TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 308 - Christine Taylor
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer,
Angela [00:00:05] and I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on "The Office" together,
Angela [00:00:08] and we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate Office lover's podcast, just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
audio cue [00:00:01] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:00:01] Hello everybody!
Angela [00:00:02] Hi there.
Jenna [00:00:03] We are really excited because today on Office Ladies 6.0, we got to speak with actress and podcaster Christine Taylor.
Angela [00:00:13] What an absolute delight.
Jenna [00:00:15] I love her.
Angela [00:00:16] We wanna be besties.
Jenna [00:00:18] We're gonna try not to stalk her.
Angela [00:00:20] Yeah. Alright, so you guys might know Christine from her time on the Nickelodeon 90's teen comedy, "Hey Dude." Our very own Matt Beagle
Jenna [00:00:28] Very much knows her from that.
Angela [00:00:29] Very much know her from from that, you'll hear it. Or you might know her from her role as Marcia Brady in the "Brady Bunch" movies. She's phenomenal.
Jenna [00:00:37] Mm-hmm. She has also starred in a number of other comedies like "The Wedding Singer," "Dodgeball," "Zoolander," and now she is the host of a new 90's-inspired podcast, "Hey Dude, The 90's Called."
Angela [00:00:50] We had such a great time talking with her about all of this and also her love of The Office, you guys. Her and her family have watched The Office. That was really fun to hear about.
Jenna [00:01:01] Well, listen. Let's get to it!
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Angela [00:01:03] Hello, Christine, welcome to Office Ladies.
Christine [00:01:07] Hi ladies!
Jenna [00:01:08] This is so fun.
Christine [00:01:10] First of all, I'm so honored. I was like, "I can't believe they're asking me to be on" because I'm just such big fans of yours. I mean, obviously a fan of The Office, but both of you. Jenna, I've gotten to meet you a few times and saw you recently, but Angela I've never met you. I just feel like I'm such fans of both of, but I was, like, "I don't have any ties to The Office." I mean, other than I watched it and I love it. But yeah, so I was like, "I'm never gonna say no to spending an hour chatting with you girls."
Angela [00:01:43] Well, listen, this is Office Ladies 6.0. We get to talk to people we think are freaking fantastic and you are one of those people. We're so thrilled to have you on today.
Jenna [00:01:57] Yes.
Christine [00:01:57] Thanks.
Jenna [00:01:58] But before we dive into our interview, we're so excited you're going to join us for our chit chat question of the week.
Christine [00:02:05] Oh, I'm so excited.
Jenna [00:02:07] This comes from Judy W. in San Jose, California, who says, "Hi ladies, I met Angela at the fan expo convention in San Francisco last year and she gave me an Office Ladies lunch box. I absolutely love it. I have it on my shelf in my office. It got me thinking back to my grade school days and how I would get to pick a new lunchbox each year for school. My favorite was the year I got a Wonder Woman lunchbox. So I'm curious, what lunchbox did you have as a kid?"
Angela [00:02:39] Aw, this makes me so happy. Christine, just for your information, I somehow ended up with a whole bunch of our merch delivered to my house. And my husband's like, "Babe, what are we doing with all these lunch boxes?" So I brought a bunch of them and handed them out to people as I met everyone. So Judy, I'm so glad you liked it.
Jenna [00:02:59] Yeah, we should say our lunchbox is no longer available for purchase, and Angela, you got the overflow.
Angela [00:03:06] Mm-hmm. I just said, "You can deliver it at my house." And I want you guys to know a truck showed up that was the biggest thing I've ever seen. It had a crane that was [beeping].
Christine [00:03:16] Wait, where did you store them all?
Angela [00:03:19] Exactly, Christine, exactly. They were coming out of our ears, which is why my husband and I caravaned to San Francisco with the back end of an SUV full of them. But they're so cute. And chances are, if you meet me at a convention, you're going to get one.
Christine [00:03:36] Oh, that's so great. I mean, our podcast is a 90's podcast, so it is so nostalgic and it's very retro. So we talk about a lot of these things on our podcasts. But I have to say, I am so cliche. I had a Brady Bunch tin lunchbox.
Angela [00:03:52] Did you really?
Jenna [00:03:53] Stop it.
Christine [00:03:54] An original from the Brady Bunch because that was my favorite growing up. I think I might've also had a Charlie's Angels lunchbox, is that?
Angela [00:04:02] Oh, that's a classic.
Christine [00:04:03] It's definitely clicking for me. So those were two important ones for me, what about you guys?
Jenna [00:04:09] Well, I just remember what Judy is saying about every year as part of back to school shopping, going down the aisle and looking at all the lunch boxes and just painstakingly choosing. It felt like such a big decision. What am I going to represent with my lunch each day for this year? And I think my first lunch box, the one that I really remember with Strawberry Shortcake.
Christine [00:04:40] Oh, yes.
Angela [00:04:41] Yes, I had a Strawberry Shortcake one.
Jenna [00:04:44] I loved Strawberry Shortcake with all my heart. She smelled so good. She was so cute.
Christine [00:04:51] And all the different shades of pink. Just, yeah, so pretty.
Jenna [00:04:53] Yes, but then there was also Blueberry Muffin who I also thought smelled great. Then there that one that was an apricot, right? Wasn't there someone who was an apricot? I don't know. But the thing that came into my head when I heard this question was my Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox.
Angela [00:05:13] I had, wait for it, this is going to make me sound like such an old lady, I had "Holly Hobby."
