EP. 198 — An Interview with Kelly Cantley

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 [00:00:08] 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] Hi!

Jenna [00:00:26] Oh, I’m excited for the show today.

Angela [00:00:28] I am so tickled about today’s episode. I just loved it so much.

Jenna [00:00:32] We have a special interview today. It is with our safety meeting Queen, first A.D. The Office, Kelly Cantley.

Angela [00:00:41] Yay!

Jenna [00:00:42] We love getting mail from all of you asking questions about Phil Shea and his props tray or about standards and practices or Bob Dunn’s Animal Rentals.

Angela [00:00:53] And, you know so many of our crews names. You know the ins and outs of the show now.

Jenna [00:00:58] Yes. You have really gotten as invested in the nuts and bolts of the show as we have. And so we’re so excited for you to hear about the making of The Office from Kelly’s perspective. This interview. Oh, my gosh. The nuggets.

Angela [00:01:12] So many nuggets. You know, Kelly was the assistant director for 72 episodes.

Jenna [00:01:17] And she has some stories.

Angela [00:01:18] Oh, does she.

Jenna [00:01:19] Mm hmm.

Angela [00:01:20] She even has more that we want her to come back and tell. When we were getting ready to talk to Kelly, I went in my digital clutter just to see what I could find. And you know what? I found a very funny email. I want to share with you first, though, that Kelly Cantley and I are very close in height. We both have blond hair. And from time to time, if we were on set and they were trying to figure something out with my character and I wasn’t there, they would ask Kelly to stand in. And this is what I found in my digital clutter. I can’t wait to bring this up to her. It was from Steve Burgess to me, Kelly and Phil Shea titled Foot Photos, November 16th, 2012. Steve wrote, We took these photos of Kelly’s foot today. Wondering if you can contort your foot to look equally as bad. I think Kelly may call you to talk about this foot gag. Phil Shea will see you at 2 p.m.. Thanks, Steve. I responded with this. I think my foot will do this. And then Phil Shea wrote, Okay, great. So Tim will photograph your feet at 2 p.m.. Thank you.

Jenna [00:02:24] What is this?

Angela [00:02:26] And then there are several photos of Kelly’s feet and my feet and us trying to get them to do the same things. I was so incredibly curious. I emailed Steve Burgess and asked him, What was this about? He shared to me that it was from a runner for Customer Loyalty that we didn’t end up using, and he included a script page. It read like this. Pam walks to the accounting area with her bag. She announces, Well, I’m heading to Cece’s recital. Oscar goes, Aww, and smiles at Pam for what he feels like is the appropriate amount of time, and then drops it and turns back to his computer. Angela says, Did I tell you I danced as a child on pointe by age two? She’s very proud. And then she says, It permanently stunted my foot growth. Kevin says, It’s true. I can fit her shoe all the way in my mouth. Angela’s talking head. She holds up her foot, which is gnarled and small. Then the camera was going to reveal my feet. And Phil Shea would have had to have made a foot prosthetic that was curved and tiny, and this whole entire storyline was cut out.

Jenna [00:03:32] Oh, my gosh.

Angela [00:03:35] Yeah.

Jenna [00:03:35] That’s amazing. Well, that’s the episode that Kelly directed.

Angela [00:03:38] Yes!

Jenna [00:03:38] In season nine.

Angela [00:03:40] Well, I can’t wait to talk to her about this and many more things. And I can’t wait for you guys to hear everything she has to share. It’s absolutely wonderful.

Jenna [00:03:48] Well, let’s take a break. And when we come back, we’re going to jump right in.

Angela [00:03:51] Yay! Kelly’s here.

Jenna [00:04:03] Hi, Kelly. How are you?

Kelly [00:04:05] I’m awesome. Hi, Ange. Hi, Jenna. It’s so great to see you guys.

Angela [00:04:09] We are so excited.

Jenna [00:04:11] We are so excited to have you today. You have no idea. We talk about you all the time on the podcast, which you told us people tell you that we talk about you on the podcast. And now we have you here and we get to share you with everyone.

Angela [00:04:22] We have lots of questions, so I’m just going to jump right in with question number one, which is we always ask our guests how they came to work on The Office. So can you tell us your story?

Kelly [00:04:33] I had just turned into a first A.D., so I was doing both. I was doing second A.D. work and first A.D. work. And I had made a decision to only be a first A.D. and not keep working as a second. And then Ross Noby called me. He was doing a pilot called Early Bird with Kent Zbornak producing. So Kent Zbornak was the producer on Early Bird and also was the producer, as he described it, of a little comedy called The Office. And I took the job as a second. Ross told everybody I was doing him a favor, and I was really a first. And a few weeks after the pilot, Ken Zbornak called me and said, Hey, this little show I’m doing called The Office, it’s really funny. It’s a group of nice people. Are you available? Can you come meet the showrunner? So I went somewhere in the middle of Burbank to a very strange, I think it was a post-production house because Greg was working on season one. I went and found Kent and we sat in a small room and Greg Daniels came in and asked me a bunch of questions about what I did in my free time and my real life. We talked about sailing and we talked about hiking, and he looked over his shoulder and walked out after about five or 6 minutes. And I look at Kent and I said, Do you think he’s coming back? Kent said, Unknown. Let’s wait 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, Greg didn’t come back and Kent said, Well, I guess the interview is over. I’ll give you a call. I was like, All right, great. And he called me the next day and said, We’d like you to start on season two.

