Office Ladies - A Look Back on Hot Girl

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

It’s Spring Break and why not celebrate with “Hot Girl,” the Season One “Office” finale?! This ep co-stars Amy Adams and is written by Mindy Kaling. Jenna and Angela share an Amy Adams story that may involve Meryl Streep, and is Jenna an international poker champion? The ladies also explore the disappearing - reappearing E.T. on Jim’s desk and answer some burning fan questions about this episode. Enjoy!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestionFollow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPodCheck out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 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. We're The Office, ladies. That's us. Hey there.

We are here. We are here and we're excited because today we're talking about Hot Girl. Hot Girl, season one, episode six, written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Amy Heckerling. I was really excited to meet Amy Heckerling, you know, growing up. Guys, I might be a child of the 70s, no judgment, the oldie sitting here. No, and she directed Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless and Clueless. So I was excited. I remember there was a bit of a buzz.

Yeah, there was a little bit of a buzz. Then she was coming in. Yeah. We were very excited. I didn't know how to make small talk with her and guess what? I failed. All right, Jenna, hit us with a synopsis. All right, synopsis of this episode, Michael allows a woman selling purses to set up in

the conference room for the day and Michael and Dwight compete for her attention. Very simple. Very simple. And yet. So loaded for Pam. Yeah. Oh. This was really a big Pam episode.

It really was. So should we start with some fast facts then? I know you want to. You know. My Fast Fact, number one, this is the first episode written by Mindy Kaling. Yes, Mindy Kaling's so smart, so funny, and she was one of our most prolific writers on the office. She wrote a total of, Jenna, ready?

What? 22 episodes. Wow. I know. That's like she wrote an entire season of the office. I know. Of our night. Because the season's usually about 22, 24 episodes.

Yes. I have a fan question about Mindy. All right. This is from Bear. Hi, Bear. Yes. Bear asked, this episode was written by Mindy Kaling. What was it like to work with her as a writer versus an actor?

Oh, Bear. Good question. I know. You know what? I loved when Mindy was the writer of the episode. Because the writer of the episode on our show would stay on set all week and produce their episode with the director. So they kind of worked very side by side with the director.

Yes. And they were sort of the liaison back to the writer's room. I loved that our show did this. Not all shows do that. And I really think you benefit from having the writer of the episode on the set with you. Well, Mindy, it was so easy to make Mindy laugh. Like she was so ready to love everything you were doing.

You were filled with such confidence when Mindy was on the set. And she also was really good on the spot coming up with new jokes, because that was another thing that the writer of the episode would do. They would pitch you improvisations on the spot. Yeah. And Mindy, for me, as someone with an improv background, I loved being able to pitch to Mindy because she's so smart. So I could say, hey, Mindy, could I try this?

And then she would just instantly be like, oh, that'd be great. Or how about you do this? And she was such a wonderful creative collaborator. I always felt like Mindy was such a big advocate for the character of Pam as well. I think she was in the writer's room pitching storylines for Pam. And this was a very Pam-centered episode, as we said. Pam has feelings. Just a lot of feelings.

Pam has a lot of feelings. She does. This leads me into my second fastback. I was texting with Mindy about this episode in preparation, and she told me something. The original title of this episode was Purse Girl. Oh. Do you kind of remember that? I actually do because I feel like I have referred to this as Purse Girl a few times

because it's in my brain. Yeah. She also told me that her original draft of this was 39 pages. Wow. Which is a lot, because usually the number of pages that a script is, that's how many minutes of screen time it is. So her script, if we did it exactly as written, would have been 39 minutes, which we would not have been able to air.

I really wish we could have done that, and I wish we could have filmed all 40 pages of that instead of 22, 22 minutes. I remember they used to have those very long table drafts, and then they would cut a bunch of stuff out, and they would make something they called the candy bag. And those were all of the cut scenes, or they were additional takes on scenes. So whatever talking head wound up in the script, there would be five different takes on that talking head in the candy bag. And so we would sit down to do our talking heads, and they would say, all right, well,

we're going to do the scripted one, but then we're going to do three of them from the candy bag. Oh, I remember going to do a talking head, and they handed me three pages of alts, like right in the minute. I'm like, oh, right. Okay, I'm going to have to have a photographic memory. You have to really be on your toes. I think that's something that- It kept us on our toes for sure.

I loved it. I loved it too. And then they used to let me play around and like sort of like put my spin on it too, which was always fun. All right. Fisher, what else you got? All right. I think it's time to talk about Amy Adams.

Okay. I have a lot of note cards here in front of me. I see. And a lot of them have the words Amy or Amy Adams on them. Okay. You tell me when you're ready, because I've got a note card ready to go. Well, this is our third fast fact. Okay.

Amy Adams was the purse girl. Mindy told me that Amy was her favorite from the very beginning. This is who she wanted to cast as the purse girl from her audition. But something that I think people don't realize is that Amy Adams wasn't Amy Adams when she was cast as the purse girl. She became Amy Adams later. And that's an interesting story actually, because we filmed this episode in the fall of 2004, but they didn't start airing until the spring of 2005.

And that fall, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Junebug. Right. When she did this episode of The Office, no one had seen Junebug yet, because Junebug came out in August of 2005. And I remember her first day on set, we were talking and I was like, how are things going? She's like, well, you know, it's good. I mean, I was on a show on CBS called Dr. Vegas, but they like, they let me go. Oh, that's right.

She was like, I kind of got fired. And I was like, no. And she was like, yeah. And I was really down and I was bummed out. But then, you know, I did this little indie movie called Junebug and I, I feel so good about it. And it's going to come out later in the year. And I was like, oh, that sounds great.

