‘The Office’: Jenna Fischer Said This Jim Moment Left Her ‘Heartbroken’ for Pam
The Office star Jenna Fischer had a deep connection with her character Pam Beesly. So deep, in fact, that one Jim and Karen scene left her inner Pam feeling “heartbroken.”
Why Jenna Fischer felt a connection to Pam
Fischer felt a connection to her character Pam because she had worked in office settings while she pursued an acting career and had her fair share of failures until she landed The Office role.
During the Sept. 23, 2020 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Fischer explained how her personal experience informed the way she played the character. “I did channel a lot of those struggling years into my performance for Pam,” she explained. “I literally sat at a reception desk and dreamed of being an artist. I have done that. I did it for seven years, so I deeply, deeply felt Pam’s longing.”
Jim and Karen shared a moment
During the June 10, 2020 Office Ladies podcast, Fischer and her co-host Angela Kinsey discussed “The Coup” episode of the series. Jim had started working at the Stamford branch of the company in an effort to get out of Scranton after Pam rejected him.
In Stamford, Jim adapted to the new office setting and his co-workers, who played Call of Duty. His office co-worker Karen was a bit flirty with Jim about his lack of gamer skills and the two shared a small moment of flirtation.
“This is what got everybody very, very, very upset,” Fischer said of the moment. Fans had been rooting for Jim and Pam to end up together, so this new development between Jim and Karen didn’t initially win them over.
“Well, I want you to know something. This is jumping ahead a little bit,” Fischer said during the podcast. “But I just want to say, to wrap up this storyline of the Jim-Karen flirt — you know, at the end of this, when Jim is packing up for the night and Karen’s watching and he throws the fake grenade at her. This is now kind of like their first inside joke.”
“That scene was not in the script. That was added later,” she continued. “We saw that Karen is kind of sweet on Jim a little bit. Right? In the scene you’re talking about … but they wanted to see Jim give her a little, a little Halpert.”
She added, “We wanted to see a little bit go her way. And so they added that scene to show that there was a real connection between them. A playfulness, if you will.”
Fischer said she felt ‘heartbroken’
The scene definitely had Fischer, from Pam’s point of view, feeling a little sad. During a 2006 interview with EW, she addressed the Jim and Karen moment, admitting that while it was “charming,” it also was heartbreaking.
”In [the Oct. 5] episode, when Jim threw that [fake] grenade and [Karen’s] paper clips went flying, that was improvised,” she explained. “It was so charming. The Pam in me was heartbroken.”