Angela [00:06:07] You must have some great sailing and hiking stories.

Kelly [00:06:10] It’s like so random.

Jenna [00:06:14] What did you think when you got the job? Were you like, What have I gotten myself into?

Kelly [00:06:19] So I hadn’t done a lot of comedy. I had done a couple of comedy things. The pilot was a comedy and the pilot that I did, we worked less than 12 hours. Everybody was happy. It was funny. And I thought, Yes, I’d like to do a comedy. More of this. And I hadn’t seen any of season one, the first six episodes, when I did the interview. Fortunately, we didn’t talk about season one or television. And then I got the DVD and I watched all the episodes. Can’t remember if I got the DVD or if they re-aired or something on NBC. And I watched all the episodes, and at the end of it I thought, Huh. Well, the people are nice. It’s 28 minutes from my house. We’re gonna do 12 episodes, and then I’ll be looking for work again.

Angela [00:07:03] It wasn’t your cup of tea?

Kelly [00:07:05] No, I just was like, huh.  And then somewhere like four or five episodes into season two, it was so funny. I was like, This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

Jenna [00:07:17] Aww. I love that. You know, for our listeners who maybe aren’t familiar with exactly what a first A.D. does for a production, could you give us a little brief description of your job?

Kelly [00:07:31] So I used to describe my job as a cross between a cocktail waitress and a fourth grade teacher. You have time to go to the bathroom, you pick your toys up and get ready to go to lunch. But now the more grown up way to describe it is a project manager. So I take the script, which is like the blueprint, and I do all the prep to make it so that we can shoot what’s on the page. And then when we shoot, I run the floor. I’m by camera.

Jenna [00:07:58] Kelly, did you ever get a script and think, How are we going to do this?

Kelly [00:08:03] Yes, a couple of them. One of them was the fire drill cold open.

Jenna [00:08:08] Mm.

Angela [00:08:09] Uh huh. What part of it? There was so many crazy things, which was the one that stumped you?

Kelly [00:08:15] Like all of it. Okay, so all of it was a little crazy, but doable. There’s lots of chaos and running around and smoke and we had to figure out how to lock the doors, but not violate fire codes so that if something happened, you guys could actually get off the set. And then the cat.

Angela [00:08:35] Oh, Lord, the cat.

Kelly [00:08:37] So at some point in the prep week, standing on stage, it was Jeff Blitz who was the director, Greg Daniels, the cat wrangler.

Angela [00:08:46] Me, I was there to meet the cat that I was going to work with.

Kelly [00:08:51] To meet the cat and also say, what- oh, and your stunt double- what you could physically do, right?

Angela [00:08:56] Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly [00:08:57] I have to admit, in prep periods when we were trying to work stuff out, I often would fill in for you and trying to figure out how a short person could do a thing.

Jenna [00:09:07] Angela just shared a story about that, Kelly!

Angela [00:09:07] Shared not only would you fill in for me because we’re a similar height, I found in my digital clutter photos of our feet because you were my foot double for a possible storyline for Customer Loyalty, which you directed, which is coming up.

Kelly [00:09:26] Yes.

Angela [00:09:28] I have photos of your feet, Kelly. And my digital clutter.

Kelly [00:09:32] I love that.

Angela [00:09:35] Oh, wait, wait here. Look. Look, I think I have them. I think I have it pulled up. Look, there’s your feet.

Kelly [00:09:41] Oh, my God. That okay- that was the longest also departmental discussion of ever. Your feet.

Angela [00:09:48] I know. I know. We can save it for Customer Loyalty, but that was so crazy. Okay, okay. Back to the cat meeting.

Kelly [00:09:57] So we’re all on stage talking about how the scripted thing. The wrangler said to me, Angela says, Save Bandit, throws the cat up in the ceiling, and then Oscar is in a panic to get out and save his life. So we talk about using a stuffed cat like a stuffy double of the cat. We talk about an animatronic cat, but if we kick an animatronic cat it’s thousands of dollars of smashed machinery, and they think that if we brought a stuffy and the stuffy look like a stuffy go in through the air and there’s lots of conversation. So then the wrangler and I pitched- I occasionally pitched things that were either safer or funnier and usually got shot down- But we pitched, Could we throw the cat up through the ceiling and just have it fall through a different part of the ceiling? And then we had to do a big discussion of explanation to everyone about how that was okay, because it would be a second cat falling onto a fall pad and that wouldn’t permanently scar or hurt the cat. But it was a two hour discussion.

Angela [00:11:01] And I just imagine you coming home from a day of work and like, How was your day, babe? What’d you do? Well, I figured out how to get a cat out of a ceiling safely. How was your day?

Kelly [00:11:12] I had lots of days like that.

Angela [00:11:15] What’s another one?

Kelly [00:11:16] The other one, which may surprise you guys, Prince Family Paper.

Jenna [00:11:21] Prince Family Paper. Why? There’s no big stunts in that, right?

Kelly [00:11:25] Right. Doesn’t appear complicated, except oh, so one of the things we would do almost every episode, particularly in the early seasons and definitely when we had a new director, is we’d have a conversation about documentary camera awareness. Like, so the the regular cast, we assumed that the documentary crew had been there for long enough they were used to it. And then people who would come into the office or when we would go out in the street, we’d have to have a conversation about what’s the awareness of the camera? Do we assume a producer ran in and said, Hey, documentary cameras is coming in. Don’t look at it. Or should people be like, Hey, there’s a camera.

