The Office’s Jenna Fischer Reveals Which Character Irritated Her Most

Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beesly onThe Office, reveals which character irritated her the most. The Office is one of the most iconic modern sitcoms, having experienced a resurgence with new generations following its arrival on various streaming platforms, including Netflix and Peacock. The show is an American reboot of the Ricky Gervais BBC Two mockumentary of the same name, following the daily lives and wacky conflicts of the employees of a small town paper company. The American Office premiered on NBC in 2005 and went on to run for 9 seasons, concluding in 2013, winning 5 Emmys along the way, though lead actor Steve Carell was notably snubbed.

One of the main characters on The Office was Pam, who appeared in all 188 episodes of the series. She started off as the receptionist at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin, a shy young woman who was the object of affection for John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert in spite of her engagement to a warehouse worker named Roy. Eventually, through a variety of romantic travails, Jim and Pam got together, after which point they had two children and Pam continued to pursue her love of art in addition to becoming Dunder Mifflin’s office administrator.

On this week’s episode of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed The Office season 7 episode 4, “Sex Ed.” During the conversation, Fischer revealed the character who irritated her most often. Although she is sure to note that she is referring to the character rather than the performer, Brian Baumgartner’s character Kevin was the source of her ire. She said that she found his attitude toward her character as well as his general demeanor “so off-putting.” Read her full quote below:

I would find Kevin, and especially his attitude toward Pam, so off-putting. But I love Brian Baumgartner! He and I are very close friends. But Kevin would just irritate me.

Fischer has chosen a character from The Office who would have likely gotten on the nerves of many of his coworkers. For one thing, he was a frequent irritant to his accounting deskmate Angela, who didn’t have patience for his childlike behavior and general lack of accountancy skills. However, his attitude toward Pam certainly wouldn’t have done him many favors, as he frequently disrespected her, including trying to mimic the sound of a baby wailing to induce lactation after she comes back to the office from maternity leave.

Although there are many characters from The Office who are off-putting in one way or another, Fischer’s choice is probably the closest to her character’s experience. This speaks to the fact that she still feels intimately connected to Pam despite not having played the character for nearly a decade. Luckily, there is no actual bad blood between her and Baumgartner, speaking to how fundamentally different the actor is from his character.

Source: Office Ladies