Jenna Fischer and her husband chat about his cameo on ‘The Workplace’

Bear in mind the male lactation guide on The Workplace who seemed on the digicam hours after Pam gave beginning, smiled, and mentioned, “Acquired milk?” That was Jenna Fischer’s precise husband.

On the newest episode of Stitcher’s Workplace Women podcast, co-hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all concerning the Season 6 episode, “The Supply” and welcomed two very particular friends. First, Fischer’s sister, Emily shared what it was wish to have Jim and Pam’s child, Cece, named after her personal daughter. Then Fischer’s husband, Lee Kirk, known as in to debate his cameo as Clark, the male lactation guide.

“I feel our listeners know Lee as an individual who makes wonderful eggs and occasional. In addition they know that he is a author/director. However what you won’t find out about him is that he did attend the Goodman Faculty for Performing in Chicago,” Fischer shared. “So performing on this episode was not too huge of a leap for him, despite the fact that in the end now he’s a author/director.”

How Lee acquired his job on The Workplace

“We all the time ask our friends, ‘How did you get your job on The Workplace?’ However possibly I ought to kick this one off,” Fischer mentioned. “When the writers got here up with this storyline of the lactation guide, Paul Lieberstein approached me and mentioned, ‘Hey, Jenna. We’ve got this actually humorous thought, nevertheless it includes a person form of like squishing your breasts round. How do you are feeling about that? Like, that will be a visitor actor. Are you OK with it?’ And I mentioned, ‘Properly, I feel it might be possibly a little bit awkward now that you just point out it.’ And he mentioned, ‘Properly, what if that particular person was your fiancée, Lee? What if Lee did it?'”

“You got here dwelling. You informed me. I believed it sounded fairly humorous, and I mentioned, ‘certain,'” Kirk recalled. “So after all they weren’t simply handing me the job. I needed to go in to Allison Jones [The Office casting director] and browse for the function and form of show that I might do it. Which I acquired to say, if there was ever a layup within the audition world, I imply, this was like a six foot hoop. It was like, ‘Simply please drop the ball within the basket and make everybody’s life simpler.'”

Kirk defined that he learn for the function, had fun, and acquired the half. Kinsey mentioned that on the DVD commentary for the episode the crew mentioned Kirk “crushed the audition.”

“They mentioned they liked how enterprise you have been as Clark. You simply got here in doing all of your factor. And after they have been rewatching the scene, they mentioned they liked how you’d pump the hand sanitizer as you left or as you got here up every time,” Kinsey mentioned. “It simply cracked them up.” 

“That hand sanitizer was like my go-to little safety blanket within the scene,” Kirk defined. “Like if I did not know what to do, I would just go pump some extra hand sanitizer.”

Getting ready to play Clark

Now, the lactation guide character was truly pitched to the writers by Kinsey primarily based on private expertise. However at this level in life, Fischer and Lee did not have any youngsters, so that they had no firsthand experiences to encourage them.

“I form of seemed up what a lactation guide was,” Kirk defined. “It is humorous as a result of we didn’t have youngsters then, so I would by no means skilled a lactation guide or the saga of breastfeeding up until then, you already know? So wanting again, I feel I most likely, had I identified how troublesome breastfeeding will be and had I met some lactation consultants, I most likely would have performed Clark a little bit in another way. As soon as we had youngsters and Jenna was breastfeeding each of them we have been studying how it may be very aggravating and troublesome. And then you definately meet these lactation consultants that are available they usually’re simply crammed with empathy. They usually know that the mother is wired they usually’re oozing empathy. And I most likely would have performed Clark with a little bit extra of that.”

“You already know, if had I identified, I most likely would have given him a little bit bit extra of — hmm, ‘acquired milk?'” Kirk mentioned. “I simply determined to play him very straight. You already know, I knew the joke. The joke was, here is a male lactation guide. And the humor goes to come back from Jim’s response to that. And so I simply form of I simply tried to put the pipe there and let John do all of the heavy lifting.”

On working along with his pal John Krasinski

Talking of Jim, Kirk additionally shared what it was like working with John Krasinski, his IRL pal.

“I keep in mind that since you and John have been buddies that John was actually making an attempt to make you chuckle. Lots. Like he was, he was, like, coming for you,” Fischer recalled.

“Yeah, he was laying it on fairly good. And it was actually it was onerous. It was onerous to not break,” Kirk mentioned. “If I seemed over at him as a result of he was — he’d maintain that pamphlet up and simply his eyes could be me. And it was onerous to not break, however we did it. I feel we did break just a few occasions, did not we, Jenna?”

“We did. Yeah, it was, it was troublesome as a result of he was undoubtedly — he was milking it,” Fischer mentioned.

“Oh, Lord. There it’s,” Kinsey chimed in.

Lee’s biggest Workplace reminiscence

Working along with his spouse and buddies have been clearly large pluses, however what Kirk remembers most about his day taking pictures on The Workplace was Harold Ramis directing.

“I do not know should you guys have talked about this, however we shot this scene on Groundhog Day. Do you keep in mind that?” Kirk requested. 

“Sure, it was unimaginable. The director of Groundhog Day the film, Harold Ramis, was directing us on Groundhog Day,” Fischer mentioned. “I keep in mind within the morning we have been all identical to, ‘When can we go as much as Harold and be like, joyful Groundhog Day?'”

“Yeah. Properly, I keep in mind if you went as much as him, all of us had form of — I feel everybody was considering it — and at last you mentioned it,” Kirk defined. “And when he began to speak about Groundhog Day, everybody simply form of came to visit. All of us simply moved over and simply sat there and listened to him speak about it. It was actually, actually enjoyable — actually thrilling.” 

“He was wonderful like that,” Kinsey added. “There was a day all of us talked to him about Ghostbusters, however he was simply so, so cool. I used to be bummed as a result of I wasn’t working that day. And I keep in mind Jenna calling me and saying, ‘Ange, I labored with Harold Ramis on Groundhog Day!’ Such as you geeked out about it.” Comprehensible!

Kirk additionally directed the Season 9 episode of The Workplace, “Vandalism,” so he’ll return to the podcast to debate that sooner or later. Be sure you take a look at the total podcast episode to listen to extra behind-the-scenes tales about filming the episode, “The Supply, Half 2.”

You’ll be able to stream episodes of The Workplace on Peacock and comply with together with the podcast each week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.