Office Ladies - The Paper Interviews #3 with Sabrina Impacciatore

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

This Friday on Office Ladies 6.0, we have another special bonus episode where Jenna and Angela interview Sabrina Impacciatore who is in the upcoming “Office” spinoff “The Paper”! Sabrina shares her epic audition story and she also shares how she hadn’t watched “The Office” prior to auditioning for “The Paper” but during her audition prep, she watched it and fell in love. Sabrina also talks about meeting an “Office” castmember to get their blessing on her upcoming “Paper” journey. Sabrina is a wonderful storyteller and you’re going to love hearing her stories, enjoy!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi there. Welcome back for another interview with a cast member from the paper. And we should probably tell you we watch the first four episodes. We have watched them. It's so good. It's really good. It's very hard not to say more, but we are not allowed. I think people are going to be happy. I really do. I agree. I think it feels like the office. Like it's very clear that this is the same universe. Okay, that's all I think we can say. Yeah, we've probably said too much. Well, wait, I do want to say one more thing. Okay. I want to say that we are not sponsored by Peacock or NBC. Yeah, no, we are not. I just want to say that because I just want people to know this is not an ad. For Peacock or NBC.

Correct. Yeah, basically, here's what happened. Greg invited Jenna and I to visit the set and to meet the cast, and he shared with us some of our old crew was there. We couldn't wait. And Greg has always been amazing to office. ladies. He's a huge supporter of the show. And we went and went to the set. And then he offered us an early sneak peek of the paper pilot and said maybe if we liked it, we could break it down

because he said he's a huge fan of how we break down episodes. And so it all came together really organically. And I'm so glad we got to do this. Me too. And it just, it meant so much to me that Greg trusts us. Yes. With his new baby, basically, you know? Yeah. And I'm I loved it. Greg, you're going to hear. Yes, you are. We loved it. You know, lady, I do think that the rest of the cast is a little jealous that we got to see it early. I do.

I do. And I maybe am lording it over their heads a little bit. Oh, yeah. Did you tease Rain on your lunch? Were you like rain? Guess what? Yes, I got to see it and you didn't. I literally did.

I did. I had lunch with the rain and I told him that I got to see it. And then I wouldn't tell him anything. Oh, my gosh. I bet that made him crazy. Well, listen, we are really excited because today we are sharing our interview with Sabrina Impetitore. You might know her from season two of the White Lotus. She's fantastic.

And she is phenomenal in the paper. And her story of how she got her role on the paper is amazing. While we were talking to her, they actually called her to set during the interview. But I could have kept talking to her for an hour. Truly, I like want to go on a road trip with her and just hear her talk. Same. I want to know even more things. Yeah. All right. Well, without further delay, here is our interview with Sabrina Impechatory. Well, it is so exciting to get to talk to you. Will you tell us your name and your character name?

Yes. All right, my name is Sabrina Impacchatorre and my character's name is Esmeralda Grand. Can you tell us a little bit about what your character's story in the show is? is. Oh my God. I have no idea. What does she do? What does she do in her job? What doesn't she do, I would say, because she does everything she can to just try to stay where she is. This is kind of crazy character. Like she could do anything. She, to me, she's someone that needs to survive and so but for her to survive it's a very personal concept you know so every time she feels threatened by something she uses anything she can even the worst things

possible just to protect herself so i see her like a little wild animal And then she's the only Italian. She moved here and she doesn't want to leave. Like she wants just to be here and keep living in this country. And she works in this office, but she could actually do anything else because she's not a real journalist. So she is just someone that pretends to be anything. because she just has to make it. Are you the only actual reporter at the paper?

