the original BBC “Office”. And he said not very many people know this. He originally auditioned in New York for the role of Jim.

[00:03:45] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, I didn’t know that. I mean.

[00:03:46] JENNA FISCHER Me either.

[00:03:47] ANGELA KINSEY It makes sense, right?

[00:03:48] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:03:48] ANGELA KINSEY It makes sense. That he was sort of, of that group of actors at the time. But I didn’t know that.

[00:03:52] JENNA FISCHER He said he didn’t get the role, obviously, but he heard that Steve got the lead role of Michael Scott. And he was so excited because he had worked with Steve on “The Daily Show”.

[00:04:00] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:04:01] JENNA FISCHER So they were kind of friends. They knew one another. He said this made him so excited for our American version of the show. And he watched it and he loved it. And then somewhere near the end of Season 2, he got a phone call to meet with Greg Daniels and Paul Liberstein about a new character that they wanted to introduce in Season 3. He said the meeting went great. He absolutely loved the character of Andy. He also told me that he was originally only asked to do a total of eight episodes on the show because they thought that the Stamford storyline would not necessarily end in a merger and that his character would be finished after Jim returned back to Dunder Mifflin. That was the plan that Jim would eventually return. But this idea that the other Stamford characters would return wasn’t quite in the works yet. But he also told me that they weren’t totally sure about leaving Jim separated for so long so they would only hire him in two episode chunks.

[00:05:00] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, my gosh.

[00:05:01] JENNA FISCHER Yes. So they said like, OK, we’re going to probably keep you for eight, but we’ll only hire you for two episodes at a time. And he was living in New York at the time.

[00:05:10] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:05:10] JENNA FISCHER So he came out to L.A. He said he stayed at the Sportsman’s Lodge in North Hollywood. You know, the Sportsman’s Lodge, Ang.

[00:05:18] ANGELA KINSEY I do. I do know the Sportsman’s Lodge. I mean-.

[00:05:20] JENNA FISCHER How would you describe the Sportsman’s Lodge?

[00:05:22] ANGELA KINSEY I would describe the Sportsman’s Lodge as sort of like a retro, could maybe be cool motel.

[00:05:29] JENNA FISCHER It reminds me of the place where they stay in the movie “Vacation” when Christie Brinkley jumps in the swimming pool with Clark Griswald.

[00:05:37] ANGELA KINSEY Yes, yes. “Good talk, Russ. Good talk”.

[00:05:38] JENNA FISCHER It’s a famous old hotel in California.

[00:05:41] ANGELA KINSEY It does have some folklore, though, because like when I got here, I drove past it. And I was with like a friend I met in like an acting class and they were like, “You know, every day when John Wayne was done on the set. He would go to the bar Sportsman’s Lodge and have a whiskey”. I was like, “No way”. It was like I had to go to the bar there.

[00:05:59] JENNA FISCHER Well, it was originally built so that people could hunt like ducks and stuff. Like there was a whole pond that was part of the Sportsman’s Lodge and they had a diner, a breakfast diner, and Angela, there are pictures of John Wayne all over this diner.

[00:06:18] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. Didn’t we once meet there and have breakfast together?

[00:06:20] JENNA FISCHER I’m sure we did.

[00:06:21] ANGELA KINSEY Anyway. So that’s where Ed was living.

[00:06:23] JENNA FISCHER That’s where Ed was living. He said he rented a convertible, a Sebring. He’s pretty sure he basically rented Michael Scott’s car because he was like, I’m in California. I’m gonna rent a convertible. I just found that so charming. But he said that by about the sixth episode, they came and offered him a deal to stay for the whole rest of the Season. And he was really excited and he moved to California.

[00:06:45] ANGELA KINSEY I love that.

[00:06:46] JENNA FISCHER And then, Angela, I have a few little more things to share about Ed, but I will sprinkle that into the episode.

[00:06:53] ANGELA KINSEY You sprinkle those in. I’m going to sprinkle in my Rashida tidbits. I will say that I love Rashida. Jenna, we were so excited to have her on set. We would hang out in your trailer like-.

[00:07:05] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:07:05] ANGELA KINSEY When the guys were playing their Madden football or whatever. We would all hang out in your trailer. And she’s just like such an amazing, genuine, smart, like woman. I just adore her.

[00:07:19] JENNA FISCHER Oh, Angela. I feel like we had a huge girl crush on her.

[00:07:22] ANGELA KINSEY We did.

[00:07:23] JENNA FISCHER We a little bit followed her around because I remember at first we didn’t have any scenes with her and we didn’t even see her, but we would see her at the table reads. And then we, I have a picture of us holding our scripts. The three of us and taking our lunch to my trailer. And that’s what we did for the first six weeks. We would just see her at the table read, but then we would bring her to my trailer and we would just pepper her with questions because she is like, gosh, she is such a force. Right?

[00:07:50] ANGELA KINSEY She’s just cool. She’s really cool.

[00:07:53] JENNA FISCHER She’s cool and nice.

[00:07:55] ANGELA KINSEY And you and I, you and I. Let’s face it, we were kind of dorks growing up.

[00:07:59] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:07:59] ANGELA KINSEY And so we got to hang out with like someone really cool, We were excited.

[00:08:01] JENNA FISCHER She upped our game, for sure.

[00:08:04] ANGELA KINSEY She upped our game.

[00:08:05] JENNA FISCHER Let’s move on to Fast Fact Fact Number Two: we filmed this episode in late July and over the summer break in early July, we were nominated for an Emmy Award for “Best Comedy Series” for Season 2 of “The Office”.

[00:08:20] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:08:21] JENNA FISCHER This was such a whirlwind time. We were suddenly like on the map and nominated for this award and it was crazy. You remember how surreal that was?

[00:08:31] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:32] JENNA FISCHER Well, do you also remember that while we were shooting this episode, we also had to film a promo for the Emmy Awards. They were being hosted by Conan O’Brien and he came to our set one day. Do you remember that?

[00:08:44] ANGELA KINSEY I do. And you know, Conan and Greg were good friends, so we were, you know, excited to have him there. And I have a photo. I don’t know why it’s in black and white, but I sort of went through this phase where I would buy black and white film for my camera. Old-School camera, guys, where you had to buy film. And I have a black and white photo of us all standing around Conan on our set.

[00:09:04] JENNA FISCHER Well, I looked up this Emmy promo on YouTube and it’s there. If you guys want to look at it, it’s actually really funny. So also at this time, the TV show “Lost” was a really big deal. And so the beginning of this promo is Conan on an airplane that crashes into the water. And then he gets out onto a beach and he runs into cast members from “Lost”. And he’s like, “I’m hosting the Emmys. I have to get to the Emmys”. And then he goes over to the hatch and he opens up the hatch and he gets in. But when he comes out of the hatch, he comes out of our ceiling right down onto the desks in “The Office”. And then we have this whole scene. And I had this really cool moment where he and I trade looks the way Jim and Pam trade looks. And then he does a talking head about the receptionist and how he wishes he could stay. But he’s got to get to the Emmys. Oh, my gosh. It like it was so cool. It was so cool.

[00:10:02] ANGELA KINSEY I love it. I love it.

[00:10:03] JENNA FISCHER But it is really funny because then he just keeps going through like all the sets of all the different shows that were nominated that year. And that was like, that felt big, to be part of some Emmy montage and to be nominated. I just figured there was a big buzz all across the set when we came back to work from the summer.

[00:10:21] ANGELA KINSEY All right. Jenna hit me with a Fast Fact Number Three.

[00:10:23] JENNA FISCHER All right. Fast Fact Number Three. So in this episode, you guys know it opens with Jim no longer working in Scranton. He still works for Dunder Mifflin, but he’s working at the Stamford branch now in Connecticut. We got a lot of questions about the Stamford branch. “Where were the Stamford branch scenes actually filmed? And then, can you describe how things were filmed with these two different offices and the fact that John wasn’t working with you guys for a bunch of episodes? Did he film in the same location? Did he miss you guys? Did you miss him? Give us all the details, please. Thank you”.

[00:11:00] ANGELA KINSEY That’s a good question. Yes.

[00:11:03] JENNA FISCHER Well, I’ll say the Stamford branch was over on our warehouse set. It was just in that other building. We had two big soundstages and one soundstage was completely dedicated to the Scranton branch and the other soundstage was our warehouse set. And also what we called our swingset. So anytime we had to build, for example, the New York offices, they had a section of the warehouse that they could put up the New York offices. And then they would take them down. And then like when Pam goes to the hospital and has her baby or when Angela and Oscar move in together, that’s where they put Oscar’s apartment. That’s where they put the hospital. Right? It was the little swingset area. And so that’s where Stamford was built.

[00:11:47] ANGELA KINSEY And I remember when they built the Stamford set. I remember us being like, holy crap, look how fancy it is. It looked more modern and a little bit more sleek. I was like, is Dunder-Mifflin like the old branch? Like Stamford looks a little fancy. Fancy Stamford.

[00:12:04] JENNA FISCHER I know. I looked at-. You know, I love to look at the backdrops that are owned or fake windows.

[00:12:09] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:12:10] JENNA FISCHER Jim talks about the view in Stamford and it’s gre-, like they’re clearly up in like this big high rise building.

[00:12:17] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:12:17] JENNA FISCHER It’s really quite nice out that window.

[00:12:19] ANGELA KINSEY And all their desks are new and the desk chairs are new. And the lamps. It’s like Stamford’s nicer.

[00:12:26] JENNA FISCHER Well, I did trade some e-mails with Kent Zbornak, Kent-apedia and he said that when we got this order for Season 3, we got a little more money in our budget.

[00:12:36] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, did we?

[00:12:37] JENNA FISCHER Yes. And Aaron Currington Smith wrote in to say, “It really seems like starting in Season 3 of the show branches out. We go to Stamford. But you guys also film a lot more outside of the actual office. Was that a conscious decision”? Kent told me we were able to do that because we got this bump in our budget.

[00:12:58] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:12:58] JENNA FISCHER You’re going to see a lot more episodes where we go on location and they were able to build a really nice Stamford branch, all because we had a little bit more money to work with, now that we were Emmy nominated and all.

[00:13:09] ANGELA KINSEY Emmy nominated and had a big movie star on set.

[00:13:14] JENNA FISCHER That’s right.

[00:13:14] ANGELA KINSEY We got a little bit more coin, guys, so we could travel.

[00:13:18] JENNA FISCHER And then as far as John, I remember, it was super weird that we didn’t have him with us for like six or eight weeks.

[00:13:26] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah, it was weird. And I remember like if we would run into him for whatever reason, maybe he came for a wardrobe fitting and we were at lunch or something.

[00:13:33] ANGELA KINSEY We’d be like, what’s it like over there? How is the body? Is everyone nice? Like, what’s it like? Like as if he truly had moved away.

[00:13:42] JENNA FISCHER I remember that, too. And he was so super gushy about Ed and Rashida and working over on the Stamford set. He was, he seemed like he was having the best time and again, I think I had a little FOMO. I was like, well, what’s happening over in Stamford?

[00:13:57] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. And then-.

[00:13:58] JENNA FISCHER Why is it so great over there?