Jenna [00:05:19] Oh, Holly Hobby!
Christine [00:05:20] Holly Hobby is coming to mind too! Oh my gosh!
Angela [00:05:25] That was my very first lunch box and I was so tickled by it. And then I think I had one that was "The Muppets." I had a Muppet's lunch box.
Christine [00:05:35] Already in the comedy zone. Already into it. You got it. You already got it.
Angela [00:05:41] [in a grandma voice] I'm just an old lady who likes to laugh.
Christine [00:05:44] But you know what's funny? Speaking of Holly Hobby, I have a paint by number that my dad made me from when I was really little. It's a Holly Hobby paint by number. We found it somewhere in storage and I have it just with a bunch of pictures and things that I have on a little desk but I have that kind of pushed in the back. So I see Holly Hobby almost every day of my life and I love that you are into Holly Hobby too.
Jenna [00:06:13] Well, since we're talking about old toys, did either of you have My Friend Mandy or My Friend Jenny?
Angela [00:06:21] No. Did you have one of those?
Christine [00:06:22] No, Mandy and Jenny? No.
Jenna [00:06:24] They came in a case, like an old timey steamer trunk that you might have to put on the Titanic to make a long voyage. And the friend, either Mandy or Jenny the doll, was in one side of the trunk, and then her closet of clothes was the other side of trunk. She came with one change of clothes and little shoes.
Angela [00:06:50] Did she have little hangers? Like, little hangars for her clothes?
Jenna [00:06:54] Yes. Little hangers.
Angela [00:06:54] Oh my gosh.
Jenna [00:06:55] I still have it.
Christine [00:06:56] What was the scale? Like how big was she?
Jenna [00:06:59] She was about the size of an American Girl doll.
Christine [00:07:02] Well, it sounds like a precursor to an American Girl doll, is what I was going to say.
Jenna [00:07:06] It kind of was. Yeah, I think it was. But this predates the Cabbage Patch Kid.
Christine [00:07:12] That was the craze. The Cabbage Patch Kid. 80's?
Jenna [00:07:18] I feel like it was, and I was obsessed with my Cabbage patch kid.
Christine [00:07:22] Oh, yeah.
Jenna [00:07:23] Whose name was Christine.
Christine [00:07:26] Oh, what?
Jenna [00:07:28] Yeah.
Jenna [00:07:29] Christine Marie and Casey Alexander were my two cabbage patch children. I loved them.
Christine [00:07:37] Beautiful girls.
Angela [00:07:40] Well, Judy, thank you so much for that question. I think we had a lot to say about our lunch boxes. Why don't we take a quick break? When we come back, Christine, we heard you're a real big fan of The Office, so we can't wait to ask you about that. But also, you and I have three things in common that are kind of fun.
Christine [00:07:58] Ooh.
Angela [00:08:00] [dramatically] Dun, dun, dun.
Jenna [00:08:00] That's a good cliffhanger.
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Angela [00:08:06] Alright, we are back. Christine, are you ready to hear what you and I have in common?
Christine [00:08:10] I cannot wait.
Angela [00:08:12] This was really fun for me to find out. Well, first of all, we both love tennis. We were both at Wimbledon this year, not on the same day. We both had tickets to center court. But you, am I correct? You were in the royal box. Is that right?
Christine [00:08:28] We did get ourselves into the Royal Box, yes. I take no responsibility, that's a perk of my husband. Yes, oh my gosh. It's so special, the tennis experience, don't you think? I've been to the three of the four Grand Slams, have not been to The Australian Open.
Angela [00:08:53] Wow.
Christine [00:08:54] But die-hard tennis fan, like, grew up watching it. I played a little, I played okay. I was never great. I played on my high school tennis team. Mediocre, but the watching it and from a really young age. But we belonged to a tennis/swim club growing up. I grew up in Pennsylvania and they'd do a trip to the US Open. Nosebleed seats,
Angela [00:09:15] Still, so cool.
Christine [00:09:15] But we would all bus in and everyone would just scatter and then meet back at 10 o'clock at night. So my of those years were the early 80's of McEnroe and Becker. I mean, so many of the big sort of icons were playing still back then. I just fell in love with it.
Angela [00:09:36] Steffi Graf and Kim Clijsters and,
Christine [00:09:38] Oh my god, all of them. All of them.
Angela [00:09:41] Okay, so that's one thing.
Christine [00:09:42] Okay. That's tennis.
Angela [00:09:43] And then my second thing (and this is the thing that just completely floored my family) is this: you're in many movies that are my family's favorites. All my kids are so tickled that I'm meeting you today, but as we were going through your filmography because each night we're on a little mini vacation. We've been watching a movie that you're in.
Christine [00:10:02] Oh my god, okay, that's mortifying, but...
Angela [00:10:06] No, no, it was great! It was great, but so as we're looking up your filmography, my husband was like, "Wait a second, we were in a Hallmark Christmas movie together." And I was like "What?" First of all, my kids and I didn't even know my husband's in a hallmark Christmas Movie. It's called "Farewell-"
Christine [00:10:24] "Farewell, Mr.Kringle?" Cause that's the only Hallmark movie I did.
Angela [00:10:28] Okay, are you ready for this? He played your husband, who died in the plane crash.
Christine [00:10:34] Stop!
Angela [00:10:36] [laughing] Yes.
Christine [00:10:36] Who I never met, because that was shot on another day, without me.
Angela [00:10:38] No, you had no scenes together.
Christine [00:10:40] Shot like a flashback, right?
