Brent and Justin answer ‘Did I Stutter?’ questions
Monday, May 5th, 2008I just want to say, again, how much I love The Office writers. They have been extremely generous in taking the time to answer fan questions.
Following are Brent Forrester and Justin Spitzer’s answers to your ‘Did I Stutter?’ questions. Thanks, Brent and Justin!
Please don’t copy and paste this post to other sites; link to http://www.officetally.com/brent-and-justin-answer-did-i-stutter-questions instead. Thanks!
Q. When B.J. answered his Chair Model questions, he mentioned that you guys usually choose simple and bland titles for the episodes. I think this is the first time a quote has ever been used as the title, so why’d you decide on ‘Did I Stutter?’ as the final pick? Did you have any back-up titles? | Post-it Thief
A. We actually had a disagreement about this. ‘Did I Stutter?’ was how we had generally referred to the idea in the room since Mindy came up with it a while back. Brent thought we should just go with it as the title. I wanted to change it to something dull, like ‘The Reprimand’ or ‘Insubordination’. Brent won, because he’s bigger than me and in significantly better shape. — Justin
Q. Were there multiple takes, or just one, of Steve being planted, so to speak? Was John’s mock introduction/speech planned or thought up while filming? | Jim
A. There was only one take of him actually going into the cement. We told him to hold his face in the concrete (which was actually a putty that looked like concrete) for as long as he could hold his breath, because we knew we’d want to be able to start his voice-over over video of the scene.
But we didn’t think to tell the other actors that. So when you see everyone rushing to pull him out, that’s not written — it’s because the rest of the cast actually thought he might be stuck. John’s speech as written was: “We are gathered here today to immortalize not just a man, but an idea. Or maybe the idea of a man.” He improvised everything else. — Justin
Q. How did you come up with “fluffy fingers?” | Lindsay
A. Totally random — first thing that popped to mind. We do dream of a world where all the violent conflicts of the street can be solved with fluffy fingers, but that’s probably not realistic. Too many gang leaders aren’t ticklish. — Justin
Q. Why didn’t you show Michael giving Stanley fluffy fingers? | joe
A. We actually did film a scene of Michel approaching Stanley from behind and bringing up his fingers to try it, then thinking better of it and scrapping the plan. But like a number of other very funny scenes, we had to cut it for time. — Justin
Q. What was your intention in writing the Pam/glasses subplot? Was it just a fun, quirky piece of info or were you going for something a bit deeper? | Shannon F
A. Mainly just a fun quirk. Also because writers are generally pasty bespectacled losers while actors are glamorous beautiful people, and we wanted to take Jenna down a peg. Unfortunately, the glasses just made her look cuter. — Justin
thanks for answering questions! i love reading these :]
p.s. i’m looking for a car and i’m definitely interested in your honda civic, haha!
47 | Glenna Wed. May. 7, 2008 at 9:42pmSorry, but mark me in the Toby has an agenda column. I smelled something fishy as soon as he wouldn’t allow Pam and Jim sign the disclosure agreement.
46 | J'osh Tue. May. 6, 2008 at 3:38amSo Toby wasn’t supposed to be a complete A-hole? Hmmmm. I’m not convinced the writers don’t have something up their sleeves.
45 | Fancy New Beesly Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 11:32pmGlad they answered the Toby/Jim/Ryan question. Discussing it with my other OFFICE fans at my office, we all thought Toby was using Ryan as a way to break up Jim and Pam.
44 | StephP Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 6:26pmIt’s so fun to get all of the insight from the writers (and their responses were hilarious!) Not only did we get to watch a wonderful and well written episode to start with, we then are treated to this awesome Q&A–icing on the cake! Thanks so much to Office Tally for facilitating this and to Justin and Brent for the generous time to share the cool behind the scenes information. No wonder The Office has such devoted fans–we’re treated so well!
43 | what's the dealio? Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 6:03pmThanks! Justin, I would have had your back on “The Reprimand.”
42 | Post-it Thief Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 5:35pmWoo!! Yay! My question got answered thank you so much Tanster, Justin and Brent!!!!
I died laughing at the ’shock of a collar’ part! lol
41 | Tina Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 4:48pmOn NBC.com, there’s a photo of Michael attempting the fluffy fingers on Stanley - too funny:
Thanks for taking the time to answer questions! It’s very cool to hear the inside story.
40 | rspad Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 4:32pmThank you, once again, tanster and The Office writers, for doing this for us fans. What class acts you are! I adore this show more and more every week!
39 | dying star Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 4:21pmthese are great! i think this was my favorite questionnaire yet!
38 | jkrasislove Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 4:13pmI love these Q&A’s! Thanks for setting them up.
I’m still wondering if Angela’s “tall” adjective was a reference to Dwight…
I remember hearing somewhere (maybe it was in the video commentary on the DVD) that in one of the scripts for Stanley’s previous rants, all it said was “Stanley rants” and then he got to just… rant. It’s interesting that they scripted this one. I loved it.
37 | Michelle Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 3:19pmThank you Brent and Justin for answering these questions!! I love reading these.
36 | Lisa Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 3:16pmThanks writers and OfficeTally!
35 | In2TheRoses Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:57pmHaha. Amazing. Tanster, please say Gene & Lee are coming back for Job Fair questions?
34 | Pam Scherbatsky Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:53pmThe writers always answer everyone’s questions and it is so nice of them! They are all so talented. This Q&A is hilarious, this pair crack me up. Thanks so much Brent and Justin! :)
33 | Amie Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:51pmThey HAVE to post the fluffy fingers scene on-line. I can’t believe that got cut out!
32 | Shrutastic Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:39pmGreat and interesting stuff! Thanks for answering, Justin & Brent :)
31 | Jill Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:09pmThe writers are awesome :) I can hardly get through reading a Q&A without cracking up. Thanks tanster for putting these together, and thanks to all the writers who take the time to answer the questions.
30 | Joy Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 2:07pmThanks for taking my question, guys (and Tanster).
29 | Jim Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 1:59pmI LOVE these little questionairres. Keep ‘em coming. It’s so much fun to read the behind-the-scenes takes on these episodes.
Thanks again, Tanster and “Office” writers.
28 | Cayce80 Mon. May. 5, 2008 at 1:15pm