EP. 163.9 — An Interview with Beth Grant on “Speed”

OFFICE 163.9 An Interview with Beth Grant on Speed

Jenna [00:00:03] I’m Jenna Fischer.

Angela [00:00:04] And I’m Angela Kinsey.

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together.

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

Jenna [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.

Angela [00:00:12] 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.

Jenna [00:00:19] We’re the Office Ladies. Hello.

Angela [00:00:25] Hey, there.

Jenna [00:00:26] Welcome, everyone, to this little bonus episode. Just throwin a little episode out there on a Friday for you.

Angela [00:00:33] Yeah. Happy bonus Friday.

Jenna [00:00:35] So, you know, earlier this week, we broke down the movie Speed, and we mentioned how very excited we were to get to talk to someone who was in the movie, who was on the bus. You know her as Dwight’s babysitter from the dinner party. We know her as Beth Grant, and we got to talk to her about her time on that bus.

Angela [00:00:58] That’s right. Beth Grant is here. Speed fans will remember her as Helen, the nervous passenger who tries, you know, to get off the bus too early and it does not go so well.

Jenna [00:01:08] No, she gets blown up.

Angela [00:01:10] I know. Well, we were super curious what life was like on that bus with Keanu and Sandra and the rest of the cast. And you guys, Beth does not disappoint. She has great stories about her time on Speed.

Jenna [00:01:23] Yes. And, you know, we thought about putting her interview in our Speed breakdown, but frankly, it stands alone. It is its own thing. We hope you enjoy it. So here it is, our conversation with Beth Grant… Beth Grant! Here you are on Office Ladies!

Beth Grant [00:01:43] Oh, there you are! I can see you!

Angela [00:01:45] We are so excited to have you here. We’re such big fans of yours. I mean, everyone that watches The Office knows you from Dinner Party. You were Dwight’s babysitter and his date to the dinner.

Beth Grant [00:01:57] Oh my gosh, how much fun did we have doing that episode? I mean.

Angela [00:02:00] So much fun.

Beth Grant [00:02:02] It was so hard, well, for me, I really thought I was going to lose it a couple of times. I mean, big time. When I was at the door carrying the cooler, I had just worked with Steve in Little Miss Sunshine. And so, you know, we knew each other a little bit. And, I don’t know, I felt like he was really trying to get me because the things he was improvising at the door, I and I was so nervous because, you know, guest stars, you’ve guest starred. I mean you don’t know your- it’s not your team, you know, and you don’t know you don’t want to be bad. And I was holding and he kept saying these things and I finally just went way down like this and he said, oh, great, now she’s crying. So anyway, we were off to a good start and it was just the most fun. I love you guys so much. It was it’s a very, very, very special memory.

Jenna [00:02:52] It is. I mean, you have to look at it from our point of view, too, which is that we’re on the other side of the door, and the door would start closed and it would just open on you, holding a cooler, bringing a cooler to a dinner party. It was so hard not to laugh.

Beth Grant [00:03:05] And Rainn’s got the glasses.

Jenna [00:03:08] Giant glasses. Yes.

Angela [00:03:10] Every time you nod on that, you had some-

Beth Grant [00:03:13] I had a beet. I was sucking on a beet. But, you know, Rainn cracked me up. And he kept grunting while he was eating his beets.

Jenna [00:03:22] Yes.

Beth Grant [00:03:24] Both of us loved those beets. But he’s going, Mmmm mmm mmm. Like it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted. so funny. But all of you guys were so fun. It was just the most bizarre, demented episode, really. Steve sleeping on the little thing at the foot of the bed, her having- what’d she have three bedrooms to herself?

Angela [00:03:46] Yeah. Exactly. Well, we are so thrilled to have you here today. And we are going to talk with you about your time and the movie Speed.

Beth Grant [00:03:58] Yeah!

Jenna [00:03:59] We are super fans of Speed. Can you believe that we’re coming up on the 30th anniversary?

Beth Grant [00:04:05] I can’t.

Jenna [00:04:06] 30 years ago, you were on that bus.

