Jenna Fischer

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Who knew working as a dowdy receptionist would have turned Jenna Fischer into one of the hottest comedic actresses around' She plays The Office's shy-yet-loveable Pam, who along with John Krasinski's Jim makes up TV's most adorable pair. The role earned Fischer an Emmy-nomination this year and opened the door to movie roles in funny flicks like Blades of Glory and this month's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Always down-to-earth as evidenced by her personal interaction with fans via her popular MySpace blog and her comfortable distance from the glamorized Hollywood spotlight, it's no wonder that Fischer has become the kind of relatable success we all root for.

If you've read her blog or seen her do interviews you'll know that she still gets excited over the little things, is best friends with her co-stars (namely The Office's resident uppity accountant Angela Kinsey), and genuinely enjoys shopping at Target! So when she expresses her gratefulness for her first lead role along John C. Reilly in Walk Hard, you truly believe her positive spirit.

The role of sexpot singer and Dewey Cox's second wife Darlene was a departure from the demure Pam, and it was one she was surprised to get. 'When they sent me the script I assumed they wanted me to read for Edith; that's what I wanted to read for,' she says. 'She's sort of like the put-upon wallflower first wife, but they already had Kristen Wiig. So when I went into the audition they asked me to read Darlene. I just didn't see myself that way and I had to get over a lot of my own personal shyness in order to do that. But it was good. Sometimes acting is really cool because it forces you to exercise certain muscles in your personality that you wouldn't normally be called upon in life, and so this was kind of my chance to be in the spotlight and revel in the spotlight and be very flashy with my costumes and my hair and makeup. I had to find that part of me that enjoyed that.'

Once she got into the role, though, it became a freeing experience. 'The role was definitely liberating, that's for sure,' Fischer says. 'I'm typically like if you go to the beach I'm like the last one to take my cover-up off and I'm like the first one to grab a towel. I'm getting out of the water and the towel is getting soaked on the bottom; I'm trying to like put it on before I'm really out of the water. So I'm very shy in that way so for me to be like having the cleavage out and the tight costumes'even just the attention to my physical self that was necessary to play a role like this. Pam is really an inside-out kind of girl and kind of character. She's a real thinker and she's a feeler. Darlene starts from the outside and then when you get inside there's not a lot there. So she's very vacant. That was an adjustment for me to make.'

Walk Hard is a send-up of the musician biopics from recent years including Walk the Line and Ray. Even though Fischer didn't really sing for the role, she still got to act out performing on-stage. So did she call upon any musical influences' 'I am really musically illiterate,' she admits. 'I was listening to a mix CD the other day that my friend had made and a different friend was in the car and I turned on a song and I was like, 'Oh my gosh listen to this band, I love them they're fantastic, I want to get more of their music!' And they were like yeah, that's The Clash. And I was like they're fantastic; I hope they keep making records because I just think they're great! And they're like, yeah I can get you a few albums of that. So I had no idea. Growing up I watched a lot of movie/musicals. My mom had a lot of movie/musical things and she listened to Barry Manilow, so I didn't have a very hip musical upbringing.'

In an industry where funny lead female characters are few and far between, Fischer stands out as a true talent. She realizes the shortage in the industry today. 'I think there was a time when we had people like Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton and Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn,' she says. 'These were women who were starring in movies, they were female driven films with female protagonists and they were funny and they were the leading lady. I think about a movie like The Jerk and think they would never cast somebody like Bernadette Peters in a role like that today. It would be like some leggy European model or some like beautiful singer-turned-actress. It wouldn't be a real comedic actress. I think there's a little bit of a comeback now and I'm happy for that. People like Tina Fey are leading the way and people like Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig is a great example. So I hope that we're forming like another little troupe and I think it would be really great if eventually we could trick people into coming to see our movies with just us and not have to have a male star at the head of it.'

Better still, according to Fischer, will be when comediennes can stop worrying about looking pretty and just let the humor speak for itself. 'I think the one thing that women face is we still have to be hot,' she says. 'There's still a scene where we're in our bathing suit. And men when they take their clothes off it can be funny but when the female funny girl takes her clothes off she still has to have these abs and these rockin' legs and also be funny. And I think it's like that thing Ginger Rogers said--I'm doing it all and I have to dance backwards. It's like I'm being funny and I have to be in a bikini. I think I'd like to see that change a little bit.'

Another thing she hopes to see change' The on-going writer's strike, which has put a hold on filming the remaining season of The Office. 'I know that the script that was shut down was called The Dinner Party and Michael Scott throws a dinner party with Jan at his condo,' she says. 'That's an idea that we've been kicking around for about 2 years. The idea of Michael inviting all the couples to his house and they all have to be together at a dinner party. It was really funny and it planted a lot of seeds that were going to pay off throughout the season with Dwight and Angela and Michael and Jan.'

Pre-writer's strike, Fischer and cast-mates were able to frequently give their own suggestions to the writers which sometimes made it into the script. 'It's pretty collaborative because the writers are on set so we pitch things,' she says. 'Angela and I came up with the women-in-the-workplace storyline that we pitched a couple of seasons ago where Jan holds a women-in-the-workplace seminar. We're always pitching ideas for the women on the show. We loved the episode where Michael takes all the women to the mall. When Phyllis was getting married we tried to pitch a bachelorette party episode and they ended up coming up with the Ben-Franklin-as-our-stripper episode.'

Despite The Office's hiatus, Fischer's career continues to thrive. Her aforementioned MySpace blog gives fans and other aspiring actors an inside look at the ups and downs of the business. You get to know the real Fischer, and you find out she's pretty darn cool.

'When I think about who I'm writing to when I'm writing the blog, I think about writing to my younger self when I was still stuck in St. Louis, Missouri and I hadn't been able to make it to LA yet and I wanted to know everything I could find out about the entertainment industry, what it was like to be an actor and what was that experience like from behind the scenes,' she says. 'I think anybody who's an aspiring actor'it's a very hard business to get any information about. When you're growing up in St. Louis, Missouri there's no modeling for how to have that kind of life.'

Consider Jenna Fischer the perfect role model.