‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Reveals How She Nailed Pam’s Huge Speech After Walking on Hot Coals
During The Office season 3 episode “Beach Games,” Pam Beesly, after running across hot coals, poured out her thoughts to her co-workers. This included finally telling Jim her real feelings — in front of his girlfriend. Find out how Jenna Fischer perfectly delivered that emotional speech.
Pam walked across hot coals and then poured out her heart
In the “Beach Games” episode, boss Michael Scott is on a mission to find his successor after he believes he’ll be offered a job in the corporate office. He sets up a day for the Dunder Mifflin employees to take part in Survivor-esque challenges to see who will emerge the winner.
The final challenge is for the finalists to walk across hot coals, but no one wants to do it. Michael turns Pam down when she volunteers, but when everyone is talking in a group, she slips away and walks barefoot across the coals.
Afterwards, feeling the adrenaline rush, she delivers an amazing speech.
Pam’s big speech has some big feelings
Pam addresses her co-workers with some things she obviously needs to get off her chest, including how she feels about Jim.
“Hey! I wanna say something. I’ve been trying to be more honest lately and I just need to say a few things. I did the coal walk! Just, I did it,” she says. “Michael, you couldn’t even do that. Maybe I should be your boss. Wow, I feel really good right now.”
Pam continues, “Why didn’t any of you come to my art show? I invited all of you. That really sucked. It’s like sometimes some of you act like I don’t even exist. Jim, I called off my wedding because of you. And now we’re not even friends. And things are just like weird between us and that sucks. And I miss you.”
“You were my best friend before you went to Stamford. And I really miss you. I shouldn’t have been with Roy and there were a lot of reasons to call of my wedding,” she adds. “But the truth is, I didn’t care about any of those reasons until I met you. And now you’re with someone else. And that’s fine. It’s, whatever, that’s not what I’m — I’m not — OK, my feet really hurt.”
She concludes, “The thing that I’m just trying to say to you Jim, and to everyone else in the circle, I guess, is that I miss having fun with you. Just you, not everyone in the circle. OK. I am gonna go walk in the water now. Yeah. It’s a good day.”
Jenna Fischer revealed the details of filming the scene
During the Nov. 4 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Fischer and her co-host, Angela Kinsey, took fans behind the scenes of the “Beach Games” episode.
Fischer shared how that speech was scripted and said she “memorized it and delivered it word for word” and “knew that speech backwards and forwards.”
She wanted to channel that feeling of “a burst of adrenaline” that Pam felt after conquering the hot coals, so her speech would need to sound “very impulsive.”
Fischer admitted that having a meaty piece of dialogue gave her some insight into what Steve Carell did on the show and she admitted she was “so nervous” but overall was pleased with her performance.
“When I watched it, I was really proud of myself,” she said. “It really made me feel like a good actress.”
