Jenna Fischer and her husband chat about his cameo on 'The Workplace'

Bear in mind the male lactation advisor on The Workplace who seemed on the digicam hours after Pam gave delivery, smiled, and stated, “Received milk?” That was Jenna Fischer’s precise husband.

On the newest episode of Stitcher’s Workplace Women podcast, co-hosts Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all in regards to the Season 6 episode, “The Supply” and welcomed two very particular visitors. First, Fischer’s sister, Emily shared what it was wish to have Jim and Pam’s child, Cece, named after her personal daughter. Then Fischer’s husband, Lee Kirk, referred to as in to debate his cameo as Clark, the male lactation advisor.

“I feel our listeners know Lee as an individual who makes wonderful eggs and low. In addition they know that he is a author/director. However what you won’t learn about him is that he did attend the Goodman College for Performing in Chicago,” Fischer shared. “So performing on this episode was not too large of a leap for him, despite the fact that finally now he’s a author/director.”

How Lee acquired his job on The Workplace

“We at all times ask our visitors, ‘How did you get your job on The Workplace?’ However possibly I ought to kick this one off,” Fischer stated. “When the writers got here up with this storyline of the lactation advisor, Paul Lieberstein approached me and stated, ‘Hey, Jenna. We have now this actually humorous concept, nevertheless it entails a person type of like squishing your breasts round. How do you are feeling about that? Like, that may be a visitor actor. Are you OK with it?’ And I stated, ‘Properly, I feel it will be possibly a bit awkward now that you simply point out it.’ And he stated, ‘Properly, what if that individual was your fiancée, Lee? What if Lee did it?'”

“You got here house. You advised me. I assumed it sounded fairly humorous, and I stated, ‘positive,'” Kirk recalled. “So after all they weren’t simply handing me the job. I needed to go in to Allison Jones [The Office casting director] and browse for the function and form of show that I may do it. Which I acquired to say, if there was ever a layup within the audition world, I imply, this was like a six foot hoop. It was like, ‘Simply please drop the ball within the basket and make everybody’s life simpler.'”

Kirk defined that he learn for the function, had fun, and acquired the half. Kinsey stated that on the DVD commentary for the episode the crew stated Kirk “crushed the audition.”

“They stated they liked how enterprise you had been as Clark. You simply got here in doing all of your factor. And once they had been rewatching the scene, they stated they liked how you’d pump the hand sanitizer as you left or as you got here up every time,” Kinsey stated. “It simply cracked them up.” 

“That hand sanitizer was like my go-to little safety blanket within the scene,” Kirk defined. “Like if I did not know what to do, I’d simply go pump some extra hand sanitizer.”

Making ready to play Clark

Now, the lactation advisor character was truly pitched to the writers by Kinsey based mostly on private expertise. However at this level in life, Fischer and Lee did not have any children, so they’d no firsthand experiences to encourage them.

“I form of seemed up what a lactation advisor was,” Kirk defined. “It is humorous as a result of we didn’t have children then, so I might by no means skilled a lactation advisor or the saga of breastfeeding up until then, you understand? So wanting again, I feel I in all probability, had I identified how tough breastfeeding will be and had I met some lactation consultants, I in all probability would have performed Clark a bit otherwise. As soon as we had children and Jenna was breastfeeding each of them we had been studying how it may be very tense and tough. And then you definately meet these lactation consultants that are available they usually’re simply stuffed with empathy. They usually know that the mother is stressed they usually’re oozing empathy. And I in all probability would have performed Clark with a bit extra of that.”

“, if had I identified, I in all probability would have given him a bit bit extra of — hmm, ‘acquired milk?'” Kirk stated. “I simply determined to play him very straight. , I knew the joke. The joke was, here is a male lactation advisor. And the humor goes to come back from Jim’s response to that. And so I simply type of I simply tried to put the pipe there and let John do all of the heavy lifting.”

On working together with his pal John Krasinski

Talking of Jim, Kirk additionally shared what it was like working with John Krasinski, his IRL pal.

“I do not forget that since you and John had been mates that John was actually attempting to make you snigger. Quite a bit. Like he was, he was, like, coming for you,” Fischer recalled.

“Yeah, he was laying it on fairly good. And it was actually it was laborious. It was laborious to not break,” Kirk stated. “If I seemed over at him as a result of he was — he’d maintain that pamphlet up and simply his eyes can be me. And it was laborious to not break, however we did it. I feel we did break just a few instances, did not we, Jenna?”

“We did. Yeah, it was, it was tough as a result of he was undoubtedly — he was milking it,” Fischer stated.

“Oh, Lord. There it’s,” Kinsey chimed in.

Lee’s biggest Workplace reminiscence

Working together with his spouse and mates had been clearly enormous pluses, however what Kirk remembers most about his day taking pictures on The Workplace was Harold Ramis directing.

“I do not know should you guys have talked about this, however we shot this scene on Groundhog Day. Do you do not forget that?” Kirk requested. 

“Sure, it was unimaginable. The director of Groundhog Day the film, Harold Ramis, was directing us on Groundhog Day,” Fischer stated. “I keep in mind within the morning we had been all identical to, ‘When can we go as much as Harold and be like, joyful Groundhog Day?'”

“Yeah. Properly, I keep in mind while you went as much as him, all of us had form of — I feel everybody was pondering it — and at last you stated it,” Kirk defined. “And when he began to speak about Groundhog Day, everybody simply type of came visiting. All of us simply moved over and simply sat there and listened to him speak about it. It was actually, actually enjoyable — actually thrilling.” 

“He was wonderful like that,” Kinsey added. “There was a day all of us talked to him about Ghostbusters, however he was simply so, so cool. I used to be bummed as a result of I wasn’t working that day. And I keep in mind Jenna calling me and saying, ‘Ange, I labored with Harold Ramis on Groundhog Day!’ Such as you geeked out about it.” Comprehensible!

Kirk additionally directed the Season 9 episode of The Workplace, “Vandalism,” so he’ll return to the podcast to debate that sooner or later. You should definitely take a look at the complete podcast episode to listen to extra behind-the-scenes tales about filming the episode, “The Supply, Half 2.”

You possibly can stream episodes of (opens in a brand new tab)The Workplace(opens in a brand new tab) on Peacock(opens in a brand new tab) and comply with together with the podcast each week on Earwolf(opens in a brand new tab), Apple Podcasts(opens in a brand new tab), or Stitcher(opens in a brand new tab).