[00:13:59] ANGELA KINSEY And then when we had table reads and they were all there, they had like inside jokes. And I’m like, what the heck? What’s that inside joke? Dang it.

[00:14:06] JENNA FISCHER Exactly, big brother, kid sister.

[00:14:08] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah, don’t do that with anyone else, buddy.

[00:14:12] JENNA FISCHER I totally remember all of that. And so they would shoot the Stamford branch like one or two days a week and we would have off and then we would shoot over in the Scranton side for the rest of the week. And we really did not see each other, except for those table reads or those little run ins.

[00:14:30] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:14:30] JENNA FISCHER It was so crazy.

[00:14:32] ANGELA KINSEY It was crazy. But it built the tension. I think it was good, especially for Jim and Pam, because, you know, you guys I think then brought that time apart back on screen together. Does that make sense?

[00:14:43] JENNA FISCHER Oh, Angela, I completely used all of my feelings with John being over on that other set to the character of Pam, because you really became closest with the people who you had the most scenes with because you had to spend so much downtime with them. And for those whole first two years of the show, I was paired with John so often. He really was my buddy, you know? And I spent a lot of time with him and now he was just gone. And again, I can’t stress it enough. This was before smartphones. So it wasn’t like after this summer break. We had been text-, we weren’t texting.

[00:15:18] ANGELA KINSEY You didn’t text to anyone, you guys.

[00:15:20] JENNA FISCHER No.

[00:15:21] ANGELA KINSEY There was no texting.

[00:15:23] JENNA FISCHER You weren’t like really in touch. And so here we were back from summer break. But I didn’t have my work, buddy. He was like off on some other set. And so I did have like all that like FOMO and all that like, what’s up?

[00:15:39] ANGELA KINSEY What’s up over there?

[00:15:40] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. What’s up over there? So when they came back, I just used it for my character.

[00:15:45] ANGELA KINSEY Well, those are good Fast Facts, lady. Those are real good. I’m excited to get into this episode because I feel like we both have some behind the scenes stuff. I know you’re holding out on me, lady. I know you probably have some Kent-apedia and I have some stuff, too. I talk to some folks. So should we take a break and then dive it?

[00:16:04] JENNA FISCHER Let’s take a break and then we’ll dive into “Gay Witch Hunt”.

[00:16:12] ANGELA KINSEY Okay, we are back. It starts off with Dwight being so pleasant trimming his fingernails at work. Why Dwight? Why?

[00:16:22] JENNA FISCHER Gross.

[00:16:22] ANGELA KINSEY We reveal, guess who’s sitting next to him?

[00:16:24] JENNA FISCHER Not Jim.

[00:16:25] ANGELA KINSEY And no longer the temp, it’s Ryan. And can we talk about that Ryan got a whole new look? A bunch of people look a little different.

[00:16:32] JENNA FISCHER A little better.

[00:16:33] ANGELA KINSEY He like cut his hair short. And it’s not floppy anymore. And it looks like there’s some gel. Anyway, this is the new, improved Ryan. He’s no longer the temp and he’s got a whole new look.

[00:16:43] JENNA FISCHER Well, then we move to Pam typing at her desk and she looks longingly over at Jim’s old desk at Ryan. And this is when we flash back to “Casino Night”.

[00:16:55] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, my God.

[00:16:56] JENNA FISCHER And we get an extension of the scene.

[00:16:59] ANGELA KINSEY Yes. We see that whole thing happen after the kiss.

[00:17:03] JENNA FISCHER Yes. They both admit to each other that they’ve wanted to do that for a long time. And Pam is like, “I think we’re drunk”. And Jim’s like, “I’m not drunk. Are you drunk”? And she’s like, “No, no, I’m not drunk”. And then Jim goes in for another kiss.

[00:17:20] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. And she’s like, “I can’t”. And he’s like, “ou’re gonna marry him”? And you’re like, “Yes”. Oh.

[00:17:26] JENNA FISCHER I know. We had a lot of fan questions about this. Jenna Adams, Matt Grasso, Brett Hedges, Alissa Dunn and many others wanted to know, did we film the continuation of the Kiss scene at the same time as “Casino Night”? Or did we have to recreate the moment for “Gay Witch Hunt”? Guys, we had to recreate it. We had to recreate it. And this is like, thank God for Ken Kwapis. Thank God we had the same director. So we had to redo everything. Kim Ferry had taken photos of every side of my head and she painstakingly redid my hairdo. Thank God my dress still fit. We added a new camera angle. I don’t know if you noticed that. They set up the spy shop from the kitchen. And then they put an extra camera inside the conference room, shooting through the blinds so that you could finally now see Pam’s face and Pam’s reaction.

[00:18:22] ANGELA KINSEY I don’t know if this is true, Jenna. And I don’t know if it’s just because I had this information in my brain that I knew you had to recreate this moment. This is ridiculous. But I do feel like you’re at a different position on Jim’s desk. I feel like you’re, you’re a little further down. I feel like you’re not right by the phone, which is where you were because you had hung up the phone.

[00:18:43] JENNA FISCHER I, yeah.

[00:18:43] ANGELA KINSEY Right? This is just a little catch.

[00:18:46] JENNA FISCHER So I think-. No, Angela, your catch is good. I think in order to get that camera angle through the blinds in the conference room, we had to scootchy scootch just a few inches down the desk. Wow. Wow. I’m impressed that you caught that. I mean, we tried to, we, we tried our best to fool people, but we had to rekiss again because you’ll notice that, and that was like by the way, they brought out like a still frame image to me and John of us kissing. And they were like, okay, so now Jenna, your arm is here. Your hand is here, John. This is how you had your hand around her.

[00:19:22] ANGELA KINSEY Awkard.

[00:19:22] JENNA FISCHER So we had to like word painstakingly recreate the pose and everything so that it would look seamless. But if you watch, we kiss and we pull away and start talking immediately. So that was it was all re-creation.

[00:19:38] ANGELA KINSEY How awkward. Just think about this. Here’s your job. You go to work one day and someone’s like, here’s your job today. You need to find a photo of Jenna and John kissing as Jim and Pam. You need a printed out. I need multiple copies. A lot of people are gonna be studying this photo.

[00:19:54] JENNA FISCHER Yes.

[00:19:54] ANGELA KINSEY Then we’re gonna take it to Jenna and John, we’re gonna recreate the moment. I want it high res. I want it in color. Print me a bunch of photos of them kissing. Okay. Thanks.

[00:20:03] JENNA FISCHER Yeah, that was pretty much it, Ang. That was pretty much it. That was someone’s job.

[00:20:09] ANGELA KINSEY That’s so crazy. All right. Well, I love that little behind the scenes moment, Jenna. I love that you acknowledge that you weren’t kissing by the phone where you hung up with your mom. I love it. But I want to get into the episode a little bit here. Now, Toby is in Michael’s office. We’re at 2 minutes, 13 seconds. He’s talking to Toby because apparently Michael was inappropriate again, you know, he basically gives Oscar a hard time for liking “Shakespeare in Love” instead of “Die Hard”.

[00:20:38] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:20:38] ANGELA KINSEY And maybe doesn’t word it very well, you guys, doesn’t word it the best. But when you watch this scene. Watch Steve’s performance, as Michael realizes that Oscar is actually gay.

[00:20:55] JENNA FISCHER Yes.

[00:20:55] ANGELA KINSEY His transformation of going from “Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Yeah. No, I know”. And then, it’s such a great acting moment in my opinion. Steve once again just blew me away. And here’s my other thing I need to point out in this scene, you guys, and I don’t know, maybe it’s controversial, but you know who I think outed Oscar? Toby.

[00:21:20] JENNA FISCHER Toby. Yes. This is gonna come up later, Angela, because Jan is going to come into the office and reprimand Michael for outing Oscar to the rest of the office. And she goes on this whole speech where she’s like, “It is a big moment in a person’s life. And they should be able to choose how and when they come out to people”. And the whole time I just kept thinking. Toby, Toby outed Oscar. Oscar told that to Toby in confidence.

[00:21:47] ANGELA KINSEY Toby. Yes. And Toby told the one person who would not be able to contain that information. Here, here’s two people Toby could have told. If you wanted everyone to know, Michael and Kelly.

[00:22:00] JENNA FISCHER Correct.

[00:22:01] ANGELA KINSEY There you go. There you go.

[00:22:03] JENNA FISCHER Correct.

[00:22:03] ANGELA KINSEY So now, I mean, Michael decides he’s got to apologize to Oscar. Of course, it’s not in private. He just walks over to the accounting desk pod. You have Kevin and Angela exchanging some glances. And, and then Michael’s like, “Well, maybe, you know, we could go out to dinner and you could explain to me how it works”. And Oscar is like, “Yeah, that would be wonderful. Yeah, we should do that”.

[00:22:31] JENNA FISCHER Oh Angela, Angela, I have the script for “Gay Witch Hunt”. You know how I have some scripts?

[00:22:35] ANGELA KINSEY Oscar improvised. Oscar. Did Oscar improvise “That would be wonderful”.

[00:22:38] JENNA FISCHER Steve. And Oscar improvise that whole couplet. That is not in the script. This-.

[00:22:43] ANGELA KINSEY I wondered.

[00:22:44] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. When Steve-. Now listen, I say improvised. Sometimes the writers were on set and they would pitch lines to the actors. But I know that in this particular episode, Steve and Oscar took a lot of liberties. They are both masterful improvisers.

[00:22:59] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:22:59] JENNA FISCHER And they improvised a lot on these scenes, and I believe that Steve improvised that line about maybe we could go have a beer and you could just tell me how you do that to other dudes. And that Oscar was like, “That. Yes, Michael, that sounds wonderful”. That’s wonderful. What a wonderful. I can’t wait, was like the tone in his voice, but everything about those two together in this episode completely delighted me. I was so tickled. They’re so good..

[00:23:31] ANGELA KINSEY Me too. They’re, they’re so good. And, you know, then we have Kevin and Angela. They’re they’re. They know now. Right? Here we go.

[00:23:39] JENNA FISCHER Oh yeah.

[00:23:40] ANGELA KINSEY Here we go.

[00:23:40] JENNA FISCHER We’re off to the races.

[00:23:41] ANGELA KINSEY Off to the races and now a very, two random pieces of trivia. OK? In my journal, I wrote that I really like the sweater that I’m wearing and that I asked the wardrobe department where they got it and they got it at Urban Outfitters.

[00:23:56] JENNA FISCHER Did you buy one for yourself? In your personal life?

[00:23:58] ANGELA KINSEY I didn’t. I didn’t. I think I was considering it. And then maybe thought it’d be too weird but, to walk around in this sweater my character wears. But yeah. So that sweater was from Urban Outfitters. So look at that. Angela Martin.

[00:24:10] JENNA FISCHER Stepping it up.

[00:24:12] ANGELA KINSEY Kind of hipster, but maybe we had a bigger budget, a wardrobe. Wardrobe stopped going to like the NBC warehouse and getting the older clothes and went to Urban Outfitters for Angela Martin. And then the other thing is at 3 minutes, 58 seconds, that, whatever photocopy picture of the dog, the rescue dog is no longer on my partition.

