‘The Office’ Fans Will Never Guess Brian Baumgartner’s Childhood Halloween Costume [Exclusive]
The Office actor Brian Baumgartner might have one of the most interesting childhood Halloween costumes we’ve ever heard of. We caught up with the actor, author, and chili aficionado over Zoom to hear more about his favorite Office Halloween styles. During our chat, Baumgartner revealed who he dressed up as when he was “four or five years old.” Find out who the Kevin Malone actor was and why he wanted to dress up as the iconic character for Halloween.
Brian Baumgartner has always been drawn to villains
When talking about his affinity for Kevin’s Joker costume, Baumgartner admitted he has always liked villains. “I don’t think I’ve talked about this very much, but … as a kid my favorite characters were the villains,” he revealed to us.
During his childhood, Baumgartner was gifted an original cell drawing of Madame Medusa, the villain from Disney’s The Rescuers. “It might be worth $1,000,000,000 right now, it might be worth $0.75,” Baumgartner joked.
“[It’s] not on my wall, it’s downstairs in a closet because it’s weird to have up, but [I have] an original cell — when they used to actually draw animation — of Medusa and this giant diamond.”
Baumgartner says instead of the typical “Prince Charming” or princess-themed gift, he was often given villain-related items. “It was always, always the bad guys,” he added. “I find them really interesting.”
‘The Office’ actor was once the Wicked Witch of the West for Halloween
As Baumgartner recalls, most of the villains back in “those early Disney days” were women, but that didn’t stop him from dressing up like his favorites for Halloween. “When I was four or five, I was the Wicked Witch of the West,” he told us. Now we need Baumgartner to share a throwback photo of his Wizard of Oz-inspired Halloween look!
Kevin Malone’s Joker is Brian Baumgartner’s favorite costume from ‘The Office’
The Office had a seasonality to it, so certain episodes lined up with holidays like Halloween. In those episodes, Dunder Mifflin’s employees, including Kevin Malone, came dressed to impress.
Throughout the show’s run, Kevin came to the office in several Halloween costumes. Baumgartner’s favorite was Kevin’s season 5 costume, Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight. “That character [Joker] is probably my favorite villain,” Baumgartner said.
Like the Wicked Witch of the West and Disney villains like Madame Medusa, something about the Joker calls to the actor, who hasn’t played many villainous roles throughout his career. Still, the opportunity to play the Joker in some capacity was a thrill for Baumgartner.
The Joker wasn’t Baumgartner’s only favorite, though. As he revealed during our Zoom chat, Kevin’s Paul Blart costume from season 6 and his Michael Moore from season 7 are close runners-up. “Getting to be Paul Blart Mall Cop [was entertaining],” he said. “Because I got to ride the scooter and no one else was allowed to do it.”
The year Kevin dressed up as Moore, Baumgartner got a message from the filmmaker. “I got a Twitter message from Michael Moore after that,” he added. “[It was] very positive, very nice. I thought that was super cool.” Throughout the show, Kevin also dressed up as Dwyane Wade (season 8) and Charlie Brown (season 9).
Watch every Halloween episode of The Office on Peacock.
