TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 258.7 - The Paper Interviews #3 with Sabrina Impacciatore
Angela [00:00:03] Hi there, welcome back for another interview with a cast member from The Paper. We should probably tell you, we watched the first four episodes. We have watched them!
Jenna [00:00:14] It's so good.
Angela [00:00:15] It's really good.
Jenna [00:00:16] It's very hard not to say more, but we are not allowed.
Angela [00:00:19] I think people are going to be happy. I really do.
Jenna [00:00:22] I agree. I think it feels like The Office. It's very clear that this is the same universe. Okay, that's all I think we can say.
Angela [00:00:30] Yeah, we probably said too much.
Jenna [00:00:31] Well, wait, I do want to say one more thing. I want to stay that we are not sponsored by Peacock or NBC.
Angela [00:00:38] Yeah, no, we are not.
Jenna [00:00:39] I just want to say that because I just want people to know this is not an ad.
Angela [00:00:43] For Peacock or NBC.
Jenna [00:00:45] Correct.
Angela [00:00:45] Yeah, basically, here's what happened. Greg invited Jenna and I to visit the set and to meet the cast. He shared with us that some of our old crew was there. We couldn't wait and Greg has always been amazing to Office Ladies. He's a huge supporter of the show. We went to the set and then he offered us an early sneak peek of The Paper pilot and said that maybe, if we liked it, we could break it down because he said he's a big fan of how we break down episodes. So it all came together really organically and I'm so glad we got to do this.
Jenna [00:01:20] Me too, and it meant so much to me that Greg trusts us with his new baby, basically. I loved it. Greg, you're gonna hear.
Angela [00:01:33] Yes, you are.
Jenna [00:01:34] We loved it. You know lady I do think that the rest of the cast is a little jealous that we got to see it early. I do, and I maybe am lording it over their heads a little bit.
Angela [00:01:45] Oh yeah, did you tease Rainn on your lunch? Were you like, "Rainn, guess whattttt? I got to see it and you didn't."
Jenna [00:01:51] I literally did. I had lunch with Rainn and I told him that I got to see it and then I wouldn't tell him anything. I'm so mean.
Angela [00:01:59] Oh my gosh, I bet that made him crazy.
Jenna [00:02:01] Well, listen, we are really excited because today we are sharing our interview with Sabrina Impacciatore. You might know her from season two of "The White Lotus." She's fantastic.
Angela [00:02:12] And she is phenomenal in The Paper. Her story of how she got her role on The Paper is amazing. While we were talking to her, they actually called her to set during the interview. But I could have kept talking to her for an hour. Truly, I want to go on a road trip with her and just hear her talk.
Jenna [00:02:29] Same. I want to know even more things. Well, without further delay, here is our interview with Sabrina Impacciatore.
audio cue [00:02:42] musical sting
Jenna [00:02:42] Well, it is so exciting to get to talk to you. Will you tell us your name and your character name?
Sabrina [00:02:49] My name is Sabrina Impacciatore and my character's name is Esmeralda Grand.
Angela [00:02:56] Can you tell us a little bit about what your character's story in the show is?
Sabrina [00:03:00] Oh my god. I have no idea. [laughs]
Angela [00:03:04] [laughing] What does she do? What does she do at her job?
Sabrina [00:03:07] What doesn't she do, I would say, because she does everything she can to just try to stay where she is. This is kind of a crazy character, she could do anything. To me, she's someone that needs to survive, but for her to survive it's a very personal concept, you know? So every time she feels threatened by something, she uses anything she can (even the worst things possible) just to protect herself. So I see her like a little wild animal and then she's the only Italian. She moved here and she doesn't want to leave, she wants just to be here and keep living in this country and she works in this office but she could actually do anything else because she's not a real journalist. She is just someone that pretends to be anything, because she just has to make it.
Jenna [00:04:31] Are you the only actual reporter at the paper? Is that your job?
Sabrina [00:04:37] Not really, my job was to be the editor in chief of TTT online. She was very happy about this, very proud), but then this guy arrives, the new guy, and she is literally kicked out of her office. So she struggles a lot because of that. Then she just tries to find her space in this new hierarchy. Of course, she is the one that wants always to be in front. I've been creating this character with Greg and Michael and all the other writers. I was very, very inspired by the sides during the audition. So then I decided to- I don't know, I didn't decide, things just arrived. So to me, somehow, she thinks that through this documentary (one day maybe) she could become a star. So she also uses the camera to suggest that idea. That's why I decided to have this kind of hair; like a diva from the 40's, to suggest, "Hey, look at me. I'm a superstar too." So she acts like a star. She behaves like a star. She thinks big. She's big. The way she dresses, the way she acts, she is also very manipulative. She uses every one.