Is that your job? Not really. Like, my job was to be the editor-in-chief of TTT Online. But then, and she was very happy about this, very proud. And then this guy arrives, like they knew. And she is literally kicked out of her office. So she struggles a lot because of that. And then she just tries to find her space in this new, you know,

in this new hierarchy. And so of course she is the one that wants always to be in front. Like she's also, to me, this is something that, because I've been creating this character with Greg and Michael and all the other writers. Now, I was very, very inspired by, already by the sides during the audition. And so then I decided to, I don't know, I didn't decide. Things just arrived. So to me, somehow she thinks that through this documentary,

one day maybe she could become a star. So she also uses the camera to suggest that idea. That's why I decided to have this kind of hair like a diva from the 40s to suggest, hey, look at me. I'm a superstar too. And so she acts like a star. She behaves like a star. She thinks big.

She is big. The way she dresses, the way she acts, she's also very manipulative. She uses everything, very manipulative. What a fun character. I love her. I can't wait to watch this. You know, it reminds me a lot of how Michael Scott loved the camera, right? And Andy, he thought he was going to be a big star.

He was very excited when the documentary airs. So I sort of see a little bit of that theme. Can you tell us about the audition? your process and how you got your job on the paper? Yes, of course. So that was, I have to be short because it's a long story, but I was shooting a movie in Cape Town. I was in Cape Town, South Africa since three months, part away from home and everything. And I am literally entering in the flight, going back to Italy. And I got a call from my agent from L.A. She said, Sabrina, did you read the email?

I said, no, what email? I was packaging. I was saying goodbye to the crew. She had, do you have to read this email right now? But I am almost flying. So I read the email and there was the call for this audition. And they gave me 24 hours to prepare 11 pages in English. 24 hours was exactly the time of the flight back to Italy.

But me, I felt I cannot do an audition just coming out of the flight after. And so I was telling my agent, please, please, try to get some time more. How can I learn these things? I'm flying. I'm tired. I'm upset. And she said, I don't know if I can make it. I'll write you.

So now just go. So I flow for 10 hours. And then I arrive in Doha. I can't remember. I opened my email and she wrote me we got one day more so I was very excited

but still like I can't make it like this is very long to learn 11 pages of monologues but I read this side and I felt in love you know it's like

love at first side I was like oh my God this is too brilliant this is too funny and guess what? I had never saw the office in my life.

I didn't know about this show. I was the only one on this planet that hadn't seen this show. So the first two episodes I saw them on the flight from Cape Town to Rome.

And I felt like, oh my God, what a weird project. That doesn't look like anything familiar. That's so weird. And this acting is so believable. It looks really like and the light is so bad. I'm going to be so ugly. That was the main concern. So then I arrived in Rome after three months. I don't see my mom and nothing. But I call my mom and said, Mom, forget about me. Have an audition tomorrow. So we can't see. We can't. So I spend all night long to study the sides? I find an American girl. It's a long story that she comes to my place

and we study, study, study, study, study. And then I do this Zoom meeting with all my luggage just looking at me, you know, the luggage I couldn't touch the luggage. I couldn't open that. They were there. And I did this Zoom meeting with Greg, with Michael, with the casting director, with the producers. There were six, seven people there. And I said, okay. Let's go. And I forgot all the lines. Of course, the memory was not solid enough. So I started the scenes with the correct lines.

But after a couple of lines, I completely invented everything else. So I was improvising, improvising, improvising, and I didn't hear a sound. So I said, this is going very bad. But it's okay, I'll keep going. I kept going for 40 minutes, I think. 45 minutes. And then they said, stop. And they all appeared.

I had understood that they had mute themselves. They said, Sabrina, you really made us laugh a lot. But you didn't remember nothing. And they said, could you do this again in two days? What the fuck? Oh my God. I said, really? Like after three months, I'm not, okay, so two days after, I did this again,

but with all the memory and everything, and actually I sent a self-tape with all the scenes. I was very inspired, like I was very inspired. I felt like I was a channel and things were just arriving and I was having so much fun in that audition. And then I sent it and then for a month, I don't hear from anybody. so I thought okay it's it's not working I was very sad because in the meanwhile I was watching the office and I was like oh my god this project is the most brilliant project I've seen it was so incredibly intelligent and real funny you know when you when you laugh you laugh with your brain with your heart with

your everything you're really loved and um And then, incredibly enough, after one month, I got another role, a big, big role, like a very big important project. So I was very happy because I said, oh, my God. So I was jumping on the air because of this other role. Like I was crying because it was really something I loved. And so it was like midnight because from Italy to America. It was midnight and all my team called me from the US, Sabrina, you got it. that role wow so i have fun i drink with all my friends we celebrate we toss blah blah blah then i go back home

it's four o'clock a am and i feel beep beep from my team sabrina you also got the roll from the oh in the same day you found out in the same day day oh my goodness that was actually the same night right right right so that was so crazy I couldn't sleep, of course. I was in my back like, like, what's happening? What am I doing? What's going to happen? What can I do?