Yeah. Let me build you up, Amy Adams. You're going to be just fine. And she was. And she was. But Amy is one of the nicest people. She's so, so sweet. Oh, I loved Amy.

It was so fun working with her. There were a lot of questions from fans asking if we planned to bring this character back after we shot it. Well, we didn't think we were going to have a show, right? There were no real plans to bring her back. But then when the show got picked up, they wanted to bring her back. But now she was Academy Award nominated Amy Adams. I was like, well, I hope we can get her back.

And we did. She came back for two more episodes. Yes. And she was such a great foil, too, for Pam and Jim and all of that. I loved watching that play out. Not only was Amy Adams super nice on set and just like such a pleasure to work with, but I don't know, probably like two years later, I ran into her. I had a friend visiting from Alabama.

And you guys, I don't ever go out. So my friend was coming in town and I was like, oh, I'm going to take her somewhere fancy. That hotel, Chateau Marmont, that's fancy. We'll go there. Because I just had it in my head. Yeah. Like the Hollywood fancy place. It was a fancy place.

It was half an hour from my house. It was such a like hall. But I was like, no, I'll take my friend from Alabama there. So we went and we were having dinner and Amy Adams was at a table and she sent over two glasses of champagne to my friend and I, and I was like, turn, they were like, oh, this is a fancy move. So classy. And they were like, I was like, who's this from?

They were like, it's from Amy Adams. And she waved and then she came over and we chatted, Amy Adams is just a class act. I have a funny Amy Adams story about how people think that we look alike. So she and I were both at this work party thing. I can't remember exactly. I think it was like honoring directors in the industry and we were both there and my friend came up to me and he said, I am so humiliated right now. And I said, what happened?

And he goes, I just went up and bear hugged Amy Adams and said, Jenna, you look beautiful because he mixed us up. And this people have this thing where they think she and I look a lot alike. We really don't look anything alike in person. So I guess I just told a story about someone who mixed us up in person. I mean, there is a resemblance. She's perfectly cast because there is a resemblance and you're both like beautiful ladies. Thanks.

But I see a resemblance. I feel like we could play sisters. You could. All right, Hollywood. You heard it here first. That's how I, that's, I guess that's how I talk when I'm talking to Hollywood. I guess. Hello.

Hollywood beware. Hollywood. This is Angela Kinsey. I don't love it. I would rethink your character, your Hollywood voice lady. I think you should work on it. Okay. Give it an accent.

Should it be British? I only would. No. Oh my God. Oh, that's Australian. Oh, what was that? That was like drunk Scottish. What is happening?

I can't do accents and I also can't sing. I can do Australian, but I grew up overseas and all my best friends were Aussies. So right now I'm just sitting here talking to Jenna. We're going to talk about hot girl. Yeah. That's really good, Ange. Aw, thanks. Thanks so much.

I'm shocked. I'm genuinely impressed. Okay, okay, okay. See, that was so good, but your Hollywood voice is a no. I know. You know what? It's whenever I'm trying to be slick. I am just not programmed to be slick.

This is true about you. I know. Before we go to a break, since we're talking about Amy Adams and how wonderful she is, both on and off set, we have to tell the story about how she helped us meet Meryl Streep. Oh my God. Oh my God. I cannot believe I didn't put that on a note card. I can't believe it either.

What is wrong with me? You know what? I don't know. I got here. There were donuts. I got excited. I forgot. Okay.

So one year, we got to go to the Golden Globes. Oh. The office had been nominated and I have to say, first of all, Angela, I am so grateful that I got to go to these awards show things with you. I know. Well, here's the thing. We didn't go to fancy parties, you guys. We're not fancy people.

I'm an intimate dinner party person. Well, I- I like a small group. I think the fanciest parties I'd ever been to were just like one of my friends would have a big wedding. But I am so glad that I got to navigate all that stuff with you because I would normally kind of freeze up at something like that. But I was there with my BFF.

We would have a couple glasses of wine. We would sometimes get a little. Well, because one thing we should say is we were not allowed to bring a plus one. Well, we were not big time enough. No. I feel like we were barely invited. To truth be told. Even though our show was nominated, it did feel like that.

Well, first of all- Wait, wait, wait. What? Do you remember where our table was? Very far away from the stage. Our table was behind a pillar, Jenna. I had to- I can't remember that.

I had to sort of lean all the way like towards Brian's lap to see the stage. Yeah. So the Golden Globes are really cool because they have awards for both movies and television. There aren't cool movie stars you see. As TV people, we were in the room with Angelina Jolie suddenly and Brad Pitt and all those people. We were nowhere near them, though. They were down at the front and we were in the nosebleeds, but hey, we were in the room.

Well, I will say, I remember going to the bathroom and Angelina Jolie passed by. She took my breath away. I thought, well, now she is from the gods. I get that. I mean, that is a movie star. Well, you turned to me because we were like in line for the bathroom and she just sort of- It's like she glided.

Floated. It's like she floated past us and you turned to me and you go, now that's a movie star. I did. I saw like an old lady. Now that is a movie star. I was like, I don't disagree, Jenna. So Jenna and I are not two people that are invited to a lot of fancy parties. And also, if there are going to be two dorks at a party, chances are they're us.

Oh, yeah. That's just us anywhere. We've done some real dorky things at parties. There are just kind of dorks, even if it's just like at our neighbor's barbecue. I was glad I got to go to those parties with you because I knew you felt as awkward at them as I did, but you are way braver than I am. Way braver. That is true.