Angela [00:10:42] Yeah, they're all your flashbacks, but yes. Isn't that crazy?
Christine [00:10:51] I have to track down how to watch that. Is that an easy find? Or no?
Angela [00:10:54] That's and easy find. And also we found the scene where you drift off in thought and then you flash back to him talking to you. And my kids are just... Maybe this is one of their new favorite things that we've ever discovered. Like, they can't get over it.
Christine [00:11:12] By the way, that was one of the most fun jobs. Doing a Hallmark movie, it's so dialed in. You shoot in Santa Clarita or somewhere up there.
Angela [00:11:23] Oh, I did a Hallmark Christmas movie. Was it two years ago? And it's still one of the most fun experiences I've had. It was so great.
Christine [00:11:29] Just everybody's so nice. They treat you so well and it was so great but I don't think I've seen it since it debuted.
Angela [00:11:41] Well, you're very good in it.
Christine [00:11:42] Thank you.
Angela [00:11:43] Okay my last thing is that you and I both graduated in the class of 1989.
Christine [00:11:48] Well, hello.
Angela [00:11:49] Hello, and I told my kids that and then I told them (I guess this isn't so much a thing anymore) that when we were in high school every graduating class had their own chant. Do you remember? Ours was, "We're so great we're, so fine we're the class of '89." And my kids were like, what?
Jenna [00:12:09] I wondered if that was a Texas thing because Angela asked me what my school chant was and I thought, "Well, I don't remember having one necessarily."
Christine [00:12:19] I don't either. I went to Catholic school in Pennsylvania and I wasn't a cheerleader in high school. But the tune you just did, I remember that same chant is, "It's all right, it's okay, we're gonna beat them anyway." So it's just the insert whatever words.
Angela [00:12:38] Exactly, I know we thought we were so cool and we would chant that at pep rallies. Each grade would go and say their chant. Then there were the party girls, like, the kind of wild gals. They extended it to "We're so cool. We're so fine. We drink wine." Or something like that.
Christine [00:13:00] Yeah. I feel like even in the world that I was in, which was very different than the John Hughes "Breakfast Club" world, that was so relatable because of all the cliques. You know, there were the jocks, but we didn't call them Sportos or anything. But the people that, when you would bus in to the parking lot in the morning and you'd see the kids standing on the street corner smoking, there were kids that smoked in high school. I was not one of them. We called them the druggies.
Jenna [00:13:33] Yeah, just for smoking their cigarettes.
Christine [00:13:36] Oh, yeah.
Jenna [00:13:37] I mean, they probably did drugs.
Christine [00:13:39] Yeah, they probably did. They probably smoked a little marijuana too.
Angela [00:13:49] It was such a simple time.
Christine [00:13:51] It was!
Angela [00:13:52] Which is what is so enjoyable about your podcast, Christine, we have to shout it out.
Christine [00:13:57] Oh, thank you so much.
Jenna [00:14:00] Yeah, that's something that we all three have in common. We're all ladies who podcast. Your podcast is called "Hey Dude, the 90's Called," and you discuss the 90's.
Christine [00:14:10] We do.
Angela [00:14:11] Now, this is with your co-host, David Lascher, who was also on Nickelodeon's Hey Dude, is that right?
Christine [00:14:18] Yes. Hey Dude, for any of your listeners, was a show that I was on from 1989 (it was my senior year in high school) to 91, and it was one of Nickelodeon's first scripted television shows. And it was the early Nickelodeon. It's not the Nickelodeon now of the "iCarly," like, it wasn't flashy. It wasn't cool, it new programming that they were really trying out. So we did that show for a couple of years. But it ended in 1991 and nobody had cell phones, nobody had email. We all had home phone numbers and home addresses that we had collected from each other. And not all of us stayed in touch. A lot of us had moved to LA and stayed in touched for a bit there, but it really wasn't until we started having reunions. We did an event for the 20th reunion that we all reconnected and got on a group chat. And so David Lasher, our little story is that we dated while we were on the show. We shot in Tucson, Arizona. We dated, we broke up before the show ended. So it was a lot of teenage angsty dating, broke up, broken hearts, drama. And we still had to work together on location. So we really didn't stay in touch for a long time. And he's the one who came to me with the idea for the podcast. And so I was really honest. I said, I have to be honest with you. Like, I know podcasts are all the craze, but I would not even know how to go about it. And he was like, "No, we would just talk about our show. We talk about us." Because Hey, Dude sort of found this little cult following. So if you were a certain age during those years and you had Nickelodeon, people started recognizing us out in public.
Jenna [00:16:16] Yes, our producer Matt is pointing to himself. But also our sound engineer Sam, who's not with us today, made us promise that we tell you that he was a huge fan as well. Okay, I love you guys.
Matt [00:16:32] I'm sorry to interrupt, but that was me I was born in '84 that was just my show and that's so interesting that it was the first one of those because I didn't have any contacts but it was that and "Salute Your Shorts." Just kudos to you and the entire crew, it was so well done. I still remember the plot point ,the characters. You guys were dating behind the scenes?!
Christine [00:16:56] Yeah. Blowing your mind right now, right?
Matt [00:16:59] Yeah. So sorry to interrupt, just wanted to say, love that show, love the theme song. Jenna and Angela, do you know the theme songs?
Jenna [00:17:05] I don't, I don't know this show.
Angela [00:17:07] I watched a little bit of it, so I now know the show. But what is the theme song? I kind of want to hear it.