Beth Grant [00:04:09] Isn’t that crazy? It’s really nuts that time goes by so quickly. My daughter was not yet one year old. It was the first job that I had. I was on a series when she was born. But it’s very different to do a sitcom and to do a feature, you know? And I thought that all of the bus stuff would be CGI. I know we were going to be on a live freeway! And that my trailer was going to be, you know, a mile and a half, two miles, and I wouldn’t be able to see my daughter. And I didn’t want her stuck under a freeway, stuck in a, you know? So it was a painful experience in that way, being away from her. And I, you know, I was still breastfeeding. Too much information, I know.

Jenna [00:04:55] Oh my gosh!

Beth Grant [00:04:55] But I would leave the house at 5:30 and drive crying all the way, you know, leaving my baby asleep. And then I wouldn’t get home until 7:30 because we had 12 hour days.

Angela [00:05:08] Beth, where did you pump?

Beth Grant [00:05:11] In my little trailer. I mean, it was, wooo, painful. It was painful at times. I couldn’t wait for those breaks when we got to go back, but a lot of the time we couldn’t even go back to our trailers. We were on the freeway with an umbrella. That was kind of it.

Jenna [00:05:29] This was one of my big questions because like, how did bathroom breaks work?

Beth Grant [00:05:34] We used porta potties.

Jenna [00:05:36] Oh, they would have like stopping points along-

Beth Grant [00:05:38] But they weren’t those fancy little porta potties. There were construction workers literally on the 105. It hadn’t quite opened. It was live. There were, you know, construction workers, cars going by and so on. And there were real construction workers. And so they had to have porta potties. So I think our porta potties, they probably just incorporated ’em.

Angela [00:05:58] Okay, so other than porta potties, there was really nothing there. Everything we see, the film crew added, right?

Beth Grant [00:06:05] We had 300 cars that were extras cars, which let me tell you something, you don’t want to miss a line when they have to turn around 300 cars.

Angela [00:06:18] Oh my gosh.

Beth Grant [00:06:18] But it was just one of those things, knowing that there are helicopters going around and 300 cars and Jan de Bont, you know, love him. Maniac. And he’s got all this stuff going on. I mean, we were shooting with 11 cameras. We had cameras on the wheels, you know, cameras all over the bus. We had cameras. I mean, crazy. But one time, to my mortification, I have quite an angular face, and it was Sandy’s close up and my nose apparently kept popping in and out and my nose and my chin. And finally they had to stop 300 cars, turn around, helicop- I mean, it’s like it wasn’t subtle when you messed up. It was not. Everybody knew. And you can hear the “Going again. Going again. Turn around.” Yeah, it was horrible. But we made it. And we didn’t mess up too much, you know?

Angela [00:07:14] Well, I have a question for you, Beth. What was the audition process like? Like, what was the scene you auditioned with? And it seems like you didn’t know you were going to be on an actual bus.

Beth Grant [00:07:24] I didn’t. Well, it was Jan de Bont, and I had worked with him before on Flatliners that Joel Schumacher had directed. And so I knew he was really a great DP. You know, of course, he had done Die Hard. Big, big movies. But I liked him. You know, he’s crazy. I mean, he’s like me. He’s like (MAKES NOISE). In fact, Sandy, he and Sandy and I really had fun. I think we probably drove people crazy because we cracked a lot of jokes and we were naughty, Sandy and I, quite often. And so the three of us got along really great. And. But anyway, so the audition process. And it was Jan and I read the script and I thought, a bus? You know, going 50, 50 miles an hour? It just seemed preposterous to me. And I called my friend Don Mancini, who wrote the Child’s Play movies. And Don, we were very close at that time, and he really knew Hollywood. I mean, he knew what movies were happening. He read all the scripts. He had a real good sense of what was going to happen, what wasn’t going to happen. So I called him. I said, You know, I’ve got this audition. What do you think? He said, Oh, do it. Do it. It’s a huge movie. This is going to be huge. I said, Really? People want to watch a runaway bus? Absolutely. Do it. Do it. So I read the script, which was not the script you saw, by the way. Different script. Graham Yost’s script was very different after Joss Whedon did the rewrite.

