-You know our next guests as Pam and Angela from "The Office."
Their book, "The Office BFFs:
Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There,"
is on sale now.
Please welcome to the show
Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
Welcome, you guys. I'm so happy to have you here.
-Hi! It's so fun to be here.
-This is usually the time of year
where I would see you guys, because you obviously shot
"The Office" in L.A., but we both had NBC shows and upfronts,
which happened today.
You would often come out, maybe to the "SNL" beforehand.
And you had a picture of your New York party days,
and it's so cool,
'cause it's the two of you and B.J. Novak,
but it looks like it could be the three of us.
-Yeah, you know, we are sober in that picture.
Totally sober. -We are, I swear.
-Really? -Totally.
-You're gonna double down on that?
-No, we were. We love the dance floor.
Seth, you might remember, at that upfronts,
'cause you were there, that Jenna and I
made up a dance where we filed papers in the cabinet.
-We're gonna show -- Let's do it.
-We did this! -Oh, this is great.
-Okay. -Okay. It goes like this.
Ready and -- -Okay.
-Oh, oh, oh. Oh, I got it.
-That's great. Very good. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. -Very on-brand. Very on-brand.
I will say, I've been to a lot of upfronts parties,
and you guys definitely did the only dance
that was thematic to your show.
And that was really appreciated at the time.
-We like to do that. -So, you're going back.
This podcast is you guys recollecting
your time together on the show.
Obviously, you were both there the whole time.
How often do your memories differ?
-Oh, my gosh.
Well, when we started writing this book,
there was one that came up right away,
which was when you --
She got us backstage at the Emmys, on the actual stage.
-Here's what happened. -Now, listen, here's the thing.
She was hungry.
-I don't like to be hungry, okay?
I'm not one of those actresses that doesn't eat food.
I like to eat the food and I eat a lot of food
and I was very hungry.
-Sure. -Yeah.
-And we couldn't find food anywhere, so I said,
"Angela, come on, we've got to get something to eat."
So I found this nice lady,
and she had a headset and a clipboard.
-Yeah. She walked very fast
and she kept going, "shh, shh, shh!"
-Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And she took us to this little, like, tent,
like, a dimly lit tent.
-It was not a tent.
It was a giant curtain on the Emmys stage.
The, like, Emmy presenters and people were right there,
and she was like "Shh!"
-But there was a whole, like, charcuterie station
and there were these cookies.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And, so, but we didn't realize --
we were -- I forgot this story when we were writing the book.
Angela said, "We have to tell about that time that
Laurence Fishburne was giving us stink-eye
because you were eating the salami next to him."
-I mean, I vaguely heard him say something like,
"Who the 'F' are these folks?"
And then I said, "Jenna, wrap it up.
Shove that salami."
Oh, wait. That sounded bad. But you know what I mean.
Like, just -- -Yeah.
-That's what she said. -Yes!
-There we go. [ Cheers and applause ]
Thematic. Thematic.
You guys -- But, now, this is very interesting,
because I've talked to many of your former castmates,
all of whom have said that they are more recognized from
"The Office" now than they were when the show was on NBC.
Like, people have found the show over the years a great deal.
Now, yet, it was a hit when it was on TV.
Did you guys -- when did you realize
that it was a hit for you guys when it was airing?
-At the time? -Yeah.
-It was -- We were almost canceled every week
for almost the first two seasons.
-Yeah.
-But I remember -- What do you think?
-The Christmas episode. -Yes, of Season 2.
-Mm-hmm.
-But that was because they put it on the iPods.
-Remember iPods?
-You could download it on to your iPod,
and we were the number-1-downloaded show.
So people were not actually watching us live on television.
-They were watching it on the iPod.
And we were like, "Well, we might have a job for a while."
And I went out and I bought a Honda, so...
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah. Mm-hmm. I know.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
That's when we knew, when we saw Angela in the Honda.
We're like, "That show's working."
-Yeah. -Yeah.
One of the things you guys write about,
which is fascinating to me, because, obviously,
everyone in this cast was often in the background of scenes,
more than any other show you could imagine.
What did you put into your background acting?
And did you approach it the same way?
-Well, I did a lot of journaling in the background
and I wrote my grocery lists in the background,
because our computers didn't work for the first two seasons.
They were props. -They were just a plastic box.
-Did they eventually start --
In the third season, did they give you a working computer?
-Yes. We got Internet. -It was such a big thing.
They gave us a memo that said "Today, you have Internet."
I was so excited, I saved it.
-She wanted to put it in the book,
and I said, "Angela, I just don't think
that's going to land for people who weren't there."