Angela [00:12:07] Okay, Kelly, you’re the first person this whole time that we’ve been doing the podcast that has shared that, that was a conversation that you guys had every week. I didn’t realize that, but it makes perfect sense. You know, if they’re not part of this documentary film, that they would see camera crew and react to it.

Jenna [00:12:26] And to remind new directors, Hey, don’t forget only this group of people, only the Dunder Mifflin people have this awareness and comfort with the camera. Like, if we leave this room, you have to think about this. Amazing.

Angela [00:12:41] Fascinating.

Kelly [00:12:42] Along those lines, we’re also used to any time there was this sort of a private feeling scene, there’d be a discussion of camera awareness with you guys.

Jenna [00:12:52] Mm hmm.

Angela [00:12:53] Yeah.

Jenna [00:12:54] I remember those.

Kelly [00:12:55] Which is how we ended up with the spy shot. Like cameras hiding behind a bush. And you might not be aware of it, or it’s far enough away from the room that you might not be aware of it.

Angela [00:13:05] So with Prince Family Paper, you had this whole little company that wasn’t camera aware?

Jenna [00:13:11] Well, that we’re being spied on.

Angela [00:13:12] Oh, right. Yes, yes!

Kelly [00:13:14] So the guys want to spy on Prince Family Paper so the doc crew couldn’t go in. So the parameters for the location, I still remember this because I still drive by empty car dealerships and go, Prince Family Paper! That would have been perfect. So the parameters were we needed to shoot from outside so we need glass.

Angela [00:13:33] All glass.

Kelly [00:13:34] And what we started out looking for was a building that was two or three glass walls. What we ended up with was a storefront with one big glass window. So we get there, we go to scout it, and it’s a mirror. You know, anytime you go to a grocery store, look in the window. It’s a mirror. So when we have to come, we have to rig big black drapes so that there’s no reflection, and then you’re just seeing through the window. The other challenge was because it was a storefront and didn’t have a corner, we couldn’t do our normal cross covering.

Jenna [00:14:10] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:14:11] So we had to shoot everything in one plane from outside the window. And it was super challenging to plan and block and make it look like our show.

Jenna [00:14:22] That episode looks amazing now, thinking of everything that went into it. Incredible.

Angela [00:14:28] I love all of that detail. That’s so interesting.

Kelly [00:14:31] Mm hmm.

Angela [00:14:32] Okay. So, Kelly, a big part of your job as an A.D. is being the liaison between the director and the cast and the crew. And you’ve worked with many different directors. We’re curious, do you have a favorite director that you worked with?

Kelly [00:14:47] Okay. I looked up all the directors I worked with getting ready for this.

Angela [00:14:50] You did? Do you have a list of your favorites?

Kelly [00:14:53] I have a list of 11 of my favorites.

Angela [00:14:56] Okay.

Jenna [00:14:56] Wow.

Kelly [00:14:57] I’m going to apologize in advance if I left anybody out. Ken Kwapis. Genius. I love Ken Kwapis. Matt Sohn, one of my favorites. Jeff Blitz. He was one of the documentary guys.

Jenna [00:15:14] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:15:15] When he came to us, he’d only done actual documentary, real people. And he made the transition really well, I thought, to scripted. And I still work with him. Ken Whittingham, Paul Feig. Dave Rogers, Charles McDougall. Harold Ramis was legend. Jen Celotta, who is a great writer and ended up being also a great director. Steve Carell was a lovely director. And then Randall Einhorn. You know, Randall.

Angela [00:15:43] Yes.

Jenna [00:15:44] Aw.

Angela [00:15:44] Yes. I love that list.

Jenna [00:15:47] Kelly, what makes a director good from your perspective?

Kelly [00:15:51] Okay, that’s a three hour conversation. So. Okay. So a TV director has a particular challenge to represent the voice of the creator and the writers and stay within the world that’s already been established. So the director brings their own creative thing, but they have to work within the- they have to color within the lines of what’s already been established and what direction the show is going. So you have to fit into that. On our show, they had to have the ability to make a plan, but also completely dump the plan when something funnier was happening.

Jenna [00:16:28] They couldn’t be too precious about their ideas because there might be a spontaneous moment and they had to roll with it.

Angela [00:16:35] They have to follow that. Yeah.

Kelly [00:16:37] And then on our show was different from most scripted in that we truly shot like a doc. What- most directors followed that along. There were a few who shot more, made the doc fit into a more traditional style. But the doc shooting was the two operators would start wide in two directions on the scene and then just go into tighter shots and closeups once you got into the scene. And at one point I said to Matt, like the first season, cuz I was amazed by the whole thing. Because you’d watch the monitor and they’d be wide and Randall would punch in and do a close up on somebody, and then Matt would a second later punch into the same size on whoever they were talking to. I said to Matt, How do you guys know to do that? And he goes, Why wouldn’t you? That’s when you do that. I’m interested in what that person’s saying, so I go tighter.

Jenna [00:17:29] Wow. Well, it’s interesting that that our two camera operators also were on your list of favorite directors to work with for this show.