I have a little bit of my mom's voice in my ear and my mom would say, if you are at a fancy party, you need to meet the fancy people. You need to use it as an opportunity. Come on. Go say hi to the people you want to say hi to. So I always had that in the back of my head. This is my only chance to meet whoever I've always wanted to meet, I guess. But how do you get into the conversation is always the mystery.

At this Golden Globe, we look across the room and we see Amy Adams talking to Meryl Street. We lean around the pillar, we're sitting behind, and we see Amy Adams. You should know at this point, we've been sitting at our table for quite a while. We hadn't got up and mingled other than we went to the bathroom and saw Angelina Jolie walk by and we didn't say a word. No, I did not speak to her. We did not speak to her. So Jenna's like, there's Amy Adams, and Angela, she's talking to Meryl Street.

We know Amy Adams. Yes. We can go talk to Amy Adams. We know her. She likes us. Yes, and then maybe we'll get to meet some movie stars. Yeah, we'll just basically glom on to Amy Adams was our plan. Yeah.

And Jenna was like, come on, Angela, let's go. And I was like, nope. Don't want to go. Not going. Not going. And you really, like, you were like, Angela. I told you from the table, I said, we are meeting Meryl Street. We are doing this.

This is a story for my mother. Come on. And then she said, and you got to be quick. You have to be quick because what if Amy stops talking to her? Yeah, let's go. And you said, well, what are we going to do? What are we going to say? How do you walk up to them?

What are we going to say? So I was like, here's my plan. We are just going to walk up to them laughing. What? Just laugh. What? And I said, laugh at what? It doesn't matter.

I said, it doesn't matter. Just walk up to them laughing. I think you thought if we just walked up laughing, we would look cool? Like, we're like, I don't know what I thought, Angela. I don't know. I just knew we had to seize the moment. So we did. Well, I said, I basically was like, in shock, I was like, wait, what, what, what?

And then I looked and Jenna was like four strides away, like kind of like, I committed. You're like, come on. And then I sort of half-assed committed behind you. And we did just that. We walked up to Meryl Streep and Amy Adams laughing. And right at that moment, a house photographer came by and snapped our photo. So we have a photo of us and it looks like we are having a hilarious conversation with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Well, actually to clarify, it looks like you and Amy and Meryl Streep are having a great conversation. But because I lagged behind you a little, I was late getting there. And I just look like I'm walking alone laughing. I'm like a good three paces behind you laughing to no one. And you're laughing with Meryl and Amy. But when then the lights like flickered because it was the commercial and we didn't even get to talk to them.

I did get to say to Meryl Streep, I did get to say, it's such a pleasure to meet you. I am a big admirer of your work. And I was, I mean, I just loved her performance in Kramer versus Kramer. I studied a lot of her work. And so as like a theater geek, actor-y person, we've talked a lot about my love of actor prep. That was a big moment for me. Well, I'm glad you had that moment.

I did not meet her. Wait, you didn't meet her? No, no, I didn't meet her because they were dimming the lights. And so the like, by the time I got there, I was just like, bye. Well, she's one of my best friends now. Oh, you. From that moment. You were.

I've never spoken to her again. You've never spoken to her again. I guess that Meryl Streep doesn't quite remember that moment the way we do. I know. Well, we have a photo of it. We do have a photo. All right, guys, we're going to go to a break. And when we come back, we're going to break down the Hot Girl episode.

All right, this episode starts with Michael on a phone call with Jan. She's explaining that they're going to introduce a new incentive program and the top seller in the office is going to get a prize worth $1,000 and that Michael can choose what that prize is the end. So I love that this episode starts with the line, are you listening to me, Michael? By Jan, because he's just like futzing around with pencils and he has her on speakerphone. But I love that the first scene, you just think he's being an idiot. And then you hear this voice say, are you listening to me, Michael?

And I just, I just love it. I love it. The next scene when Dwight is standing over Michael's shoulder in the talking head, begins as a talking head and then it reveals that Dwight is kind of like hovering. That's the first time we did that, but then we will do that many times in the show. It's one of my favorite things is how Dwight stands over Michael's shoulder. That's also when Pam comes into the office to say someone wants to sell handbags and Michael is totally against it, of course, until he sees how attractive the woman is.

A lot of people wrote in and wanted to know where did these purses come from that she's selling. That's Phil Shea. Our prop master. Yes. He told me that he bought them all in downtown LA. Oh, at like the markets downtown? Yes.

Oh, the knockoff purse market? Yes. Because some of them looked really nice, but also they looked a little like pleather. I don't think anyone kept them. I didn't keep one, did you? I didn't know we could. I probably would have taken one. It was early on when we weren't brave enough to ask to take things yet.

Yeah, no. Later, when the show wrapped, I did take Pam's everyday purse. It's just something that had been sitting, even if I didn't use it in a scene, it sat on Pam's desk or it was in her drawer. So I have that. I have Pam's everyday purse that she had for most of the season, but I didn't keep a fancy purse. There's the scene where Michael has to refer to Katie the Purse girl as Pam 6.0.

This was not an improvisation. I have the script from Hot Girl. I have all the scripts from season one. I saved them speaking of saving things and I looked it up. She is like the improved version of me. Like she is. She is not. Yes, she is.

She is not. She is. As your best friend, I am not going to let that slide. She is not. But in this episode, they had really juiced her up. She had a push-up bra on and her hair on. It doesn't matter. Even on our plainest day, Amy Adams is Jenna 6.0.