Angela [00:08:53] Yeah, that’s what we’re, we’re learning.

Beth Grant [00:08:55] And it’s a lot of fun stuff that changed, you know? But it was a really nice role at that time. It wasn’t what ended up being in the script, but it was sort of like The Poseidon Adventure or Towering Inferno. We all had these back stories and history and I liked my character. She had just gotten engaged. She had a little dog. She had she and Sandy’s character were friends. I had been to see her do stand up the night before. So it was all, you know, chatty. And then they would every bus stop, they would stop and the people would come on and you would kind of find out more about them, you know. And so that was the script that I read. And so anyway, I just cut loose and had fun. And in the script I was the hero. The bus driver actually had a heart attack in that script, and I was the one that came forward and did CPR and saved his life. And and then I was the one who volunteered to get off the bus first to sort of test the waters.

Jenna [00:09:55] Oh.

Beth Grant [00:09:56] And we did all that. And I got on my knees in the audition and I was doing CPR. I mean, I just went for it. So it was really fun. I really loved it. And I really hoped I would get it by the time I left. And… But then, as it happens in Hollywood, we were shooting like the day after Labor Day, and we went we had a reading, table read, and we had a costume parade. And so first I get there and your boyfriend, Keanu, is sitting there all pumped up, baby. I mean, he look good. I was already a fan of his. I’d always thought to me he’s underrated, underestimated. I just think he’s a genius. He’s so authentic and real and loving, and it always comes across. Anyway, he’s sitting there all pumped up, which I had never seen him like that. And I said, Oh, wow, you look great. This is really exciting. This is really good for you, huh? And he said, I hope so. I mean, he’s just so real. So anyway, then we go in, so we get these new scripts. So I start going through the script and I said, huh. Huh. Huh.

Angela [00:11:12] At the table read. It’s the first time you’ve seen it.

Beth Grant [00:11:15] First time I’ve seen the rewrites. I think they were hot off the press. And I think, Oh, my God, it’s all our character’s gone. There’s no dog, I’m not engaged, I’m not friends with S- I thought, there’s nothing here to do. I don’t know what am I going to do? And so Sandy and I went to the same college. And she obviously younger than me. And when we had they put out this directory of all the famous alumni, you know. And so I had a very nice little picture and a little nice bio. And then Sandy had this huge spread in the middle because she had done Working Girl, the series. And I thought, Who the hell was that?! You know? And this this guy that wrote for the Raleigh News and Observer said, Oh, you need to meet her. You’re going to love her. She’s great. And he gave me her phone number and said, Call her up, y’all will get along great. And I’m like, I’m not gonna call her. You know? I was jealous. But anyway, so we’re sitting there, I just read the script and in walks Sandra Bullock, the girl from my college. And I was like, Grrr. And then she turned- and this really happened- she- it makes me cry. She turned and she looked at me and her eyes lit up, her face lit up, and I. Fell. In. Love. So Sandy comes over and she’s you know, she’s East Carolina, East Carolina, you know, Southern girls. So, you know, we were best friends for the whole shoot. And she saved my life because I had just read the script where my part was kind of gone. And then when we got on the set, well, we went to rehearse first, then we read the script. She was fabulous. It was fabulous. It was different. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was great. We had the reading. Then we went for our costume parade and we did that. And then we got on the set. We put they put us on a bus and we went to the 105 freeway for the rehearsal. And I’m looking around-.

Jenna [00:13:19] Wait. The rehearsal was on a moving bus as well?

Beth Grant [00:13:24] Yeah! I mean, we didn’t-.

Jenna [00:13:25] You rehearsed on a moving bus.

Beth Grant [00:13:28] Yes, but we didn’t go 50. You know what I mean? Maybe we did for a minute. They were testing it, but mostly, yeah, we did.

Jenna [00:13:36] Wow.

Beth Grant [00:13:36] Yeah. And then we would all get out.

Angela [00:13:38] Did anyone get carsick?