Kelly [00:17:38] Yes. And so the directors who can work well within that system for our show I thought did the best. And then the directors who were organized with, okay, like fire drill. We could have done that for three weeks if if we- Jeff Blitz hadn’t had an actual plan of what the choreography was going to be. So I like prepared directors who find funny and are open to funnier.

Angela [00:18:02] That just sounds like a good recipe for life, right? Like, I like prepared people who are open to funny.

Kelly [00:18:09] Right.

Angela [00:18:11] So you started working, you said on season two. And we noticed, okay, so your first episode was Office Olympics, but you were also the A.D. for Booze Cruise. And we definitely shared a lot about that episode as a cast. What was it like to prep an episode that we were on a boat? I mean, our show never traveled. Like we were rarely out of the office.

Jenna [00:18:34] We were had to stay in hotels. The crew stayed in the hotels, too.

Kelly [00:18:38] We were down in Long Beach.

Jenna [00:18:40] Yep.

Kelly [00:18:41] So we rented a boat, the party boat. And then Ken Kwapis and I went through like all the scenes in the shots and we figured out what scenes we needed to be out at sea for and what scenes we had to be at the dock for, and then what scenes that we were in the script out at sea but could shoot at the dock. So we went through all that, and then the marine coordinator, Ransom and Mike George, we go through all the boat stuff we need with them and they organize the water stuff. And then we start organizing, well okay we could shoot this scene because it’s down below and we don’t see everywhere. We’ll shoot this at the dock like we’re out at sea. Well we need to pretend we’re moving. So then lighting organizes a lighting barge where we had lights on a barge that would just go putt, putt, putt, putt putt like the shore was moving.

Angela [00:19:38] So, wait, we had a whole barge of lights that would go back and forth past the boat?

Kelly [00:19:43] Yeah.

Angela [00:19:44] I never knew that. Jenna, did you know that?

Jenna [00:19:46] I did not know that was happening. No.

Kelly [00:19:48] When you watch it and there’s a scene like on the first floor of the boat, when we’re not up on the top deck, and you can see the boat’s moving and you can see the shore lights moving, that’s lights on a barge because we were parked.

Jenna [00:20:01] Wow.

Angela [00:20:03] Oh my gosh. Kelly, you’ve got all the nuggets, Kelly.

Kelly [00:20:06] I didn’t rewatch Booze Cruise, but I had to think about it.

Angela [00:20:09] Well, I mean, one of the struggles for the cast on the boat was people really started to get nauseous. And I imagine that was happening with the crew, too.

Kelly [00:20:17] I think the crew was less sick than the cast. So on the last day, we went out to sea because we had shots that we were supposed to be in the middle of the water. And as we were out there and were rocking and, you know, particularly you guys, actors are not- like, you can’t focus on the horizon or, you know, pushing equipment or your acting, so it’s queasy. And then once one person throws up, everybody goes. So at a certain point, the cast actually started heaving over the side.

Jenna [00:20:47] Yeah.

Kelly [00:20:48] And cameras, instructed by our showrunner, started to go to shoot that.

Jenna [00:20:54] And I remember this. I remember Greg said, Get the people vomiting. It’s great do footage.

Angela [00:21:00] Who was vomiting over the side?

Jenna [00:21:02] Rainn a lot.

Kelly [00:21:03] Oh, gosh.

Kelly [00:21:04] Rainn a lot. And there were a couple other people, too. But I argued hard that it wasn’t fair. That- I was like, You can’t shoot them really throwing up. It’s sort of a vulnerable moment. We shouldn’t do that. And I ended up kind of standing in front of the camera while I was making that argument. And then everybody calmed down and I suggested that we could, you know, give people a sip of coke or something and do fake puking, which I think we actually did.

Angela [00:21:33] Wait, you’re the reason. Okay, I wondered this because it was not in the script. Greg came up to me and Kate Flannery and was like, Hey, hey, hey, we’re- you guys are going to puke over the side. We’re like, What? And we had a choice of minestrone soup or mushroom soup. And I chose minestrone. And you took a swig of it and held it in your mouth. And then anyway, it was disgusting. Even faking it was so gross.

Jenna [00:21:57] Well, I think you and Kate got chosen to fake vomit because you were not real vomiting. We didn’t ask anybody who was queasy to fake vomit. I remember. Because I was on the edge. I did not throw up, but I could have at any moment. And I remember I was like, I can’t. I can’t fake it. It’s going to come out. It’s just going to all come out.

Angela [00:22:17] I mean, holding that cold soup in your mouth was disgusting because you had to hold it. And then for a few seconds, then they yelled, Action. Kelly, you’re the reason.

Kelly [00:22:27] Sorry. Sorry.

Angela [00:22:28] I’m gonna tell Kate Flannery, remember when we had to swig that cold soup? But you were- you were trying to protect the other. That’s very sweet. So, Kelly, you worked on 72 episodes of The Office. How did your job change over the years?

Kelly [00:22:44] Oh, that’s a good question. It didn’t change much. The stuff that changed was we’d get new cast. So Darryl moves up from the warehouse, and now he’s got a desk. Oh, and my desk used to be where Darryl’s office went. So I lost my desk when that started.

Angela [00:23:00] Yes. You used to be in the corner over there.

Kelly [00:23:04] Yes. But I think the job stayed the same. Oh, I will say, when we started, nobody was famous.

Jenna [00:23:12] There were no requests for your cast to be on talk shows in the beginning.

