Rainn Wilson on Nightline

SPOILER WARNING! Video contains new Office footage.

Rainn Wilson was featured on ABC’s Nightline last night:

Words barely describe Dwight Shrute, the suck-up salesman and assistant regional manager of the Scranton branch for the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

But Rainn Wilson, the actor who plays Shrute on NBC’s “The Office,” has a few for you. “Dweeby, fascistic, power-grubbing, hierarchical. Is that a word? Annoying and self-serious. How’s that? Those would be, those are seven words. I was counting them on my fingers,” Wilson said during an interview in his home outside Los Angeles. “And bizarre,” Wilson added. “Did I say bizarre? I didn’t say bizarre, throw that in the mix.”

Links: Article | Video

Tipster: ddker

IGN interviews Oscar Nunez

IGN speaks to The Office’s Oscar Nunez:

The Office has a really dedicated fanbase, especially online.

Nunez: It’s crazy. I didn’t realize it until we went to the Paley Fest. That’s when it hit me. I’m like, oh, I get it, this is like when I was in high school or when I was 13 and I was watching Monty Python … If I was to run into Eric Idle, or John Cleese in the street, I would have s**t my pants! And this is their Monty Python, these young people. This is their show.

Link: The Office’s Oscar Nunez Kisses and Tells

Tipster: Jeff

Greg Daniels: He Knows Where You Work

Inc.com interviews The Office Executive Producer Greg Daniels:

Greg Daniels is to fun what Bono is to money: He has a lot of it and spends his days contemplating those who have none. Daniels created the American version of The Office, a sitcom about a paper company where the tin-eared boss mistakes insults for banter and tries employees’ patience with cringe-inducing entertainments. As executive producer and a writer for the NBC program, Daniels is essentially boss of a show about the Dante’s Inferno of workplaces.

Link: He Knows Where You Work

My phone call with Jenna Fischer — exclusive!

When I got home today after work (yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but I do have a full-time job outside of OfficeTally), I had a lovely surprise waiting for me in my inbox — an email from the newly Emmy-nominated Jenna Fischer, asking if I would like to chat briefly with her this evening.

Um, yes please.

She had decided not to do any formal interviews today, preferring to give an exclusive to OfficeTally to thank the fans! How great is that?

Continue reading “My phone call with Jenna Fischer — exclusive!”

Greg Daniels and B.J. Novak interviews

SPOILER WARNING! IGN talks to The Office’s Greg Daniels and B.J. Novak about the conclusion of Season 3 and plans for Season 4.

IGN TV: What did you think when you found out how the Season 3 finale was going to end?

Novak: Well, as one of the writers, I was there for the whole process. I was thrilled. We had talked for years about Ryan maybe becoming Michael’s boss some day, and how funny that would be — to see that reversal. [Steve] Carell has brought it up to me, and the writers have pitched it at various times. So for me it was so fun to have something new to do.

Links: B.J. Novak | Greg Daniels

Tipster: Billy

Office scene-stealer Phyllis Smith

Backstage.com has a wonderful interview with Phyllis Smith:

In 2004 the company was testing the series regulars for The Office when Smith heard Kwapis say he wanted her to read one of the characters. “I didn’t really think anything about it; I just thought I was being a reader,” she recalls. “I was just hoping I did a good job for the actors.” Over the next few days, Smith heard from other actors in the running that Kwapis wanted her in the show.

“Then when we took people to network, we were walking down the stairs at NBC, and Ken turned to [current NBC co-chairman, then head of production company Reveille] Ben Silverman and said, ‘I want Phyllis in the show. I have a whole backstory for her,’ ” she recalls. “But I’ve been in this business long enough to know that until it’s in writing, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”

Link: ‘Office’ Space (you’ll need to scroll down the page a bit)