TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 256.7 - #Bonus - The Paper Interviews 1 with Domhnall Gleeson
Angela [00:00:03] Hello.
Jenna [00:00:04] Hi there, welcome to a very special Friday episode of Office Ladies.
Angela [00:00:09] It is Friday, but it is not Friday Chit Chat. It's a little something different.
Jenna [00:00:14] You all know that the long-awaited, much anticipated, television show "The Paper" is premiering on Peacock September 4th and as you also know we got exclusive access to the set. There are going to be 10 episodes of The Paper. I think we visited somewhere around episode eight.
Angela [00:00:34] Mm-hmm and we brought along our portable microphone and we got interviews with several cast members. We weren't able to interview everyone, unfortunately, because people were in scenes. So we were pulling people in and out of scenes, but we did get to talk to a lot of folks.
Jenna [00:00:49] So in anticipation of the premiere next month, we are going to start dropping those cast interviews every Friday. So today we are gonna get to hear from Domhnall Gleeson. You might know him from his movies, like "Ex Machina," or as General Hux in "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance." He also starred in the miniseries "The Patient" with Steve Carell and the movie "Fountain of Youth" with John Krasinski. This is such a fun interview. He talks all about his character on The Paper and his experience shooting the show.
Angela [00:01:21] We were so tickled to meet him. Oh, my gosh. OK, the other thing we wanted to let y'all know is that we only had one microphone. So you might hear us passing our single microphone back and forth a little. But our friends at Audacy did a great job cleaning up the sound. We really did this with that sort of man-on-the-street style feel.
Jenna [00:01:41] We were like on-the-fly reporters.
Angela [00:01:42] Yes, with our one microphone.
Jenna [00:01:46] Well, we are just so excited to finally get to share these with you. Very soon, Greg said we could get an early access sneak peek of the show. They are going to send us a screener for The Paper.
Angela [00:01:59] That's right, we're gonna watch it and do a breakdown of the pilot episode. So, be on the lookout for that, too. But now, here's our chat with Domhnall Gleeson.
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Jenna [00:02:12] All right, hello, will you please tell us your name and your character name?
Domhnall [00:02:17] My name is Domhnall Gleeson and I'm playing Ned Sampson in The Paper.
Angela [00:02:21] Can you tell us a little bit about your character and what your role is in the world of The Paper?
Domhnall [00:02:28] Sure. So Ned, as the series begins, is arriving at the paper. So the first day that the documentary crew arrives at the paper is Ned's first day on the job. He is arriving to be the new editor in chief of the paper, he is very low on experience, but high on intensity and intention and hope. He's quite an optimistic person and he arrives into a place that's not all that enthused about being a paper. He wants to make it something special. That's his idea.
Jenna [00:03:06] What is his relationship to the documentary being done?
Domhnall [00:03:10] I think he likes the notion that the documentary crew are around, because it means if there are good moments then they're there for posterity and if there are bad moments, I think it probably heightens his awareness of how bad it feels.
Angela [00:03:27] We always ask everyone how they got their job, like on The Office, their sort of audition story. Can you share with us how you got your job on The Paper?
Domhnall [00:03:35] It was great. They sent me the first script and I asked if I wanted to chat and I said "sure" and I talked to them for (I think) 20 minutes and I thought maybe they were sort of interviewing me and then when I was chatting to them it felt more like they thought I was interviewing them. It felt funny that way, and then they offered me that part. It was great.
Jenna [00:04:02] What over these 10 episodes can you share with us that, I don't know - Any moments, any storylines that you've enjoyed or have been a challenge, anything at all?
Domhnall [00:04:14] Well, I think his relationship to the paper is the most important thing. I think in a way, he's got a lot of romance about what it is to be a part of a paper and what it should be, despite overwhelming odds and the fact that the newspaper industry (on the most part) is dying. So trying to do something where he can still be hopeful and still be intelligent in some ways, and yet enough to undercut it and find the humor in all of that. I think that's been the journey.
Jenna [00:04:50] On The Office, we were encouraged to do improvisation. We were encouraged to pitch ideas to the writers. Is it that same kind of environment here?
Domhnall [00:05:01] I mean, it feels like we're only 10 episodes, right? For the first season. The Office was almost secretly plotted. When you watch episodes of The Office, they don't feel plot heavy or story heavy, they feel very character driven even though there is a lot of story holding all that up. On this one, I think, there's almost like a lot of the time is the story of the week in terms of their chasing down a particular story or whatever like that. So actually, there's quite a lot of story points to get across in every scene. So I think that the improv is really fun when we get to do it, but actually, there's a load of information that needs to come out in every scene. So I think it feels, so far, that the tracks might be a little bit more set. Maybe that's more for Ned, I think, (my character) than for other people, because he's trying to push that stuff forward. But I could be wrong on that.