Angela [00:23:16] Right. You didn’t have to work around like someone like doing a movie or a press junket.

Jenna [00:23:21] We were always, always available.

Kelly [00:23:24] Right. So nobody was a movie star. It wasn’t like, Oh, I need to go do The Tonight Show or and so it was pretty easy to schedule cast. And then also, in the first year, you guys were all used to everybody would come in first thing in the morning, right?

Both [00:23:42] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:23:43] Whether you’re on camera or not. And just do your stuff. And then in the second year, we tried to pay a little more attention to who was on camera. And then producers and the production designer gave you happy Internet, so you’d have something to do on the computer.

Angela [00:24:00] Yeah.

Kelly [00:24:02] And scheduling with cast just became a little bit more challenging as everybody got famous and had other stuff to do.

Jenna [00:24:10] Yeah.

Angela [00:24:11] I have to thank you, Kelly, just from the bottom of my heart. And Jenna knows this too and it’s something we’ve talked a lot about, which is I was the first cast member- not crew or, you know, but just the first cast member that had a baby. The fellas had kids, but I was pregnant on set. And then I had to breastfeed. And all of the things that went into going back to work as a working mom with a newborn, and you just stepped up for me in such a huge way. I was having to figure out how to go to my trailer and pump, and you were giving me breaks in scenes. You were scheduling when I could go take care of myself and my baby. And then you did the same for Jenna. And it means so much to us. And we just love you so much for for just taking care of us during that time.

Kelly [00:25:02] I remember sitting down with each of you and saying, I have never had a baby. What do you need?

Angela [00:25:10] Yes. I’m like, Well, I’m going to need to pump. And also, I might need some snacks after I pump.

Kelly [00:25:16] Right.

Jenna [00:25:17] Yeah. I shared, Kelly, this really amazing thing that you did, which was- I don’t know if you remember, but you came up to me and you said, Jenna, the law in California is that I must allow you to leave set to pump your breast milk. The law is not that I have to allow you to leave set to nurse your baby. So if you just let me know when you need to pump your breast milk, I won’t ask where exactly it’s going. I like started crying. I was like, I got it. I got it.

Kelly [00:25:56] Scheduling you guys was often more interesting than scheduling the show. By the time we got to that point. Okay, Jenna, one other thing, and this is your fault. My skill set as an actor got better because of you.

Jenna [00:26:14] Oh?

Kelly [00:26:14] You produced a low budget movie one summer and the next season I was the first or second on set doing something. And you came in and I think you were talking to Angela about producing this movie and all the stuff you had to do, and you were had to dig through trash and clean toilets and all the stuff a producer normally does on a low budget movie because there’s no one else. And then you turned to me and said, You probably can’t believe this, can you? And I go, Jenna, it’s kind of interesting to hear your perspective of producing. And you said to me, You know, I was really thinking about it, of how come when I’m producing, I walk into a location, the bathrooms filthy, and I think, Oh my God, the actors are coming. I should clean this. And then how come when I’m an actor, I walk in and something’s wrong and I go, Oh my God, this is wrong. Someone needs to fix this now.

Jenna [00:27:02] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:27:03] And you told me that what you had decided was when you are a producer, you are in charge. And so it’s your job to make things right for other people. But when you’re an actor, you are not in charge of anything. That the A.D. is the one who tells you when to come to work, when to go to makeup, when you can go to the bathroom, when you have time to eat, and when you can go home.

Jenna [00:27:23] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:27:24] And that if another person had that much control over your daily life, it better be perfect.

Jenna [00:27:30] Oh my gosh.

Kelly [00:27:32] And I thought, oh, my gosh, I make so much sense as a totally valid point of view, and I need to actually internalize that and use it in the rest of my life.

Jenna [00:27:44] You know, it was really eye opening for me to produce because I worked so hard as that indie producer, and I was happy to be a servant to the needs of everybody on the set. You know, if someone else needed to sit down, I would give up my seat. You know, it was just like, it is literally my job to make this day run as smoothly as possible, however big or small those things are that I do all day. It was really eye opening to me how, in my point of view, how little autonomy an actor has over their day. As an actor, as Pam, if I was like, Oh, you know what, I would really love some coffee, your instinct is to get up and get yourself some coffee. But if I were to get up and move from my place, like you or a P.A. would be like, Oh my God, where are you going? Where? Why are you stepping away?

Angela [00:28:41] Don’t leave! Don’t leave!

Jenna [00:28:42] Don’t go anywhere! And I’d be like, Well, I want some coffee. They’ll be like, We’ll get you the coffee. We’ll get you. Just sit back down. Just go ahead and have a seat. Have a seat. Sit down. What do you want in your coffee? How do you want your coffee? And so as an actor, you become almost trained to do nothing except act. Except be ready to act at any time. Because, you know, I couldn’t walk into a restroom and be like, This is dirty. I’m going to clean it for the next person because wardrobe and everybody be like, Oh my God, what are you doing? Why are you- you’re going to potentially mess up- go sit down. Sit in this chair and don’t move. Someone else will clean that toilet. It’s so weird the difference between being an actor and then being part of the other side of the camera.

Kelly [00:29:28] Hopefully we take all the stuff that gets in the way of acting out of your peripheral so you can just pay attention to the acting.

Jenna [00:29:36] You did.

Angela [00:29:37] Well, you definitely did that.

Jenna [00:29:38] You totally did.

