‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Had a Final Powerful Moment as Pam Beesly
When The Office ended its nine season run, many fans found themselves weeping over the too-perfect ending. One moment from the finale that was a stand-out was one of Jenna Fischer’s final talking head interviews as Pam Beesly, where she made a powerful statement that showed the character’s growth over the years.
‘The Office’ finally ended the documentary
The premise behind The Office involved a documentary crew who followed the office workers at a paper company. Finally, after all those years, the doc team finally wrapped it up.
For The Office finale, the characters were brought together for a special Q&A that accompanied the documentary as well as Dwight and Angela’s wedding.
During the Sept. 8 episode of An Oral History of The Office podcast, host Brian Baumgartner talked about wrapping up the series, which included a surprise appearance by Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell.
“Greg [Daniels, the showrunner] wanted the finale to be a giant family reunion and any Office reunion wouldn’t be complete without Steve Carell,” Baumgartner explained.
Jenna Fischer thinks ‘The Office’ was all about Pam
During the Sept. 1 episode of An Oral History of The Office podcast, Fischer shared her theory about Pam’s role throughout the show. The series continued after Carell’s exit, but ended when Pam moved on from Dunder Mifflin. According to Fischer, it was more about Pam’s journey than it was about Michael.
“It’s not lost on me that when Pam was ready to break free of Dunder Mifflin, the show ended,” Fischer explained. “So I always kind of thought it was the journey of a girl becoming a woman, finding herself, going out into the world.”
“When we meet her, she’s trapped behind this desk… and she sort of slowly moves to sales, and then finds the man she loves and starts this family,” the actor continued.
Fischer added, “She really fights against leaving and then when she’s ready to go… it’s all over. Because the documentary doesn’t stop when Michael leaves, so it’s not really a documentary about Michael Scott. They decided to stop making the documentary when Pam leaves.”
Pam has a powerful talking head in the finale
Before the final moments of The Office finale, each of the characters has a talking head interview, reflecting on their role in the documentary.
Pam explains, “I didn’t watch the whole documentary. After a few episodes, it was too painful. I kept wanting to scream at Pam. It took me so long to do so many important things. It’s just hard to accept that I spent so many years being less happy than I could have been. Jim was 5 feet from my desk and it took me four years to get to him. It’d be great if people saw this documentary and learned from my mistakes.”
“Not that I’m a tragic person,” she continued. “I’m really happy now. But… it would just… just make my heart soar if someone out there saw this and she said to herself ‘be strong, trust yourself, love yourself.’ Conquer your fears. Just go after what you want and act fast, because life just isn’t that long.”
That Pam moment was touching and The Office editor Claire Scanlon explained during the podcast what it meant to her and likely meant to many fans.
“There’s this one Pam talking head that I can’t wait to show my daughter when she’s older,” she shared. “It was so powerful. Just even thinking about it makes me misty because it’s just like, as a woman, you’re just not seeing that on TV. It was such a powerful message.”
