Angela Kinsey and Ed Helms conference call

Press: Angela, is your character working on a plan to get something on Phyllis so that she can get back into the party planning committee?

Angela: Oh, you know it. I mean not that the writers have told me, but I definitely think that she’s probably always got her eye out on everyone.

I wouldn’t be surprised if like Angela Martin has like a file on like her minutes of everyone’s behavior that she can use at some point.

Ed: God, you’re right. She’s like the J. Edgar Hoover of The Office.

Angela: Totally, totally. She’s keeping tabs on everyone.

Press: Ed, what do you think Andy will do if and when he finds out about Dwight and Angela? Like will his anger management training still hold, do you think?

Ed: Let’s see, I feel like this is a dangerous area for me to get into.

Angela: Totally.

Ed: But just in terms of — but I’ll just — in broad terms, I think that Andy’s anger issues — I’d like to think that they’re still very much there. I’m not sure anyone who has a real problem with that ever fully gets past it.

Angela: Right.

Ed: But he’s really learned a lot of coping mechanisms and has — I like — I have this image in my head. You know those — you can buy like an inflatable, like a little inflatable gremlin or something and it’s like you can beat this up and take your anger out on this thing.

Ed: So Andy has one of those at home. But for some reason I like the idea that Andy like beats up this little inflatable doll, like so much that like — he like swings it around his room and he’s actually damaging things around his house, like it’s not working because he’s still damaging things around him.

Angela: Right.

Ed: But yeah, there may be some little like — he has a little punching bag — metaphorical punching bag or literal, I don’t know, in his garage that allows him to kind of stay a little more centered and adhere to social norms a little bit better.

Press: Does he have any new nicknames that he’s working on?

Ed: You know, it’s funny, I forgot this but someone recently reminded me that — and this was just in improvisation during a shoot — but I had called BJ’s character, Ryan, Big Turkey one day which was — because, you know, Big Tuna came from …

Ed: … Jim bringing in a tuna sandwich …

Angela: A sandwich.

Ed: So the theory being that one day BJ brought in a turkey sandwich and he’s Big Turkey now. But I actually am quite a nicknamer in real life, too. So it’s — there’s always something brewing.

Press: I was wondering about the open hostility between two people who are supposedly engaged.

Now I know that we often, in life, maybe see people who are supposed to be getting married and you’re thinking to yourself oh god, that’s not going to last.

Do either of you have any experience with something like that? You don’t have to name any names. But just couples who you look at and you go my god, like why in god’s name are they getting married?

Angela: Oh my gosh. I think that if you sort of like are part of like a huge group of couples, there’s usually always one.

I think that’s why I love that SNL sketch so much, the Bickerson’s, you know, because I think there’s always like one. And definitely — yeah, I’ve definitely been there.

Ed: I think that relationships like — the definition of a working relationship is so different for everyone and it …

Angela: Completely.

Ed: You know, and what may work for one couple is horrifying to another couple. And I think that, you know, what Andy and Angela have is largely horrifying.

Angela: Right.

Ed: But there is a real — in some ways, who they are dovetails perfectly, like who each person is fits — they fit together because I think there’s a little bit of a feedback loop of Angela being so demanding and Andy being so accommodating.

And it doesn’t work. It’s like it’s not healthy, but it works. You know what I mean?

Angela: Totally. And I think…

Ed: It’s like — and by works, I just mean it keeps them together.

Angela: I think also, too, like I think we’ve all like had relationships where different people bring different sides of you out more prominently, you know.

Ed: Oh yeah, totally.