Despite their characters’ frequent onscreen disputes, actors Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey had a great time making “The Office,” appearing through the whole nine seasons of the iconic NBC sitcom that ended in 2013.
They've remained friends, and today they look back on the mostly fun and hilarious backstage stories of the show with their popular podcast, “Office Ladies.” They’ve recently spun that gig out into a new book, The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There.
Loads of wacky stories are recounted in the book, but it was one particularly, as Mashable called it, “dreadful, disastrous, downright dangerous day on set” that proves it wasn’t always fun and games.
In season nine, “Breaking Bad’ actor Bryan Cranston was tapped to direct the episode, “Work Bus.” But after what happened, the cast took to forever calling that episode “Death Bus.”
"We want you to know,” wrote Kinsey, “that we see the irony that Bryan Cranston, aka Walter White Sr. or 'Heisenberg' as he was known in crystal methamphetamine circles, was an accessory to almost murdering the entire cast of 'The Office'.”
In the episode, Jim Halpern (John Krasinski) wants to finagle some extra vacation days, and convinces new building owner and longtime workplace rival, Dwight Schrute, that their office building is unsafe and in desperate need of repairs. Dwight agrees, but foils Jim’s plans by renting a mobile office where the crew can work until the office repairs are made – which of course leads to a number of nutty situations.
But what was comedic for viewers was a nightmare for the cast.
Fischer explains that the “small airport shuttle” used for the work bus scenes was cramped with 14 actors, four crew members, various office furniture and supplies (like a watercooler and microwave), and in general made for a highly uncomfortable and even dangerous rolling mess.
"What could go wrong?” asked Fischer, sarcastically.
"It was a very hot day,” Kinsey remembered, “and whenever we started filming, the air-conditioning on the bus had to be turned off because it was too noisy. We were basically in a moving hot tin can with no air.... Plus, it was a very curvy road. Jenna was getting a little carsick even though she had a forward-facing chair. At that point, the heat and the nausea seemed like our worst obstacles."
Or so they thought.
It was when they moved to the scene of Dwight driving “like a maniac” that things really got hairy.
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The bus was hooked up to a tow rig, and the actors were initially meant to pretend to to fall back and forth in the bus as Dwight raced and swerved around – but producers didn’t think the scene looked real enough.
So the vehicle was "detached from the rig and a stunt driver climbed on board," Fischer wrote. "There were no stunt actors, however. We stayed on and were told to keep doing what we'd been doing."
The plan began ok, until… “We were saying our lines and everything was going smoothly,” Kinsey wrote, “when all of a sudden, we heard the assistant director yell, 'Swerve!' The stunt driver swerved HARD.... As a result, the entire cast and contents of the bus went flying into the side of the party bus! What no one had considered… was that none of our office furniture, props, or set decorations were securely tied down."
Lamps and laptops, not to mention actor bodies, went flying everywhere.
"We were all smushed up against the side of the bus,” Kinsey recalled. “Papers were everywhere. I caught our desk lamp as it slid into my lap. A few people fell on the bus floor, and we could barely see them because so many things had fallen on top of them.”
A lunch break calmed things down, but not for long. A second, bizarre, near-death experience blew in.
As stated, the bus' AC was too loud, so the producers decided to hook up a portable AC unit that would drag behind the bus, featuring a hose that would go from the AC into the sunroof of the bus.
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Things were seemingly cooling down until, as Fischer recounts, “That's when I noticed a funny smell," Fischer said. “We began debating whether the bus smelled funny. Then our camera operator spoke up. She didn't feel well. She stumbled and set down her camera."
"Guess what?" Fischer revealed. "The portable air-conditioning unit's intake hose was right next to the exhaust pipe on the bus. So that hose was sucking in exhaust and blowing it straight into the sunroof of the bus. We were all being slowly poisoned."
Needless to say, the episode got completed, and made for a memorable one for a series loaded with them. But it seems Cranston needed some assurance after the wrap.
"Poor Bryan Cranston,” wrote Kinsey. “I gave him a big hug. He was so calm and kind even as the wheels were literally coming off the Dunder Mifflin bus."
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