OFFICE SPACE

JENNA FISCHER ON HER HIT TV SHOW, HER BREAKOUT FILM ROLE AND HER FUTURE'S LACK OF DIRECTION

If you’ve ever seen NBC’s The Office, then you probably already know and love Jenna Fischer, who plays the arty, slightly frumpy, absolutely adorable receptionist, Pam Beesley.  But you’ll soon see her as you never have before as an absolute sexpot in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.  I can’t stress how sexy she is in that film, but hopefully this interview will stress how funny she is in person.  We spoke to her about her role in Walk Hard and what her life is like in a post-strike world where we’re hungry for anything we can get about The Office.  Tremendously charming and disarmingly pretty in person, Jenna Fischer humors us.

Does being outrageous come naturally to you, or is it very intimidating for you?  Particularly some of those things you do when you're… all that stuff when you're doing things with ice cream and lollipops.

Well, think I tend to have a pretty raunchy sense of humor, pretty dark sense of humor.  But I'm not a very outrageous person.  Like, I kind of needed the character in order to express that side of me.  So I'm probably a lot more shy in real life, a little bit more reserved and not necessarily, like, wanting to be the center of attention all the time.So that's what was fun. I think that just comes from, like, some sort of “don't stand out” Missouri upbringing or something.  You know, just like modesty instilled in me from a young age, or something.  But it was fun to do. I needed the character in order to give myself permission.  But once I gave myself permission, it was likeI went for it and I embraced it. 

How weird is it to be in December and not be going to The Office set?

It's really weird, and it's sad.  And we would always get together as a group and watch, like, the Christmas episode every year and have a little Christmas party.  And we don't have a Christmas episode this year.  So  I've been wondering if we're still gonna have our Christmas party.  I hope we still do.  But it's weird.

Do you have any plans to direct again, after Lolly Love?

No.  No.  No.  I'll never write or direct anything again.

Why?

I promise!

Why?

Because I hated it!  I hated it.  It was awful.

Really?  I've never heard anyone admit that before.

Maybe other people like it.  I didn't like it.  I thought it was awful.  I loved editing.  I liked, as a director, sitting in the editing room.  I liked that very much.  But I think, like, it is not a talent of mine to create something from nothing.  Like, to have a blank page, and have to just imagine it all yourself.  It's just that I'm not wired that way.  And then also, I don't see things visually the way a director does.  It was very frustrating for me. I really come at things from a kind of emotional level.  And as an actor, that really works. I think as a director you have to be able to have a vision.  You have to be able to see, like, where bodies go on camera. I can't do it.  I found it very frustrating, and difficult.  I didn't like it.

So if they asked you to direct an episode of The Office, you would--

I would say no.  Quickly.  [Laughter] I won't ever direct an episode of The Office.  I won't ever write an episode of The Office

Before the strike… 

I can't stress enough how I will never write or direct again.  [Laughter] 

Before the strike happened, had you guys already mapped out where the season was gonna go?  Like, did you have an idea of where you were trying to take the show?

Not that I know of.  The episode that we were going to shoot was one of the funniest episodes I've ever read.  It's an idea that the writers had been pitching for about two years, which is that Michael Scott has a dinner party, and everything that happens.  And it's brilliant.  And it was, like, two years in the making.  And it planted a lot of seeds for the rest of the season in terms of story arc.  And so hopefully we'll get back at it, and all those things will pay off, and we'll get to shoot that episode.

People turn up to the dinner party?

Oh, yeah.  I probably shouldn't have even said "dinner party."  They're probably gonna be mad at me for even revealing that.  But it's so good.  I mean, it was soooo good.

One of the interesting things about The Office is that the show is shot, and certainly your characters, almost like a silent movie sometimes; where so much of the communication is done without words.

Well, I think so much of the show is about what we say when we're not speaking.  But also, like, it is a subtext show, you know?  And I think it's one of the challenges to, like, have a conversation with the character of Jim that's very, you know, acceptable and appropriate, while all the while communicating to the audience that this is a person I have a huge crush on.  So a lot of what we do on the show is, like, we comment on the way that people try not to share what they're really thinking or feeling, and how transparent we all are anyway.

Is this the most creative you are in your life at the moment? 

I would say yes.  I think I went through a period of time when I wasn't working as an actor, when I was forced to, like, self-generate creativity.  I started cartooning, and that was a really creative time in my life.  That's when I made my movie, Lolly Love.  There's something really exciting about having to be a self-starter and create work for yourself, and to also see it through.  It's very different from being, like, hired to do a project.  So that time in my life was really important, because I think it made it possible for me to do what I'm doing now. But right now I'm working more than ever and getting to work on projects that I like, and haven't had a bad experience yet, knock on wood.  So I would say, yeah, this is definitely the most fertile, creative time for me.

Will Pam and Jim make it through the rest of the show, or do you think there'll be bumps along the way? 

I really don't know.  I've sort of told the producers all along that I am not attached to Jim and Pam being the loves of one another's lives forever.  I think we should only keep them together for as long as it seems real and honest, and that there could also be something very beautiful about the two of them preparing one another to find the true love of their lives.  I mean, sometimes some of the relationships we go through are more about growing as a person and learning who we are, and sort of then letting go and letting that person go on to find the love of their life.  So I'm okay with that being the Jim-Pam story, too.  And it could be sort of interesting, and something we haven't done before.  Every time I pitch that idea, they tell me that I'm crazy and nobody wants to see that.  {Laughter] So I have a feeling Jim and Pam are gonna make it in the end…