Beth Grant [00:13:40] Oh, what a funny question. Not that I know of. Not that I know of. We did not. Maybe it’s different on a bus than in a car. Um maybe we (UNCLEAR).

Angela [00:13:51] That lucky, though. That’s lucky.

Beth Grant [00:13:53] Yeah.

Jenna [00:13:54] Would you guys actually be in the bus when the bus was hitting things?

Beth Grant [00:14:00] Oh yeah.

Jenna [00:14:01] So you would crash into cars while you were in the bus?

Beth Grant [00:14:05] We did- I mean, sometimes yes, sometimes no, and I can’t tell you which ones. But we we were in that for a lot of it, you know, like that one where we hit all the water things, you know?

Angela [00:14:16] Yeah.

Jenna [00:14:16] Yeah.

Angela [00:14:45] Yeah.

Jenna [00:14:46] Yes.

Beth Grant [00:14:46] He insisted on doing it. And once he did his stunt, then, of course Hawthorne James wanted to do his getting on the- and so I said, well I’m not going to let men do theirs. I’ll do mine. And here I am a new mother. I mean, and they had stunt women for me. They had, you know, two different stunt women there. They had- I had to do full body casts so they had three or four of me. I mean, I was everywhere, you know?

Angela [00:15:18] Okay. We really want to ask you about that hard right turn. When the bus has the 90 degree turn and he’s like, Everyone get on the other side! And and it goes up on two wheels, like, were you on that bus when it did the hard right turn?

Beth Grant [00:15:34] We were, but I don’t know, the two wheel thing might have been shot as a separate piece. We did it though. It was right there at the entrance of the 105 and the 110, I believe.

Jenna [00:15:47] Mm hmm.

Beth Grant [00:15:48] So it wasn’t actually- I think it was on a street rather than the actual ramp. I think.

Jenna [00:15:56] Mhmm. That’s what it looks like.

Angela [00:15:57] Yeah.

Beth Grant [00:15:58] It was… Yeah, it’s real. So much of it is real. What Jan said to me, I wanted to quit when I saw that we were shooting on the freeway. And he said, Trust me, I’m going to shoot this like a European film. You saw all the costumes were in earth tones. And he said, We got we’re going to cover this in a very specific way, like a European film. And real. We’re going to keep it real. And so I, you know, I took him at his word. And and I think that is what he did. Do you agree?

Jenna [00:16:30] Yeah.

Angela [00:16:31] I’m blown away by some of these shots that they got and where the cameras were mounted. And I was so tense in so many scenes because it feels so scary.

Beth Grant [00:16:43] Yeah. Yeah, it is. It it was real. Anything you saw on our faces was probably real.

Jenna [00:16:51] I have to imagine you guys really bonded being on the bus together for so long. I mean, how many weeks were you shooting?

Beth Grant [00:16:59] Well, I shot for six weeks. I think I shot for seven or eight after I died. Although Sandy had me come back. It was so funny. She wanted me off camera when she knows Helen’s dead, for Helen’s death.

Jenna [00:17:12] Yeah.

Beth Grant [00:17:13] And so they called me up after I wrapped and they said, Sandy, you know, was wondering if you could maybe come back and do that. So, of course, you know, I was thrilled to go back. But anyway, I came back, and so I’m in the bus. And Keanu gets in the bus and he said, What are you doing here? You’re dead. I said, Off camera.

Jenna [00:17:32] Yeah. Have you stayed close with any of your bus mates after this experience? I know it’s been 30 years, but.

Beth Grant [00:17:39] Only Sandy. Yeah. Sandy’s the only one and she is a very wonderful mother and very much engaged in her life, you know, as a mom. I haven’t seen her as much. We’ve had some email exchanges, but I haven’t seen her for a while. But we were very close for a long time. And, you know, I would still call her. If I needed help, if I was something’s going on and it was urgent, I wouldn’t hesitate to call her. I love her. And I know she would respond, you know. And I hope she knows that about me. So, yeah, it was a lifelong friendship developed with her.

Angela [00:18:12] That’s so wonderful.