[00:24:35] JENNA FISCHER Oh yeah, that was always on your partition.

[00:24:36] ANGELA KINSEY It’s not there. It’s gone.

[00:24:38] JENNA FISCHER Oh, removed for Season 3.

[00:24:39] ANGELA KINSEY Removed for Season 3.

[00:24:41] JENNA FISCHER It’s gone. If you’re a regular listener to this podcast, you know, we’ve been tracking this picture of a dog on Angela’s partition.

[00:24:47] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah, it’s gone.

[00:24:48] JENNA FISCHER It’s gone. Oh, everyone’s so, everyone’s so relieved by that.

[00:24:52] ANGELA KINSEY Everyone is so thrilled by that information.

[00:24:55] JENNA FISCHER It’s gonna be the big takeaway from today’s episode.

[00:24:57] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah, exactly. That’s what everyone is gonna talk about. And then I just want to point out, I thought Oscar was talking head where at first he’s denying being gay and then he just is like, “You know what? Yeah, I am. Ok”? Like, I thought he did such a great job. I mean, he’s fantastic in this whole episode, but it’s just a really small, quick talking head. But I thought he just really found some layers to it and I thought it was perfect.

[00:25:24] JENNA FISCHER Well, you know, there’s another talking head that Oscar has in the script that I thought was really, really interesting.

[00:25:30] ANGELA KINSEY That didn’t get it.

[00:25:31] JENNA FISCHER It didn’t get in, he says, “When I applied for my job at Dunder Mifflin, I told Michael in my interview that I was gay”.

[00:25:41] ANGELA KINSEY Oh I saw this. I saw this in the deleted scenes.

[00:25:42] JENNA FISCHER “And he couldn’t stop laughing”.

[00:25:43] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:25:44] JENNA FISCHER “He just kept laughing and laughing and laughing. And then he hired me and said, I’m hilarious. And that’s why I’ve never come out at the office. I just decided to keep it to myself after that”.

[00:25:56] ANGELA KINSEY Yes, that’s right. If you guys have the DVD set that is in the deleted scenes, it’s really funny.

[00:26:01] JENNA FISCHER It was very funny when I was reading through the script and I came across that. Oh, good. So they actually filmed it. That’s cool.

[00:26:06] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. It’s in the deleted scenes.

[00:26:09] JENNA FISCHER Well, guys, now we’re gonna go over to Stamford. Jim is on the phone in his new fancy office. He is assuring a customer that while he cannot say that Dunder Mifflin paper is less flammable, he will promise that is definitely not more flammable than other paper. That’s, that’s a sales pitch for the paper. And we had a fan question slash fan catch from Katherine Langridge at 4 minutes, 53 seconds. Angela, did you notice that there is a Post-it note on John’s computer that just says the word “smile”?

[00:26:42] ANGELA KINSEY No.

[00:26:43] JENNA FISCHER It says “smile”. And she wrote in to say, “Is that a note from Jim to Jim? Or a note from a coworker to Jim? Either way, Jim is a sad dude right now”.

[00:26:57] ANGELA KINSEY It would have to be. I feel like it’s Jim to Jim because who, I mean-.

[00:27:01] JENNA FISCHER I think so.

[00:27:01] ANGELA KINSEY I don’t know that he has a pal that’s gonna write, “smile” and stick it on his desk. I don’t know

[00:27:06] JENNA FISCHER I agree. I think it’s an indication that Jim’s real lonely.

[00:27:09] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. So then Andy is going to tell Jim to sort of stay away from this blonde that they can see off in the distance. I sort of felt like probably that was someone Andy liked. He just didn’t want Jim to like hit on her.

[00:27:22] JENNA FISCHER Oh, that’s a good, yeah.

[00:27:23] ANGELA KINSEY That’s what, because he was like, “Yes, she’s crazy. Steer clear, head for open waters”. And it cracked me up. And it kind of goes back to the thing you were saying is that. Already with Andy, we have the nautical references.

[00:27:36] JENNA FISCHER Yes. Yes, he, I’m sure that Andy with that whole East Coast privileged life. He’s a, he’s sailing.

[00:27:46] ANGELA KINSEY Oh yeah.

[00:27:46] JENNA FISCHER Right?

[00:27:47] ANGELA KINSEY We learn that he’s going to, he sails, he wears all his little like outfits that he’s ready for, like the boat party.

[00:27:55] JENNA FISCHER That’s right. His little Dockers shoes, is that what boating people wear? I don’t know.

[00:28:01] ANGELA KINSEY Boating people. We’re gonna have boating people write in. “That’s not what I wear”. And then we find out why Jim is called “Big Tuna”.

[00:28:11] JENNA FISCHER Yes.

[00:28:13] ANGELA KINSEY Now, I have to ask you about this. I have to ask you about this, because Amy doesn’t know Jim. He really doesn’t know anything about him. But he’s already given him a nickname.

[00:28:24] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:28:24] ANGELA KINSEY I have someone in my life that is like this. That will give people nicknames right out of the gate. And it’s always really weird to me.

[00:28:32] JENNA FISCHER And Jim, on his first day of work ate a tuna sandwich and now is referred to as “Big Tuna”.

[00:28:40] ANGELA KINSEY Mmhmm.

[00:28:40] JENNA FISCHER By Andy. I think, somebody wrote in and I liked this comment. I’m sorry. I forgot to write down their name, but they mentioned they felt like that the piece of information that Jim ate a tuna sandwich instead of his usual ham and cheese sandwich on his first day at Stamford was another way that Jim is trying to branch out. Maybe. That it was a subtle indication of that?

[00:29:04] ANGELA KINSEY Mmhmm. I thought about that. I thought about that. But, you know, he could have had his ham sandwich and I guess Andy could’ve called him “Hambone” or something. That might have been my nickname in high school. Just gonna share that with you.

[00:29:18] JENNA FISCHER What? Your nickname in high school was “Hambone”.

[00:29:20] ANGELA KINSEY Well, for one year.

[00:29:22] JENNA FISCHER What does that mean? What does that mean?

[00:29:24] ANGELA KINSEY So there was a guy named Mark and he had a party after like a football game. And we all went over to his house and his parents were out of town. And I was like, I don’t know-.

[00:29:40] JENNA FISCHER I’m dying. I am just trying to figure out how ham or bone is gonna come into this story.

[00:29:44] ANGELA KINSEY So anyway, Mark is having this party for football game. We’re all over there. His parents are out of town. I’m sure they wouldn’t want us there. And I was super hungry. And I’m in like my cheerleading outfit. I’m super hungry. And I go into the kitchen and we’re, in the dark. I don’t turn on any lights and I open the fridge door. Everyone else is out on the patio drinking beer or whatever. And I open the fridge door and there’s a huge ham.

[00:30:10] JENNA FISCHER No.

[00:30:10] ANGELA KINSEY There’s a huge ham in there. And I just started eating ham standing in the fridge door, with juts the light of the fridge hitting me. And Mark walked in and flipped on the light and was like, “Kinsey, what are you doing”? I’m like, “Just eatin’ some ham”. And that was it. They’re like, “Hambone, Hambone, Hambone”. And then everyone’s or call me “Hambone”.

[00:30:32] JENNA FISCHER This is, I’m speechless.

[00:30:34] ANGELA KINSEY Well, all I’m saying is Andy could have called Jim “Hambone”, but it doesn’t quite work with the whole nautical thing. So I like that this person is like, oh, Jim is starting new. He’s having tuna fish sandwiches. He’s working in fancy Stamford. But it also might just be that “Big Tuna” is funnier, given Andy’s character.

[00:30:54] JENNA FISCHER I’ve got a couple of comments about Jim’s talking heads here. Not to belabor, but in his one talking head, we had a fan catch from Asha Harnheart who said, “At 4 minutes, 46 seconds, Jim is explaining why he transferred to Stamford. And he says that he’s been promoted. But from what I can tell, it doesn’t seem like his job has changed anymore. It’s just the location. So was he really promoted”? Yes, in the script, that talking head is extended. They cut it out for the episode. He explains that he is the assistant regional manager of Stamford.

[00:31:28] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:31:29] JENNA FISCHER He is basically Dwight of Stamford.

[00:31:33] ANGELA KINSEY And there is a great deleted scene on the DVD box set. It’s my favorite from this whole episode. Karen is Jim. Karen pranks Jim. She sets his dial out number to go to Hong Kong. So every time he dials out, he calls Hong Kong and he’s like, what the heck? And then you see sort of like Karen smirk and he’s being pranked. And he says, “I’m assistant regional manager”. And she’s like, “Yeah, ok”. So to me, in my mind, I was like, oh, my God. Jim is Dwight. Karen is Jim in this office.

[00:32:06] JENNA FISCHER Angela, I think there’s like a gazillion deleted scenes from this episode.

[00:32:10] ANGELA KINSEY There are a bunch and it’s sort of like fleshes out the world of Stamford. And so I would recommend watching them. But yeah, you guys, Karen is Jim. Karen looks at Jim the way Jim used to look at Dwight and pranks him and he’s like, “But I have this title”. And she’s like, “Yeah, ok”.

[00:32:28] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. And then later in the conference room, she’s gonna say he’s kind of a kiss ass.

[00:32:32] ANGELA KINSEY Yes. Yes.

[00:32:33] JENNA FISCHER And he is kind of kissing up to his boss the way Dwight kisses up to Michael.

[00:32:38] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:32:38] JENNA FISCHER I have another Jenna catch another Jim talking head.

[00:32:41] ANGELA KINSEY OK.

[00:32:41] JENNA FISCHER I refused to leave this talking head.

[00:32:43] ANGELA KINSEY Let’s keep talking about it.

[00:32:44] JENNA FISCHER I noticed, we talked before about how in the Scranton branch Jim’s talking heads were always against an exterior window, whereas everybody else is talking heads faced into the office. And you could see like Stanley and Creed working in the background. And the intention behind this was just for anyone who didn’t hear the previous episode of this podcast, that the intention was that Jim had a future outside of Scranton. And so his talking heads were against a window that faced out into the world. Right?

[00:33:17] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:33:18] JENNA FISCHER In Stamford, his talking heads face into the office.

[00:33:25] ANGELA KINSEY Come on!

[00:33:25] JENNA FISCHER They face an interior window, not an exterior one. He does not have a future in Stamford, everyone.

[00:33:31] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, girl. That is some good stuff, lady. Since we’re talking about talking heads, let’s talk about Andy’s for a second. He says he went to Cornell. He graduated in four years. He never studied. He was drunk the whole time. And he was in an acapella group called “Here Comes Treble”.

[00:33:48] JENNA FISCHER Well, I have a fun fact, Angela.

[00:33:51] ANGELA KINSEY Is it-?

[00:33:51] JENNA FISCHER Cornell.

[00:33:52] ANGELA KINSEY Is it about his acappella group?

[00:33:53] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:33:55] ANGELA KINSEY Let’s hear it.

[00:33:55] JENNA FISCHER Cornell does not have an a cappella group called “Here Comes Treble”.