Angela [00:29:38] You definitely did that.

Jenna [00:29:40] Well, why don’t we take a break? And when we come back, we have some more questions for you, Kelly. For example, we have not yet talked about your famous safety meetings and we will need to do that.

Kelly [00:29:51] Okay.

Angela [00:30:02] We are back with Kelly. And Kelly, we really need a safety meeting. No one does it better than you. Can you please do a safety meeting for us?

Jenna [00:30:13] I’ll give you one. It is Garage Sale. The cast is all standing in a line in the kitchen holding lit candles.

Angela [00:30:24] Michael and Holly are about to enter.

Jenna [00:30:27] Could you give us a safety meeting, please?

Kelly [00:30:29] Okay. But before I tell you the safety meeting, I should tell you what happened in the prep.

Jenna [00:30:34] Oh!

Kelly [00:30:36] In the prep for that scene, we figured out whether or not we needed a fire marshal on set for that. I can’t remember if we needed one or not, but we needed special effects with fire extinguishers. We also made sure that the whole hair department knew not to use hairspray because it’s flammable. And costumes didn’t dress anyone in polyester because also flammable.

Jenna [00:31:02] Wow.

Kelly [00:31:03] So this all happened before the safety meeting. So then the safety meeting, because I’m not an actor. Well, but I was in one episode. But from your point of view, you’re in the scene, you’re in the moment, you’re playing whatever the real life thing is. So I’d have to say, okay, everybody’s holding a candle. It’s actual flame. Pay attention. Don’t burn anyone. Don’t bend your head over the candle and set your hair on fire. And then John would make fun of me. On every safety meeting.

Angela [00:31:34] You know, now that I know your sort of lens of your job description of a cocktail waitress and a fourth grade teacher, your safety meetings are now so much more colorful to me because that is exactly what it would sound like. You’d be like, This is an open flame. It is a real fire. Do not put your face over it. Do not put your friend’s face over it. Keep your hands to yourself.

Kelly [00:31:59] Exactly.

Angela [00:32:01] What about your reminder meetings? We have not talked about that, but they were equally delicious.

Kelly [00:32:06] On almost every shot, because everyone had live internet, and also people get thirsty, and we’re limited in what brands we can show, I would say, okay, pictures up. Water bottles, sides, Diet Cokes, hide them and make sure your screen’s on something we’re allowed to see.

Jenna [00:32:27] That was a- yeah, make sure your screen is on something we’re allowed to see.

Angela [00:32:32] And sometimes you would call someone out. Sometimes you’d be like, Rainn…

Kelly [00:32:37] Well, yeah. So I would call rolling and I’d wait to point at the director to say go until all the screens had flipped. And particularly during fantasy football season, sometimes Rainn, if he wasn’t talking, would be involved in his computer and not flip it. And so I’d say, Rainn, your computer. Or whoever. It was mostly Rainn, but it was also other people sometimes. And one day Rainn said to me, Kelly, I will always have my computer on something you’re allowed to see. You never need to remind me again.

Jenna [00:33:09] I remember this.

Kelly [00:33:11] I said, Okay, what do I get if you miss it? I will give $100 to the charity of your choice. Okay. And then he goes a couple of months later, he messed it up. And I said, okay, Rainn, 100 bucks to Meals on Wheels. He’s like, What? I was like, Your screen. He said, Oh okay. And I think over the years, it was about $3,000.

Jenna [00:33:34] To Meals on Wheels?

Kelly [00:33:36] Yeah. And it was season eight or season nine. It happened again. And I said, okay, 100 bucks to Meals on Wheels. And Rainn said, That’s not fair. I didn’t even know I was on camera. And he goes on this whole rant about, It’s not fair. It’s not fair. I didn’t know I was on camera. That was sneaky. And you needed to warn me. And Jenna, I don’t know if you remember this, but you stood up and said, Oh, no. I remember however many seasons ago you told her.

Angela [00:34:02] You don’t need to tell me ever again.

Jenna [00:34:05] That’s right. I was like, You gave a whole speech about how she never had to say it again, that you would always have it ready.

Kelly [00:34:15] Yeah.

Angela [00:34:16] That’s awesome.

Kelly [00:34:18] Yeah.

Angela [00:34:19] All right, I have a question for you, Kelly. So, you know all of us would break in scenes. We were horrible. We would try so hard not to ruin takes, but we would get the giggles. So I have to know, did you ever break? Was there a moment where you were laughing?

Kelly [00:34:38] All the time.

Jenna [00:34:43] Did you ever ruin a take?

Kelly [00:34:44] I never ruined a take, but I had to actually leave set the episode where Michael Scott gives the short joke one.

Angela [00:34:54] To me?

Kelly [00:34:55] Miss Muffett. Yes.

Angela [00:34:56] Yes. Well, first of all, Steve improvised a few short jokes.

Kelly [00:35:01] So. Okay, so I remember at the we were getting ready to shoot the scene and it was there were a couple of like, I forget what the scripted thing was. It was a short joke thing. And right before we went, he turned to you and he said, Ange, I’m going to improv and come up with a bunch. That okay? And you said, You can’t come up with one I haven’t heard.

Angela [00:35:20] Why would I say that to Steve of all people?

Kelly [00:35:23] He said, You’re on. And then he said, like a hundred short joke things in how many takes. It was so funny.