Angela [00:06:33] What a fun character. I love her. I can't wait to watch this. It reminds me a lot of how Michael Scott loved the camera and Andy, he thought he was going to be a big star. He was very excited when the documentary airs. So I sort of see a little bit of that theme. Can you tell us about the audition, your process, and how you got your job on The Paper?
Sabrina [00:06:58] Yes, of course. I have to be short because it's a long story, but I was shooting a movie in Cape Town. I was in Cape Town, South Africa for three months, far away from home and everything. I am literally entering the flight, going back to Italy and I got a call from my agent in LA. She said, "Sabrina, did you read the email?" I said, "No, what email?" I was packaging, I was saying goodbye to the crew. She asked, "do you have time to read this email right now?" But I am almost flying. So I read the email and there was the call for this audition, and they gave me 24 hours to prepare 11 pages in English. 24 hours was exactly the time of the flight back to Italy. But me, I felt I cannot do an audition just coming out of the flight. So I was telling my agent, "Please, please try to get some more time." How can I learn these things? I'm flying. I'm tired, I'm upset. She said, "I don't know if I can make it. I'll write to you. So now just go." So I flew for 10 hours and then I arrived in Doha. I think, I can't remember. I opened my email and she wrote me, "We got one day more."
Angela & Jenna [00:08:27] [laughing]
Sabrina [00:08:27] So I was very excited, but still like, "I can't make it. This is very long to learn. 11 pages of monologues." But I read this sides and I felt in love. You know, it's like love at first sight. I was like,"Oh my God, this is too brilliant. This is too funny," and guess what? I had never saw The Office in my life. I didn't know about this show. I was the only one on this planet that hadn't seen this show.
Angela & Jenna [00:09:05] [laughing]
Sabrina [00:09:05] So the first two episodes, I saw them on the flight from Cape Town to Rome. I felt like, "Oh my God, what a weird project. That doesn't look like anything familiar. That's so weird and this acting is so believable. It looks really like it and the light is so bad, I'm going to be so ugly." That was the main concern. So then I arrived in Rome. After three months, I don't see my mom and nothing. But I called my mom. I said, "Mom, forget about me. I have an audition tomorrow. So we can't see each other." So I spent all night long to study the sides. I find an American girl, and it's a long story, but she comes to my place and we study, study, study, and then I do this Zoom meeting with all my luggages looking at me, you know? The luggage, I couldn't touch the luggage, I couldn't open them, they were there. I did this Zoom meet with Greg, with Michael, with the casting director, with the producers, there were six or seven people. I said, "OK, let's go," and I forgot all the lines. Of course, the memory was not solid enough. So I started the scenes with the correct lines. But after a couple of lines, I completely invented everything else. So I was improvising, improvising. I didn't hear a sound. So I said, 'This is going very bad. But it's OK, I'll keep going." I kept going for... 40 minutes, I think, 45 minutes and then they said to stop. They all appeared. I had understood that they had muted themselves. They said, "Sabrina, you really made us laugh a lot. But you didn't remember nothing." And they said, "Could you do this again in two days?"
Jenna [00:11:13] What the fuck?
Sabrina [00:11:15] I said, "Really? Like after three months, I'm not... OK." So two days after I did this again, but with all the memory and everything. Actually, I sent a selfie with all the scenes, I was very inspired. I felt like I was a channel and things were just arriving and I was having so much fun in that audition. Then I sent it, and then for a month, I don't hear from anybody. So I thought, "Okay, it's not working." I was very sad because in the meanwhile, I was watching The Office and I was like, "Oh my God, this project is the most brilliant project I've seen." It was so incredibly intelligent and real funny. When you laugh, you laugh with your brain, with your heart, with your everything. You're really laughing. Then, incredibly enough, after one month I got another role; a big role in a very big, important project. So I was very happy because I said, "Oh my god." So I jumping on the air because of this other role. I was crying because it was really something I loved. So it was like midnight, because from Italy to America, and all my team called me from the US. Sabrina, "You got that role. Wow!" So I have fun. I drink with all my friends. We celebrate. We toss, blah, blah. Then I go back home. It's 4 o'clock AM. And I hear "beep, beep" from my team saying, 'Sabrina, you also got the role from The Office.''
