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When fans got their first peek at the lives of the employees of Dunder Mifflin Paper Co., Scranton, little did they know how much they would fall in love with the show. And initially they didn’t. While the first season has its own fanbase, it still received a lot of flak. But how the turntables.
Over the course of the next few years, the series mesmerized fans, who couldn’t help but fall in with the characters overtime. And Ed Helms has the perfect rationale for explaining how the writers got the character development right.
Ed Helms shares a secret behindThe Office‘s success
What madeThe Officethe success it was, was how well it could make us fall for, and hate at the same time, characters who were total pricks. AndEd Helmsmight have the answer. While in conversation with Sam Jones onThe Off Camera Show, he was speaking about how the show’s creators nailed the process of looking after each character’s arc. He said,
I didn’t know if it (Andy) would ever come to be. Sometime later, I got the call just to do this 8 episode arc and what I learned very quickly, and I was very excited about, is that the writing staff is paying very close attention to everything that’s going on.
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InThe Hangoverstar’s own words, it was the result of constant development and symbiotic equation between the actors and the writers – an equation that resulted in an“eight episode arc”turning into so much more for him.
Ed Helms shares thatThe Officewriters listened to the actors while developing each character
Ed Helms shared that being a part ofThe Officewas an experience like no other. Improv was bread and butter for many actors on the show (thoughSteve Carellwas the flag bearer). And what madeThe Officetick was the fact that the folks behind the show promoted it.
TheVacationstar said,
Anything that you improvise or endow your character with, be it a speech pattern or a little nugget of personal history or physicality, the writers are picking up on that and either amplifying it or kind of using more of it in some way.
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Helms couldn’t help but love this little arrangement. He continued,
“t became this really cool symbiotic feedback loop of character development. I felt very much a part of it even though I wasn’t in the room.
That was the genius of the team comprising Paul Lieberstein, and Greg Daniels, amongst the other big names. They got to each characters core through the actor which played them.
Ed Helms continued,
I did feel a part of it because I felt listened to. I felt like my contributions were were being kind of taken in and considered.
It truly was a roller coaster ride, with Helms’ character Andy going on to become a central feature of the show, even managing to become the Branch Manager towards the end. But none of it can change the fact that he was one of the quirkiest characters on the show. And diverse as well. You need to punch the hole in a wall? Call Andy. Looking for an Acapella performance? Call Andy.
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One wonders how the writers put it all together. Or, was it Andy again? We can’t know for sure. What we can be certain of is that the freedom to improvise came in very handy forThe Officein the long run.
StreamThe Officeon Peacock.
Smriti Sneh
Articles Published :479
Smriti Sneh is a Content Writer at Fandom Wire specializing in celebrities and everything pop-culture. Being a literature research scholar, she is cashing in on her writing skills by working in the entertainment news sector - studying literary theories by day, and navigating celebrity net worth through the night. Although you can find her writing poems at any and all hours.