Angela [00:35:35] Was it Launch Party? I’ll look back for it. But anyway. Yeah.

Kelly [00:35:39] Miss Muffet he called you at one point.

Angela [00:35:41] Yeah, he did it. Oh, my gosh. I don’t know why I ever challenged Steve to any kind of, like, comedy joke.

Jenna [00:35:50] Did you ever get to pitch jokes? Did you ever make suggestions or did you more hang back? I mean, I know you had to make suggestions like, how do we practically get this cat in this ceiling and also live through it? But what about, like, creatively?

Kelly [00:36:08] So. Generally like you don’t want to be the wouldn’t it be funny if person.

Jenna [00:36:15] Sure.

Kelly [00:36:16] Right? But occasionally I’ll have an idea for a line or a joke. And I would say to Greg, Can I pitch? And he’d say, Sure. Or to the writer. Can I pitch? Sure. And occasionally it would make it in. And then when we would shoot, I would get on my radio and say to the A.D.’s, I did that. I said that line.

Jenna [00:36:34] Yay!

Kelly [00:36:35] Yay!

Angela [00:36:37] Okay, this is a big question. How has working on The Office affected your career?

Kelly [00:36:42] Oh, interesting. Okay. I recently had an interview for a feature that didn’t end up going, so I don’t know if I would have gotten the job. They asked me what my superpower was, and I said, Scheduling. And I learned it on The Office. I don’t know if you remember, but I used to do my schedule. And then on Friday I would print my little one liner and I would highlight, like, I think Jenna, you were always pink.

Jenna [00:37:09] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:37:10] Ange, you were I think you were a blue circle. I can’t quite remember. Every actor would have a color around their number on the one line.

Angela [00:37:17] Yes.

Kelly [00:37:18] And I would bring the schedule to set on Friday, and I would run every actor through their schedule for the week.

Angela [00:37:23] It was so helpful.

Kelly [00:37:25] But also, some were arguers.

Jenna [00:37:26] Oh, I think maybe I argued. Am I an arguer, Kelly, or was I in the middle?

Kelly [00:37:32] No. You were a good idea-er.

Jenna [00:37:34] Oh! Oh, Because, look, my second life is an A.D.. I had a lot of bright ideas when I would look at the one liner, sort of like Kelly, you know, when you would say, like, you’re on set and you have to ask yourself, does this person really want me to pitch my joke? Like, should I pitch my joke? When I would look at a one liner, I would just get ideas, just scheduling ideas. And I’m like, Am I annoying or should I say my ideas?

Kelly [00:38:01] But so that was the best part. I used to have to defend my schedule to every member of the cast. I used to call it- I’d grabbed my schedule and the second A.D. would say, Where are you going? I’m going to go defend the schedule to everybody.

Angela [00:38:11] Kelly, one time I went up to you because Jenna, I like got the schedule and Jenna was like, Ange, if they move that one scene up, you would have the whole afternoon. You could go to Isabel’s school. You could volunteer. Like she would always have ideas for me. And I went to you and I was like, You know, if this scene were a little earlier and I’m telling you, you were like, Were you talking to Jenna?

Kelly [00:38:33] So I would try and make the best schedule for everybody. And I also would be really upfront about saying, Hey, this Wednesday, you’re here all day and I’m sorry, I can’t fix it. Or this Tuesday you got a big gap in the middle. And so I think coming up with a schedule that was good for everybody made me a really good scheduler.

Angela [00:38:53] You were fantastic.

Kelly [00:38:55] And I also learned to not be afraid of talking to cast. Like Jenna, I used to come to you and say, Okay, you can work 3 12-hour days this week, or I can bring you in every single day for not the full day. Which is better for you? And you tell me. And when it really didn’t matter to schedule, I could give you a choice. And I always appreciated that.

Jenna [00:39:18] And I always appreciated that. And that was especially true after I had my son.

Kelly [00:39:23] So I became a better scheduler. I also got a super huge appreciation for working in comedy because I got a lot of action and drama. And I got to tell you, a half hour comedy is the best kept secret in Hollywood. You shoot regular hours mostly because people aren’t funny after ten at night. People aren’t funny after 11 hours. Everybody’s usually happy, and people laugh. So I loved half hour comedy because of that. So I steer my career more into a half hour comedy. And then also some of the connections I’ve made. I’ve worked with some of the directors and producers from The Office continuing. And Matt Sohn and I just did an indie feature.

Jenna [00:40:06] Oh, amazing.

Angela [00:40:06] Love it.

Kelly [00:40:09] And I’ve kept working with Greg. I did the pilots for Upload and Space Force and then the first season of Space Force.

Jenna [00:40:16] Amazing.

Kelly [00:40:17] Yeah.

Angela [00:40:18] So we’ve obviously talked about a lot of episodes, a lot of behind the scenes stuff, but have we missed anything? Were there any special memories from being on the show or anything you wanted to share?

Kelly [00:40:28] No, I can’t think- no, every day was special on The Office.

Angela [00:40:33] Oh. I love that.

Kelly [00:40:35] Seriously. It was like, okay, for everybody who listens to you that doesn’t work in TV. It’s like going to summer camp and going to the same summer camp with the same kids for eight years. Just like that.

Jenna [00:40:49] Do you ever rewatch the show?

Kelly [00:40:51] I did early days but started rewatching it last night when I was looking at the questions you were going to ask. And now I want to go back and start from beginning.

