Actor and musician Josh Groban chatted with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey of the Office Ladies podcast to relive his brief stint on the iconic show.
LISTEN NOW: Garden Party with Josh Groban: Office Ladies
As perhaps only die-hard office fans would know, Groban played Andy’s little brother, Walter Bernard, Jr. with whom Ed Helms' character has a sibling rivalry. Walter is portrayed as just slightly better than Andy at everything, from singing to earning their father’s approval. But what makes the character so endearing, Groban explained, is his complete innocence in the situation. “He's like this super talented golden retriever that just, like, doesn't know,” Groban laughed, saying that his lack of awareness was, “one of the things that really made that dynamic really adorable and really fun.”
More than just loving his character, Josh Groban believes he truly got lucky with his feature on the show. “Sometimes when you make a guest appearance on a show, you're doing it with one person or two or two people from the show and you're part of like a little arc that doesn't involve other people in the cast,” he told Fischer and Kinsey. “And so to be part of a 'everybody together doing a party' scene meant that, as a fanboy of the show, I got to sit and just be around like the entire cast for the entirety of the day.” And naturally, any fan would love to hang out with their favorite TV show cast. But as an actor himself, Groban took the opportunity to learn from those around him, which made his experience even more significant.
“I had not done a lot of acting at that time, and I'd certainly not done a lot of comedy acting at that time. And so to be around so many very funny, very talented people, we got to like, share stories about, like, our different worlds.” As the shoot ran, he got to talking with members of the cast about acting versus music. “It actually kind of turned into like a real garden party” Groban chuckled.
To hear the trio talk about breaking character and how Groban is again accidentally one-upping Andy’s character on Broadway, check out the full podcast episode for on the free Audacy app.
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