Angela Kinsey and Ed Helms conference call

The Office’s Angela Kinsey and Ed Helms held a conference call last Thursday to discuss the mystery that is Angela and Andy’s relationship. :)

Despite several attempts by various members of the press to get them to spill spoilers, Angela and Ed held their ground — and still told some entertaining stories along the way. (There’s no getting past the fact that Ed and Angela are very cute together.)

NBC very kindly sent along the transcript, and I’ve streamlined it — otherwise it would be, like, a bazillion pages.

Happy reading!

Press: In approaching both of your characters which are so much fun on TV but I’m not sure that it’d be as much fun if you really had to be with them all day, like if they worked in the office with you. How do you approach that? How do you approach your characters?

Angela: Oh my gosh. Ed, do you want to go first?

Ed: Oh sure, Angela. Thanks.

Angela: I have an answer. I can go.

Ed: I think it’s funny, like a lot of characters in comedy are atrocious in real life and that’s — it’s the sort of bubble of television or a movie or whatever sort of vehicle you’re looking at it through that makes it — it gives you license to laugh at it.

And for me, I guess Andy — I’ve tried to find a lot to love about Andy and a real sort of sincerity. If anything, he’s guilty of caring too much sometimes.

We have the ability to laugh at jerks on TV, but also playing the dichotomy, — both the positive and the negative — hopefully trying to give the audience something to hope for with Andy but also a lot to just kind of roll your eyes at, at the same time.

Angela: I actually had a few odd jobs in the corporate world as a struggling actress. I worked in customer service. I worked in the mailroom. I was an operator at 1-800-Dentist and I had a bunch of ridiculous meetings I’d have to go to. And I’ve had to work with people who I probably would never have hung out with socially.

And I found that in my character — I found a little bit of her in these different companies I worked at.

There was always sort of the stickler and the busybody and the person who like just had this little amount of authority in their life and went berserk with it.

Ed: Right, right.

Angela: And so I try to like make her real and she’s definitely prickly. But I try to find in my own way — the way Ed does — like a way to like her even with all her craziness that like yes she’d probably drive you crazy but she’d probably, you know, completely organize your desk for you if you let her.

So I try to find the hills and valleys in her. But it’s definitely a lot of fun and I definitely draw on my past experience in the corporate America.

Ed: You know what’s funny is I have — the hard part that I have is justifying Andy’s affection for Angela.

Angela: That’s true.

Ed: You know, like my dad asked me recently, he’s like why are you with that woman? And it’s a very valid question.

Angela: Aw, poor guy.

Ed: But I think — but actually, I do think that there’s just this unflappable optimism and like if there’s one thing that’s really great about Andy is he’s so decisive and like he goes with something.

And once he decides it’s what he wants, he’s just in it and he throws his whole heart into it.

Angela: Yeah.

Ed: And I think that’s just what’s happened in this relationship with Angela. It’s like this is…

Angela: Come on board.

Ed: … this is my life partner and this is going to work god dammit.

Angela: Yeah.

Press: Have you gotten any grief from fans who don’t approve of the way you’ve treated Andy?

Angela: Not yet, but I kind of stay close to home with my baby. I’m a little afraid. No, I wonder what it would be like to be sort of out in a mall right now.

But, I have to say our fans are such die hard fans of the show and they’re really great at appreciating all the characters and their quirks.

And I think they’ve seen enough of us outside of work that they know that we’re not that character. But occasionally, like one or two — like I had this woman come up to me and say will you take a picture with my friend.

She was too scared to approach you because she was afraid you might be like your character.

And then I was in an elevator and this man said — I guess I had my Angela Martin face on which is scary that it’s become like my natural resting face. And he came up to me and he goes hey, everything is going to be okay, you know. And I was like oh no, what do I look like right now? But it’s kind of an occupational hazard I think for me to wear a frown when I leave work.

Press: Ed, did you miss being in the fake news business during the run-up to this week’s election?

Ed: I don’t miss that really much at all. I feel so lucky to be a part of The Office and it’s so fun, so consistently. I loved being in the fake news business.

But it was so taxing to do those interviews and to just — and especially — I have great memories from the 2004 campaign coverage. But it’s really, really hard — really hard work.

And it’s very hard on your constitution. And it — so I loved it, but I don’t yearn for it.