Angela [00:05:55] No, I get that. My character usually had something very specific she had to give to the scene. So if I ever got an improv in, it would be at the very top or the very end when I was already done giving information. I think some characters, that's their role: they come in, they have a purpose, and then they don't hang out as much. Mine did, I know yours is a bigger role. But I still got very excited when one or two would make it in.
Jenna [00:06:22] I mean, I feel like we improvised a lot, and a lot of that improvisation never saw the light of day. But there was just that feeling of fun -
Angela [00:06:35] And spontaneity.
Jenna [00:06:36] Yes, that then would seep into the scripted work because we would play around at the top or play around to the bottom of the scene.
Angela [00:06:45] It would help us get loose.
Domhnall [00:06:46] I think that's the ideal scenario is well. But it's also that the schedule is full on. So we're squishing a lot, you know? These are 42 page scripts, you know? So it's like, we're getting a lot (or can be). They're between 38 and 42 for the most part, and I know it's similar for everybody. But just in a day, there is a lot to get through. So my favorite days are the days where the dynamic of the scene is clear from the top and you can play in that sample; like that's where you know where you are, and then you can really bounce things around. Or group scenes, there's a lot of that. It just depends on the scene. But I'm also just still getting to know it. It's a new process.
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Jenna [00:07:37] What is your background, as an actor? Can you tell us a little bit about your training and all that?
Domhnall [00:07:43] My training, I can tell you about very quickly, because I have none. But my father is an actor and I fell into it in that really lucky way that is unfair, basically. But I read a script by Martin McDonough when I was like 19, his agent sent me a script and I did that. So I auditioned for it, got the part and did that in London and in the West End and then went to Broadway once I was done with college.
Jenna [00:08:16] Can you say the name of the play?
Domhnall [00:08:17] Yeah, it was called The Lieutenant of Inishmore. It got a lot of Tony nominations, and it was a very successful play. Then after that took a big dip in terms of, I think, that quality of written work is so rare that actually I wasn't built to make the most out of scripts that weren't that great after that, because I was spoiled. So then things slowed down and then slowly built back up. Then I started doing more movies and stuff like that and that's been great. I've been very, like incredibly, lucky.
Jenna [00:08:49] I can't believe that your first job in the business was a Martin McDonough play in the West End. I just need you to repeat that for me one more time.
Domhnall [00:09:03] [laughing] Actually, I don't think I would be an actor if I hadn't read that. That script was the funniest thing I'd ever read, which is insane. So I just read it all the time for fun. I was getting ready for an audition, but when I read it, I was like, "Imagine being able to do that. That is the funniest thing I've ever read." It was a very dark comedy about the IRA. In Ireland, about terrorism, so it's the darkest subject matter as you can get basically, and yet it was the funniest, most punk rock thing.
Jenna [00:09:37] I love that play, I love him as a writer. I saw a production of it, not with you unfortunately, I wish I had. But that's pretty freaking cool, that that was your first acting role.
Domhnall [00:09:49] Yeah, the last scene in that play is me and another character cutting up the bodies of everybody else who's been in the play up to that point.
Jenna [00:09:56] It's a very bloody ending.
Angela [00:09:57] Oh my gosh.
Domhnall [00:09:58] The lights come up and just it's body parts everywhere. And we're literally cutting bodies up, which is incredibly grisly. But I've never still have not heard a reaction from an audience like it. When the lights would come up, it was gasps and people saying, "Holy shit." It didn't feel like what I thought the theater was. It felt so vital and so funny. And yeah, love, Martin.
Jenna [00:10:21] Would you like to do more theater?
Domhnall [00:10:24] I've kept it up over the years, I'd say once every sort of three or four years. So the last two plays I did were by another genius of Irish playwriting called Enda Walsh. One of those was a big farce and one of those was an absolute- Still very funny moments in a bit of real tragedy. He's another genius. So yeah, I like doing theater once every three or four years.
Angela [00:10:49] Do you have sort of a dark sense of humor, if you're sort of drawn to that? Because I know I love dark comedy, but is that something that you particularly like yourself?
Domhnall [00:10:58] Most certainly, I would say that's what I would laugh at most. And that's funny, then, because Ned (in this) is not a dark character at all. He's very optimistic and all that. So it's actually coming from a different place, which again, is really fun.
Angela [00:11:15] This is a question (and I don't know if it applies to this story because we don't know much about it) I have: we would do so many scenes in a conference room and we would be there all day, for five days in a tiny room and you get punchy. You start to overshare. In this show, is there a space where you all gather?
