To celebrate the release of The Office on Peacock, Andy Buckley (David Wallace), Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer), and Oscar Nuñez (Oscar Martinez) spoke to BuzzFeed and shared some new juicy, behind-the-scenes secrets. Here's what we learned:
1. In the episode "The Dundies," Chili's didn't want Pam to get drunk there — and asked for a script rewrite.
"When we shot that episode at Chili's, the first Dundie Awards, the people from Chili's were coming in because they were upset that Pam may get drunk there. So they actually asked for a rewrite. After that point, [showrunner] Greg Daniels decided that we were never going to pick a well-known restaurant to do anything. We don't want to check with anybody in the future. I just remember everybody sort of looking at each other, like, this is crazy! Who cares? I guess they care." —Kate
2. The scene in "Moroccan Christmas" where Michael drags Meredith into the parking lot was all improvised.
"I thought you wouldn't be able to hear any of it, because most of what we typically did was written or improvised out of what we were doing in that moment. So I was extremely proud that we had that." —Kate
3. Plus, the "Suck It" song with Greg Daniel's son was largely improvised.
"They handed it to me the morning of and said, 'Alright, at the end of the day, you're singing this song with Greg's son.' You know, aka Teddy [Wallace].
"I was like, 'Oh, crap. I know one chord on the piano. I don't know anything.'" —Andy
4. Oscar's IRL snobbiness was built into the character.
"I'm a bit of a snob. The older I get, the more curmudgeonly I get. The writers are very observant." —Oscar
5. Kate originally auditioned for the role of Jan. In her audition for Meredith, she was asked to remove all of her makeup.
"They said no makeup. Usually that means mascara, some lip gloss — they made us take it all off." —Kate
6. Andy had largely given up acting and was working for Merrill Lynch, which informed his role. A chance encounter with the casting director led to his audition, but he kept working in finance.
"I ran into Allison [Jones] in October of '05. She was my only fan, if you will, when I acted. She says, 'Buckley! What are you doing? What are you up to?'
"I say, 'I'm at Merrill Lynch, blah, blah, blah, I'm married, I got a son.' Four months after I run into Allison, she calls me and says, 'Buckley, I can't believe I found your card. You should come audition; you'd be the CFO of the show. They'll like that you're a [air quotes] 'financial guy.'" —Andy
7. Oscar loved the original Office and didn't think that the American version would work.
"I loved the English version of the show. When I heard they were going to do one here in America, I didn't think it was going to be good. I wasn't excited about it — I'm like, 'This is not going to last; we'll shoot a pilot and that'll be it.' So it took me a while. When I realized Steve Carell got the part of the lead, I was like, 'Okay, this might happen.'
"I thought if we could do it the way the UK did it, it would work. But I didn't think that NBC would do it. I didn't think Greg Daniels [would be] able to get what he did. I thought they were going to put a laugh track and not let us do those long, awkward pauses, and change it. It would be a regular sitcom." —Oscar
8. Kate kept her first Dundie, Meredith's purse (which had Jim and Pam's wedding program inside), and her pelvis cast.
"I made the pelvis cast into a coffee table [laughs]. No, I don't know what to do with it. It's in the closet." —Kate
9. Oscar kept a belt and some shoes, but he isn't sure where they are now.
"They're long gone." —Oscar
10. And Andy kept a "Suck It" sweatshirt and some "Wallis glasses."
"And a of couple of notepads from the Scranton branch." —Andy
11. The bald cap that Meredith wore took four hours to get on and three and a half hours to get off.
"Up until that point, I was like, 'Whatever you want me to do!" I don't know why I just couldn't shave my head. I couldn't do it. So we had the best bald-cap artist in the world — Ed French. He did Star Trek. He's amazing. I feel like he was the embodiment of patience. I have a newfound respect for all my sci-fi actor friends; they earn every dollar." —Kate
12. Meredith's van smelled terrible IRL.
"There were about 14 air fresheners. They were new and we were getting smoked out; it was bleugh. But, you know, that's why we get paid the big bucks." —Kate
13. Oscar is into the fan theory that Toby purposely told Michael about Oscar's sexuality to create chaos.
"That's a good theory; I never thought of that." —Oscar
14. Andy buys into the theory that Michael was a genius and that David and Michael were in cahoots to exploit Dunder Mifflin the whole time.
"I think he [Michael] was a genius. Yeah, why not go with that? Steve is certainly a genius." —Andy
15. Andy's also heard the fan theory that David was the Scranton Strangler, and he digs it.
"I've started that theory. Why was he always in Scranton? CFOs shouldn't be in the local branch all the time." —Andy
16. Kate thinks that Meredith would currently be in her basement, drinking on Zoom...
"She'd be staying safe because I think she's a survivor." —Kate
17. ...while Oscar thinks that his character would be a Democratic politician, campaigning for LGBTQ rights.
"I think he'd be in politics. A congressman or something." —Oscar
18. And Andy just hopes that David didn't spend all his "Suck It" money — and has stopped funding Robert California.
"I hope he'd be relaxing [laughs]." —Andy
You can stream The Office on Peacock here.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.