Jenna [00:40:59] Kelly, it is such a pleasure. It’s such a pleasure to rewatch. It is really just it brings back so many personal memories when I’m watching it. And also there’s so many things being so far away from it that I forgot. So jokes surprise me. It’s really cool.

Kelly [00:41:16] I watched The Search and I was there. I did a safety meeting on the roof. And I did not remember any of it until I watched it.

Angela [00:41:26] We have the same experience. All right. We always ask our guests if they took anything from the show when it wrapped. Jenna and I took several things. Kelly, did you take anything?

Kelly [00:41:37] I did, but it wasn’t when it wrapped.

Angela [00:41:39] What was it?

Kelly [00:41:41] Okay, so the episode where Michael’s looking for Holly and he goes to the office and she’s not there, it’s after she’s changed branches and her sweater is on the chair.

Both [00:41:51] Mm hmm.

Kelly [00:41:51] And he cuts the sleeve off her sweater.

Angela [00:41:53] Yes.

Kelly [00:41:54] I ended up with two of those sleeves.

Angela [00:41:57] Oh, you have Holly’s sleeves.

Jenna [00:42:00] Two!

Kelly [00:42:02] Well, because we did it, like, seven times. So I was thinking because we were always so cold on that set, and I was thinking, Oh, this would be like an arm warmer. And so I ended up with two random way because I thought I might use them. And then I packed them away and forgot about them. And then I did a show. I did Space Force, and the production designer, Susie, told me the only reason that she took the job and desperately wanted the job is because of how uplifting and positive The Office was in her life. And it was her favorite show. And she watched two episodes every night when she’d go to bed. And so I gave her one of the sleeves.

Both [00:42:41] Aww!

Kelly [00:42:41] And then I was on No Activity and Joe, the producer, he and his fiance were huge, huge Office fans. He remembered stuff I didn’t remember, they’d watched it so much. And he was proposing. And I gave him the sleeve.

Jenna [00:42:58] Oh, so you had these but now you’ve given them away to super fans. You’re paying it forward!

Kelly [00:43:04]  Yeah. So I have the Dundee that Phil Shea gave me. But I wish I had taken- there are two things of Andy Bernard’s that I wish I had taken. I went to a sailboat regatta on my little sailboat and my friend who came in third got a little plastic Lido 14 trophy at nationals, and she was like, I don’t want this. What am I going to do with this? She goes, Here. See if they want it on your set. Because she was an Office fan. Amy. And so I brought it to set dec and I said, I have a random trophy. Do you want it? And they were like, Yes. And it landed on Andy Bernard’s desk. And I’ve always regretted I didn’t ask Ed to sign it and give it back to Amy.

Jenna [00:43:43] Aww.

Angela [00:43:44] But again, Kelly, the things you want, you want to give to other people. You are just such like a pure heart person.

Kelly [00:43:52] And then in Andy’s office, this didn’t show up until he was the manager- my husband had been invited to sail on the Cornell alumni team at an amateur big boat regatta in Italy, and he really wanted to go. Set dec heard he was going and we sent two shirts, Cornell shirts, with him so he would have one. Everybody else on the boat was from Cornell so they had one to race. And we sent another shirt and Ed’s general measurements, so they took a group photo on the dock of the Cornell sailing team and pulled a random guy off the dock, put the shirt on him, and then we photoshopped Andy’s face.

Angela [00:44:32] Oh, my gosh. So your husband’s in a picture in Andy’s office?

Kelly [00:44:36] In my husband and the whole five, six years ago Cornell alumni sailing team.

Angela [00:44:41] Oh, wow. I want to look for that when we watch now.

Jenna [00:44:45] Gosh, where’s that picture? I can’t believe you don’t have that picture, like, framed in your house. That’s amazing.

Kelly [00:44:51] As you walk into the office, it’s on the bookshelf to the left I think.

Jenna [00:44:55] I know what you’re talking about.

Angela [00:44:56] Why do I feel like if we can hunt this photo down and give it to you, you are going to give it to your husband as a gift.

Kelly [00:45:05] No, oh and then do you remember the plaque? About me whining about not having a plaque?

Jenna [00:45:11] Yes. Why don’t you have your plaque?

Angela [00:45:12] You should have your plaque.

Kelly [00:45:14] Right?

Angela [00:45:15] Yes, you should have your plaque, dang it.

Kelly [00:45:20] I have a picture of my plaque somewhere. No, I have a Dundee from Phil Shea, and I have a slate from the episode I directed that Matt gave me.

Jenna [00:45:28] That’s very nice. Oh, Kelly, this was wonderful. Thank you for coming and answering all these questions from a completely new perspective.

Angela [00:45:38] It was so interesting. I just loved talking to you and we really want you to come back for Customer Loyalty, for the episode you directed.

Kelly [00:45:46] I’d love to.

Angela [00:45:47] This was so wonderful. Thank you for your time and just who you were to the show and who you were to Jenna and I and still are.

Kelly [00:45:55] Aww.

Jenna [00:45:55] We love you.

Kelly [00:45:56] Thanks for having me. I love you guys.

Angela [00:45:58] Love ya.

Jenna [00:46:03] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Angela [00:46:05] Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer, and Angela Kinsey.

Jenna [00:46:09] Our senior producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kieffer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.

Angela [00:46:18] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.