‘The Office’: Why CGI Was Used on Jenna Fischer’s Face for an Important Jim and Pam Scene

You wouldn't expect it but 'The Office' sometimes used CGI. Find out why it was used on Jenna Fischer's face for a big scene.

by Nicole Weaver

Published on July 22, 2020

2 min read

CGI was used on Jenna Fischer’s face to take out a distracting pimple

In 2019, Fischer launched a rewatch podcast of The Office called Office Ladies with her co-star from the hit comedy, Angela Kinsey.

Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly and John Krasinski as Jim Halpert | Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank

During an episode of Office Ladies, Fischer revealed that CGI was used on her face during a “huge” scene between Jim and Pam.

“I can’t remember what episode it is but I’m going to ask [creator] Greg [Daniels] because there’s a future episode that was like a huge Jim/Pam thing and I had another one of these big zits. And then when I saw the episode it was gone,” she said on the Office Ladies podcast.

The actor asked Daniels about it and he told her they took it out using CGI because it was so distracting. It’s still a mystery which scene needed CGI. This just goes to show that makeup doesn’t always do the trick.

Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski were separated on ‘The Office’

Jim transfers to the Stamford office in season 3 of The Office because he gets a promotion. This is after he kissed Pam and got rejected. There were a few weeks when the actors didn’t work together.

“I remember it was super weird that we didn’t have him with us for like six or eight weeks,” Fischer said on the Office Ladies podcast. She admitted she was a little jealous.

“He was so super gushy about Ed [Helms] and Rashida [Jones] and working over on the Stamford set,” Fischer said. “He seemed like he was having the best time and again I think I had a little FOMO. I was like ‘What’s happening over in Stamford? Why’s it so great over there?’”

The good thing is her real feelings helped her performance.

“Oh Angela [Kinsey], I completely used all of my feelings with John being over on that other set to the character of Pam,” she said. “Because you really became closest with the people you had the most scenes with because you had to spend so much down time with them and for those whole two first years of the show I was paired with John so often.”

Pam and Jim were reunited on ‘The Office’

Pam and Jim reuniting through the merger of the Stamford and Scranton branch is a huge moment. There is a scene where Jim walks into the Scranton office and Pam greets him with a big hug. Fischer revealed that she had “a giant zit” during the season 3 episode “The Merger.”