‘The Office’: Ed Helms Says Andy Would Be Making A Cappella Jams During Quarantine
It might be years since The Office ended, but fans still like to imagine how the characters would live on today. Ed Helms, who played Andy Bernard, gave his theory on what would happen with his character being stuck in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
Andy replaced Michael on ‘The Office’
Andy joined the show in season 3. At first he was just another employee but he eventually replaced Michael (Steve Carell.) Most of the writers of the show actually wanted Dwight (Rainn Wilson) to take over, but there is a reason this didn’t happen.
“The writers and the cast, generally speaking, were really excited about Dwight becoming the boss,” writer Brent Forrester told Rolling Stone. “It just felt correct, and that was our creative thrust. Mostly it was pushback from the network saying, ‘Well. Is there someone more famous that we can put in here?'”
He continued, “Of course, the creators always bristle at that and just want to do the right thing creatively. That was a big thing. But Ed Helms had this giant advantage because of course he was in The Hangover. Not to completely read the minds of the network, but that was my understanding of how that decision got made.”
He sang multiple times on the show
Andy wasn’t shy to talk about going to Cornell. He also made it known that he was in an a cappella group and still loves to sing. Helms talked about filming his more musical scenes.
“There’s an episode when Andy’s singing at his desk, off in his own world and annoying Jim (John Krasinski), and there was some song written in the script, but we thought, ‘There’s got to be a more annoying song than this one,'” he told Creative Loafing.
“We talked for a while and ended up with the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie,’ because it has that voice cracking on ‘In your he-ead.’ Also, there was an earlier episode when Andy and Jim stay up late getting drunk in the Stamford office, and Andy was half-passed out on the floor singing songs from his a cappella group from college,” he said. “We had one Indigo Girls song in the script, but Jim wanted to harmonize, so we did ‘Closer to Fine’ instead.”
Helms gave his theory on what Andy would be doing in quarantine
Many people are staying in their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. Helms gave his theory on how quarantine would go for his character on The Office.
“It depends on when in the series you catch Andy,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “There are moments where he’s almost manic. I feel like he’d be fine doing little a cappella jams on his phone for days.”
The uptight character might crack being isolated. Helms gave his reason why he thinks things might get dark for him.
“One of my favorite Andy lines of all time — and I can’t even remember the episode or what he was talking about exactly — but he’s clearly in a bad way and he’s kind of depressed,” he said. “He says something like, ‘I mean, last night, I ate a pizza over the sink like a rat!’”
The actor added, “That’s the Andy that would really spin out during quarantine.” Perhaps those a cappella jams would be found on TikTok.