So I had just a couple of days to take a decision. And I was desperate, really. You had to choose between the two. You couldn't do both. No, we couldn't do both. They were exactly. And there were two things that I really loved. So I was really, really, really desperate, to be honest.

You want to know the truth? when I took the decision, I cried for six hours. And it was a long time I wasn't crying. But I cried for six hours because I thought, this is how my life crazy. My crazy life is. I have to say no to something that is unbelievable to me because some other thing that is unbelievable is happening.

And then Greg and Michael called me. I will never forget that call. because at first they had asked me Sabrina can you learn an American accent and me perfectly lying I said of course I can but I was so scared that said how can I learn an American accent

so fastly that then they called me they said Sabrina after watching your audition we cannot imagine any other actor actress doing this role and we also love your accent it's so charming

God take it take it take it and this is how it happened well i what a story and you know this is one of the great things about working with gregg daniels is that he attaches to a performer to an actor and he really respects the craft of the actor and he wants to draw parts of you into the character that he had in mind and there's such a collaboration there and you get to be be a part of, you know, you said you felt like you were channeling something. And Greg is, he's humble enough to invite that kind of collaboration. Yeah, he loves creative collaboration. I always felt like we were building something together. You know, I didn't have just this boss

telling me, your characters does this and you do this. It was a conversation and you're part of that. Oh, what a great story. Oh, my gosh. This is an ad by BetterHelp. You know, it feels like nowadays there's advice for just about everything. It's like, do you write in your journal, do you do, I don't know, cleanses or the cold plunge or, you know, what helps you get through the day? What helps you get through stressful moments? Mm-hmm. For me, it's talking it out. Mm-hmm. Well, there can be a lot of information overload about mental health and wellness, and it can be a struggle to know what's true and what actions to take these days. So you might think about using a trusted resource and talking to live therapists through BetterHelp. It has an app store rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client reviews. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access.

to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash office ladies. That's BetterHelp-H-E-L-P.com slash office ladies. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit's special online e-ticket fairs,

a $10 one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel on any weekend day or holiday anywhere along the go network and the weekday group passes offer the same weekday travel flexibility across the network starting at $30 for two people and up to $60 for a group of five buy your online go pass ahead of the show at go transit.com slash tickets what has it been like now working on the show a lot of girls when I got this role then of course I couldn't sleep for many weeks because I was very scared. I was terrified because the quality of the acting was so high level. I said, I cannot, I will never join that level.

And watching Steve Carrell's work, for example, to me was epiphonic. I thought, this guy is one of the biggest artists on this planet because he's able to make me laugh in a very sophisticated way and everything is in his eyes. He has this innocence and there was something really incredible about him. So because I believe in energies and everything, I got to know that he was playing Uncle Banya in New York in Broadway. And I took a flight to go to meet him from Rome. I got a flight to see the show.

I bought tickets. And then I wrote to Greg. I said, Greg, I'm going to see Uncle Vanya. I want to meet Steve Carell. I want to be blessed by him. And that's what happened. So I arrived to Broadway. I saw this incredible show.