[00:34:00] ANGELA KINSEY They don’t.

[00:34:01] JENNA FISCHER No. It does not exist. That is made up. However.

[00:34:05] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, my God.

[00:34:05] JENNA FISCHER They do have an all female acapella group called “Nothing But Treble”.

[00:34:13] ANGELA KINSEY “Nothing but Treble”. Come on.

[00:34:15] JENNA FISCHER And lady, you know, I had to investigate. “Nothing But Treble” was founded in 1976. You have to audition to be in the group and they have three, two hour rehearsals per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

[00:34:33] ANGELA KINSEY What did you go to their website? You looked up their rehearsal schedule?

[00:34:36] JENNA FISCHER Lady, not only did I spend about 45 minutes on their website, I reached out to them.

[00:34:43] ANGELA KINSEY Aca-what?

[00:34:44] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. And they sent me a clip of themselves singing Britney Spears “Hit Me, Baby, One More Time”. Sam, roll it.

[00:34:54] NOTHING BUT TREBLE Oh baby, baby, how was I suppose to know? That something wasn’t right, yeah. Oh baby, baby, I shouldn’t have let you go.

[00:35:07] JENNA FISCHER It seriously so good.

[00:35:09] ANGELA KINSEY It is aca-awesome.

[00:35:11] JENNA FISCHER It’s aca-awesome. Guys, this badass group of women can be found on Instagram at NBT-Cornell or you can download their music at “Nothing But Treble” on Spotify.

[00:35:25] ANGELA KINSEY That’s awesome.

[00:35:25] JENNA FISCHER I might have done that. I might have done that.

[00:35:27] ANGELA KINSEY You might have done it. I think you did. You know when their rehearsal schedule is.

[00:35:29] JENNA FISCHER I might have, I might have their whole album.

[00:35:31] ANGELA KINSEY What are you going to do? Join their Zoom rehearsal schedule this week?

[00:35:34] JENNA FISCHER You know, I just might. I just might.

[00:35:38] ANGELA KINSEY OK. Well, while we’re talking talking heads, I want to talk about Karen’s talking head.

[00:35:44] JENNA FISCHER Oh yeah.

[00:35:45] ANGELA KINSEY Karen’s talking head, you guys, go to 6 minutes, 17 seconds for a fantastic impression of Jim’s look to camera. Rashida Jones crushes it. She looks to camera and goes, “And he’s always doing this”. And she does his face. And she goes, “What’s that about”? Like, what is that?

[00:36:02] JENNA FISCHER It’s so good.

[00:36:04] ANGELA KINSEY So I texted Rashida. And I was like, “Rashida, I am watching you right now do your impression of Jim’s look to camera and it is cracking me up. You crushed it”. And she was like, “Oh, my gosh, Ang, that’s so nice”. She said, “I was so damn nervous”. She told me she was convinced that she was gonna get fired. She also said originally the character was written to be more “ornery, sour and mean”. Those were her exact words. And she said, she said, that’s why my bangs are sort of like pinned to my head and I’m not wearing hardly any makeup. They just thought that Karin was gonna be maybe a little bit more gruff and kind of a meanie. And then she said that Greg decided to soften her. And so in the next episode, she’s a little softer. She’s not quite so sour.

[00:36:51] JENNA FISCHER That is so interesting. You know, Angela, I was brought in over the summer to screen test with a bunch of different Karens and Rashida was one of them. So they had whittled it down to three Karens. And I had to come in and I had to read scenes with them as Pam. They wrote this scene that was never shot. It was a Karen-Pam scene that you never see, but they just wrote it for the purposes of the audition. And I had to come in and read and at the end of it all they said, “Who did you like best”? And I said, “My favorite was Rashida Johnes”. She just made me feel, it was that same thing that I’ve said about John when I met John. There was this instant chemistry because he made it the easiest to be Pam. And that’s how I described it to them. I said I just didn’t even feel like I had to work hard in my scenes with her. I effortlessly felt this chemistry between Pam and Karen. I knew who Pam and Karen were and who they were gonna be. I also think from that first moment in that audition, Angela, I immediately saw her as a little bit of like this shiny object that I admired. She was such a cool woman that I was like, oh, that’s a good dynamic for Pam and Karen too, because I think Pam does look at Karen as a woman she would aspire to be.

[00:38:11] ANGELA KINSEY Right.

[00:38:11] JENNA FISCHER Karen has an inner confidence. She has ambition that she’s not afraid of. And so I felt all of that at play, even from our very first time meeting. And I was just so excited because I didn’t think they would necessarily care who I thought was the person I responded the most to. But it made me so excited when she was cast.

[00:38:35] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:38:35] JENNA FISCHER So it’s funny to me that she thought she was gonna get fired because I remember all the conversations about her audition and how everyone was like she is it. She is Karen. She is the one.

[00:38:45] ANGELA KINSEY Well, she texted me that she did not sleep probably the whole week before her first day of filming. And she said she had just like major panic that the viewers were gonna hate her because Karen gets in the middle between Pam and Jim. And she was like, oh, my God, they’re all gonna hate me.

[00:39:03] JENNA FISCHER Well, you know, Rashida and I used to talk about that. And eventually there’s like a whole thing where it was Team Pam, Team Karen. And I told her, I don’t know. I have to be honest with you. If I was watching this, I might actually be Team Karen. I might.

[00:39:16] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah.

[00:39:16] JENNA FISCHER Even though I am Pam, so I told her, don’t worry about it. There’s gonna be plenty of people, who know you’re just a great lady.

[00:39:23] ANGELA KINSEY So, yeah, I told her she I thought she did a great job. I mean, Karen is a really tough role because she treads on the sacred ground that is Jim and Pam. But I thought she was a fantastic foil. And Rashida said that she would love to come on the show. She said maybe “Benihana Christmas” would be fun. Yes. So we’re gonna get Rashida on here, too. And Rashida, thank you so much.

[00:39:44] JENNA FISCHER I love her.

[00:39:44] ANGELA KINSEY I know.

[00:39:45] JENNA FISCHER All right. Should we go back to the Scranton branch and talk about Michael and Dwight spying on everyone from inside of Michael’s office?

[00:39:54] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, do you mean what I titled “Gettin Cocky”?

[00:39:58] JENNA FISCHER Oh. Explain.

[00:40:00] ANGELA KINSEY At 6 minutes, 56 seconds. You know, Michael is suggesting who he thinks might be gay in the office. He says maybe Angela and Dwight looks very smugly to camera and says, “I really don’t think so” and loo-, like that Angela isn’t gay. And he knows why. But he gives a total look straight to camera, really smug and cocky. I’m like Dwight, what are you doing?

[00:40:24] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:40:24] ANGELA KINSEY Dwight, we are in a secret relationship. You don’t get to give a little wink wink to the cameraman. What is he doing?

[00:40:30] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:40:31] ANGELA KINSEY He’s getting cocky. He’s getting cocky.

[00:40:32] JENNA FISCHER We know that the camera people know because they found you in that playhouse. But you guys don’t know that they know.

[00:40:39] ANGELA KINSEY Dwight doesn’t know. So why is he given the little smug wink look to camera.

[00:40:43] JENNA FISCHER He couldn’t help himself.

[00:40:44] ANGELA KINSEY He couldn’t help himself.

[00:40:45] JENNA FISCHER He is delighted to be in this relationship with you, Angela.

[00:40:47] ANGELA KINSEY I know. I know.

[00:40:48] JENNA FISCHER Well, they also talk about “gaydar”. That Jim told Dwight that you can buy a device that tells you whether or not someone is gay. They decide they need to get it. So they call Jim. And this was a thing that they did so that they could keep up this little pranky relationship and keep Jim part of our world so that you could see and you’ll see this going forward in Season 3. There are going to be ways, especially even in the next episode, there’s gonna be a convention and Jim is gonnna go on this convention and be reunited with Michael. And so. Anyway, they did. They did want to find, even in this episode ways that Jim was connected back to Scranton and back to Michael and Dwight.

[00:41:31] ANGELA KINSEY Yes.

[00:41:31] JENNA FISCHER So they did it with a gaydar.

[00:41:32] ANGELA KINSEY They did it with gaydar. And they also did it with Mr. Brown having to come in and talk about, you know, sort of like a type of diversity training. Right?

[00:41:41] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:41:41] ANGELA KINSEY And it’s because the Scranton branch is acting up again.

[00:41:44] JENNA FISCHER Yes.

[00:41:45] ANGELA KINSEY So there’s a lot of moments where you get to see Jim thinking about Scranton, Jim thinking about Pam, Jim even missing Dwight and Michael. And this is one of those moments. And, and I wrote that it’s 7 minutes, 29 seconds. I think it’s the first time Jim truly looks happy in this whole episode because he gets to talk to Dwight and Michael and sort of laugh at what idiots they are once again.

[00:42:09] JENNA FISCHER So now we know that Pam said she was going to marry Roy. We know that Jim has moved to Stamford. But now we’re going to learn more about Pam’s relationship. Pam is at her desk. Roy enters with two plates of food. He asks her if she wants chicken or fish. They have a little awkward small talk. And then the camera pushes in to Pam’s left hand. No ring.

[00:42:35] ANGELA KINSEY This whole time, she didn’t have a ring on. I didn’t even notice. Right?

[00:42:38] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:42:39] ANGELA KINSEY So when that happened, I really did. Even though I knew it. Because you and I know the show. I was like, oh, no ring. Oh, my God.

[00:42:46] JENNA FISCHER No ring.

[00:42:47] ANGELA KINSEY No ring. And also really tan Roy. Very tan and in shape Roy.

[00:42:55] JENNA FISCHER Roy’s looking amazing.

[00:42:57] ANGELA KINSEY He’s looking real good.

[00:42:57] JENNA FISCHER David Denman is a tall drink of water/ when he walks the, the man that Pam didn’t marry is now suddenly super hot.

[00:43:05] ANGELA KINSEY He’s tan and in really good shape.

[00:43:08] JENNA FISCHER And the beard, I’m. I’m living for that beard. I’m liking it.

[00:43:11] ANGELA KINSEY It’s all working. David, it was all working.

[00:43:15] JENNA FISCHER Well, Pam explains that she did not go through with the wedding. She got cold feet and just like the weeks before. Right? And she just knew she had to get out of the relationship. She explains that they still had to pay for all the food, so they froze it. And now I guess she has to eat chicken or fish every day for the next five weeks. I thought that was really funny detail.

[00:43:38] ANGELA KINSEY It’s very funny. And, you know, then Roy has a talking head and he broke my heart. He gets emotional. He says he’s got to get her back. You know? And he’s not going to take her for granted. And I was like, oh, my gosh, super hot tan in-shape Roy is now getting emotional. What the heck is happening?

[00:43:58] JENNA FISCHER I know. He explains that he got arrested for a DUI. And they-.

[00:44:03] ANGELA KINSEY I remember that DUI photo because I remember-.

[00:44:06] JENNA FISCHER Me too.

[00:44:06] ANGELA KINSEY The, them like deciding which one to pick. And I remember that one made us laugh. And Mindy was like cackling.

