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We jumped on a conference call with The Office's Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin) and Ellie Kemper (Erin Hannon) to talk about tomorrow's highly promoted Jim and Pam baby episode. Will this huge development fundamentally change the show? Will either of their characters be following in Pam's footsteps? These co-stars gave us the scoop.
How do you think the show will change once Jim and Pam have the baby?
Ellie Kemper: It won't.
Angela Kinsey : I think what's the great thing about our show is that they find ways to make our characters grow without really changing a character's arc, you know. And that's always a fine line in television... If you change a character too much, the audience falls out of love with the character, yet characters need to evolve and grow over the years. And I think our writers are brilliant at doing that. So, I think with Jim and Pam having a baby, you're going to see like new aspects of them, but it's not going to change the dynamic of our office. If I've learned anything from our show, is that it's about Michael Scott and his coworkers. Anything else that's added to that is just a little bit of seasoning or spice; it's never the meat of a show.
Angela, as a mother yourself, how did you feel about the baby episode?
AK: I loved it. I actually went to the writers and tried to pitch them some breastfeeding jokes because I actually came back to work when my child was eight weeks old and, not to over-share, but I had to pump. Because our female writers on the show don't have children, I pulled Mindy and BJ aside, and they took notes. I don't know what they used or didn't use, but it's a fun episode.
I think what's great about it is there's a little bit of reality there. We can have more real moments because we are a mockumentary, and we can go into some subjects that maybe your standard sitcom would skip over. And so I think it's going to be really fun for people to watch.
Do you think your character might have a human maternal instinct soon?
AK: Oh my goodness. I mean, I can't imagine Angela Martin as a mother -- I think it would be very interesting. I remember a few seasons ago, she said that she might like two very small, well-behaved boys, so she could parent those. Listen, I would love to see her try to nurture a human. I think that would be a lot of fun to watch her go through those motions. But, yeah, I don't know. It definitely would be a great idea.
How much of the show's romantic tension contributed to its longevity?
AK: I feel like romantic tension can fuel a whole season; it's very apparent in sort of the Ross/Rachel of Friends and definitely with the Jim and Pam. We even looked to an action-thriller like Lost, and everyone is wondering what's going to happen between Sawyer and Freckles. There's a good part of us as American viewers that are kind of hopeless romantics. Within both our comedies and dramas, we want to see heartfelt moments.
Any word on the future of Dwight and Angela?
AK: I think Rainn and I have always thought that Dwight and Angela are sort of geeky, militant soul mates. And we hope that someday they find their way back to one another.
And Ellie, can we expect any new music from Subtle Sexuality?
EK: I've been wondering the same thing. I've heard rumors that they are going to write another song and maybe make another video, but I'm not sure those rumors are accurate. I actually know as little as you do.
The show started with the premise that there was a camera crew filming a documentary your workplace. It seems that aspect of the show has been put on the back burner
AK : It's kind of an interesting thing that just happens to you when there's a camera around you all the time. We see it in reality TV; all of a sudden, several episodes into a reality show, someone will do something that makes you think, "Holy crap! They would never do that, there's a camera right there. Come on!" But what happens though, when there's cameras around all the time, they just start to become like a fixture, like a couch or a lamp. You find yourself getting more and more free, and whatever boundaries you set for yourself at the beginning get pushed and pushed and pushed. I think that's a natural progression of our show with our documentary crew. I actually think it's very realistic. But, having worked on other projects in between The Office, we still reference the camera way more than shows that obviously don't have a camera crew. I sort of feel like the camera crew is our other character on the show.
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This is pretty interesting, but it doesn't seem like there was much point to even including Ellie - four sentences, three related to a question that had no answer.
Agree with Neal. Didn't realize that Angela was doing all the talking and Erin barely spoke at all. Maybe it's because she's the newbie and she wanted to defer to Angela. Didn't need to conference call though. Think I would have prefered a one-on-one with her later, where she could discuss her character's ambitions (if any) and potential Andy complications.
Agreed on the last question. I hope they try to incorporate the fact that the entire show is supposed to be a documentary back into the show. Maybe the documentary is released and reveals all of Michael's past antics? Perhaps the doc will be so popular that Dunder-Mifflin gets a major boost in sales? I think it would be nice to see the people who have been manning the cameras throughout the entire show.
If you check out the full transcript of the AK/EK interview, while Angela does have the majority of the comments, it's not as disproportionate there as it seems here. EK gets time to talk about her character being mentored by AK's (!) and also about where things may be headed for herself and Andy.
I'm watching Lost from the beginning and it seems like no matter what I'm reading, there's a spoiler!
Erin is pretty much a waste of space here, but that shouldn't surprise anyone who's seen her on the show.
I'm always glad to see them say that the baby isn't going to change the focus of the show. I mean, it's what I expected, but still, good to see in print. There are people who actually care about Erin's ambitions and relationship with Andy? Huh.