Amy said to me after the table read,
'cause you know for those who don't know this,
Amy is, I think I'm nine, perhaps 10 years older than Amy,
but Amy was the mother of that set, and she was a mother
to me.
She was a mother to everybody on that set,
and she always wanted to make sure we were good.
We were comfortable.
And so after that table read, she comes up to me,
and she's like, now, Jim, are you comfortable with this?
And I go, Amy, I get to fart, I get to split my pants.
(Alan laughing) I was born for this.
This is absolutely what I was born for,
but she was so, that's just who Amy is.
I mean, anyone who knows her she's incredibly kind,
and she will forgo a very good funny bit if
it would make anybody uncomfortable.
That's just who Amy is.
Yeah, again, it all starts from the top,
Mike and Greg, great show runners.
Yeah.
And Amy, an amazing number one.
And tell us a little bit about how you started on the show.
I mean, it's kind of an interesting story actually-
Yeah.
if I remember how you got started, Jim.
Yeah, I auditioned for Ron Swanson.
Like everybody else in LA,
there was heat around this because
it was the untitled Amy Poehler project coming off of SNL,
and the word had gotten out it wasn't a pilot,
it was straight to series.
Six episode order, I believe if that's,
I don't know if I'm correct about that.
Yeah.
But anyway, so there's, and the way,
typical Jim O'Heir fashion, I can be down on myself,
like I think a lot of actors,
and so I never in a million years went
in there thinking I would get that,
but I did know it was Greg Daniels and Mike Schur,
and I wanted to impress them.
So that if there was ever a guest star role down the line,
if there was ever on "The Office," maybe they would like me,
and consider me.
You know, just I've always believed you go in,
you don't know what else they're working on, so I went in,
I did my Ron Swanson version of what I thought-
Do you remember your Ron Swanson?
(Alan laughing)
Can you give us a little bit of it?
I wish I did.
I mean, first of all,
the thought of anyone other than Offerman.
Yeah.
I can't even. I know.
Like my head can't go there.
(Rob laughing)
I'm sure it was...
I don't think I embarrassed myself
(Alan laughing)
'cause I do remember leaving thinking,
you did exactly what you wanted to do.
'Cause you know, you can leave auditions,
and you get in your car and you're like son of a bitch.
Oh my God, did I? (Alan laughing)
Or you're reliving it, I should have done this.
I do remember thinking, wow, such great guys in the room,
and you know Greg and Mike, and I remember it was Allison-
Allison Jones, yeah.
Allison Jones, Casting Director.
Our guest on this, yeah.
Who, of course, is just the sweetest.
Anyway, so it was a lovely room because actors go into a lot
of different rooms, and they're not always great rooms.
You know, we've all been there, and this was a great room.
I did have a little bit of a connection to chat with them
about because I worked with Carell in Chicago.
One of the last gigs I did was a voice job
that Steve and I did for, I feel like it was Miller Beer.
I don't know what the hell it was for.
But anyway, so it's always nice
to have something you can chat.
So we could talk about Carell a little bit
and stuff like that.
But I left the room thinking this was good.
Not at all thinking Ron Swanson good.
That they'd call me for that,
but these guys liked me,
and maybe they'll have something down the road.
And then I think it was around two weeks later,
they call and say, would Jim consider reading
for this role of Jerry?
Well, of course.
So I go in, and I get into the waiting room,
and it's fat guys, thin guys, tall guys, short guys.
They didn't know who Jerry was obviously at that point,
which it leaves the door open, which is,
can be good and bad.
And so again, I went in there and they created a scene.
Alan, if I remember there was no Jerry material.
I think they created something-
New sides.
Yeah.
New sides.
They created this audition material,
and I did it, and again, I felt really good about the room.
I felt good about my back and forth with Mike and Greg,
but again, you leave and you have to let
it go because you never know.
And then, we get the call a couple weeks later,
and my agent goes, "Jim, they want to book you
on this untitled Amy Poehler project."
And I go, oh, which role?
(Jim laughing)
'Cause I really,
not that I ever thought I was getting Ron Swanson,
but anyway, so needless to say it was Jerry,
and then what I loved what they did was
they were very honest.
When they booked this, they told my reps
that we don't know what's gonna happen here.
We have six series regulars that we have got to cater
to basically.
There are people, and so we don't know what's gonna happen,
and that's why, what I mentioned earlier,
my agents were like, maybe you don't want to do this,
but again, like I said, it was a no brainer for me.
Even if I had done those six and walked out the door,
to have had that experience of even those six episodes,
I would have no regrets.
So the fact that it turned into what it did,
and I'll never forget, I was in a airport in Miami,
and my manager calls and she said,
"Well, I just got a call, and they would like to negotiate
to have you be a series regular on 'Parks and Recreation.'"
Oh, wow. And I literally
in some Miami airport screamed holy,
I don't know if we can swear on this thing.
(Alan laughing) Oh, we can swear, do it.
It's mostly swears, Jim.
I was like, holy fuck!
(Alan laughing)
And people are looking at me 'cause I certainly wanted
it to go that way, but it doesn't mean it's going
to just 'cause I wanted it to.
So, and then all of a sudden,
I'm a series regular on "Parks and Recreation."
So yeah, that-
You made the right bet.
You made the right bet, Jim.
Yeah, and-
And it's really a testament to you and your audition
for Ron because people don't know Jim auditioned for Ron.
(laughs) For Ron Swanson.
Like how wild is that to think about, you know?
Yeah.