The cast of The Office resorted to instant messaging and playing solitaire when they were only in the background.
If you’ve ever been on the set of a movie or TV show, you know just how boring it can get – there is a lot of standing around and waiting. But what if even when the cameras are rolling you have nothing to do? That was something that the cast of The Office ran into with each episode, having to look like they are actually working the receptionist’s desk or crunching numbers in spreadsheets while others had lines. And they did it by doing what we all do at work: screwing around.
As Jenna Fischer recalled on the Office Ladies podcast – which she co-hosts with Angela Kinsey – John Krasinski set everybody up with online usernames so they could chat with each other while filming was taking place. She noted that her username was receptionitis15, while Kinsey remembered hers being MSaccountant, keeping in line with their professions. We can only imagine what he set up for Rainn Wilson…
But Fischer went a bit farther, staying in touch with The Office fans more than the rest of her cast. “We weren’t just IMing each other either, I would IM with fans during scenes. Remember when we had MySpace? Somehow I would get the IMs of fans through MySpace, and I would write things, and I would say, ‘When you watch the episode ‘Healthcare,’ there’s going to be a scene where Dwight is talking about hot dog fingers, and I’m IMing you during this scene.’” Imagine getting that message from Pam Beesly and anticipating that season three episode – a screenshot and printout of the IM seems worth framing for that Office superfan!
It’s been no secret that the cast of The Office made good use of their background time when filming under the fluorescent lights of Dunder Mifflin– it’s why you see so much computer solitaire being played, especially by Meredith. In the first season, though, the cast’s computers didn’t actually function like that, so they were told by producers to bring in paperwork of any kind to keep – and look – busy.
How do you keep busy at work when you’re not doing work? Don’t worry, we won’t tell your boss.