Domhnall [00:11:35] Well, we have our own sort of conference room setup, and anytime when we are there, that's where we'll hang out in between. But actually, is our set bigger than your set?
Angela [00:11:48] Much, much bigger.
Jenna [00:11:49] Huge.
Domhnall [00:11:49] So there's not quite the same thing of being on top of each other. But yeah, you do end up with groups chatting, depending on who's in. And actually, as it's gone along, there are not lots of days where everybody's in at the same time. I mean, there might be one day a week when everybody's at the time. For the most part, we're kind of spread out and in slightly separate storylines. But yeah, it's such a lovely group. It's very nice to hang out when there's time.
Jenna [00:12:14] Do you have to do a lot of background work for other people's scenes? Like, do you have sit at your desk a lot and just be busy?
Domhnall [00:12:23] Yes, it certainly happens, but my office is over in the corner and it's hidden away from a lot of the bullpen. So you could be passing through stuff or you could there in the background of certain shots. But yeah, everybody does background work for everybody else. My character tends to be on or off, there's not a lot in middle.
Jenna [00:12:49] You're so lucky. When you saw that desk, were you just so pleased?
Angela [00:12:56] You're like, "Oh, sweet. I'm not gonna be in the background of half the day."
Domhnall [00:13:00] [laughing] Depending which way they're shooting, yeah. I'm in most the time, so yeah. Yeah.
Angela [00:13:07] I know, I would think, "Oh, I'm not in this scene. I'm tiny, I am behind the partition. No one's gonna see me." And they'd be like, "Angela's at the copier." I'm like, "Again? Like, how many times was my character at the copier?"
Jenna [00:13:17] I remember talking to Will Arnett about Arrested Development, and he said that had a really big cast. If you watch later seasons of Arrested Development, he said that you'll see that five of us are all stacked in a line because we didn't want to have to do more than two setups of coverage. So later seasons Arrest development, they realized the days could be shorter if they just bunch up in a line and talk to the other characters. So it'll be like all of the children. They used to spread out around the room, but then they'd have to cover it. And he was like, "We shaved a good three, four hours off our days."
Domhnall [00:13:57] Like everyone's singing the national anthem, yeah. Yeah, it's funny. No, there's definitely days like that on this. But I think we all knew, Greg did your show, we all new the deal. You're kind of signing up for an office job. You're kind signing up for office hours when you when you sign up for the job. That's just part of it. So I don't mind.
Jenna [00:14:20] And also, you're signing up for last-minute script changes, last- minute scripts. We would get scripts, and we'd have a table read and we'd think that's what we're shooting. I'd start to memorize my lines and then in hair and makeup, they'd hand me a different scene. Or some weeks, we would start the week with a few scenes and get the full script on Wednesday, bonkers. But that's the madness of it.
Angela [00:14:45] But, also, I think the genius of Greg, too.
Domhnall [00:14:49] Yeah, for sure. I think for the most part we get our script Saturday before we start on the Monday. So that's the weekend, what you do is prepare for the week, and then there's changes that kind of come along as we go. But it changes all the time, and again I think the whole process is new. It's new for Greg because it's him and Koman making it now and a whole new cast of characters and stuff like that. I think we're just finding our way and finding what makes the show tick.
Angela [00:15:19] Well, we can't wait to see it. I'm so excited. This has been so wonderful. Thank you for taking your time out of your day. We're really big fans. We're trying to be cool, but I don't know how I'm really being cool, because you're just really an amazing talent. Thank you for letting us talk to you.
Domhnall [00:15:38] I don't deal well with compliments, but that was incredibly nice of you and you're both wonderful and your show is wonderful. It feels so dumb, in a way, to be doing a show that has anything to do with that because you did your show so well and so beautifully. Hopefully we'll make something different enough that people will be able to treat it as its own thing. Cause otherwise, there's no winning, you know what I mean? What you did was absolutely incredible. So yeah, thank you for having me on the show.
Angela [00:16:12] Thank you so much.
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Angela [00:16:18] So fun! I loved his story about when he first met with Greg and Michael. How he said at one point they weren't sure who was interviewing who.
Jenna [00:16:25] Yes. That was very funny, and I just loved geeking out with him over theater.
Angela [00:16:29] I know you did.
Jenna [00:16:30] I still can't believe that story! I mean, that's wild. Okay everyone, we hope you enjoyed that. Please join us next Friday for our interview with Chelsea Frei.
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Jenna [00:16:43] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies!
Angela [00:16:46] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:16:50] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [00:16:58] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:17:03] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [00:17:05] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.