Christine [00:17:16] It's very catchy. Once you sing it, it's kind of in your head.
Matt [00:17:19] Christine, in the anticipation of this, I've been singing it around my house and my kids like, "What are you doing? Can you...? What are you doing?"
Jenna [00:17:26] What is this song?
Angela [00:17:27] Matt, please sing it.
Matt [00:17:29] Christine, are you ready? Yeah, sure. Five, six, seven, eight.
Christine [00:17:33] [singing with Matt} It's a little wild and a little strange when you make your home out on the range / Start your horse and come along / Cause he can't get around if you can hold on / singing / Yippee-ki-yay, yippee, ki-yai, what? Like the cowboys say / sing it again.
Christine [00:18:01] I don't know why I am singing this so low.
Jenna [00:18:03] Is this on a dude ranch? Is that why it's called that?
Christine [00:18:06] Yes, it's on a dude ranch.
Angela [00:18:09] Yes. On a dude ranch. Got it.
Jenna [00:18:10] I'm getting it from the theme song.
Christine [00:18:13] See? It told you the whole story and...
Angela [00:18:16] This is the most animated I've ever seen Matt Beagle.
Matt [00:18:19] This was just a life moment unlocked for me. I love that show, love that song.
Christine [00:18:25] It found its little audience. Let's just put it that way. Then you all grew up and started to recognize us and see us. And then people came to us and said, "Let's do a reunion," and so anyway. Long story short, David came to me and said, "Let's a podcast, if you'd be into it, where we talk about our show, but also just the 90's." Which was the sort of the decade that we truly got our career started in. So. It's been a blast. The podcast has been so much fun. We're like the little engine that could. We've got lots of friends who come on that we reconnect with, but then we meet a lot of people that we've never known, but have been fans of. So it's just been so fun. And I get it. For you two to be doing this as besties and to sort of have that time appointed to sort carve out and be together and chat and bring people on and talk about your shared experience on the show. I just love it. I feel like it's such a great platform.
Jenna [00:19:31] Yeah. Well, Christine, you mentioned earlier that you and I have crossed paths many times. Very recently in New York City. I saw you backstage at "Death of a Salesman," which was amazing. And you're just always so delightful and so wonderful. You remind me of my BFF, Angela, who's never met a stranger. You're just one of those people. I think I've told you this before, but I did not know you from Hey Dude, but I discovered you when you did the Brady Bunch movie. You very quickly became one of my comedy inspirations. I remember seeing you in that and just thinking, "How is she doing that? How is she nailing that incredible satire and comic timing?" And then I stole from you when I did "Blades of Glory," and your husband, Ben Stiller, was a producer on that movie. I remember meeting him and telling him on set that I was a huge fan of yours and that I was stealing from you. And so I need to know how you approached that role of Marcia Brady. How did you build that character?
Angela [00:20:47] What a phenomenal character you created.
Christine [00:20:49] First of all, thank you. That's like the greatest. And by the way, Jenna, I remember when Blades of Glory was happening and Ben came home and told me that story. I was like, "What? That's amazing. That's so cool." So thank you for that. Listen, you know, when we talked about the lunchboxes... The reality for me was the Brady Bunch was my after school treat. I just remember it whatever time it was on in syndication. I don't remember seeing it when it was in prime time in the original run but it was on every single day, probably in the four thirty or five o'clock hour, and I just remember coming home from school and watching the Brady Bunch. Like, every single episode I've seen backwards and forwards inside out. Obviously when I got the part I dug deeper, but I dug deeper even to audition for the part. But I knew it so well. And growing up, I did have that long blonde hair. I mean, I didn't have a 70's look, but I would just kind of do impressions of her because we loved the show so much. Like, we were obsessed with the episodes of when they'd go to Hawaii and the little tiki and then the episodes of the kids scaring each other and the fake ghost in the attic. There were episodes that I would remember coming home from school and you turn it on and in the first two minutes know, "Oh, it's the Grand Canyon episode. It's the three parter." And I started recording them on our VHS tapes. I had this collection of VHS tape of the Brady Bunch. When the part came along, it's not like I come from a comedy family the way Ben comes from a comedy family.
Jenna [00:22:34] Mm-hmm.
Christine [00:22:35] Because my family in Allentown, Pennsylvania, were not in show business, knew nothing about show business. But I loved theater and I started doing theater from the time I was just, you know... I would do all the school plays and I loved it. But my family was funny. My dad was just a funny guy. He always just had a funny, sarcastic joke. We just got it, we got humor and we watched a lot of comedies growing up, so... My memory of movies, the classic movies that we'd go to the video store to rent, like "Stripes" and "Caddyshack" and you know? Just classic comedies that we just really enjoyed. Hey, Dude was a sitcom, like a situation comedy set on a dude ranch. It was a multi-camera show, but it was outdoors. So I got to learn a little bit of acting it on camera. Um, but the Brady Bunch audition, I think I had done two little movies when I moved to LA, and then they were casting a replacement. I don't know if you guys remember, there was a tour that started in Chicago called "The Real Live Brady Bunch," which was a bunch of sketch comedy actors. Andy Richter and Jane Lynch were in it. They did this in LA in the I saw it in LA.
Jenna [00:23:55] I saw it in LA. It was a live, satirical, comedic Brady Bunch.
Christine [00:24:01] Exactly, they would do an episode every week and they'd have a game show element beforehand and they made it really groovy and 70's. It just became a cool thing to go see and they were replacing the Marsha for like a month because she had gotten a pilot or something. So my roommate at the time read about it in one of those breakdowns.