Jenna [00:18:14] Yeah.

Beth Grant [00:18:14] And so we reunited on Time to Kill. And then she wrote- during that period, she wrote a little short called Making Sandwiches, and she wrote a part. I don’t know if she wrote it for me or if I just happened to be lucky and be there at the right time to play it. But we shot it in Ventura. It’s a little short. Octavia Spencer’s in it. Matthew McConaughey is in it. Me. Oh, Eric Roberts is in it.

Angela [00:18:40] That’s quite, quite the cast for a short film.

Beth Grant [00:18:43] Yeah, it was. It premiered at Sundance. And you know, wonderful little movie. Then when All About Steve came along, my agent said, You need to get in there and play her mother. But it was written as an aging Marilyn Monroe type. And I’m thinking, that’s not my casting. And but my agent was just like, I want you on that movie. And so she got me the audition. I said, okay, I’m going for it. And so I wore this pink, fluffy dress, put on a blonde wig and went in and went for it. And then Sandy called me to tell me that I got it, that the studio approved me. And and it was just thrilling to then go get to play her mom. We had the best time. We laughed so much and it was so fun for me to play a character like that because no one in the world would believe I would do it. But it just goes to show that you really need to go for it. You know? If you audition. I mean, if I had said, Offer only. Or if I hadn’t been willing to take a chance, you know? Really it wouldn’t have happened. So.

Jenna [00:19:51] So, Beth, you’ve done three films with Sandra Bullock, plus you were in her directorial debut and the only film she’s ever directed.

Beth Grant [00:20:03] So far.

Jenna [00:20:04] So you’ve you guys have worked together over these 30 years since Speed four times?

Beth Grant [00:20:09] Yeah.

Jenna [00:20:09] And in these different movies and have a lifelong friendship.

Beth Grant [00:20:13] Yeah.

Jenna [00:20:14] I mean, what a blessing.

Beth Grant [00:20:16] It’s such a blessing.

Jenna [00:20:16] This movie. Yeah.

Angela [00:20:18] Yeah, it is. It is. It’s what you take with you.

Beth Grant [00:20:21] In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Yeah. Well, you know, she did me- I mean she saved- I told her this and you know, she never wants to take credit for anything. She always compliments everybody else and is always so giving and loving and but she saved my life on that movie. First of all, I don’t know that I would have stayed on the movie once I saw that thing. But I had bonded with her. I loved her. You know, I felt like I wanted to work with her and Keanu and Jan. But beyond that, she just was always upbeat and positive. She had such a good attitude. And we had chocolate break every day at I think 4:00 and they would bring out the chocolate. We would eat. And I didn’t even eat sugar at the time, but honey, I was eating Tootsie Rolls. I loved it. And we would dance, if you can believe it. We would put on salsa music. And she’s a great dancer. And she would salsa dance, you know, and my pitiful version of salsa dancing. But she kept everybody going. Like, if it was- because it was so hot and the hours were so long. And as I said, we couldn’t even get to our trailers, all of that. But her attitude was so good and positive and loving at all times that she kept me going. I mean, I made it because of her. And so I really feel like, you know, I owe her that forever.

Jenna [00:21:47] So while you were shooting it, you knew. You knew this was going to be a hit. While you were making it, you guys felt it? You could feel you were part of something special?

Beth Grant [00:21:55] We could. I mean, also, it just felt good. You know? Jan was on his game. The crew was on their game. Keanu, I could see, was going to be an action star. It worked out pretty well.

Jenna [00:22:12] Sure did.

Angela [00:22:14] Yeah.

Beth Grant [00:22:16] And you just could tell. And he was so sweet. Talk about bonding.

Angela [00:22:22] Yeah. Can we talk a little bit about Keanu?

Beth Grant [00:22:24] Oh, my God. I want to tell you everything. One day in Long Beach, I guess it was the day in fact, we did that thing on the on ramp where we ran to the water barrels.

Jenna [00:22:34] Sure.

