Remember the male lactation consultant on The Office who looked at the camera hours after Pam gave birth, smiled, and said, "Got milk?" That was Jenna Fischer's actual husband.
On the latest episode of Stitcher's Office Ladies podcast, co-hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 6 episode, "The Delivery" and welcomed two very special guests. First, Fischer's sister, Emily shared what it was like to have Jim and Pam's baby, Cece, named after her own daughter. Then Fischer's husband, Lee Kirk, called in to discuss his cameo as Clark, the male lactation consultant.
"I think our listeners know Lee as a person who makes amazing eggs and coffee. They also know that he's a writer/director. But what you might not know about him is that he did attend the Goodman School for Acting in Chicago," Fischer shared. "So acting in this episode was not too big of a leap for him, even though ultimately now he is a writer/director."
How Lee got his job on The Office
"We always ask our guests, 'How did you get your job on The Office?' But maybe I should kick this one off," Fischer said. "When the writers came up with this storyline of the lactation consultant, Paul Lieberstein approached me and said, 'Hey, Jenna. We have this really funny idea, but it involves a man kind of like squishing your breasts around. How do you feel about that? Like, that would be a guest actor. Are you OK with it?' And I said, 'Well, I think it would be maybe a little awkward now that you mention it.' And he said, 'Well, what if that person was your fiancée, Lee? What if Lee did it?'"
"You came home. You told me. I thought it sounded pretty funny, and I said, 'sure,'" Kirk recalled. "So of course they weren't just handing me the job. I had to go in to Allison Jones [The Office casting director] and read for the role and sort of prove that I could do it. Which I got to say, if there was ever a layup in the audition world, I mean, this was like a six foot hoop. It was like, 'Just please drop the ball in the basket and make everyone's life easier.'"
Kirk explained that he read for the role, had a good time, and got the part. Kinsey said that on the DVD commentary for the episode the crew said Kirk "crushed the audition."
"They said they loved how business you were as Clark. You just came in doing your thing. And when they were rewatching the scene, they said they loved how you would pump the hand sanitizer as you left or as you came up each time," Kinsey said. "It just cracked them up."
"That hand sanitizer was like my go-to little security blanket in the scene," Kirk explained. "Like if I didn't know what to do, I'd just go pump some more hand sanitizer."
Preparing to play Clark
Now, the lactation consultant character was actually pitched to the writers by Kinsey based on personal experience. But at this point in life, Fischer and Lee didn't have any kids, so they had no firsthand experiences to inspire them.
"I sort of looked up what a lactation consultant was," Kirk explained. "It's funny because we did not have kids then, so I'd never experienced a lactation consultant or the saga of breastfeeding up till then, you know? So looking back, I think I probably, had I known how difficult breastfeeding can be and had I met some lactation consultants, I probably would have played Clark a little differently. Once we had kids and Jenna was breastfeeding both of them we were learning how it can be very stressful and difficult. And then you meet these lactation consultants that come in and they're just filled with empathy. And they know that the mom is stressed out and they're oozing empathy. And I probably would have played Clark with a little more of that."
"You know, if had I known, I probably would have given him a little bit more of — hmm, 'got milk?'" Kirk said. "I just decided to play him very straight. You know, I knew the joke. The joke was, here's a male lactation consultant. And the humor is going to come from Jim's reaction to that. And so I just kind of I just tried to lay the pipe there and let John do all the heavy lifting."
On working with his pal John Krasinski
Speaking of Jim, Kirk also shared what it was like working with John Krasinski, his IRL pal.
"I remember that because you and John were friends that John was really trying to make you laugh. A lot. Like he was, he was, like, coming for you," Fischer recalled.
"Yeah, he was laying it on pretty good. And it was really it was hard. It was hard to not break," Kirk said. "If I looked over at him because he was — he'd hold that pamphlet up and just his eyes would be looking at me. And it was hard not to break, but we did it. I think we did break a few times, didn't we, Jenna?"
"We did. Yeah, it was, it was difficult because he was definitely — he was milking it," Fischer said.
"Oh, Lord. There it is," Kinsey chimed in.
Lee's greatest Office memory
Working with his wife and friends were obviously huge pluses, but what Kirk remembers most about his day shooting on The Office was Harold Ramis directing.
"I don't know if you guys have mentioned this, but we shot this scene on Groundhog Day. Do you remember that?" Kirk asked.
"Yes, it was incredible. The director of Groundhog Day the movie, Harold Ramis, was directing us on Groundhog Day," Fischer said. "I remember in the morning we were all just like, 'When can we go up to Harold and be like, happy Groundhog Day?'"
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"Yeah. Well, I remember when you went up to him, we all had sort of — I think everyone was thinking it — and finally you said it," Kirk explained. "And when he started to talk about Groundhog Day, everyone just kind of came over. We all just moved over and just sat there and listened to him talk about it. It was really, really fun — really exciting."
"He was amazing like that," Kinsey added. "There was a day we all talked to him about Ghostbusters, but he was just so, so cool. I was bummed because I wasn't working that day. And I remember Jenna calling me and saying, 'Ange, I worked with Harold Ramis on Groundhog Day!' Like you geeked out about it." Understandable!
Kirk also directed the Season 9 episode of The Office, "Vandalism," so he'll return to the podcast to discuss that in the future. Be sure to check out the full podcast episode to hear more behind-the-scenes stories about filming the episode, "The Delivery, Part 2."
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