She is. No, she's not. It's okay with me. No, I'm not. No. Well, okay. Well, whatever. No, I think it's a funny story.

But as your best friend, I'm not going to let you say Amy Adams is a better version of you. It's like we look similar, but then her nose is a little dainty-er and her cheeks are a little rosier and her hair is just a little brighter red. You know what I'm saying? It's just like she just turned it up a couple of notches on the dial and you get Amy Adams. Like if you're creating me, right, you get to me and then if you turn the dial a couple more notches, it turns into Amy Adams.

She's Disney you. She kind of is, she's the Disney princess version of me. Yes. Angela, do you have a note card? Because you're like handling a note card right now. I feel like you want to say a note card. I mean, I have one. It's in your hand and then you're touching them.

What is it that you want to say? Are you annoyed that I'm touching my note card? No, I'm giving you a chance to speak. Oh. Oh, thank you so much. Oh, that was, oh, so it's British when you were offended. Oh, God. No, stop.

Stop. I just want to say that Michael Scott has a talking head that I love so much. And these are just one of these talking heads that they're in every episode and getting to rewatch them. I'm like, ah, my God, that's brilliant. Is it the small businessman? I love it. Is it the things that he reads?

I love that he said he loves American Way Magazine, the in-flight magazine. And then he goes, they did a great profile on Doris Roberts and where she likes to eat when she's in Phoenix. It just made me laugh so hard because I read those. I just want you to know American Airlines whenever I'm flying with you. I get the American way out and I look to see where people eat. It made me laugh so hard. And then he's like illuminating.

I love those magazines too. I read them. And you know, actually one of the coolest things that ever happened to me is that one time I had an article in an in-flight magazine. Yes, just like the Doris Roberts thing, I got profiled. What? I would be so excited. Why didn't you tell me?

That is so cool. No, I told this story about playing poker in Scotland. Oh, wait, wait. I know this is a total tangent. Guys, I'm sorry. I have to take Jen on a tangent because I love this story. Yeah, should I tell this story? You have to tell it.

Okay. Because first of all, it makes you sound way cooler than you are. No offense. I know. But it kind of makes you sound like a rock star. It's my biggest rock star moment of my life. It's 100%. Okay.

So I had no, I know you're going to tell that story, but I need to see that in-flight magazine article. I'll show it to you. It was for United Magazine. And they had this story where they wanted people to tell the craziest ways they've ever fought jet lag. Okay. So Lee and I had this little romantic trip that we took to Scotland.

This was before we had children. I remember this because you told me you were going and I was like, well, that's not a lot of days. Yeah, we only had five days because we had a one week hiatus from work. This is what people without children can do. Yeah, we can just jet off to Scotland for five days. So we were going to spend two days in Edinburgh and then we were going to go into the countryside for the other three days, do a tour of a, you know, like a Scotch factory and everything

really fun. So we get there and we thought we will take an overnight flight. We will sleep on the plane and we will arrive at noon rested and ready to tour Edinburgh. Yeah, right. This did not happen. We did not sleep on the plane and we landed. It was noon and we were thinking how in the world are we going to make it through this whole day?

We were exhausted. So tired. We're touring a castle. We're walking along little shops. We bought some hats and a little hat shop. Oh, wait. I know. I know I'm raising my hand because Jenna, you texted me and I remember you saying, we're

so tired. We're going to try to power through. We're going to try to power through so we don't fall asleep. Yes. You can't fall asleep in the middle of the day. No, then the whole five days you're just going to be sleeping during the day and up at night. So it's five o'clock and we are so exhausted, just so incredibly exhausted.

We thought, here's what we're going to do. We're going to go into a little pub. We're going to get a bite to eat. We're going to have a drink. We are going to force ourselves to stay awake until 7 p.m. and then we're going to go back to the hotel and fall asleep. Right. That was your plan.

Go to the pub, stay power through and then go to bed. Correct. Go to the pub, we order our drink and we see a sign that says poker tournament starting at 6 p.m. All right. I have to interject here. So my BFF, Jenna Fisher, is a flippin' fantastic poker player. I don't know if I'm fantastic, but I love playing.

You are fantastic. Okay. No, you're fantastic. And I once went with her to the Celebrity Poker Showdown story for later, but she's really good at poker. I came in second place. You came in. I mean, that's behind Keegan-Michael Key.

He won. That's a big flex because you beat Michael Ian Black, who still tells me that you beat him in poker. And I mean, you guys, I also just want to say all of this is before I had children. Yeah. I barely play poker anymore. I can't stay awake for anything. I know, but you are really good.

Back in your day, lady. Back in the day. Back in your day before kids. In my youth. In your youth. You were quite the poker player. I think I can win poker with like two pairs of threes and I have all the bravado. Two pairs of threes.

That would be four of a kind. You can. You can win poker with that, Angela. Okay. So, see, this is the problem, but I have no idea what I'm doing. And I think sometimes I mess up a table just because I have such confidence and I have nothing. And then people are like, okay, sometimes that's the best strategy.

Okay, go. You're in Scotland. We're in Scotland. You're trying to stay awake. So tired. We sign up for the poker tournament. Lee, my husband, he plays poker as well. We're thinking, here's what we'll do.

We'll join the poker tournament at 6 p.m. We'll be done at 7. This is how we're going to stay awake that extra hour. You're going to play an hour of poker and then you're going to go to bed. Go to bed. We enter the tournament. We start playing. We start winning.

You're like the two Americans who came in and now you're kicking butt in this pub in Scotland. So much so that we make it to the final table. What time is this? How long have you been there now? It is now midnight. Oh, Jenna. We are out of our minds.

