B.J. Novak answers ‘Chair Model’ questions
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Q. Who played the chair model? | Sarah
Q. Was the woman in the chair model photo supposed to look like Jan? | Amelia
A. We held a brief audition on set for the role of the chair model. It was a joint audition, actually; we auditioned a few people for the chair model, and also a few for the young blonde woman in the coffee shop whom Michael falsely assumes is his blind date.
The chair model was supposed to be pretty, definitely, and perhaps even prettier than your average model; but that’s the extent of it. Not the kind of person who’d make you stop everything you’re doing at work. She was meant to look like the type of woman that an idealist, such as Michael, might mistake for “just your average single girl.” It’s more about Michael realizing he wants to start dating than it is about that one specific woman. Dwight, the most literal minded person at the office, takes the request the most literally.
I guess she looks a little like Jan in a way, but not in a way that occurred to us when we cast her.
Q. Who were the guys (other than Michael and Bob Vance) who played the bosses of the Five Families? Are any of them on the regular cast/crew of ‘The Office’ or were they random actors? | sarah
A. The three other actors are Barry Sigismondi as W.B. Jones, Terrence Beasor as Bill Cress, and Paul Faust as Paul Faust.
Barry Sigismondi Jones is a very funny actor whom we had auditioned for other roles in the past. He’s capable of a lot and hopefully we’ll get to see more of that character. The Five Families scene was cut down a lot for time, but hopefully some of it will see the light of day on the DVD.
Terrence Beasor came to us for the first time auditioning for this role, I believe. We loved his look and delivery.
Paul Faust. Several months ago, Paul Faust, a cousin of Paul Lieberstein, visited for a tour of the set. While in the writer’s room, somebody asked what he did for a living. He’s a businessman with several ventures, it turns out, and he proceeded to launch into a captivating monologue about his Disaster Kit sales business. Without any exaggeration, it was the most confident and persuasive sales pitch any of us had ever seen. So, since then, we thought someone like that would be a good basis for a character.
Then when we conceived of the Five Families, we thought it would be funny to have it be mostly a bunch of guys who take the pomp of the Five Families meetings very seriously — and then one younger guy, a guy who’s a one-man-shop and hates being there, who would rather do everything over email. So that’s how the character of “Cool Guy Paul” came into existence.
The day before we were scheduled to shoot the scene, we still hadn’t found the right actor for Cool Guy Paul. So we called Paul Faust, in New York, and asked if he’d mind auditioning to play himself. He went to the Kinko’s across the street, filmed himself on their iMac, and emailed it to us. Within an hour he had the part, and within two hours he was on a plane to L.A. And sometime in that two hour period, he had purchased www.coolguypaul.com, and linked it to his actual disaster kit business. I am not making any of this up.
Wow! I love all these tidbits! They let me appreciate this great ep even more! Thanks BJ
72 | Jill Fri. Apr. 25, 2008 at 11:46amI agree, these are great! Please make them a regular!!
71 | In2TheRoses Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 6:44pm66 - I doubt it was in a real cemetery. They had to have made that gravestone, and most cemeteries have visitors and ceremonies each day. They can’t just shut one down because a show has to film.
70 | Sara in Philly Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 3:55pmThis is so cool because it shows you just how down to earth the Office people are. They sound like they’d be so fun to hang out with.
69 | Dwigt Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 3:36pmAwesome!!! I LOVE this site!!
68 | I like beets Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 2:54pmThank you B.J. for providing such great answers and thank you Tan Monster for setting this up!
67 | Sticious Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 2:46pmI didn’t think about the cemetery angle until it was brought up here, but yea, it would seem kinda strange to take a small film crew into a real cemetery to film a comedy where a guy dances on a grave.
66 | absolutely I do Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 1:15pmIn tanster’s set blog there was a pic of fake Schrute headstones in the prop dept. It’s plausible it’s either a fake cemetery or real with fake headstones(esp those Dwight jumped on.)
Thanks a bunch! These were great!
65 | Pam Scherbatsky Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 12:58pmJust as brilliant as last time. Thank you so much BJ and Tanster. Our writers are the best. Hope to hear from Mindy as well. This is sort of, kind of a regular column now, yes? :) Once again thanks.
64 | eb Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 11:46amThanks Tanster and BJ! It is really great to have these Q&As! Just another reason (the graciousness of everyone involved) why The Office is my favorite show!
63 | my my my turn Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 11:18amI concur with everyone above…great to have a Q&A feature with guest responders! Really appreciate the time BJ took to answer questions and of course Jennie for setting it up.
I love any behind-the-scenes insight like this. It proves that the fans are sharp (like picking up that Kevin was using his footbath) and the writers for making these characters so real and remembering their histories (even though we didn’t see the footbath in the broadcast version, the writers put it there and we noticed).
LOVED the Paul Faust story - how he got cast, using his real name, and how he connected his real website to his character. Just brilliant!
62 | Stapler Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 11:03amThanks B.J. and Tanster…I love these Q&A’s!!
61 | Extra Awesome Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 10:14amWow… this is not your ordinary blog. You have the connects!
60 | UNSHUN Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 9:59amlol, I seriously saw that Reddi Whip commercial with Pam’s landlady like 10 minutes after I watched this episode and I was completely thrown off!
Thanks BJ and tanster :-)
59 | kelley Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 8:42amI would have died to see Michael and Dwight singing ‘Legs’ about the chair model. But, it ended pretty well anyway.
58 | the zoppity Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 8:16amSo informative! PLEASE have these for every episode, they greatly add!
57 | Ben Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 7:34amThanks for using my question, Tanster (and thanks for answering BJ)!
I hope this continues…it’s really cool to get the background behind these episodes so soon after watching them!
56 | Ashley Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 7:25amThank you so much for giving us this extra insight into the show we all love so much! What other show has writers/actors/producers/directors who are so giving of their time and talent to their fans??? And what other fan website has such an awesome administrator who thinks up great ideas like this Q&A segment and then has the connections to pull it off? Thanks Tanster! And thanks to B.J. and Gene and Lee for taking the time to answer. I really hope to hear from Mindy too!!!
55 | Kristin Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 6:50amAh! I wish I would have submitted a question on time…but maybe i’ll just ask you tallyheads what you think? do you think that they shot the cemetery scene on a fake cemetery? I mean it would be sooo disrespectful to be dancing around and being so silly like that in a real cemetery, no?
54 | jenn mark Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 6:00amThis is just awesome. Many thanks to B.J. for taking the time to do this. And many corresponding thanks to tanster for hooking us up!
53 | NathanTheTemp Thu. Apr. 24, 2008 at 5:45am