[00:44:13] JENNA FISCHER I remember the same thing. I remember the same thing. We had a fan question from Riana Sheriff who said, “How did they make the mug shot of Roy”? Well, listen, here’s the thing. David shot a movie over the summer and he got into that super amazing shape for that movie. Right? And he came back for Season 3 of “The Office”. And he, as we have discussed, looked amazing. And Greg was like, oh, no. We had written you as having sort of fallen apart as a result of your broken engagement to Pam. So they had to kind of rewrite it a little bit. They wanted to keep in that whole bit about how he had been arrested. So they took a picture of him. And then with Photoshop, they like swelled up his face.

[00:44:54] ANGELA KINSEY They blew out his neck. It was so weird.

[00:44:58] JENNA FISCHER It was so crazy. And they brought around like six different options for all of us to vote on which we liked. I totally remember that too, Angela.

[00:45:07] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. We were cracking up.

[00:45:09] JENNA FISCHER Oh, my God, it was amazing.

[00:45:11] ANGELA KINSEY Roy is hot. OK. He’s trying to turn a corner here for Pam. But there is someone who has a gripe with them and it is Stanley.

[00:45:20] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:45:21] ANGELA KINSEY Because Stanley bought them a toaster for their wedding. Then they call off their wedding and he tried to return the toaster and the store won’t take it back. And you know what I think?

[00:45:30] JENNA FISCHER What?

[00:45:31] ANGELA KINSEY I think, Stanley, because he’s cheap. We sort of have established that he’s kind of cheap. Right?

[00:45:37] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:45:37] ANGELA KINSEY I think that Stanley bought them a discontinued toaster, like the toaster that was on sale. Like clearence.

[00:45:44] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:45:44] ANGELA KINSEY He-.

[00:45:44] JENNA FISCHER 100 percent.

[00:45:45] ANGELA KINSEY He bought them the crap toaster and is bummed that he couldn’t return it.

[00:45:50] JENNA FISCHER Well then he deserves to be stuck with two toasters, doesn’t he? That’s what you get.

[00:45:54] ANGELA KINSEY Oh, hey, we don’t have a sting for this, but I would like to put in a sting at 9 minutes, 34 seconds that goes something like “Full Mindy”.

[00:46:02] JENNA FISCHER We need a “Full Mindy” sting. We need to get on that immediately actually.

[00:46:05] ANGELA KINSEY ‘Cause at 9 minutes, 34 seconds, we see some real long extensions.

[00:46:11] JENNA FISCHER Oh, yeah.

[00:46:11] ANGELA KINSEY And a bright green blouse and a floral skirt. It is full “Full Mindy”.

[00:46:18] JENNA FISCHER There’s no going back. There’s no going back. It also she like skips up to Oscar’s desk and she just wants to tell him how cool it is that he’s gay and how she has totally underestimated him. And then Oscar has that amazing talking head that is, that tickles me where he says yes, he’s very, very cool because he’s an accountant at a failing paper supply company in Scranton. Much like Sir Ian McKellen.

[00:46:44] ANGELA KINSEY Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, we cut to my character, who’s just glaring at him and being just not nice, you guys. And I’m applying hand sanitizer. And we do find out in this episode that I think “Will and Grace” is very loud. And that I like Harry Connick Junior.

[00:47:05] JENNA FISCHER Yeah. You’re not a fan of “Will and Grace”, but you do like Harry Connick Jr.

[00:47:09] ANGELA KINSEY Send me some Harry Connick.

[00:47:12] JENNA FISCHER Well, then at 10 minutes, 8 seconds, Meredith pumps some of Angela’s hand sanitizer into her hand and then licks it off. Alright, fan question from Natasha Rothaman, “What did Meredith actually eat when she is shown eating the hand santizer?”

[00:47:27] ANGELA KINSEY Ooh, good question, Natahsa.

[00:47:30] JENNA FISCHER Natasha, I am so glad you asked this question because I actually wondered the same thing when I was watching the scene.

[00:47:35] ANGELA KINSEY Here’s the thing. I think Meredith thinks she can get a buzz off of it. She’s, you know, she thinks there’s alcohol in it. Right? So.

[00:47:42] JENNA FISCHER Yes.

[00:47:43] ANGELA KINSEY She’s like, I want to have some hand sanitizer. Well, I was texting with Kate Flannery yesterday, and I said, “Kate, you’ve got to give us the lowdown. What was in the hand sanitizer? Tell us all the details”.

[00:47:54] JENNA FISCHER Did she tell you?

[00:47:55 58:42] ANGELA KINSEY Well, guess what she did. She was like, “Ang, I will leave you a message about it”. And I was like, “Oh, OK. Even better”. So she left me a message and she said we can play it here. So, Sam, play Kate’s answer.

[00:48:07 48:54] KATE FLANNERY Hey, everybody. It’s Kate Flannery. And I’m here to answer a fantastic question from one of the fans of the “Office Ladies” podcast. And I have a feeling I know who this is from. Is this from BigTool9 at AOL? I think he asked the same question a long time ago. OK. Anyway, what did Meredith actually eat when she’s shown eating the hand sanitizer? So they actually changed what was in the bottle. They put gelatin with club soda. So it had the bubbles. So it was just clear gelatin. But they put it back in the same bottle that the original hand sanitizer came in, which is very perfumey. So when I went to lick it off my hand and it tasted like perfume. So it was kind of gross. And I think we did maybe four or five takes. So there was no cheap high involved. I mean, I’m a big Jell-O fan, but I like a little flavor and I don’t particularly like perfumey flavor. Anyway, that’s just my taste. Thank you for asking. Are you sure this was a BigTool9 at AOL? Yeah, I got a lot of questions online from whoever that is. OK. All the best. Love you guys. Woohoo! Wish we were physically together.

[00:49:17] JENNA FISCHER Kate. Thank you.

[00:49:19] ANGELA KINSEY It just made me laugh that, that, here’s Kate. Kate always has a bit, you know?

[00:49:25 50:10] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:49:25 50:10] ANGELA KINSEY And so I love that even in answering those, she had her bit about the guy, that BigTool whatever, who kept like writing into her.

[00:49:33 50:18] JENNA FISCHER BigTool9.

[00:49:34 50:19] ANGELA KINSEY BigTool9. Guys. Come on. Why couldn’t they have put it in a bottle that had been rinsed out or something?

[00:49:40 50:25] JENNA FISCHER I don’t know. I. I just want to say that this is like a two second joke. Like this is it. This is not a runner. She doesn’t go around the office licking up-. This was just like a little moment. It is in the script. And when I think of moments like this, I just think of all the planning that went in to making something for her to eat. And I actually texted Phil Shea and I was like, “Phil, what is it like when you get a script and there’s this little tiny joke and it sends you down this road”? And he said, these are his favorite moments because it’s a challenge and that he read this and he was like, all right, time to find edible hand sanitizer.

[00:50:18 51:03] ANGELA KINSEY And I sort of found it interesting that they had to put like a sparkly, like water, like seltzer in it, because I bet once they added the gelatin, there were no bubbles and hand sanitizer has bubbles. So that is like such a small, tiny amount of detail that they’re like, nope, we didn’t get it right. Let’s add the seltzer.

[00:50:39 51:22] JENNA FISCHER Well, I’ll have you know, I noticed the bubbles and it really threw me because it made me think that Kate was really eating hand sanitizer, which I knew she couldn’t possibly, they would never make her do that. And I asked Phil Shea about that, and he said at first they tried just clear agave syrup. Just like a clear agave, you know, because it’s thick and sweet, but no bubbles.

[00:51:03 51:46] ANGELA KINSEY You say syrup very Midwest-y. Syrup.

[00:51:06 51:49] JENNA FISCHER How do you say it?

[00:51:08 51:51] ANGELA KINSEY Syrup.

[00:51:08 51:51] JENNA FISCHER Syrup. No, no. I think what you mean, is I say, syrup correctly. And you say, syrup, like, like a southern.

[00:51:19 52:02] ANGELA KINSEY And excuse me.

[00:51:21 52:04] JENNA FISCHER I’m not saying it’s good or bad. I’m just saying you are saying it incorrectly.

[00:51:28 52:11] ANGELA KINSEY Really quickly, before we get off on a huge tangent of our syrup and syrup and syrup like debate, Kate told me that she’s really proud of the fact that she did her stunts.

[00:51:42 52:24] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:51:42 52:24] ANGELA KINSEY She did a lot of her own stunts. The majority of all the things that you see that happens to Meredith. Kate did a pass at that.

[00:51:50 52:32] JENNA FISCHER Yeah.

[00:51:50 52:32] ANGELA KINSEY And so she was like, this was just another one of those. When I got the script, I was like, okay, what am I gonna be licking? What is it?

[00:51:59 52:41] JENNA FISCHER I don’t think anyone in the cast was subjected to more stunts than Kate actually.

[00:52:03 52:45] ANGELA KINSEY No, no one was.

[00:52:04 52:46] JENNA FISCHER Maybe Steve. Maybe Steve. But Kate, I think is actually number one.

[00:52:09] ANGELA KINSEY I think she’s number one. And she was a really good sport about it. And Kate, thank you so much for sending in that message.

00:52:11] Jenna Thank you, Kate.

[00:52:13] Angela And thank you again, Natasha. All right. So now we’re back. We’re at ten minutes. Thirty seven seconds. And we get a real bird’s eye view of Andy’s temper because someone has put his calculator in Jell-o and he kind of freaks out.

[00:52:26] Jenna He does freak out. He kicks the trash can.

[00:52:29] Angela Yeah.

[00:52:30] Jenna I’ll have you know, that was not in the script. And when I was texting with Ed, he told me that they came up with that on the set. He remembered Mike Schur’s being on set and throwing out a bunch of funny ideas. And in this moment, this was one of those moments where. They were able to say, like, OK, how much how big of a reaction can Andy have to this Jell-O thing? And he was like, how about I kick the trash can? They were like, try it. And it made it in. And he was super excited because it was kind of like his first improv moment in an episode.

[00:53:01] Angela Yeah, I, I thought it was perfect and it really was like, oh, this guy is unhinged.

[00:53:07] Jenna Yeah.

[00:53:07] Angela He’s not OK. Well, I noticed a really random thing over his shoulder when he starts talking about the calculator, on his computer, it says Table of contents.

[00:53:21] Jenna I saw that too.

[00:53:22] Angela Is Andy writing a book? Is he reading a book?

[00:53:25] Jenna What is he looking at? Is it a manual?

[00:53:26] Angela What is it? And I watched the deleted scenes. I thought maybe there might be some reference to it, but there wasn’t. So I thought that was kind of interesting. I’m like, what is that about?

[00:53:34] Jenna Remains a mystery.

[00:53:35] Angela Mystery.

[00:53:36] Jenna So now we’re going to go back again to the Scranton branch. Jan has arrived.

[00:53:41] Angela Yeah. They had to call in the big guns because things are going off the rails here.

[00:53:44] Jenna So Jan is not happy.

[00:53:46] Angela No.

[00:53:47] Jenna Toby explains that now. Oscar is basically feeling discriminated against by everyone in the office, particularly Angela, and Michael needs to do something about it.