Exhausted. I don't even know what I'm doing. It's probably why I was doing so well. Because you're so loopy. You're playing the best poker of your life. Lee and I are both at the final table and we keep checking in with each other saying, like, should we quit? A couple of times, Lee went all in because he was like, I'm so tired, just all in and

he would win. Finally, I get down to the final two. It's 2 a.m. And it's you and one other person? One local Scottish guy who played every week in the tournament and here you are, this American tired person on her vacation. And I won. You won the whole thing.

I won. I won the whole thing. I won 200 pounds. Wow. Amazing. Lee and I couldn't believe it. Everyone in the pub was a little bit like, yay, yay for her. Did you get your name like up on the wall or something?

Yes. I got my name up on the leaderboard and I was supposed to come back for the championship like table that was happening in several months. Of course, we all knew I wasn't going to show up. So I think the runner up guy got to take my place and then we went back to the hotel and we slept so well and I suffered no jet lag for the rest of that trip. So this was the story. This was the story in the United magazine and I was so proud to be in that magazine.

I'm with Michael Scott. That would have been a heck of a read. I got copies. I sent them to my mom. I sent them to my in-laws. I have one at home. I want you guys to know I woke up back here in the US of A and I had a text from my best friend in Scotland and there was a photo of her in a pub.

Wearing my hat that I had bought by the way. Wearing your hat. My wool hat. And like smiling. And I was like, what is going on? And you were like, I want a poker tournament. I was like, you're supposed to be sleeping. Yeah.

But that's, I mean, truly that is like maybe one of my proudest moments. Yeah. That's a pretty rock star moment, lady. Thank you. I should probably get back to the episode. This is the cringiest episode of the office so far. Not ever. I mean, Scott's tots, but it's cringy.

But diversity day is pretty cringy too. But the whole scene where Michael is talking to Katie about coffee, I was dying. Oh, I was dying. I was also got so weirded out when he was like, you know, all I'm trying to do here is just break down walls. I just tried to break down walls. I was like, what is he talking about? Oh my goodness.

Katie plays it so well. Oh my gosh. She does. And then that scene with Brian over my shoulder asking me if I'm jealous. I laughed so hard during that scene. What was difficult was that I was supposed to sit there and be doing my work and he is hovering over me and then insulting me and I could not get through it. Every time he would start his sentence, it would make me laugh.

That was a scene that I probably laughed the most in when I was shooting this episode. And this leads me into a fan question from Delaney. Did you guys ever get offended by the scripts personally? Like in this episode, how Pam is compared to Katie the whole time, Jenna, did you take that personally? I didn't. Well, I didn't either because I felt like a lot of our comedy was, it was a little bit of a free for all.

Like everyone was going to have a moment, you know, where they were sort of the butt of the joke. But it was never malicious. It was just, it served the script. It served the story. I never took offense. Also, I feel like so much of comedy and comedians is self deprecating in nature. And so we're a group of people who are pretty honest with ourselves, don't you think?

It wasn't offensive to me. It was also, it was the idea that has happened to all of us where a more attractive person walks in the room and is getting all the attention and then you feel, you feel jealous. But I enjoyed this episode. I loved playing with all those feelings. I was going to say. I had a lot of human moments for Pam, just seeing how Jim was affected and how that affected her.

And it was fantastic. I thought you did an excellent job. I have on one of my note cards. Where is it? Jenna? What does it say? Jenna was brilliant. She was.

Thank you, Angela. You were so good. Oh, I don't want to like get us off your, I know you have your list, lady. But the moment when she's like, what are you going to do? And he's like, well, I think actually I'm going to see Katie. The look on your face is Pam. What you did with your eyes in that moment was so amazing. It was interesting.

It was so amazing. You know what I gave myself as a direction in that moment in my head? What? Was when he tells you that, do not blink your eyes. Just stare at him. You're not affected by that. And smile. Because that is great.

Oh, that's great. That was her way of trying to not show how she was feeling, but then show it shows everything. Yeah. It showed everything. It was so great. And that was with Katie, Michael and Toby. Oh, brutal. Oh, Jenna, I watched the deleted scenes this time.

You did? Yes. So I still haven't gotten a DVD player. How'd you do it? I found him online. Okay. I don't know if it was a legal site that I went to, but I went, I clicked on so many things that took me there.

So I don't know. I probably have some inappropriate things on my computer now. Oh boy. No, I'm just saying I clicked, I clicked away. But anyway, I watched the deleted scenes and there is a longer version of that scene where Steve, I know, is just riffing on that whole idea of sad, sack, Toby. And it just, it is so cringy. Oh, I want to go back and watch that.

It's really good. So what you see in the episode is just like three seconds of that moment where he's like, oh yeah, you're divorced, right? Sleeping in your car. I loved the, you slept one night in your car, right? Yeah. Made me laugh out loud. Yeah.

It was a long time. Yeah. And Paul's reaction is so perfect. In the deleted scenes, Michael like goes off on him for like minutes. What's so amazing is that Steve and Paul in real life are both of our kind of very gentle, quiet, kind people on the set. And they have to, well, I guess just Michael has to bully Toby, but Steve and Paul's real life relationship is so opposite that.

Yeah. So it was, oh, and Katie's like, where am I? Oh, I have some Kinsey Tindall. All right. Let's hear them. At eight minutes, 14 seconds, you, Pam, gets up in a huff from Roy and leaves her salad on the table. Yeah.