Beth Grant [00:22:34] I think that was what we were shooting so there’s a lot of technical stuff to work out. So we had a lot of downtime on the streets of Long Beach. And so we made up a comedy show that would be called (SINGS) “Sandy, Sandy, kind of cute, kind of wild. Sandy…” And and then he would be the boyfriend and I, I don’t know, I think I was making it up and he was acting it out and he fell on the grass and kicked like a cockroach and just did, I mean, just cute, funny stuff. That you don’t really see that side of him, you know, very often in interviews or in what he does. But just cute, sweet, funny, going with whatever crazy game we were coming up with.

Angela [00:23:18] And just such a team player with this cast. That sounds so charming. I feel like we were like that on the set of The Office, Jenna, how we would get punchy being in the conference room. Listen, it wasn’t a moving bus. We didn’t have to hang out on the side of a freeway, but we definitely had all of these little comedy bits we would do and, and act out and be silly and kept us going throughout, like, long days on set.

Beth Grant [00:23:42] That’s why it worked, you know? You can feel it on that show. You really can. I mean your show. That show. But you can. You can feel it. It just couldn’t have worked any other way.

Angela [00:23:55] I love the idea of thinking that Keanu does bits.

Jenna [00:23:59] Yeah, exactly. Beth, I have to know, was there ever, like, a stunt that went wrong for a second? Were there any mishaps that you remember? Or was it all pretty controlled?

Beth Grant [00:24:15] I can’t remember anything going wrong except, you know, maybe my acting.

Jenna [00:24:22] Oh, no.

Beth Grant [00:24:24] My whining. I tell you, I went to that premiere and I thought, get that lady off the bus with her whining. What about the rest of us? What about the rest of us? You know, Jan said to me, I asked myself, Why aren’t I the hero anymore? He said, We have too many heroes. He said, We need Richard Chamberlain in Towering Inferno. We need a coward. So I was the coward. But in the original script, Jeff Daniels was the bad guy.

Jenna [00:24:52] Yes.

Angela [00:24:53] Yeah.

Beth Grant [00:24:53] Isn’t that shocking?

Angela [00:24:54] Yeah.

Jenna [00:24:55] So he was in cahoots?

Beth Grant [00:24:57] I was really good. It was. I liked it.

Jenna [00:24:59] You liked that twist.

Beth Grant [00:25:01] I did. But I also thought that it was very moving when he died in our version, you know?

Jenna [00:25:08] Me too.

Beth Grant [00:25:08] I did think that worked very well, because that second on his face when he knows he’s going to die. Oh, my God. And who doesn’t love Jeff Daniels?

Jenna [00:25:19] You know what’s crazy? After I watched that scene and I saw that moment of realization in his eyes after he sees the red light, I, I watched it several times and then I tried to do it as an acting exercise.

Angela [00:25:32] I did, too, Jenna! We haven’t even talked about that!

Jenna [00:25:34] I was like, Am I a good enough actor that I could do Jeff Daniels’ moment of realization? It was so good. So I tried it.

Angela [00:25:45] This is so funny. I did the same thing. I said, Could I do that? Would it look real? Do I look like a cartoon?

Jenna [00:25:51] Yes. It was so because it was so good.

Beth Grant [00:25:55] Well, I’m proud of you guys! That’s- those are real actors that would do that. You saw a great moment and you wonder if you could duplicate it. And I have no doubt that you would and could. That’s great. I love that.

Angela [00:26:09] Mine was a little cartoony.

Jenna [00:26:10] I’m no Jeff Daniels, I’ll say that. But my goodness. It’s crazy, though, because so many people in the film did not get to work together. Like you never got to work with Jeff Daniels. You never got to work with Dennis Hopper. And then I-

Angela [00:26:26] Dennis Hopper was by himself for most of the movie.

Beth Grant [00:26:28] That’s true.

Jenna [00:26:28] On the telephone. But, you know, one thing that I did notice on the bus, which just blew my mind, is how you’ve got, you know, the police captain and all the police officers are on like a flatbed next to the bus. And there are all these scenes where they are just the background of something that’s happening on the bus. Did those guys just ride next to you for 12 hours a day sometimes? That was crazy.

