‘The Office’: This Subtle Steve Carell Move Made John Krasinski ‘Lose It’ During Filming
John Krasinski would often break during filming on The Office — just check out the blooper videos from any season of the show as proof. His co-star Jenna Fischer pointed to one physical choice Steve Carell would make that was certain to make Krasinksi “lose it” every single time.
‘Office Ladies’ discuss the ‘Product Recall’ episode
During the Oct. 21 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, co-hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey took fans inside the season 3 episode “Product Recall” and one scene, they revealed, proved to be challenging for Krasinski.
In the episode, Michael Scott (Carell) springs to action to do damage control after paper was sent out to customers with an X-rated watermark. Michael gathers everyone in the conference room for a crisis management meeting and tells Jim Halpert (Krasinski) that he has to meet face-to-face with his client, a high school who sent out prom invitations on the paper.
Steve Carell could make John Krasinski laugh with one subtle move
During the podcast, Fischer and Kinsey revealed how Krasinski had a hard time with this scene.
Fischer set up the conference room scene, in which Michael informs the staff that Kelly will be training everyone to do customer service to handle the angry phone calls.
“Michael tells Jim he has to physically go to the high school to rectify the situation” and that he has to bring someone, Fischer explained.
She continued, “Well I remember John could not keep it together in this conference room scene. And any time John starts to laugh it’s a very bad sign for the rest of us because you just know that we’re never gonna make it through.”
The reason Krasinski broke, in this case, was Carell’s choice to put his foot up on the conference table.
“Steve does something in this conference room scene that makes John lose it,” Fischer explained. “Steve took his foot and he put it up on the conference table and I remember the first take he decided to do that, John lost it.”
“Any time Steve did that … Steve used to do that to John’s desk all the time,” she added.
Jim and Dwight’s cold open in this episode was iconic
The “Product Recall” episode also featured a fan-favorite cold open scene, which has Jim impersonating Dwight to get under his skin. The scene includes two very memorable and often quoted lines from the entire season: “Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica” and “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!”
In a talking head, Jim explains why he decided to go the extra mile to torment his co-worker. “Last week, I was in a drug store and I saw these glasses,” he begins. “Uh, four dollars. And it only cost me seven dollars to recreate the rest of the ensemble. And that’s a grand total of … [calculates total on his calculator-watch] eleven dollars.”
He goes on to channel Dwight by asking him, “Question. What kind of bear is best?” As his co-worker answers, “That’s a ridiculous question,” Jim immediately interrupts, saying, “False. Black bear.”
Dwight begins to debate his declaration when Jim interjects, “Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.”
When Jim places a bobble-head figure on his desk after Dwight says, “You know what? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, so I thank you,” it’s clear that Jim’s prank gets the desired reaction.
“Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!,” Dwight yells at Jim.
Fischer recalled filming that scene and how Krasinski’s impersonation was so hilarious. “I remember filming this episode and John Krasinski was so funny. We could not hold it together,” she explained.