Angela [00:13:06] Oh, in the same day? You found out in the same day?
Sabrina [00:13:09] Same day.
Angela [00:13:10] Oh my goodness.
Sabrina [00:13:11] That was actually the same night.
Angela [00:13:12] Right, right, right.
Sabrina [00:13:13] So that was so crazy. I couldn't sleep, of course. I was in my bed like, "What's happening? What am I doing? What's going to happen? What can I do?" So I had just a couple of days to make a decision and I was desperate.
Angela [00:13:31] You had to choose between the two? You couldn't do all? You couldn't do both.
Sabrina [00:13:35] They were exactly the same timeline, and they were two things that I really loved. So I was really, really, really desperate, to be honest. You want to know the truth? When I took the decision, I cried for six hours. It was a long time I wasn't crying, but I cried six hours because I thought, "This is how crazy my life is. I have to say no to something that is unbelievable to me because some other thing that is unbelievable is happening, so." Then Greg and Michael called me, I will never forget that call, because at first they had asked me, "Sabrina, can you learn an American accent?" And me, perfectly lying, I said, "Of course I can." But I was so scared. I said, "How can I learn an American accent so fastly?" Then they called me and they said, "After watching your audition, we cannot imagine any other actor/actress doing this role. So, and we also love your accent. It's so charming." God, take it. Take it and this is how it happened.
Jenna [00:14:48] Well, what a story. This is one of the great things about working with Greg Daniels is that he attaches to a performer, to an actor, and he really respects the craft of the actor. He wants to draw parts of you into the character that he had in mind. There's such a collaboration there. You get to be a part of... You said you felt like you were channeling something and Greg is, he's humble enough to invite that kind of collaboration.
Angela [00:15:29] Yeah, he loves creative collaboration. I always felt like we were building something together. I didn't have this boss telling me, "Your character does this and you do this." It was a conversation and you're part of that.
Jenna [00:15:43] What a great story.
Angela [00:15:45] Oh my gosh.
audio cue [00:15:46] musical sting
Jenna [00:15:55] What has it been like, now, working on the show?
Sabrina [00:16:00] A lot of girls. When I got this role then, of course, I couldn't sleep for many weeks because I was very scared. I was terrified because the quality of the acting was so high level. I said, "I cannot, I will never join that level." Watching Steve Carell's work, for example, to me was epiphanic. I thought, "This guy is one of the biggest artists on this planet because he's able to make me laugh in a very sophisticated way." Everything is in his eyes. He has this innocence. There was something really incredible about him. So because I believe in energies and everything, I got to know that he was playing Uncle Vanya in New York on Broadway. I took a flight to go to meet him, from Rome. I got the flight to see the show. I bought the tickets. Then I wrote to Greg. I said, "Greg, I'm going to see Uncle Vanya. I want to meet Steve Carell." I want be blessed by him. And that's what happened. So I arrived to Broadway. I saw this incredible show. He was brilliant. I couldn't believe that he was on stage playing Uncle Vanya in such a different way, so original, so far away from the character in The Office. Then I went to the green room and he was the sweetest man ever and so humble. He was telling me the most sweet things like, "You are going to crush it, you're going to have so much fun. Greg is the best." So it was really a blessing to me. I felt so blessed.
Jenna [00:17:58] Right after I got my role on The Office, I had the opportunity to go to dinner with Peter Boyle, who is a famous comedic actor. He had been on "Everybody Loves Raymond," and I loved him so much. I remember he looked at me and he said, "Well, my time on Everybody Loves Raymond has come to an end and I would like to send that energy your way now. As you start your journey, as I finish my journey and you start the journey, I hope that you will have the success and the good times that I experienced." He sort of gave me his blessing, you know? It was really meaningful to me and I really held that. I thought, "Oh my gosh, I felt like... I receive it," like I was just blessed by Peter Boyle.
Sabrina [00:19:00] So you totally understand this feeling.
Jenna [00:19:02] Totally understand, yes.