He was brilliant. I couldn't believe that he was on stage playing Uncle Vana in such a different way. So original, so far away from the. the character in the office and then I went to the green room and he was the sweetest man ever and so humble. And he was telling me the most sweet things like you are going to crush it. You're going to have so much fun. Greg is the bad. So it was really a blessing to me. I felt so blessed. Well, you know, right after I got my role on the office, I had the opportunity to go to dinner with Peter Boyle, who is, you know, famous comedic actor. He had been on Everybody

Loves Raymond, and I loved him so much. And I remember he looked at me and he said, um, he said, well, my time on everybody loves Raymond, uh, has come to an end. And I would like to, um, send that energy your way now as you start your journey. as I finished my journey and you start the journey, I hope that you will have the success and the good times that I experienced. He sort of gave me his blessing, you know? And it was really meaningful to me. And I really held that.

I thought, oh, my gosh, I felt like we were just, I receive it. And like I was just blessed by Peter Boyle. Yeah. So you totally understand this feeling. Yes. I do, though. I believe in like the just good energy and opening yourself up to it and receiving it. And Jenna knows this story. But when I was a young actor here taking classes, working at a restaurant, you know, I read that Jim Carrey, he went to the top of Mulholland. You know, it looks out over the whole city. And he yelled into the night sky that I'm going to be a big star. I read this. I read this. I don't know if it's true. So I took my friend and I, we went one night, we went up to Mahalo and you could see all the lights of Hollywood. And I wrote out what I was going to say. I was very specific. I looked out into the valley and I yelled very loudly. I said, I am going to be on a hit television show on NBC on Thursday nights. Oh, my God. I'm going to Malland drive tonight. Oh, my God. Isn't that so crazy?

But I believe that. Oh, yeah. I do believe in that. Same. Yeah. So imagine that me, before starting, I also needed the blessing of the ghosts in Chateau Marmont. Oh, yeah. So I decided to go there for two weeks just to get the blessing of those ghosts.

So, you know, I did all the... Everything I could. I was so frightened. Well, I need many blessings here. When the paper is a huge success. I think everyone knows who to thank. It's you. Yes.

You did all the things. I'm breaking balls to every possible God, essence, like, entity, ghosts. Yeah. I was wondering, you know, if you would like to, because we have a global audience on our podcast, people from all over the world listen to it. And it's very meaningful to us,

but would you like to say something in a, Italian to your fans in Italy that we can play on our podcast about just this time on the paper. Oh, my. Guys, I don't know what to say. I can say only that it's a great vertigene, a great honor, a great song that is realized. And I'm sure that all the ragazes Italian that have their dreams have to continue to creder to, to all, in general,

but the guys Italian me stand in quodden. Well, I know they'll love hearing that and we'll Google

translate it if you want I can translate it very shortly it's just that I don't know what I feel it's a

it's a vertigo it's the biggest dream coming through and I was wishing that all the Italian girls

that have a big dream because I know how much an Italian girl can struggle because of so many issues that we still have in our country. So that's why I was dedicating this to the Italian girls that should still believe in their dreams and just go for them.

Love that. Well, before we finish up, could you tell us a little bit about your beginnings as an actress and kind of how did you get to this place that you are now? that's why I think this is a miracle because yeah I think I have to go you have to go you have to go do your job your dream job this was so lovely you blessed by you girls that was the best last year it was oh my god I can't wait to see you again girls that was very beautiful oh yes oh we'll come back you are two geniuses and I feel so honored to meet you. Thank you for your incredible, inspiring work.

Yes, thank you. All right. Ciao. Oh, my God, I'm trying again. I'm such a good. Ciao, go. Ciao, time. Lady, I cannot believe we got cut off

right when she was going to tell us the story of becoming an actress. You know that was going to be a good story. Yeah. We have to invite her back for extended interview. I would love that. I want her in the studio for a full interview just from our brief time with her. She had so many good life stories. I know. And her character on the show is so much fun. She has like this especially fun storyline in episode four, like literally everything she was saying

was making me laugh. Hilarious. I also need everyone to see her character's office. the amount of details and just the whole look of her office for the show, it's perfection. You do a whole breakdown for us. It's wonderful. Yeah, yeah. Well, everyone, we're getting close. It's just a couple weeks away. The paper premiering on Peacock, September 4th. All right, we'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate

producer is Ainsley Bubicoe. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton. Thank you.