Angela [00:24:25] Like Backstage West?
Christine [00:24:26] Yes, exactly, exactly. And she just said, 'You should go in on this. You should get an audition for this because you're so Brady obsessed." It was no surprise. Everyone in my life knew that I loved the Brady Bunch. So I asked my agents about it and I went in and auditioned and I really feel like it was almost like they hired me on the spot.
Jenna [00:24:49] Wait, you were in the live show before the movie?
Christine [00:24:52] Yes, but only for like four weeks. But the thing about the real life Brady Bunch was they were all older. I was the youngest one in the group when I came in. They were adults doing the characters, right? So I was youngest and I remember when I wrapped it up the team said, "You know there is a Brady movie that we heard is in development. We have nothing to do with it. But you should just get that on your radar because you'd be the perfect age for it." I didn't say anything. And then out of the blue one day, I mean, out of blue on my answering machine in 1990 (whatever year this was, 92 or 93) I got a message from Sherwood Schwartz calling me, just cold calling me saying, "I'd love to meet with you." Because they were producers on the movie, but they did not really want their creative input. But he was like, "I'd love to meet you." I went to Sherwood Schwarz's house and got to talk to him about the Brady Bunch. Sherwood Schwartz is the creator of the Brady Bunch and "Gilligan's Island" and anyway, the funny thing -
Angela [00:25:59] Were you just pinching yourself?
Christine [00:26:01] Yes!
Angela [00:26:01] This is the kid that had the Brady Bunch lunchbox.
Christine [00:26:03] Yes, and all I would see was Sherwood Schwartz's name at the end, you know? So yes, it was a pinch me moment that I cannot believe to this day. I still didn't keep my little tape from the answering machine, but...
Jenna [00:26:19] So I have to ask you, Christine, as you're going through the process of auditioning for the movie, what was your internal feeling? Were you confident? Were you like, "This is mine." Because I'll just share that when I was auditioning for Pam for The Office, I was like, "I am Pam. I'm Pam. I feel it. Everything about me knows that I'm Pam." And I don't feel that way about most auditions. Most auditions, I think, "Well listen, I could do a great job, but probably so could someone else."
Christine [00:26:53] Right.
Jenna [00:26:53] But for Pam, I felt a deep in my bones and ownership of this character. I felt like this is why I became an actor. I'll do many other things, I'm sure, but this is why I got in this business in the first place. And so I'm just curious, where were you internally as you're auditioning for this role?
Christine [00:27:17] Well, you nailed it, but I knew it in my core that there was nobody who could do it better than me. Whether or not they saw that, you know... By the way, it wasn't like I immediately was meeting with a director and producer. So I was meeting with Deborah Quillo, the casting director. Walking on the Paramount lot and walking in. She was so positive. I remember, I felt great because I was so confident. I mean, it's what I'd been doing my whole life. I just felt like, you know, you get through the nerves of the audition. But I really felt like, "If I don't get this job, then I don't know that this is the business that I should be in."
Jenna [00:27:57] Yes.
Christine [00:27:57] This was made for me. This, doing this, was for me, so my audition, Deb brought me back immediately for Betty and the producers. I'm fairly sure that I met with them and that was pretty much it. They didn't tell me I got it, but I never had to go back in and audition solo again. The next rounds were matching me with different Jans and different Cindy's. So I think it was sort of all in, going in three times and feeling like obviously, when you start seeing that I'm the only one being matched, you start to feel more confident too. That's the thing. When you know they love you. I just remember Betty, who was not even a Brady Bunch (obviously, she had been studying it, but it wasn't like she knew everything Brady) head. So I was bringing things that I don't think they even knew were Marcia-isms or Marciaesque or Maureen McCormick's way of how she did it. I say it all the time when I talk about it, it was so important for me to do it in a way that was not making fun of it because I loved it so much.
Jenna [00:29:11] That is what goes through!
Christine [00:29:12] Yeah, I didn't look at the shows and say, "This is ridiculous. This is so funny. This is how I'm gonna parody this." But it was like, "I love it so much. I want it to be so pure and so genuine and so Maureen." And so that was really how I approached it. I say this all the time because on our podcast, which is so 90's, and it was a very different time in the industry. The one thing that I got, and I was not a super heavy person, but they asked me to lose 10 pounds.
Jenna [00:29:45] What?! Are you serious? For that role?
Angela [00:29:49] You're so petite!
Christine [00:29:50] Yes, and I say it because I'm not petite like you, Angela, but I'm not a big person. But they wanted me to loose 10 pounds, but it didn't matter. I was like, "Well, I'll loose 10 lbs." Of course, I was embarrassed when that ask came my way. By the way, it would never happen today. Also it just was like, I wasn't the only person ever being asked to lose weight for a role back then. That was just how things went. But I was like, "I'll do it." And then the joke is, over the course of the movie (if you watch it very closely) I start to put the 10 pounds back on and you can see it. I'll come into a scene looking a little rounder and then I exit the scene looking a little thinner just because of how they had to reshoot things. But no, over the course of the movie I really started to treat myself. Nonfat frozen yogurt was the big craze at the time and that was my treat. I was like, 'Oh I wrapped. I'm going to meet my roommate we're going to go to the Big Chill and get a frozen yogurt with a huge thing of sprinkles on the side."
