Jenna Fischer and John C. Reilly in "Walk Hard"
(Credit: Gemma La Mana/Sony)
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The 33-year-old actress scored her first Emmy nomination for “The Office,” and her character, Pam Beesly, finally got together with long-time crush Jim Halpert. Fischer also had her first major film role, in the ice skating comedy “Blades of Glory,” where her groundedness balanced out the broader strokes of a cast headlined by Will Ferrell.
It was more than just acting that added to Fischer’s higher profile in ’07. She appeared nude on the cover Wired magazine in April, fractured her back falling down a flight of stairs in May, and announced her separation from her husband, writer-director James Gunn, in September.
Now she stars in “Walk Hard,” opening Dec. 21, a musical biopic parody about fictional singer Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly). Fischer plays Darlene, the home-wrecker-turned-true-love, a role patterned after Reese Witherspoon’s June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line.” “Walk Hard” finally allows the lovely comedienne to shed her wallflower persona to play a loud, pushy, sexy temptress.
Fischer spoke with Metromix about why she wanted to make a R-rated comedy, the challenges for funny ladies in Hollywood, working through tough times in her personal life and the origins of a certain “Office” character named Sprinkles.
How do you feel your career has changed this year?
I think Tina Fey said, “You really notice a change after you’ve been on television for three years.” Last year was our third season and I definitely noticed a difference. Initially, being on “The Office” opened some doors to more meetings with producers for movies or more auditions. Like I had to audition for “Blades of Glory,” I had to audition for “Walk Hard.” But then something happened after “Blades of Glory” came out—I was just being offered work. As an actor, that’s your dream. You don’t have to go into audition rooms any more. You’ve created a body of work by which you can get more work.
What do you look for in a film role?
I chose “Blades of Glory” because they cast me in it. And because it had a great cast. For “Walk Hard” I wanted to be in something that was rated R. I wanted to not have an edit button. My sense of humor can be kind of raunchy.
Did you get to do any R-rated improvs in the movie?
There’s an improv where Darlene is sharing a bunk bed with Dewey Cox. They decided that they’re just going to be friends, but they share a bunk. [Director] Jake Kasdan said, “Why don’t you lay on top of him in this lingerie and tell him all these things you can’t do because you’re friends, but describe it in detail.” Really earnestly, I got to just go on and on and on about all these pornographic things. I said it very sweetly but matter of factly.
There’s been a lot of talk this year about how women in comedy don’t get the same opportunities as men do. What’s your take?
Growing up I loved watching people like Diane Keaton and Madeline Kahn and Teri Garr and Goldie Hawn. I feel like there used to be movies that would have a funny guy and a funny girl. I don’t think they do that any more. I think if they remade “The Jerk” today they wouldn’t cast somebody as cool as Bernadette Peters, they would cast a hot model girl.
I hope that that’s starting to shift. I hope that we’re creating that troupe of funny women in movies that people appreciate. I feel like pretty much every romantic comedy script I read there’s a scene where I have to be in a bathing suit. At some point it becomes about the body. I’ll do that because it’s part of my job, but when a man takes off his clothes, he can be dumpy and funny, but a woman always has to be super hot.
Do you feel you have a particular comedic voice?
I was always drawn to comedy, but at the same time I couldn’t get the rhythms of a natural sitcom. I was just kind of waiting for the show that clicked with me, that had a different rhythm, with the jokes in the pauses between lines. A lot of times in auditions I would do that kind of reaction and the other person would look down and think that I was missing a line or something.
Is it tough to still do comedy when things get hard in your personal life?
When I’m working on a comedy, I take that work home with me, and it revives me. It’s really fun to go to work all day and laugh. It’s really healing. I wouldn’t want to go and do a rape drama for three months because I think I would go home and feel really awful every night. “The Office” is such a safe group of people that I’ve been working with for so long that it feels like family.
Now that Jim and Pam are together on “The Office,” how have you managed to keep their relationship funny and intriguing?
The thing people liked about Jim and Pam is that they had a really relatable story. They’re the personification of true love, and everybody in life is trying to find their true love. To watch these people go on that journey, I think it can be satisfying. I think there’s a whole other kind of comedy and relatability that can happen during the courtship stage. There’s a part of Jim and Pam that have been dating all along. They were the first person they went to with news, they were the first person they looked at when they thought of a good joke. The only thing that’s different is they get to make out now at home.
What’s your favorite line or moment that you improvised on the show?
The first season, [co-star] Angela [Kinsey] and I would pass little sticky notes over that partition on Pam’s desk, but Angela would always pass them in character. She passed me a sticky note one day that said “You’re invited to Sprinkles’ birthday party on Sunday, please RSVP,” and it was really funny and I just stuck it to my desk.
We did a scene where [the director] said, “Jim is going to come up to your desk and you’re going to improv flirting.” So I said “Are you going to Angela’s birthday party?” and he said, “What are you talking about?” I said, “It’s for her cat, Sprinkles.” They kept it in, and now Sprinkles has become a huge character on our show. Sprinkles got murdered by Dwight in the end. And it was a little seed that was planted in one of our first six episodes.