I think it was a "you had to be there" kind of thing.
-I don't know.
I think I understand, because if you actually
go back and watch those episodes with the eye of
knowing you guys are just staring at plastic boxes,
that seems, like, really rough.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-That's like a reality show now.
It's not -- It's like,
"Who can last the longest without losing their minds?"
-Who's gonna tap out?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Now, I want to say, Angela,
I feel like I'm guilty of this, too,
which is -- You know, obviously, the Angela in the show
was somebody who sort of famously didn't like small talk.
And I think that because you look like the character
and you have the same name, people maybe assume
that was true of you, and, yet,
I've always found you to be lovely.
Is that what you've found from other fans, as well?
-People always think I'm going to be a grump, right?
Also, I now have, like, a resting bitch face.
After nine years, my face just goes...
Like, and I don't even know.
But then, like, someone at Target will be like,
"I love the show," and I'm like, "Thanks so much.
How are you doing? How's your day?
Did you get bangs?
'Cause I feel like that frames your face so cute."
And they're literally like, "I've got to go."
So, I'm like, "Okay."
-And you -- your father actually --
Did he have his own paper company
or work at a paper company?
-My father, Jim --
he worked at Boise Cascade, and they make paper.
-Okay. So was he extra-proud when you got your job
at a fictional paper company?
-Yeah, you know, I asked the costume designer
if I could swipe one of the Dunder Mifflin shirts.
This was early on,
before they were part of the merchandise.
-Yeah. Before you guys even had Internet.
-Exactly. And she gave it to me.
I gave it to him for Christmas.
And he would wear it, and people would say,
"Oh, is that the company you work for, Dunder Mifflin?"
And he would say,
"No, my daughter is the receptionist there."
And then people would be confused.
And then, as the show got more popular, you know, then --
-They had to work backwards to realize
he was bragging about you.
-Yes, exactly.
-When you rewatch the shows --
my first half of the question is for you --
do you find the sort of Jim-and-Pam romance
as sort of uncertain that the audience did
as they were watching it unfold?
-Yeah, you know, so, for our podcast, it's a rewatch,
and I haven't watched most episodes
since they aired originally.
I always watched them after they aired,
but back then, my brain was so caught up with like,
"Oh, shoot, they cut that scene"
or, "Oh, wow, that improv made it in.
That's so cool."
But now I feel like I'm really watching it as
an audience member, and it's very surreal.
I can't even believe it's me.
I can't believe I'm Pam
and I'm watching this whole thing happen.
And it's like, I know what's going to happen,
'cause I shot it, but I'm still like...
[ Gasps ] "...is he gonna tell her?
Why isn't he telling her?"
-Well, then that just speaks to it.
-Yeah, I really get the audience perspective
through this rewatch, for sure.
-Do people come up to you often about Angela and Dwight?
-Here are the things I hear about "Dwangela."
-Dwangela.
-I hear, "Ew!
Gross.
Why do we need to see that?"
-It's very nice that people feel
that they can be honest with you.
-Yes.
-What has it been like,
this realization that there's generations of
new fans who have watched this, especially on streaming,
where they're just churning through it so much faster,
obviously, than when it aired over and over again?
Because it is, I think, a show that has provided people
a lot of comfort over the years.
And it doesn't get less funny,
but they feel the same connection to the characters.
What has that felt like?
Because you must hear it all the time.
-It's really cool.
I mean, it makes me happy to know that
parents we meet are now watching it with their kids,
and they say, "Sometimes, it's the only thing
we do together, is we watch the show."
And I had shows like that growing up.
Jenna and I both have talked about that.
And it means a lot to us.
-Yeah. Yeah.
It's like -- I know that, sometimes,
we're just on in the background while people are making dinner,
just keeping you company.
It's really cool, because you can put it on at anytime.
You don't have to wait for the next episode.
It's when you want it.
-It is a little weird, though, sometimes.
Like, I had a kid come up to me, and he said,
"You look like the older lady from 'The Office.'
Are you the older lady?"
And I said, "I am the older lady.
That's me."
-"And I've got bad news.
That was the younger version of me."
-Yeah. Yeah.
-"Hey, are you the old guy from 'Weekend Update'?"
I'm like, "I'm gonna slap you."
Yeah. -Yeah, exactly.
-Hey, congratulations on the book.
The podcast is wonderful.
And it's so wonderful to see both of you again,
especially together.
-We love you! -Thank you.
I love you both, as well.
You guys, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
"The Office BFFs" is on sale now,
and all nine seasons of "The Office"
are streaming on Peacock.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."