Jenna [00:31:03] It's so funny you tell that story Christine because I was in a movie called "Walk Hard." They didn't ask me to lose weight, but they got me a trainer and a dietician. I was on these box meals, it was never explicitly said but it was definitely the tiniest I ever was and in that movie I had something like 90 wardrobe changes. One of my pieces of wardrobe was this couture riding outfit. I had to ride a horse in a hand beaded couture riding outfit that matched John C. Reilly. The night before, or maybe a couple nights before, I had stayed up late in my hotel room. Chris Parnell was in the movie and we ordered room service cheeseburgers. I was like, "I can't f*cking eat this boiled chicken for one more day" and whatever... It wasn't even kale back then. It was like this other sort of weird boiled green on the side. I was like, "I'm gonna lose my mind!? And so we got cheeseburgers and a shake and we watched a movie, just hanging out and then i went in the next morning to put on the riding outfit. I swear, it was like the next morning. And it didn't fit. The riding outfit, the couture, hand beaded, made for me riding outfit. Panic, panic ensued.
Angela [00:32:39] What do you mean, like it wouldn't-
Jenna [00:32:41] It wouldn't buckle.
Christine [00:32:42] Like overnight? Your body was like, "Oh, I love this," right?
Jenna [00:32:48] My body was so eager for this cheeseburger that it was like, "We're keeping this cheese burger forever."
Christine [00:32:57] Right. "We're going to hold on to this."
Jenna [00:32:59] Yes.
Angela [00:33:01] How do you cheat that? Like, if it doesn't buckle and it's couture in the bodice?
Jenna [00:33:07] I couldn't get it on. But it's sort of like you said, Christine. I had been indulging here and there with no consequences, right? So I'd wake up, my outfit's still fit. I'm like, "So I can have another Sunday. It's not a big deal," you know? "I don't have to eat the box meals. We only have a couple more weeks of shooting." Yeah, and so it was the whole thing. At the last minute, they got just a standard black riding outfit that they did their best to embellish in three hours. It did not match. We did not have matching riding outfits in the movie. But that was a crazy time. That's the only time that ever happened to me on a movie.
Christine [00:33:47] And that's the thing. By the way, I was 23 years old, right? When I did it. So that's that time you're actually really coming into a woman's body at that time, right? I just remember that I was so confident in what I was doing, so I never worried that the job was in jeopardy. So I always felt very confident in that role. Going back to it, the way I knew it was mine. Like, I knew what was mine. The fact that the way the universe aligned and they saw that, that's always the thing. You just hope that they see it, that they get what you know inside. It's the greatest gift that keeps on giving. I just love it. I never tire of a Brady Bunch conversation. I recently met Maureen. I met Maureen very briefly at the premiere of the sequel, I think. A lot of them did cameos in the first movie. She didn't do a cameo in it, but she came to the premiere. So I met her briefly, but very recently, we got to connect doing a Zoom reading for something and we hung out and had lunch. It was just her birthday. We text, she sends me recipes, like -
Jenna [00:35:02] Wait, were you in a restaurant together? Like, the two of you having lunch, where people losing their minds?
Christine [00:35:07] No! We were in the valley. The waitress that, you know our server, was probably like 21. No idea. We took selfies. Nobody knew, which was so great. We just had this sacred space to just get to know each other and so many similarities. By the way the greatest gift to me is that I'm not on Twitter but I remember Ben, over the years, would say like, "Maureen McCormick just wrote something really nice about you on Twitter about you playing the part." And I was like, "Oh my God." Like, that's the greatest thing ever that I got her stamp of approval. Like, that's all I ever wanted was for her to know that I was doing it with so much love. She was a California girl, so she had very specific ways. I was a Pennsylvania girl. So her sort of California dialect is very specific to her. So I needed to hear it. I needed it to do it. I needed to honor it and. So yeah, that's my greatest joy.
Angela [00:36:11] That's amazing. It lives on and on, obviously. You know that. I mean, my daughter showed me a TikTok reel. I am not on TikTok, you know? Because I don't want to embarrass my kids. But she showed me. It's something like, "10 times when Marsha was iconic," or something like that. And it's all these clips, they're fantastic.
Christine [00:36:32] Yeah, my daughter told me the same thing. She's like, "The Brady Bunch is like having a moment right now," like with the "Sure, Jan" meme and some of those Brady-isms, but I think it's great. I love it. I love that it lives on and that I got the stamp of approval, like, mission accomplished.
Angela [00:36:54] Should we also chat with you about some of The Office questions you had for us?
Christine [00:36:57] Well, I just want to say that my Office experience, and I know Ben has talked about this before, because the joke in our house was that we were huge fans of the British series. We felt like that was about as perfect a show that you could possibly make. It was just... We loved it. You know, it was so sacred in our house. Ben, as a production company, remembers getting the potential information. Like, "Oh, they're going to be doing an American Office." And it came to his company. Ben was like, "There's no way you can touch that. There's no way you can touch that material successfully. There's no version." And I think in his mind, too, he was like, "There's not a version where I can see myself figuring out how to do that." Because that's so unique. It's so specific. So for Ben, it was like. "No, that's not for us," which he still to this day is like, "Clearly I can't see things."
Jenna [00:38:06] No, listen, that show was a hot potato that was just passed around. It landed, they're like, "Would you consider?" And they tossed it as quick as they could for all the reasons you're saying. For whatever reason, Greg Daniels was like, "I'll meet with them. OK."
Angela [00:38:24] But not at first, you know.
Jenna [00:38:26] Not at first.
Angela [00:38:26] He was really going back and forth about it.
