‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Couldn’t Do Scenes With 1 Actor for a Whole Year
It’s no secret to fans of The Office that the cast had a lot of fun making the hit comedy. Thanks to brilliant writing and fantastic improvisation, there were plenty of laughs to be had on set. And while some actors managed to keep their laughter at bay, Jenna Fischer has admitted that she would break character often on set and succumb to giggles.
For those who don’t know, “breaking character” happens when an actor slips out of character and behaves as their true self. Examples of breaking character can be often be seen in the bloopers for The Office. Fans are able to see that there were times when the scenes were simply too much for the cast and they succumbed to giggles and had to repeat the scene. Typically Fischer was able to make it through scenes without breaking, but during Season 1 of The Office, there was one actor who always made her break.
Jenna Fischer always broke character with one cast member during ‘The Office’ Season 1
Back in 2008, Fischer spoke with NPR about working on The Office. She revealed that each season, she found herself amused with someone in the cast. For season one, that person was Rainn Wilson. Wilson, of course, played Dwight K. Schrute on the show. Fischer was especially amused by the antics and characteristics that Wilson adopted in order to bring his character to life.
“You know what happens is, I seem to every year get tickled by a new actor in a way where I just, I cannot do a scene with them,” Fischer shared about working on The Office. “And the first year it was Rainn Wilson. You know, Pam and Dwight did not have a lot of interaction so anytime we did have a scene one-on-one, I just couldn’t get through it. Rainn Wilson – he has this weird way that he stands, where he pushes his pelvis and his gut sort of out.”
Rainn Wilson on creating his infamous character, Dwight
Of course, Wilson doesn’t stand that way in real-life, rather he adopted that unique stance specifically for his character on The Office. According to Wilson, Dwight’s inability to respect interpersonal boundaries created that particular stance where he thrusts his lower body out. Continuing on, Wilson shared that part of the job of an actor is following the impulses of the character and letting them manifest themselves through things like stance.
“It kind of comes into your body,” Wilson said about building characters. “And I think your job as the actor is to let these impulses flow through you, and not stifle them. So if you have – you know, again, he has this love of hierarchies and this love of power. Well, he’s going to assert his power with his pelvis. You know?” We can definitely see why Fischer was tickled by Wilson’s portrayal of Dwight and all his eccentrics while they were filming The Office. We don’t know many fans who would have been able to make it through scenes with Wilson either.