[00:53:59] Angela Yeah.

[00:53:59] Jenna So Michael calls Oscar into his office

[00:54:02] Angela Oh man.

[00:54:04] Jenna And Oscar says to Michael, am I the first gay man that you’ve ever known? Is this, is this what is happening right now?

[00:54:12] Angela Yeah.

[00:54:13] Jenna And they’re, they seem like they might be about to have this very productive heart to heart when Pam comes in to announce that Dwight is looking at gay porn on his computer.

[00:54:23] Angela Because that’s what Michael asked them to do. This is how Michael thinks he’s going to problem solve. Like what? First of all, you shouldn’t be looking at pornography at work. Period.

[00:54:34] Jenna At any pornography.

[00:54:36] Angela Why would he ever think this is acceptable to try to remedy a situation? Oh, my gosh. Michael, Michael, Michael.

[00:54:44] Jenna Because Michael says, hey, there is nothing wrong with it. Gay porn. Straight porn. It’s all good.

[00:54:50] Angela Yeah, it’s all good. And then-.

[00:54:52] Jenna At work.

[00:54:53] Angela At work.

[00:54:53] Jenna What is happening.

[00:54:54] Angela So they’re all gathered around Dwight’s desk. And anyway, Oscar walks up and he’s like, what are you guys doing? And then Angela has a really snarky line where she’s like watching some of your friends. Oh.

[00:55:09] Jenna Yeah.

[00:55:10] Angela So snarky. And he kind of shoves part her.

[00:55:14] Jenna Oh, lady. We had a fan question about that. Anthony Juritano said, how much choreography was involved in Oscar pushing you, Angela? Was this planned?

[00:55:27] Angela Here’s the thing. It really does look like he kind of shoves me aside, but the direction we were given is that my character is really playing up the drama of this moment, almost like when you watch like a soccer match and someone barely gets nudged and they have the big ball like, oh.

[00:55:44] Jenna Yes.

[00:55:45] Angela That’s, that’s how Ken directed me, that Oscar We’re just really barely brushed by me. And I’d be like, oh, no, don’t touch me, you know?

[00:55:53] Jenna Yes.

[00:55:54] Angela Well, this is what I was talking about in the cliffhanger, a little moment I left in the last episode where I was like, OK, this is when I went to Greg. There was another line and I can’t remember what it was, but it was something like sort of like, well, I think Jesus would be disappointed in you or something like that. I just went to Greg and was like, Greg. I grew up going to church and I go to church and I, that’s just not the message I received. You know? About Jesus. And I just, I just don’t think that’s how Angela Martin would think. I mean, she can be judgey all she wants, but I don’t think that’s how she thinks.

[00:56:29] Jenna Hher way that she is, how she’s kind of uptight and judgey and all of that is separate from her religion. And I think that’s what you were wanting to do. You were wanting to separate it.

[00:56:39] Angela Yeah. And Greg was so gracious. Greg was like, Angela, oh, my God, thank you so much for sharing that with me. It’s totally not what I intended. We just wanted a heightened moment so that Oscar shoves past you so that we can sort of have this crescendo that makes Michael come out and say everyone to the conference room. So he was like, yeah, we’ll, we’ll come up with a different line and thank you so much for sharing that with me. So I felt like relief and I also felt like my mom could watch the episode without getting upset, too upset. I was like, oh, no. All right, Mom.

[00:57:12] Jenna Yes.

[00:57:13] Angela She still snarky. She’s still really mean and snarky. But, but yeah, I was really appreciative to Greg for hearing me out. So Michael has now had it like he’s like, OK, everyone, I don’t care who you are or what’s going on with you. Get in the conference room, we’re going to talk this out.

[00:57:31] Jenna Yes, and I think this is a good place for a break. Everyone, as everyone walks into the conference room, we will take a break and we will come back with everything that happens in the conference room, which is a lot. All right. So we’re back. We’re in the conference room. Michael is leading a discussion. About what it means to be gay. This includes one of my favorite lines from this episode, which is yours, Angelo, when Michael asks who should be the judges and juries of our society,

[00:58:03] Angela the judges and the juries?

[00:58:06] Jenna And he says, you’re making a good point.

[00:58:10] Angela I lmean-.

[00:58:11] Jenna I love that.

[00:58:11] Angela This conference room scene has some great cutaways as well. And it is Creed’s, one of his favorite talking heads happens.

[00:58:20] Jenna Yes.

[00:58:20] Angela He’s done for us live in studio

[00:58:23] Creed in the 60s. I made love to many, many women, often outdoors in the rain, in the mud. It’s possible a man slipped in. There’d be no way of knowing.

[00:58:37] Jenna Yes. No way of knowing. No way of knowing.

[00:58:39] Angela No way of knowing. So this is one of Creed’s favorite talking heads.

[00:58:42] Jenna I love it.

[00:58:44] Angela We also learned. Oh, my gosh, we learned that Phyllis is engaged.

[00:58:48] Jenna Yes, Phyllis. This is when it’s revealed that Phyllis is engaged because Dwight says Phyllis might be a lesbian. And she’s like, actually, I’m getting married to Bob Van Ness and we’re all very excited.

[00:59:00] Angela She didn’t announce it or tell us this is how we all find out. Then she shows her ring off. Right? And we’re looking over, Jenna, is Phyllis this ring a clustering?

[00:59:13] Jenna Angela, I think it’s a cluster.

[00:59:15] Angela What?

[00:59:16] Jenna And Bob Vance.

[00:59:18] Angela Bob Vance should get her a big rock. I don’t believe. I don’t believe it.

[00:59:22] Jenna I don’t believe it. And I think you’re going to see in later episodes it gets switched.

[00:59:26] Angela I think it does. I remember her having a big honking ring and we’re like, oh, Bob Vance, huh?

[00:59:31] Jenna Same.

[00:59:32] Angela We did bits about it. But in this shot, it looked like a clustering.

[00:59:36] Jenna It’s a cluster. I mean, Bob Van Ness is a very showy guy. He’s going to give his lady a big ol solitaire diamond.

[00:59:44] Angela Yes, he is. Yes, he is.

[00:59:46] Jenna OK, we need to track that.

[00:59:47] Angela And Phyllis has a line in here that I love because I love every single time phyllis reminds us all that she and Michael went to high school together. I live for it. I live for it.

[01:00:00] Jenna You know, Angela, that one got me curious because I was like, I don’t think that Phyllis and Steve are the same age. I actually went to Wikipedia and I looked it up. And there is a ten year age difference between Steve Carell and Phyllis Smith in real life. But nonetheless, I love this runner.

[01:00:17] Angela It’s a very funny runner and Michael hates it. But we also learned that Michael in high school wore suits and ties

[01:00:25] Jenna and matching fancy socks.

[01:00:27] Angela And fancy socks.

[01:00:28] Jenna I love that back story.

[01:00:29] Angela Yeah.

[01:00:30] Jenna There’s also a moment in the conference room where Michael says we’re all homos, homo sapiens. And Pam, this is, this makes Pam laugh and she giggles and turns to the person next to her, but it’s Ryan.

[01:00:47] Angela And Ryan gives you nothing.

[01:00:47] Jenna And he looks at her like what?

[01:00:49] Angela Ryan gives you nothing.

[01:00:51] Jenna No, nothing. And you’ll notice in this episode when we cut back to Jim in the conference room at Stanford, he is having memories of conference rooms with Pam, just like Pam is having her memories of conference rooms with Jim.

[01:01:08] Angela And they have no one to look at to sort of share the experience with.

[01:01:12] Jenna I know. That’s what they were to each other.

[01:01:14] Angela Yeah, their person is gone.

[01:01:17] Jenna So then Michael goes on this tangent, he just says, you know, gay marriage isn’t legal and how many straight men wished that applied to them? He’s like, you’re so lucky, Oscar, that gay marriage isn’t legal.

[01:01:33] Angela I think I’ve seen this, like in sort of a stand up routine. I feel like-.

[01:01:39] Jenna This concept.

[01:01:40] Angela Yeah, I feel like Michael has pulled some of his comedians that he’s seen sort of do this bit that I bet husband’s out there wish that, I feel like Michael is doing his bit.

[01:01:50] Jenna I think you’re so right on that. Here’s the thing. When I heard that, I, I actually thought to myself, oh, my God, gay marriage wasn’t legal. Like it is legal now. Right? But yes, we shot this back in 2007 and gay marriage was not legal. Angela, this sent me on a tangent,

[01:02:19] Angela where did you go.

[01:02:20] Jenna It sent me on-.

[01:02:21] Angela Where did you go.

[01:02:21] Jenna Angela, I went on a deep dove.

[01:02:25] Angela Uh oh.

[01:02:25] Jenna Sam, can I get a deep dove, please? Do you hear that, Angela?

[01:02:29] Angela I did. It sounded like a toilet being flushed.

[01:02:32] Jenna Oh, dear. OK, no, that’s me-.

[01:02:35] Angela Also-.

[01:02:35] Jenna Doing a deep dove into the history of gay marriage.

[01:02:38] Angela Wait one second. Do you see them trade emails about sound effects? Because I feel like you have some shorthand with Sam that I don’t have where I’m not like, Sam hit the full Mindy. Sam, give me a bird going, cacaw. Sam, give me a beer, gulp, like sound.

[01:02:59] Jenna Maybe we do, Ange, maybe we do. Maybe Sam and I trade with sound effects emails from time to time. If you want to know I also recorded this.

[01:03:10] SFX You got deep, you gotta dive, you put ’em together, you get a deep dive.

[01:03:15] Angela Are those your children?

[01:03:16] Jenna That’s my son. He made me a deep dive sting.

[01:03:19] Angela I like that. I might like that better than your toilet flush.

[01:03:23] Jenna Well, listen, the point is, I did a deep dive on the history of gay marriage, and I’m going to throw it at you. Are you ready?

[01:03:29] Angela OK, I guess. Throw it at me.

[01:03:32] Jenna All right. So in the year 2000, 20 years ago, Vermont was the first place in the country of the United States to allow civil unions for gay couples. The first state to legalize gay marriage was Massachusetts in 2003.

[01:03:51] Angela Look at you. Look at your, miss. Look at you go.

[01:03:56] Jenna Oh. Look at him. Did I do a good one? Was that good? Look at him go.

[01:04:00] Angela I don’t know, honey. I don’t know what that was.

[01:04:02] Jenna They were so smart in Massachusetts.

[01:04:04] Angela So super smart. All right. So go on.

[01:04:07] Jenna Wicked smart.

[01:04:07] Angela They’re wicked smart, wicked smart way to go. All right.

[01:04:10] Jenna All right. So Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage. Pennsylvania was the last state in the northeastern region to recognize same sex marriage. It did not become legal there until a state Supreme Court ruling in May of 2014. And it did not become legal in all 50 United States until June 26, 2015, there was a Supreme Court ruling. That decision struck down bans on same sex marriage, legalized it in all 50 states, and said that all states had to honor out of state marriage licenses. Lady, that was only five years ago. That is astonishing to me anyway. That was my deep dive, guys. I got super curious when I heard him say that.