Christine [00:38:29] See, that's so interesting, because I think Ben says like, "Greg obviously had this, like... He knew. He knew, he saw it." I'll be so honest, we were late to even watching it, because it was like...
Jenna [00:38:44] Yeah, when did you discover it? Was it on streaming, or was it even when it was on live?
Christine [00:38:49] It was on streaming.
Jenna [00:38:51] On streaming.
Christine [00:38:51] So the other thing, too for me... Even my TV taste as a consumer in the early 2000's, I was like, "'24.' I'll stop my life to watch 24."
Angela [00:39:07] I loved 24!
Christine [00:39:07] "I will stop everything. I'm obsessed with Jack Bauer." I would say 24, "Arrested Development." I had a couple shows that I was like all in.
Angela [00:39:16] Oh, and you were so good in Arrested Development, too!
Jenna [00:39:18] And then you got to be on Arrested Development.
Christine [00:39:24] By the way, that was I think, one of those perks where when I saw that show, I reached out to my agents and I was like, "I will do anything on that show. Like, anything on that show," and so that was one of those nice things where it was like "Oh, they're offering you a little arc as this character." Not knowing it would have a couple of different reboots and that character would live on in weird ways. But so for the for us with The Office... And by the way, I had worked with John and Ken Kwapis on "License to Wed."
Angela [00:40:00] Oh my God, Christine, I'm in that movie.
Christine [00:40:02] I know, I know!
Angela [00:40:04] I can't believe I didn't bring that up when there are three things in common!
Christine [00:40:07] I thought that was going to be one of them, but then we got sidetracked because yours were so good. But yeah, a bunch of you guys popped up in it. And so, I was like, "Oh my God, they're all so funny. They're so good!" So it was in my ether to Ben, I was like, "We got to just watch. Like, we have to start watching The Office." As anybody who has a husband or partner where you always say you're going to watch it and wait with the other person to watch it. It never happens. It's always like, you never start. Everybody's lives get busy. So our daughter in her teen years, she started watching it. Well, it started out as her thing with Ben and they would watch together. It was just like, "One more, one more." Then I fed into it and then I had to go back and rewatch season one to start to get caught up. I just feel like, for someone who came to it late, It is such a joy to have a show and the way the show went for it and the way it worked. I think it's just like, it transcends time. I feel like the thing about The Office for you guys is it's so timeless, the show. Other than jokes that you know would not be shot today from some of the earlier seasons. I went back and started in the, I think its the beginning of season five, but the weight loss episode. Speaking of weight loss. Full circle. Right?
Jenna [00:41:41] Yes. What business would throw a weight loss contest today? Nobody.
Angela [00:41:46] And make all their employees stand on a scale.
Christine [00:41:51] I was dying! Dwight literally driving Phyllis to a bad neighborhood to make her walk back because he feels like Phyllis is the one who's secretly binging the food and gaining weight. So it just is the gift that keeps on giving in a show. I feel like it gave us the gift of being able to watch it together as a family and just belly laugh. But also weep at your stuff, Jenna, with John. Those moments of him getting on his knee and proposing to you at the gas station in the pouring rain when you guys have met halfway. So I just kept watching. I was like, "I'm just gonna keep watching it. This is gonna be my summer binge again. Like, I'm just gonna keep going."
Angela [00:42:44] I love that, do you have a favorite character? Is there a character you're always like, "That's it for me?"
Christine [00:42:51] What I wanted to ask you, Angela, too, is (and all of you guys, and I know you're all playing characters) did you feel like the writers, as they got to know you guys in the early stages, started to write towards things they knew specifically about you, or about things that you liked? Like, did they play into that in an exaggerated way?
Angela [00:43:13] Well sometimes you would be having a conversation on set and then something you said would end up, somehow, in an episode you know? You'd be like, "Oh my gosh the writers are on set with us," because so many of them are also characters on the show. But no, my real-life personality is nothing like my Angela Martin personality.
Christine [00:43:32] Your rigidity?
Angela [00:43:36] In fact sometimes they had to change words because I'm southern and I couldn't say them. So everyone that we work with here on the podcast knows I have a very hard time with vowels in front of L's, you know? I famously had this moment where I tell Andy that I wanna - In the script it said a "hand tilled field." Hand, what?
Jenna [00:44:00] Hand tilled field.
Angela [00:44:01] Hand tilled field. Did I say it?
Jenna [00:44:04] No.
Angela [00:44:06] Oh my god. See? Okay, so we did 14 takes and they're like, "Just forget it. Say hand plowed. You're just, you're not getting it. You can't do it." So I think they would try to help me find her, you know? But yeah, I think some of our things would end up in scripts that we would sort of be chatting about. Jenna and I both worked in Corporate America, temping, when we started our acting careers. There was a man in the parking lot one time. I worked at 1-800-DENTIST, as an operator, and this guy got in and he flashed a few people. I told the story, and that ended up in a script, that Phyllis get flashed in the parking lot. Jenna and I talked about these ridiculous human resource meetings we'd have to go to, and some of that made it into some episodes. But Jenna, what about you?
Jenna [00:44:56] Well I feel like, character wise, there is an aspect of me that they moved into Pam which is a little bit of sass and a little but of snark. So when you see her take on Ryan, I think that is my personality that got written into Pam's personality. Because I think where Pam started, I'm not sure you'd ever see her do that. But my personality, I am a speak up for yourself kind of gal and I'm not a suffer in silence gal. So I think they gave Pam a little bit of me, in her way that she sasses at Ryan.