You left your, you didn't pack up your Tupperware or anything and you had a juice box. What are you? I was just been, I had just been insulted. He insulted me. He just, he just said, we're dating. And I had to say, we're not dating. We're engaged. We're very hurt.

And I walk away. What do you want? And here's my salad and my Tupperware. Deal with it. Have you never been at a meal and been offended and just left your plate? No. So if you're in a fight with someone over dinner, you, you get up with your plate and you go rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher.

That's right. I'm going to bust my plate. I'm not going to leave my salad. Well, I would love to see that. Oh, well. I think it would have been so weird if she had taken her food with her. What an odd choice. I thought it was, I think it would be funny if she was mad as hell and had to pack up

her salad. I have a thing that I wanted to share about Pam's engagement ring to Roy. The props people, when you have to be married on a show, they'll bring you a whole tray of rings. To pick. Yes. You get to pick your engagement ring and your wedding ring. Now these are based on selections that have been pre-edited by the director and producers,

right? So you can't just pick like a honkin' ring. Right. It has to match your character's life. Yes. You have a variety of things to choose from and you have to try them on in different sizes. So when they gave me the tray of rings, I picked a diamond cluster ring as opposed to a diamond solitaire.

And I had it in my mind that Pam has always been hurt, that Roy didn't get her more of the ring she wanted, which would be more of a diamond solitaire, more of what Jim is going to give her later. Right. She's a polite person and she thinks this is, it's not right to be offended by the ring or to not like the ring. So she had to very graciously accept this ring, but I always felt like her opinion of Roy was that he didn't put enough effort into getting to know her or what she would like

or he didn't put a lot of effort into the engagement ring or the relationship or the relationship, but that the ring is really a symbol of his lack of effort and his lack of knowing her and every day when I would look down at that diamond cluster ring, it would just poke at those wounds that she has in her relationship with Roy. And so when he says boyfriend, that's another way that she's like, that's right. This ring makes me feel like we're not engaged. I've been wearing this diamond cluster ring for three years and it feels like a thing that you give your girlfriend.

It doesn't feel like what you give someone when you're proposing. At least for Pam, does that make sense? It does. And it also just makes me sad. And now I take back my salad. My salad judgment. So you see how hurt she was. She was very hurt.

You see the history there. Yes. She can't clean up a salad in that moment, Angela. No. Yeah. No. In that moment, she's like three years, three years I've sat here and you haven't noticed me.

Yes. That's what's raging inside her. And this is probably one of the biggest displays of hurt and anger that Pam has ever had. Yeah. I'm going to take that out. No. Okay.

I take back the salad packing up. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. But do you want to explain to me why at nine minutes, 23 seconds, ET is back on Jim's desk. Wow. Yeah.

ET in his blue robe, back on Jim's desk. So it was on the desk and then off. Oh, Sam's going to bring up ET. They're looking at it, so I make suggestions. Wait for it. Here's the thing. Okay. You just keep talking.

See ET? See ET? Dude, I see it. What is that? I don't know! We need to find out from John. Or Phil Shae. We will text John and Phil and get an answer.

Mm-hmm. I have a fan question. Okay. This is from Mary Beth. The scene where Dwight is talking to Katie about buying a purse when Jim and Pam start awkwardly narrating the interaction. Was that scene scripted or did John and Jenna just play off whatever Reign decided to do? It was improvised.

We were on set, and we had a little scripted scene, and then it was suggested that we narrate what was going on. I think it was John's idea. So Rain knew that we were going to do that, so he started doing all kinds of crazy stuff with the purses, like slamming on the desk, and like trying to put it in, yes, exactly, to give us weird things to say. And I really froze. I am not a great improviser in like comedy improv sketch comedy.

I took a couple of those classes, and I always really tanked. I froze. I'm very good at improvising in a specific character, but not if the specific character has to be funny and say clever things. That's not my forte. It's okay, lady. You know, you're good at it. You, that was your thing.

I love it. I know. I love it. I love the plot at this point in the episode, Michael buys a Starbucks coffee machine. A thousand dollars. A thousand dollars. This is going to be the incentive for the salesperson who sells the most, but then he unwraps it and makes Katie the Purse girl a cup of coffee.

He's so creepy that he's used this coffee thing to flirt with her. He's so creepy with it. I love his line, though, where he says, Dunder Mifflin in the 80s, before they knew how bad cocaine was. Man, did they move paper. Man, did they move paper. I love that line. I also remember the scene with Michael and Dwight.

Michael tells Dwight that he's going to be giving Katie a ride home and Dwight asking if he loves her. Do you love her? Do you love her? I remember they could not get through that scene. The two of them were cracking each other up. It went on forever. Not only do I love that Dwight is like, do you love her?

I love that Michael is like, I don't know. Maybe. I can't say. I can't say. I don't know yet. The two of them are ridiculous. And then you have Roy, who decides he's going to try to make up with Pam, and he decides to start tickling you while you're sitting on Jim's desk.

So awkward. Next to Jim. I remember filming that scene. When I watched it, I felt so uncomfortable for Jim. I was like, oh, God, Jim. And then he gets up and he walks away. Yes. Yes.

So here's something interesting about that. I, as Jenna, hate being tickled. Yeah, you hate it. I don't like it. It is not. I would not be the way to make up with me. You'd make you angry. I would.

Yeah. I would be like, no. And I think that when I was filming that, I had to really wrap my head around the fact this is a way that Jenna and Pam are different. Yeah. Pam is won over by it. Pam is like, oh, come on. Oh, no.