[01:04:55] Angela Yeah.

[01:04:56] Jenna Because now it is the law. But there was a time when it was not and I wanted to learn more about it, so there you have it.

[01:05:02] Angela There you have it. She’s here for the deep dives on your alpha womb and.

[01:05:09] Jenna Yes, on, here, here are the things I’ve deep dived so far. Can you get yams at a gas station in Carbondale?

[01:05:16] Angela You really deep dived on that.

[01:05:18] Jenna What is an alpha womb?

[01:05:19] Angela Yeah, you-.

[01:05:20] Jenna Gay marriage.

[01:05:21] Angela And now. Well, don’t forget, you did stalk a college a cappella group and you know their rehearsal schedule, so.

[01:05:29] Jenna My gosh, I did two deep dives in this episode.

[01:05:32] Angela Oh my god.

[01:05:34] Jenna I’m really contributing. I’m contributing. OK, so guys, this conference room meeting is not going well. Oscar says to Toby, I don’t even think I can work here anymore. This is the worst day of my life. He gets up to leave and Michael stops him. And now we are going to have the most glorious interaction.

[01:05:54] Angela So we could not talk about the awkwardly, cringey awesomeness of this scene without Oscar Núñez.

[01:06:02] Jenna So we called him. Yeah, we did. We recorded it. And here it is. Hi, Oscar.

[01:06:14] Oscar Hi, Jenna. Hi, Angela.

[01:06:16] Jenna Oh, this is so fun, Oscar.

[01:06:18] Oscar You what this is, Jenna?

[01:06:20] Jenna What?

[01:06:21] Oscar It’s unbelievable.

[01:06:27] Jenna Yes, it is unbelievable.

[01:06:30] Oscar That’s what I do, all, when I want to get a laugh. I watch “The Office”, but I watch the bloopers like all the seasons. And that’s one of the takes that makes me laugh so much.

[01:06:40] Angela I love that. You know, Isabelle loves the bloopers.

[01:06:43] Oscar Me too. I love the bloopers.

[01:06:45] Jenna I just remember we could not get through that scene.

[01:06:49] Oscar No. Fischer, you were the instigator. You couldn’t get it together.

[01:06:51] Jenna I know. I’m sorry. You guys are funny.

[01:06:55] Oscar It happens.

[01:06:56] Angela And also, we never, ever got to do talking heads together. So it was just like the novelty of that too

[01:07:05] Oscar And it was funny, it was so good.

[01:07:06] Jenna Oscar you never break. You never break.

[01:07:10] Oscar You know, I was, I was watching, I think it’s Season 4, Ed Helms made me crack up because he just he mugs so much as funny faces and it’s still grounded and Ed Helms made me crack up in one of the bloopers.

[01:07:22] Jenna Well but truly I feel like we could we could count on one hand the number of times you broke in the whole nine years.

[01:07:29] Angela In nine years, my nickname for Oscar was The Statue because he never broke.

[01:07:35] Oscar Yeah.

[01:07:36] Jenna Oscar, it’s a good thing that you were Steve scene partner in “Gay Witch Hunt”, everybody else in the room broke. You did not. And thank goodness, because then they had usable tape.

[01:07:49] Oscar Because Jenna I stifled it.

[01:07:50] Jenna Oh.

[01:07:50] Angela I know you’re jealous because I sat with you in accounting. So Brian did the tea kettle. We’ve talked about that, how he as he would start to laugh, he would like try to hide it by blowing out the corner of his mouth. I called it the tea kettle.

[01:08:03] Oscar Yes. Yes, that’s right.

[01:08:06] Angela But you did this tiny, minuscule, like a grunt, but no one knew you would go like it like that. I need to go back and we’ll get to it. But I want to see if I can hear it. OK, but before we get into the scene, Oscar, we start whenever we have a guest on this show, we ask them a little bit about how you came to be on the office. Like what was your audition process, like what’s your story?

[01:08:34] Oscar Well, well, OK. I’ll just start with the audition. I don’t want to, because you and I knew each other from before and I don’t even know where, the Groundlings or something. Where we met

[01:08:45] Angela The Groundlings Oscar, OK, Oscar and I had known each other forever. But Jenna like how you were talking about with John like this was before you texted people about what was going on in their lives. There was no social media, so I had no idea that Oscar auditioned and he didn’t know that I auditioned and I didn’t know that he got it until the day I walked on set the first day. And I walk over to accounting where they told me I was sitting and there’s Oscar and I’m like, oh my god. Oscar!

[01:09:11] Oscar She’s not kidding. It’s like, it’s like a like a movie, like a Harry Met Sally or something. We did not know this. Not through gossip, not through reading paperwork. We both walked on the set and there we were in wardrobe. And I’m like, what are you doing here? She’s like, what are you doing here? I’m like, Oh no, we’re on the same show.

[01:09:29] Angela We were so excited because we had done a sketch comedy show. We had met, God Oscar what, like fifteen years earlier.

[01:09:37] Oscar It’s such a great feeling to see a friend. And you’re like, we’re all the same show that rarely happens. But it does happen.

[01:09:45] Jenna But not just on the same show. You guys were like teammates.

[01:09:49] Oscar We were in the same department.

[01:09:52] Jenna In the same desk pod. You know? So even better. And speaking of that Oscar, did you audition for the role of an accountant?

[01:09:59] Oscar Yes, they needed extra people. They gave me copy to read and it was a general office stuff.

[01:10:05] Jenna OK.

[01:10:05] Oscar And my manager, Bruce, is like, it’s for “The Office”. And I’m like, well, that sounds good. And I love the British “Office”, but I, I thought, we’ll do the pilot and it won’t get picked up. That was my feeling. I was so skeptical.

[01:10:20] Jenna I think we all felt that way.

[01:10:22] Oscar I was so over it. But I love the show. I love the Ricky Gervais. I’m like, oh it’s great, but we’re not going to do it justice. That’s what I was like. We’re not going to do it justice. Don’t get excited. Oscar, don’t get excited. So and I think that’s why I did well because I didn’t care. And then they’re like, well let’s have, come in for a callback and then the callback. I think it must have been scripted, but I went in, I think three times or maybe four, three for sure. And then the last one was improv and I was like, OK, I really like this because I can improvise because I was literally in the Groundlings at the time. So I improv to the live long day. And I was I had a really good time and tried to keep it close to the vest and I go too crazy. And then my manager called and said, You got it. And I got a little bit more excited but still didn’t quit my day job. I was catering and babysitting. And did not quit until we got picked up for the season and then Flanary and I quit at the same time, we looked at each other and we’re like now, she’s like, now, yeah, let’s do it now. Let’s do it. And we both quit and we’re like woo! Free falling.

[01:11:26] Angela You quit catering, catering and babysitting and Kate quit being a waitress.

[01:11:31] Oscar And her lovely manager, everyone wish her well and her manager said, you’ll be back. She’s like, Oh, thank you for that.

[01:11:39] Jenna All right, let’s talk about this scene. All right, Oscar. This is the scene where Michael starts by offering to hug you. You know, you’re upset. You’re like, I’m out of here. And Michael’s like, come on, I’m going to give you a hug in an attempt to show that he’s totally OK with Oscar being gay. But this ended up with Steve kissing you on the lips, which was not scripted.

[01:12:04] Oscar No

[01:12:06] Angela Well, it’s crazy because Michael, like, completely offends you and your like, you feel insulted, you want to leave, then, then you realize you’ve broken Michael’s heart. And so you’re like, OK, buddy, come here. Now you’re, you’re comforting Michael. And he’s like tearing up. It just like becoming his parent in the moment.

[01:12:29] Oscar None of this should be happening in the workplace.

[01:12:32] Angela No.

[01:12:33] Jenna Well, Oscar, I have a script from Gay Witch Hunt, and I looked it up. And here is what was originally scripted, because I was curious because I knew that what ended up airing was an improv. So originally, he originally he hugs you and then he was supposed to go in for a kiss, but he chickens out and he’s supposed to like kiss you on the forehead or something. But I remember sitting in that room and when Steve said the line, I want you to burn this into your brains, that was the moment

[01:13:07] Angela We knew that was improv. That was an improv line.

[01:13:10] Jenna Not scripted. What does Steve have in his head right now? And Oscar, to me as an audience member, and I’m saying audience member like because I was. I was just sitting in the conference room as an audience member. That line was the moment when I knew we had taken a turn on to a totally new road. What was it for you? Do you remember, like when you were like, wait, what’s going on?

[01:13:33] Oscar I’ve had time to process it. But at the moment, I think they did three or four takes not a lot with hugging, with the way you’re saying, and then and then this particular take, he’s he’s coming in and I’m like, oh, he’s going to he really caught me off guard. He’s coming in closer and closer. And his nose is getting closer to my nose. And I’m thinking, I’m thinking, well, I don’t know what’s happening. So I’m just going to stand here because he’s going to hug me. And I’m thinking, pick a side. You know, when you hug someone Jenna, you have to go left or right.

[01:14:10] Jenna Yeah.

[01:14:10] Oscar I’m like, pick a side, pick a side. And I’m like, oh, no, he’s not picking a side. He’s because I’m like I’m like.

[01:14:17] Angela He’s not picking a side.

[01:14:18] Oscar And then he came in for a sweet, sweet kiss and our lips touch. And then that’s when like this laugh came from my stomach and I stopped it. And I also heard a lot of giggling, snickering from the peanut gallery. And I’m like, oh, I hope the cameras, it doesn’t matter because that’s the reaction. Whatever’s happening is happening. And then he stop kissing me. And I’m like, OK, stay in character. Like I said, thank you. I think I don’t know why.

[01:14:44] Jenna Well, he has this great line. He has this great line where. Well, first of all, you improvise a great line. Oscar, where you’re like, we don’t have to do this, Michael.

[01:14:54] Oscar And he’s like, Yes, we do. Why?

[01:14:55] Jenna Yes, we do. And then after he improvised this line where he was like there I did it.

[01:15:01] Oscar Yes. like he’s the hero.

[01:15:02] Jenna And we’re still here. We’re still here.

[01:15:05] Oscar I know he’s the hero. He did it.

[01:15:08] Angela Yeah. He did it. Victory.

[01:15:08] Oscar He did. He dragged me out of the closet where I was perfectly happy.

[01:15:11] Jenna Well, the thing that amazes me is that when you see all of our reactions, we were just reacting in real time. And yet we also seem to be reacting in character, except for BJ. I’ll tell you, BJ turns away in that moment when he’s sitting next to me because he started laughing. He, the reason he turned away was because he lost it.

[01:15:31] Oscar Good.

[01:15:33] Jenna He lost it, and then the camera cuts. So you can’t see it.

[01:15:36] Oscar Carrell’s insane.

[01:15:37] Angela I covered my face because I was laughing and I thought, OK, hopefully this tracks that Angela Martin wouldn’t want to see it because I’m laughing and I don’t want to ruin this moment, oh my God.

[01:15:46] Oscar Thank goodness Jenna was closest to us. Or one of the close to she was like right there.