Angela [00:19:03] I do though, I believe in the good energy and opening yourself up to it and receiving it (and Jenna knows this story; when I was a young actor here taking classes, working at a restaurant, I read that Jim Carey went to the top of Mulholland. It looks out over the whole city and he yelled into the night sky, "I'm gonna be a big star." I read this, I don't know if it's true. So I took my friend and I, we went one night, up to Mulholland and you could see all the lights of Hollywood. And I wrote out what I was gonna say. I was very specific. I looked out into the valley and I yelled very loudly. I said, "I am gonna be on a hit television show on NBC on Thursday night."
Sabrina [00:19:53] Oh my god. I'm going to my Mulholland Drive tonight. Oh my god.
Angela [00:20:00] Isn't that so crazy? But I believe that.
Sabrina [00:20:03] It's incredible. Oh yeah, I do believe in that.
Sabrina [00:20:06] Allora, imagine that me, before starting, I also needed the blessing of the ghost in Chateau Marmont.
Angela [00:20:13] Oh yeah!
Sabrina [00:20:14] So I decided to go there for two weeks, just to get the blessing of those ghosts. So, I did all the... Everything I could! I was so frightened!
Jenna [00:20:27] When The Paper is a huge success, I think everyone knows who to thank. It's you.
Angela [00:20:35] You did all the things.
Sabrina [00:20:37] I'm breaking balls to every possible gods, essence, entity, ghosts.
Angela [00:20:44] I was wondering if you would like to, because we have a global audience on our podcast. People from all over the world listen to it (and it's very meaningful to us), would you like to say something in Italian to your fans, in Italy, that we can play on our podcast about this time on The Paper?
Sabrina [00:21:07] Oh, my God. [in Italian, translated by Trint] I don't really know what to say. I can only say that it's a great privilege, a great honor, a big dream that is coming true. And I hope that all the Italian girls who have dreams must continue to believe in us. To everyone in general, however, the Italian boys are close to my heart. Well, we'll be waiting for you.
Angela [00:21:34] Well, I know they'll love hearing that and we'll Google translate it.
Sabrina [00:21:39] If you want, I can translate it very shortly. It's just that I don't know what I feel. It's a vertigo. It's the biggest dream coming true. I was wishing that all the Italian girls that have a big dream, because I know how much an Italian girl can struggle because of so many issues that we still have in our country. So that's why I was dedicating this to the Italian girls that should still believe in their dreams and just go for them.
Jenna [00:22:12] Love that. Well, before we finish up, could you tell us a little bit about your beginnings as an actress and how you got to this place that you are now?
Sabrina [00:22:25] I think this is a miracle because- [someone speaks to her but the mic can't pick it up] Yeah, I think I have to go.
Angela [00:22:31] You have to go do your dream job. This was so lovely.
Sabrina [00:22:37] I have been blessed by you girls! That was the best blessing. It was, oh my god, I can't wait to see you again, girls, that was very good. That was very beautiful!
Jenna [00:22:46] Yes, yes of course.
[00:22:46] We'll come back.
audio [00:22:46] [hugging noises]
Sabrina [00:22:49] You are two geniuses, and I feel so honored to meet you. Thank you for your incredible, inspiring work.
Jenna [00:22:57] Thank you!
Angela [00:22:59] Have a great one!
Sabrina [00:23:06] Oh my god I'm crying again, ciao ciao ciao!
audio cue [00:23:06] musical sting
Jenna [00:23:10] Lady, I cannot believe we got cut off right when she was going to tell us the story of becoming an actress. You know that was going be a good story. We have to invite her back for an extended interview.
Angela [00:23:22] I would love that. I want her in the studio for a full interview, just from our brief time with her. She had so many good life stories.
Jenna [00:23:30] I know, and her character on the show is so much fun. She has this especially fun storyline in episode four. Like, literally everything she was saying was making me laugh.
Angela [00:23:40] Hilarious. I also need everyone to see her character's office. The amount of details and just the whole look of her office for the show, it's perfection.
Jenna [00:23:52] You do a whole breakdown for us. It's wonderful. Well, everyone, we're getting close. It's just a couple weeks away. The Paper premiering on Peacock, September 4th.
Angela [00:24:03] All right, we'll see you next week.
audio cue [00:24:04] musical outro
Jenna [00:24:08] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [00:24:10] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:24:15] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbaco.
Angela [00:24:23] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:24:26] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [00:24:29] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.