That is how they make up. Yeah. Pam and Roy are friends again, or I guess engaged after that moment. Whatever they are. They're back. Whatever they are, they're back. And as Jenna, I had to really stuff all of my Jenna instincts because I do not like tickling. Well, and some people really don't like being tickled.

I don't like being scared. Oh, I know. So like, well, and my husband, like once a year around Halloween. You don't like being startled or scared. I don't like, I don't like scary movies. You don't respond well. I don't go to scary movies. And my dad was the same way.

So you know how they say some people are like, fight or flight? Yeah. I am fight. And so Josh, my husband, like around Halloween, him and the kids think it's funny to get like a fake arm or a mask and scare me. And I always say to them, one of you will get whacked. You know that. And I have no control.

You flail your arms when people scare you. Yeah. I've seen it happen. I have no control over it. Just recently, my husband for Halloween, they jumped out to scare me, had this mask on. And I screamed. And then with everything I had, I hooked my phone at him.

And I hit him with my phone, clearly, like I didn't mean to. It's just like this weird instinctual thing where I just go, yeah. You need to hope that you never have to do a scene where someone scares you. It'll be very. Because you will. How will you keep your arms from not whacking? I don't know. I don't know.

Someone will get. Someone will get first. That was the difficulty for me in that scene because tickling me makes me irritated. You want to whack someone? Not make me laugh. Well, I thought you did a great job and it was cringy as heck. Yeah. Poor Jim.

I'm going to go to a break. Let's take a break. Angela, I want to start by asking you a question. Okay. You know the scene where Dwight is asking Katie on the date and it's in front of your character because you're looking at Purse's? Your face during that moment, what were you thinking? I did not even look up.

No. You just kept your eyes down. I kept my eyes down and then I didn't look up until he walked out of the room and you can see when he exits, I kind of look up and look at him leave. You know, in that moment, it was so awkward and uncomfortable. I wasn't given direction to do that, but I just felt so uncomfortable. I just kept looking down. But Dwangela is not a thing yet.

No. But it is so easy to superimpose what we know is going to happen between your two characters onto this moment. But people were asking if you knew that your characters were going to end up together in that moment yet. But you didn't, right? I didn't know. I didn't know.

And just in that conference room, it's not a huge space. And him putting himself out there like that to her, I as Angela, and like even as myself felt so uncomfortable that I just was trying somehow not to participate in the moment in any way. Like try to just be invisible. Yeah. I was in my mind, I was like, just be invisible. I think that, you know, Angela didn't know that Dwight was going to be her soulmate, but

I think she did see him as an equal and she respected his work ethic and probably respected who he was in the office, even though he annoyed her, right? Sure. There was a power struggle between the two of them. So to see him sort of humble himself like that to Katie and get humiliated, I just felt like I didn't even want him to think that I had witnessed it. I didn't see it. It didn't happen.

It's okay. That's, I think, what she was thinking. And that's why I didn't look up. I was literally trying to be invisible in the moment. Well, after that, you have a line that is one of my favorite lines of your character, where you describe your favorite colors. This is a fan question from Emmy. Angela, did you improvise a scene where you discussed your colors being different shades

of gray? Yes, I did. I knew it. Yes, I did. In the episode, Dwight is looking in at the conference room at Katie and Angela sort of talking, and we didn't have any scripted dialogue, so they said, can you just kind of banter? And I didn't even know if it would make it in, you know?

And so that scene was improvised, and it starts off with Amy as Katie saying, well, you seem to like to touch things, and then I just responded. I don't like to necessarily touch things. I'm shopping, you know? I loved that line. And then she said, well, what color do you like? And this was all improvised. And I said gray, dark gray, charcoal, and it made it in, and that was really fun.

And then that line ended up in a article in the newspaper. It was talking about what sums up the show, and they said, well, the character Angela's line, gray, dark gray, charcoal, really sets the tone, and I was so proud of that. It really then informed a lot of your wardrobe after that. You had been kind of wearing these muted colors, but that became your uniform moving forward. Okay, Jenna, what else do you have? All right, the scene where Ryan and Michael are cleaning out his car? That was not improvised.

No, that was scripted. A lot of people asked, all of it, blue blast, smell alike, how many filet of fish do you eat? All of those lines are in the script. I checked, because when I was watching it, it was so hard for me to believe that it was not improvised, that I went back to my script and I read it, and I think that it just points to how good the writing was on our show. Fantastic.

Just how good. And also, how good the actors were. I mean, BJ and Steve in that scene, just absolutely brilliant. Mindy also told me that the reference to the filet of fishes is a nod to her disgusting love of filet of fish in real life. Or just her love for McDonald's. She loves McDonald's. But that she really does love a filet of fish.

I loved in the scene too, when Michael's like, that was over a period of time, okay? It was over a month. It was over a month. And Ryan the temp goes, still. Yeah. I could watch that scene over and over again. I think that's a gem. I think if you haven't rewatched this episode, but you're listening to the podcast, just

please go watch that scene. It's so good. It is terrific. Blue is not a flavor. I have a note card. Say it. Okay. This is a great, great Dwight line when he says, Shroots produce very thirsty babies.

Oh, yes. That's a famous line. That's a famous line. Um, when I was pregnant, I was pregnant season five of the office and I got a gift of a t-shirt that said Shroots produce very thirsty babies and it was a maternity shirt. Oh my God. And I wore that around my big belly and people would freak out. I still have it.

I still have it. Oh, do you have a picture of yourself in that? I will look, but if I don't, I'll just take a picture of myself in it and I'll have to post that on office ladies pod because I still have that shirt. You should definitely. Here is something that everybody wrote in about. This was one of our most popular questions. What's up with the wrong parking lot at the end of this episode?