Angela [00:26:56] In the heat on a flatbed?

Beth Grant [00:26:57] I know. In those SWAT uniforms or whatever those heavy duty, you know, with a bulletproof vest. Well, you know, stunt guys. You know stunt guys. I mean, they are just gluttons for punishment, I guess. I don’t know. They’re amazing. I mean, and they seem to take great joy in it. I mean, I’m sure they’re nice. They go home and they say, I’m never doing this again. But I don’t it’s not my experience with stunt people. They are always so enthusiastic and ready for action. But they are really phenomenal. I mean, they just always just are so eager to jump into the fray. And God bless them. I mean, we need them, that’s for sure.

Jenna [00:27:38] Yeah.

Angela [00:27:38] We sure do. And though every stunt person on Speed or-

Beth Grant [00:27:41] But yeah, they were there on the flat bed, suffering, suffering in the heat. And it was hot, hot, hot. You know, September in California, southern California is hotter than the summer. And it was um yeah. God bless them.

Angela [00:27:54] It’s our hottest month for sure. September.

Beth Grant [00:27:56] I think so too, yeah. Definitely was that year.

Angela [00:28:00] Well, you know, Beth, you have been in so many things and we’ve talked about a few of them here. I’m personally with my daughter rewatching The Mindy Project, and you are hilarious in it. She was like, Mom, please tell Beth how much we love her in The Mindy Project. So I said I would.

Beth Grant [00:28:17] Oh, tell her thank you so much.

Angela [00:28:19] Yes. But we are curious. What do you get recognized the most for? Is there a character that people really identify with when you’re out in the world?

Beth Grant [00:28:28] Well, what I found is obviously it depends on, you know, the fans of which thing. Like Speed fans, it’s Speed. But I will I’m- you’re gonna think I’m making it up. But I promise you that The Office is at the top, top, tippy top. You know, people love that show so much. They love the Dinner Party episode. I mean, a lot of people have called and gotten interviews with me and, you know, Rolling Stone picking it as the top comedic episode in the first ten years of this century or something. I know you all know all this, but it is an extremely popular show. Y’all are much, much beloved. I mean, you truly are. And I know for a fact because you’re not around, they have no reason to tell me how much they love, love you. And they do. They just do.

Jenna [00:29:17] Well, we were so lucky to have you on The Office. And we’re so lucky that you joined us today to talk about Speed. Thank you for coming and nerding out with us. Beth, we were just hanging on your every word.

Angela [00:29:30] Beth!

Beth Grant [00:29:30] Love you both so much. I think you’re fabulous and I love your podcast. And I’m going to root for the Broadway fantasy dream come true, which will happen. And I’m going to root for you with I don’t know about the gardening and hummingbirds. You can come over and garden and hummingbird with me. I got a lot of ’em.

Angela [00:29:48] I would love that, Beth. I’m not even kidding. I will come over.

Jenna [00:29:52] Oh, she’s going to be at your house tomorrow. If there is a hummingbird, Angela is there. Trust me.

Beth Grant [00:29:58] I mean, I’m not kidding. We have all drought resistant native plants in the front and the back. It’s a hummingbird paradise over here. We love them.

Angela [00:30:07] Beth, I have to come over.

Jenna [00:30:09] Angela is more excited about this news than anything you said about Speed. I guarantee it.

Angela [00:30:15] What a delight, Beth, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Beth Grant [00:30:17] Maybe you can come over and give me some advice, because I really love to pull weeds and grass and stuff. But we need help. It’s very bushy.

Angela [00:30:26] Nobody needs that much bush. What!

Beth Grant [00:30:30] Whaaa!

Jenna [00:30:30] That’s what she said. All right.

Beth Grant [00:30:33] Great way to end this.

Jenna [00:30:36] Love you, Beth. Thank you.

Angela [00:30:37] Thank you, Beth.

Beth Grant [00:30:38] Love you. Thank you so much.

Jenna [00:30:43] 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.

Angela [00:30:59] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For Ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher Premium dot com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “office”.