An audience of roughly 5,000 fans rose to a roaring standing ovation to welcome “The Office” stars Rainn Wilson and Angela Kinsey on Friday evening for a FanX convention panel in Salt Lake City.
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“OK, that’s enough,” Rainn Wilson told the audience as he walked on stage. “Let’s have a very serious conversation. No nonsense!”
The seasoned comedy actors — who played onscreen couple Dwight Schrute and Angela Martin on the sitcom, which aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013 — leaned into their familiar teasing and odd-couple dynamic.
“She’s the worst,” Wilson said, with a grin. Kinsey shot back, “He smells.”
The teasing continued throughout the panel, though it was clear that beneath the humor is a genuine admiration for each other’s work. When asked what they had learned about comedy from watching the other perform, Kinsey applauded Wilson’s willingness to commit “full throttle” to any bit.
“If you have any physical kind of thing with Rainn — get ready,” Kinsey said.
“I know that I injured many actors over the course of 200 episodes,” Wilson responded. “I threw sand in (Creed Bratton’s) eye. And I pelted John Krasinski in the eye with a snowball.”
Wilson went on to compliment Kinsey’s “expert” portrayal of Angela Martin, noting how she gradually developed the narrow character into someone more nuanced, funny and occasionally wild as the seasons progressed.
The pair have remained friends since “The Office” ended in 2013 and regularly play tennis together. During the panel, they recalled a recent match against former co-star Steve Carell and his wife, Nancy Carell.
Kinsey said Nancy, who plays five or six times a week, “kicked our butts.”
“She’s amazing,” Kinsey added, “But the first time we played them, we went to a tiebreaker … they thought for sure they were going to beat us.”
Here are some memorable moments from the panel.
Kinsey and Jenna Fischer’s friendship
Kinsey recalled sitting next to Jenna Fischer, who played Pam, all day during filming of the basketball episode in Season 1 and sharing their entire lives.
By the end of the day, the two had decided they were going to be best friends. They later walked back to their trailers arm-in-arm singing the “Laverne & Shirley” theme — without realizing Steve Carell was walking behind them.
“We were so embarrassed,” Kinsey said. “And he said, ‘You know what, no matter what happens to the show, this is what you’ll take with you.’ And he was right.”
Who could make them break
Kinsey and Wilson both agreed Carell would regularly make them break character, often by improvising during a scene or simply looking at them.
“He would improvise things so you were thrown off,” Kinsey said. “He just would lock eyes with you and just look at you, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t look him in the eye.”
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She added, “So I’ve said, ‘Steve, I’m sorry, but I spent years looking at your neck.’”
For Wilson though, John Krasinski was the co-star most likely to make him laugh.
“We could just look at each other and we just knew what we were thinking,” he said. “And he could have like just a little twitch in his eye and I would laugh. And I could have just a little twitch in my mouth and he would laugh. So we made each other break all the time.”
The accounting department’s secret pranks
When asked about pranks on set, Wilson insisted there weren’t many shenanigans and the dynamic was “very professional” because everyone was too busy working.
Kinsey disagreed — sharing that the accounting department played secret pranks. She recalled Oscar Nunez secretly passing her drawings of Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) while they were supposed to be working in the background.
“It cracked me up every time,” Kinsey said. “He would draw like all these weird pictures of like Kevin doing stupid things, and then he’d hand them to me and they’re hilarious, and then I’d have to be — and he’d just be very serious about it.”
“So there’s a lot of pranking in accounting.”
‘Really thankful’
When “The Office” premiered, Kinsey said the cast knew they were making something special, but they never imagined it would become a comfort show for generations of fans.
“None of us thought it would still be just people’s comfort show to this day,” Kinsey said. “And so it just means so much.”
Wilson added that the most meaningful part of the show’s enduring popularity is hearing fans share how the show gave them comfort during difficult times in their lives or brought them closer to their family. The show was intended to be a workplace comedy, he said, not something that would help people struggling with depression and anxiety.
“What a miracle that we got to make this show,” Wilson said, “and then it’s lasted this long and resonated so deeply emotionally with people.”
Through tears, Kinsey added, “I’m just really thankful. And I’m — I hold all the space that I can for anyone that comes up and shares with me.”
“The show just means that much to me,” she continued. “And that it means that to you guys, it just makes me emotional.”
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