That's because this was the original set before we moved. The first six episodes, we all filmed at an actual office building in Culver City and that was the parking lot. Yes. So when we moved in season two and beyond, we had two sound stages. One sound stage was a recreation of the office, that interior office that we shot in the first year. The other building is where the writers worked and it was just an office building and that

was just the parking lot for it. Yes. And that is where we filmed the Dunder Mifflin parking lot. So it was really interesting because we had our warehouse set over there and then we had the parking lot and we had the lobby and the elevator where Hank sat. Yes. All of that was one building, but then the Dunder Mifflin building was something else. So if we had to do a scene where you see us walk out, we would have to start that scene

in one building and then move all the cameras and all of us over to the other building and then get the exterior version of it. Yes. It was quite complicated. It was. Basically, when we filmed in one stage indoors, we filmed another stage outdoors for the most part, but that parking lot is not the Dunder Mifflin parking lot that you see from season two and beyond.

And I have a story about that parking lot. You see in that final shot, it starts with Michael and Jim and Katie leaving. She's got her big bag, Michael realizes that Jim is going to be giving her ride home because they're going to get drinks. And then it reveals Pam and Roy backing up in Roy's truck and Pam clocks Jim and Katie. So David and I had to sit in that truck in the parking lot and wait a very long time until everyone came out and did that scene. And we had a little walkie-talkie inside the truck and they would say, go.

And then David would back up and we would pull out and the camera would get that shot of me looking sad and we would drive off. And then they would say, reset. And we would bring the truck back and then we would wait a very long time. At the end of the night, they reset us back into the parking lot and we sat there and we sat there in the truck. We sat there in the truck and then all of a sudden we saw everyone driving away in their own cars.

Oh, no. They left us in the truck. They forgot to tell us that they had wrapped for the day. And we were all done and we were leaving. You were done. You were changing clothes. You were getting in your cars. We saw the director leave.

We saw actors. David and I were like, what is going on? So and here's the thing, I've talked about this before. David Denman and I were very good friends in real life. We talked about in the basketball episode how you and I became best friends because we had to sit on that bench for hours and hours. This is really the episode where David and I became such good friends. Well, you had a lot of like St. Louis connections.

We did. We had mutual friends. And we had the poker connection. Yes. David and I played in a poker game together with our crew. We would host these poker games. Rain was in on it. Chris Workman, who was one of our camera operators, Ed, our camera assistant.

We would all get together and we would play poker. And he was part of that. So he was one of my poker pals. And anyway, this was the episode where we really became friends because we got left in that truck. You got stuck in that truck. Jenny, do you know what? I'm seeing the theme here that you become really close friends with people that you

are in a confined space with. I get stuck with. You're stuck on a bench. I'll be Angela's best friend. I'm stuck in a truck. David, let's play poker. Get stuck in an elevator with me. And then you're going to be best friends.

Friends for life. I have my final note card. Ready? Yes. All right. At around 21 minutes, 25 seconds, you see both Meredith, played by Kate Flannery, and Meredith, played by Henriette, in the same episode. Yes, you saw it, Angela.

Yes, I saw it and I almost texted you, background expert, but I thought, no, I'm going to wait and see if she sees it. Yes, this is a huge mistake. It's a huge mistake. So basically, while Michael has this talking head, they want to show all these clips of different women in the office, and they used, like, some footage from the pilot before Kate Flannery came on, and it was Henriette as Meredith. You have this montage that goes Kate Flannery to Henriette to Luanne, who played in the

Annex. Who was one of our extras for a very long time, so that makes sense. I saw that, and I got so excited for you. I got so excited. Because you knew. I knew you were going to clock it. She knew I had my note card ready. I have a final little tidbit.

I have a Fisher tidbit, the coffee maker. We never find out who won the coffee maker. No. I'm feeling like I need to know. We never find out who won it, and we never see it again. We never see it again. So it doesn't stay in the office. I asked Phil Shea, because a fan wrote in, they wanted to know, did any of us get to

keep it? People are very interested in the things we're allowed to keep and not keep. I get it. He said no. He said it was borrowed from Starbucks and had to be returned. I believe that. Where is that machine now? I actually believe that, and I bet the purses were returned, because we were on a tight budget

and we thought we were getting canceled, and we didn't want to give NBC any reason to think we were trouble. That's right. So I think I believe that all of that was returned, and we got to recoup that money. For sure. Well, Jenna, I think that was some really fun fast facts. You did a great job. Wow, thank you.

You're welcome. I really appreciate it, Angela. Oh, no, no, no. I think. Now I need to hear you sing, because if that's what you sound like, I just realize we've never done karaoke or anything together. On the wings of love, only the two of us together fly in high. Okay, don't sing anymore.

We'll have to pay for it. But now I know you're, now I have got your karaoke voice, and it's whispery. Well, it's whispery. It's trying to cover up my flaws, and if you can't really sing, you whisper sing. And that was hot, girl, and that wraps up season one. Season one, where you and I become best friends, because you were stuck on a bench with me, and where you also became friends with someone because you were stuck in a car with them. See a pattern here.

What's going to happen season two? Who do I get stuck with in season two? Dun, dun, dun, speaking of season two, we are going to start with the Dundee. Oh, I can't wait. That's a big episode. A very, very big episode. All right. We'll see you next week.

See you next week. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Keeper. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. Remember, you can listen to ad-free versions of Office Ladies on Stitcher Premium. For a free month of Stitcher Premium, use code, Office.