Christine [00:45:43] Well, that's so funny that you said that. Because when you're talking about favorite characters, because everyone is so beloved. It's so hard to pick, but there's so many great storylines. Obviously, the Jim and Pam is the iconic, but I just also feel like Angela and Dwight. It's so wrong, yet so right. And there's there's much satisfaction with you two together. It's so meant to be.
Angela [00:46:13] I saw an article one time that said when people would describe Jim and Pam they'd say "awwww," but if they had to describe Dwight and Angela, they'd say "ew."
Christine [00:46:27] [laughing] Exactly. But yet it's so cute. It's so oddly happy making. I don't know why. I don t know why it's so satisfying. But then when you go into it, like, Ryan is the worst. The worst.
Jenna [00:46:42] But also, on our rewatch, doing this podcast, he became my favorite character. I was like, "I love this character so much." Then, when Pam sassed him finally in the later seasons, I was like, "This is my favorite thing."
Christine [00:46:57] It's so good.
Jenna [00:46:59] When they do their whole Michael Scott Paper Company and she has to sit at that little table with him.
Christine [00:47:04] Exactly. Exactly!
Jenna [00:47:05] Amazing.
Christine [00:47:06] Just gonna say, when he's sort of comes back with his tail between his legs and he's in the tenth mode but he's also still just being such an a**.
Angela [00:47:16] He's such an a**.
Christine [00:47:17] Like, he's still thinks he's got this power and it's just... BJ's so funny, too. Just the way he plays it. I love that big stand-up moment, too, where Jim is like, "I need to show them." Because no one has respect for Jim in that sort of management position, right?
Jenna [00:47:36] Mm-hmm.
Christine [00:47:38] I really love the moment when Ryan gets sort of demoted into the little room, the closet.
Angela [00:47:43] Yes, the closet is so great.
Christine [00:47:45] It's so good.
Jenna [00:47:47] Which, funny enough, was partly because they really needed him in the writer's room and when his character moved into the main bullpen It was kind of a problem. Because he was in the background of everything. So they're like, "How do we get him out of here again?" And their idea was, "Oh, this would be a great plot point that he has to work in a closet."
Christine [00:48:09] It's so good. That's just what I love. For us in the house, when it's on, I don't know what night it was and obviously they just keep going if you don't hit exit out, right? I saw like my family start to fill in around me as I was watching. It's just so great because new generations are seeing it for the first time and falling in love with it again. There's not lots of shows anymore where the whole family can watch. There's shows where you as parents can sit in on a show your kid likes, but this is to me (I mean, obviously kids of a certain age, and my kids are adults now) has been a joy for us. And I just think you guys are amazing. In everything else that you've done too. Like, you're both such good actors who just need to just keep doing it because comedic geniuses as well. I'm such a fan.
Jenna [00:49:08] Oh, Christine, this has been so lovely, and I'd like to say that Angela's husband has played your husband in a movie, I have played your husband's wife in a movie. What is missing is some combo of you, me, and Angela playing (I don't know, definitely you and Angela could play sisters in a movie, maybe I can be your crazy friend or neighbor)... I don't know, but somehow I think the three of us need to be in a movie together.
Christine [00:49:39] I think so too.
Jenna [00:49:40] OK, good.
Angela [00:49:41] You can be our cousin!
Jenna [00:49:42] I'll be your cousin.
Christine [00:49:45] We're manifesting it.
Jenna [00:49:48] Let's manifest it.
Christine [00:49:48] I always feel like we are putting it out loud, we're saying it out out loud. I think we have to find each other in something really fun to work on together.
Jenna [00:49:58] But clearly the universe is bumping us into each other, right? We're getting close, we just have to solidify it now.
Christine [00:50:05] Yes, we will. We will.
Angela [00:50:07] And I also need for the three of us to have ladies' lunch, in person. I need an in-person hang. I'm putting it out there.
Christine [00:50:15] Hundred percent. I'm in.
Jenna [00:50:17] Great, I love this. Well, that's perfect. Until our lunch when we meet again, Christine, thank you so much for spending time on Office Ladies.
Christine [00:50:25] This was the best! Yay! Thank you so much.
audio cue [00:50:28] [musical sting]
Jenna [00:50:31] Lady, I'm gonna say it again, we need to be her best friend.
Angela [00:50:36] Also, just putting it out there, could she be another Mom Detective?
Jenna [00:50:40] Oh, lady!
Angela [00:50:41] I know. Do we need to do a movie called Mom Detective with Christine?
Jenna [00:50:48] You know, I was wishing that we could have done this interview all in studio together. But honestly, I think if she had been here in person, I don't know if we would have ever let her leave. It might have been good she was on Zoom.
Angela [00:51:00] Well, you know, we're already on a text thread.
Jenna [00:51:02] We have been texting, it's true. Listen, everyone, thank you so much for listening. Please check out Christine on her podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s Called. Melora Hardin was her guest, and there might be two other gals guesting on that.
Angela [00:51:17] Two Office Ladies might pop on by.
Jenna [00:51:18] In the near future.
Angela [00:51:21] Alright, you guys. Thank you, Christine, for just giving us so much of your time. You were so gracious. And thank you all for listening. We'll see you next week.
Jenna [00:00:17] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [00:00:19] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:24] Our senior producer is Matt Beagle. Our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [00:00:32] Audacy's executive producer is Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [00:00:35] Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.
Angela [00:00:37] Our theme song is "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton.