‘The Office’: Idris Elba Broke Character Because of Kevin and the Show Kept It In
Fans of The Office have noticed a scene where Idris Elba broke character because of a funny Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) line. Elba’s character, Charles Miner, looks like he’s about to laugh, but the scene keeps going.
Idris Elba played Charles Miner on ‘The Office’
Elba joined the cast in season 5 as Charles Miner, the new vice president of Northeast sales. He is introduced in the episode “New Boss.” Of course, there were many awkward interactions.
Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) wears a tuxedo to work when meeting him in reaction to Dwight Schrute’s (Rainn Wilson) memo about professionalism. Charles isn’t amused. Charles also isn’t happy with Michael Scott (Steve Carell) because he didn’t share new guidelines with his employees.
It’s obvious Charles is the opposite of Michael. He does things by the book and expects everyone around him to be professional. Jim strives to get on his good side after that, but Dwight is weirdly able to win over the boss instead.
The last time fans see Charles is in the episode “Company Picnic.” And Charles doesn’t hold back on making fun of Jim. Charles eventually gets fired during the merger.
Idris Elba broke character because of Kevin
The episode “Broke” shows CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley) visiting the Scranton branch to talk about the Michael Scott Paper Company stealing Dunder Mifflin clients. Michael is offering discounts that aren’t sustainable.
But David doesn’t know that, so he decides to buy out the company. Michael negotiates an impressive buyout and gets his Dunder Mifflin job back along with Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Ryan Howard’s (B.J. Novak) jobs. Miner then loses power over the branch.
In the scene where David enters the office, he decides to address the employees. Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) interrupts him to say hi, and Kevin Malone does the same thing.
It’s obvious Baumgartner’s delivery is too much for Elba because he starts smiling. He then tries to recover smoothly by looking more serious and at Buckley as he speaks. The clip has been shared on YouTube and Reddit among fans.
Idris Elba was nervous to do ‘The Office’
Elba gained fame from being on The Wire. Comedy was a big change for him, and that made him nervous.
“The Office is a very different kettle of fish,” Elba told Oprah. “To be honest with you, my character isn’t a very funny character. He isn’t designed to be funny.
“Though I have to say I was very nervous to go into work with Steve and those guys—they’re very funny. They’ve been doing it a long time, and I felt like, ‘Oh man, I’m the new guy.’”
Elba said he had fun doing the role. It looks like he enjoyed himself given that he couldn’t always hold back his laughter.
