Angela Kinsey and Ed Helms conference call

Press: You’re happy where you are?

Ed: Yes. The thing that I miss is just that feeling of being like very close to the heart of it, which was really exciting and, you know, we attended the conventions.

And we spoke to a lot of people who were right in the middle of it which was really, really exciting, and especially such an historic election this year. There were pangs of sort of like maybe a little bit of nostalgia perhaps. But not a real yearn for it.

And I’ll tell you what’s funny is that what you asked Angela about feeling that people think she is like her character, I have more trouble with that on the Daily Show than I have on The Office because I played a sort of heightened, jerk-ish version of myself on the Daily show. My friend was like yeah, I was just talking to my buddy and he was like oh you’re friends with Ed Helms? That guy seems like kind of a jerk. And I remember getting really like…

Angela: Bummed out?

Ed: …despondent about it because if I didn’t — I was like wait a minute, don’t people realize that we’re different characters on that show?

Angela: Right.

Ed: But I think there is a blurry line sometimes between perception even though — even when you give an audience full credit for like knowing the difference, there’s just something kind of visceral that kicks in when you see somebody and you have all these associations with them.

Angela: Yeah, totally. I went to Scranton with Brian and everyone was coming up like Kevin, I want to have a beer. And then they’d be like Angela, eeh. And I’d be like I’ll have a beer too. And they’re like oh, okay.

Press: Have you guys ever had your own office romances in the past in your corporate days?

Angela: Oh…

Ed: Tabloids bombshell, Angela and I are dating. That would (cut through) it all.

Angela: What? Oh no.

Ed: That’s completely false. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a workplace romance. Yeah, I don’t think I have.

Angela: I have not had a workplace romance. I was asked out at one of my corporate jobs by a co-worker and I went. And it was awkward and then I had to work with that person every single day.

And I definitely didn’t reciprocate the — I was like oh we’ll just go out. It’ll be friends, you know, friends — co-worker friends, yah, and then it was like oh, he wants to smooch me. Aahh.

And then I had to like go and see him everyday at work. So that was somewhat awkward.

Ed: I totally had the workplace romance and it was my first job out of college. And this entire company was four people and we hired a new like bookkeeper or something.

And we started dating, and we totally hid it. I remember we were just sort of like yeah let’s just not tell the other two guys in the company.

Ed: But they completely knew.

Ed: Yeah, and we were like 22 and 23 or whatever and they were like in their 30s and just far more sort of savvy. And they were like guys, we know what’s going on.

Angela: Right.

Press: Angela, is it exciting to kind of be like this saucy office minx on the show now?

Angela: My gosh.

Angela: I don’t know what’s happened to my character. She’s like crazy like I don’t know. It is so much fun to play because, you know, it’s just — it’s like a buffet, you know. There’s so much to choose from happening with her.

And so as an actor I love it. My poor dad is being put through the ringer though. Like — he’ll like watch an episode and he’ll be like are you serious man, what’s going on, you know, because his daughter is like kind of the office skank. I don’t know. But it’s definitely a lot of fun to play.

Press: And what about for you, Ed? Is it like weird to play, you know, like this kind of lovesick guy who is totally getting — I mean…

Ed: I love it. I love — I just — I think — I was mentioning earlier it’s like I found so much to love about Andy and I think there’s a lot of me in him. Like there — the things that I’m kind of ashamed of, I just like blow out of proportion for Andy and — or the things that I might be insecure about I just make them the biggest parts of Andy.

Ed: And so I don’t know, I just — I love it and I love the dynamic. I love his passion for Angela. And it’s — as the show — as sort of Andy has grown on — in the world of The Office and all the characters continue to get more and more fleshed out, it just gets more complicated which is so much more fun as a performer.

And it gets so much more information and data. It gets — accumulates and it’s just more to work with. So I — it’s — I love it. It’s a blast.

Angela: Yeah. I think you bring up a good point, too, that I think no matter what kind of character you play — even if they’re evil or sinister or skanky — you bring a little bit of yourself to that character.

I mean I know for Angela Martin I tend to be — sometimes I overly like organize. Like I’ll take on a project that’s ridiculous like I organized all of my wrapping paper and my ribbons, and my tissue paper. And …