[01:15:49] Angela Well, Oscar, I don’t know if you remember, but you and I were doing an interview together. Oh my gosh. I don’t know where we were. We were doing a press junket for NBC and someone asked you about the moment. And I’ll never forget because I remember I remember it because you cursed and I was like, oh, no, we’re on camera. But you said something like then all of a sudden Steve keeps coming closer and I’m like, son of a bitch, he’s gonna kiss me. But you had this moment where you knew it was past the point of no return. It’s happening.

[01:16:17] Jenna Well, Steve was amazing because when he would come up with those improvs on set, I feel like I have a lot of memories. And this is the one that is most prevalent. But just the memory of him, you see him get an idea, but then he is a master at slow playing the idea. He I saw him as soon as he said, I want you to burn this into your brains. I knew. Oh, my gosh, he has an idea. But he made me wait for it and he made all of us wait for it. And that is the genius of his comic timing

[01:16:50] Oscar for Michael Scott. Even though it’s ass backwards, it was a very brave thing of him to, in his mind, Michael Scott. He’s like, he was the hero, right?

[01:17:01] Jenna Yeah.

[01:17:01] Oscar He’s like, look what I did. Look what I did. No no one else could have done this. That’s why I have the mug, world’s best boss. Look what I did.

[01:17:11] Angela And then Jenna, I have a, I have a question because I am pretty sure I remember this correctly. But you have the script when Rainn as Dwight then chimes in to kiss him, Rainn improvise that.

[01:17:23] Jenna Oh yeah.

[01:17:25] Angela That was totally improvised and I just said, that’s a button that Dwight is like, I’m going to get in here.

[01:17:30] Oscar That’s his M.O. That’s apropos. He did that a lot. He just didn’t do it in that scene. Michael would do something. And then he’s like he would get inspired and go, I’m going to do what my boss is doing.

[01:17:40] Angela Yeah.

[01:17:41] Oscar But. But Michael said, no, no, I don’t.

[01:17:43] Angela Yeah.

[01:17:44] Oscar Because he needed it was just for him.

[01:17:46] Jenna You can see Rainn break a little bit there after he tries to kiss you, you see.

[01:17:52] Angela Yeah.

[01:17:52] Jenna A little bit of a smile.

[01:17:53] Oscar I tip my hat to all you guys because that was a ridiculous moment. And for him to pull back and say we did it, we’re still here, we’re still in. We did it. Everyone.

[01:18:02] Angela What?

[01:18:03] Oscar Dragging everyone in with him to this thing.

[01:18:05] Angela I wrote it 18 minutes. Fifty six seconds. I wrote I think Oscar is about to break right here. That’s the moment I caught. So I’m going to go back and see if it’s your weird stomach grunt moment.

[01:18:17] Jenna That was the, probably the most documentary moment of our fake documentary. That and when we sang Goodbye to Steve.

[01:18:25] Oscar Oh my gosh.

[01:18:26] Jenna Because remember, Steve didn’t know.

[01:18:28] Oscar No.

[01:18:29] Jenna OK, Oscar, before you go, I want to ask you this Färm question. So as a result of Michael’s behavior, Oscar ends up accepting a settlement with corporate and it includes this three month paid leave. And he says, he and Gil are going to go to Europe. So Melinda Magorkurth and Mike McCarthy wrote in to ask this, When the character of Oscar goes on his three month sabbatical, what was the real Oscar up to in real life during those three months?

[01:18:58] Oscar This comes under the umbrella of having two wonderful mensches as your bosses. I, when it rains, it pours you guys. And while I was on “The Office”, I pitched a show at Comedy Central, and they said, yes, it was an improvised show which the aforementioned Damon Jones, Damon Jones, who was was in the running for being the lead, is my buddy. And he was executive producer of the show we created together. And this other fellow, Kevin Ruff, we sold the show to Comedy Central and they said, we want to do a season of it. And I’m like, oh, well, OK, but I’m out of “The Office”, but whatever, we’ll figure it out. One day I was walking across, just to give you a little more glimpse into Steve and his thinking. He was walking across the, we’re outside on the asphalt where all the cars are parked in the parking lot. It’s called, Oscar, the parking lot and all our trailers are there. And I caught up to him, I’m like Steve, hey, what’s up? I said, Steve, I was just offered to do a a show on Comedy Central, but I love it here. What should I do? And he goes, Oscar say yes to everything. Let your people figure it out. Let your manager and your agent figure it out. That’s not your job. You say yes to everything that they offer you. Don’t worry about anything else. Say yes, people will figure it out. So I said yes and I told Greg Daniels he’s like, we’ll figure it out. And they did. And this was my out. They gave me a beautiful, organic, seamless way out. So I was shooting a show. I was shooting ten episodes of a show called “Halfway Home”. It was all improvised on Comedy Central.

[01:20:30] Angela It was so good, Oscar.

[01:20:31] Oscar Thank you.

[01:20:32] Angela It was so good. And so many of the people that we knew from the Groundlings and improv Olympic We’re part of it.

[01:20:37] Oscar And you know who Octavia Spencer, how does she go on to do after that? I think she did OK for herself. So Octavia was with us on that show. Many people went there. And Steve Pearce, you know, so many people anyway, that’s what I was doing. I went to do a show, shot ten episodes, and they came back and and folded right back into “The Office”. But because of Greg that because of Steve Carell and Silverman and all those people.

[01:21:03] Angela But, you know, I think what people should know is that that that is very unique. I feel like to Greg.

[01:21:08] Oscar Absolutely.

[01:21:09] Angela Because Greg was such a collaborator with us. And I know I had things throughout the nine year run and I know Jenna you did, too, where we had to go to them and say, hey, we got this opportunity, will we be able to make it work? And he was always pro making it work and figuring it out. So how amazingly gracious that he made this-.

[01:21:27] Oscar Right.

[01:21:28] Angela window for you to go shoot that show.

[01:21:29] Oscar It’s not like I’ll do it. I’ll get that opportunity later. This is important. And he knew, he knows that it’s important to get a pitch meeting. It’s important to sell a show. This isn’t happening every day. We’re all we’re all mature. Am I younger than Angela and Jenna by fifteen, twenty years.? Yes, but that’s not the point for mature people. We’re all mature people.

[01:21:49] Jenna Oh.

[01:21:50] Angela Well you had you had pitched it and created it was your baby and you got to go do it. And then you got to come back to “The Office”.

[01:21:57] Oscar If I had to choose I don’t know what I would have done because a bird in the hand.

[01:22:01] Jenna Yeah.

[01:22:02] Oscar I knew the, so I would have had to say no to a show. I, I might have said no to Comedy-. I probably would have said no to that and that would have been horrible.

[01:22:10] Jenna Yeah.

[01:22:10] Oscar So I got to do both. I got to do both.

[01:22:12] Angela You got to do both. And as Michael would say, it was a win win win.

[01:22:19] Jenna Very nicely done, Angela. Oscar, thank you so much.

[01:22:23] Oscar My pleasure.

[01:22:24] Jenna You’re awesome. This was so nice.

[01:22:27] Oscar My pleasure. Love you, Angela. Love you, Jenna.

[01:22:29] Jenna Love you, Oscar.

[01:22:30] Angela Bye.

[01:22:30] Jenna Bye.

[01:22:33] Angela Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

[01:22:35] Jenna Wasn’t that amazing?

[01:22:37] Angela He’s hilarious.

[01:22:39] Jenna That was amazing.

[01:22:39] Angela I love him so much. I love him so much.

[01:22:41] Jenna Now, there’s not that much more to talk about, but there are a couple little things. Before we wrap things up, I want to talk about Jim in the conference room.

[01:22:48] Angela Fancy Stanford conference room.

[01:22:51] Jenna Yes. And he’s having his diversity training. And guys, Larry Wilmore.

[01:22:55] Angela Larry Wilmore.

[01:22:57] Jenna Back again as Mr. Brown.

[01:22:58] Angela Yes.

[01:22:59] Jenna Hero acronym hero. It’s all there. You might notice that Jim has an empty chair next to him and he kind of looks wistfully at the chair. This is a nod to that moment in the previous diversity day where Pam fell asleep on his shoulder. It was kind of their first moment of connection, their first moment of physical connection. And he’s remembering that,

[01:23:22] Angela yeah, they’re both missing each other. They’re missing each other.

[01:23:26] Jenna They are.

[01:23:27] Angela And now back at Dunder Mifflin, Dwight gets a package. He gets a package from Jim. It’s a gaydar detector. It looks like a little mini vacuum, but it is probably just a metal detector, right?

[01:23:44] Jenna It literally is a metal detector. I texted Phil Shea about it, and it is a repurposed metal detector, which makes total sense because it beeps when it goes across Oscar belt.

[01:23:57] Angela His belt. They all wore belts, guys.

[01:23:59] Jenna And so then, of course, it beeps when it goes across Dwight’s belt.

[01:24:04] Angela Oh, then who has a little smile? A little wistful smile? Pam.

[01:24:10] Jenna That Jim, she’s thinking, she’s thinking, ah, that Jim.

[01:24:13] Angela He did a prank all the way from fancy Stanford.

[01:24:17] Jenna Yeah.

[01:24:17] Angela Oh.

[01:24:18] Jenna I know. And he doesn’t know that I have an apartment now and I’m eating frozen food because I canceled my wedding

[01:24:26] Jenna and I’m going, I have art classes. I enrolled in art classes like he said I should.

[01:24:31] Angela I know I’m actually glad that Jim went to Stanford and that he doesn’t know this about Pam, because I think it’s really important that Pam has her own journey.

[01:24:43] Jenna Well, I think one of the reasons why Pam and Jim were able to get together in the end was because she had this time between relationships.

[01:24:50] Angela Yes.

[01:24:51] Jenna She had this time alone. She’s been with Roy for over a decade. I think when we talk about it, yeah, maybe not that long. But since high school.

[01:24:59] Angela Pam.

[01:25:00] Jenna I mean, they lived together. She needs this alone time. I think it’s good. It’s good for them. We know it’s all going to work out in the end. They don’t know that yet. But this is the right thing. Kids, take time for yourself.

[01:25:15] Angela Don’t go from one relationship to the next. OK?

[01:25:18] Jenna Figure out how you you are.

[01:25:21] Angela have some time inbetween, OK?

[01:25:22] Jenna What are these accents we’re doing?

[01:25:24] Angela I don’t know.

[01:25:25] Jenna Who are these women?

[01:25:25] Angela I don’t know. I don’t know.

[01:25:26] Jenna They’re your bossy aunts, that’s bossy aunt accent.

[01:25:28] Angela Alright you guys. That was “Gay Witch Hunt” Thanks so much for listening in. If we missed anything, write us, because, you know, we like it.

[01:25:38] Jenna You know we like it. And next week we’re going to talk about “The Convention”.

[01:25:43] Angela Yes. All right. We’ll see you next week.

[01:25:45] Jenna See you then. Thank you for listening to “Office Ladies”. “Office Ladies” is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Codi Fischer. Our producer is Cassi Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.

[01:26:06] Angela Our theme song is “Rubber Tree” by Creed Bratton.

[01:26:09] Jenna For ad free versions of “Office Ladies”, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher premium use code office.