A Look Back on an Interview with Zach Woods

Summary

Office Ladies – "A Look Back on an Interview with Zach Woods"

Podcast: Office Ladies
Episode Date: September 17, 2025
Hosts: Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey
Guest: Zach Woods (Gabe Lewis on The Office)
Main Theme: An insightful, candid, and humorous conversation with Zach Woods reflecting on joining The Office cast in its later seasons, memories from set, the imposter syndrome of being a newcomer, and deeper musings on identity, artistic fulfillment, and kindness.

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Episode Overview

In this special episode, Jenna and Angela hit rewind, re-airing one of their most beloved interviews – their 2023 conversation with Zach Woods, the actor behind Dunder Mifflin’s awkward and endlessly memorable Gabe Lewis. The episode is a joyous, reflective deep dive into Zach’s experience joining The Office during its sixth season, the anxieties and quirks of that transition, stories from behind the scenes, and a thoughtful exploration of what it means to thrive as an actor and as a human being. Highlights include heartfelt gratitude toward casting director Allison Jones, hilarious recountings of set moments and fan-favorite Gabe lines, and revealing discussions about navigating success and self-worth in Hollywood.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Zach’s Path to The Office & The Magic of Allison Jones

[11:47 - 15:02]

• Zach credits casting director Allison Jones as his "fairy godmother," sharing how she not only championed his career but also helped him find a place to live in LA:

  “Allison Jones...tapped me with her magic wand and gave me my life in LA, basically.” (Zach Woods, 14:37)

• Both Jenna and Zach recall how rare and impactful it was to encounter a Hollywood gatekeeper genuinely invested in nurturing new talent.
• Allison Jones is described as humble, “flinty” and quietly influential—someone who resists overt praise but who has launched many comedic actors’ careers.

2. Improv Roots & the Joys of ‘Cringe’

[16:14 - 17:49]

• Zach shares the importance of his Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) background, and the camaraderie and unabashed silliness of improv.
• The group laughs about seeing improv troupes doing warm-up games, and the lovable nerdiness of that scene:

  “They look so happy...being so cringe so happily out in public in New York on the street. God bless you guys.” (Zach Woods, 17:05)

3. First Days on Set: Nerves, Impostor Syndrome, and Kindness

[18:09 - 23:56]

• Zach describes the anxiety and surrealness of joining a long-running, celebrated ensemble as the new guy, and his fear (he jokes about buying “multiple humidifiers and lozenges” at Walmart for his voice).
• His first scene was a talking head, which helped ease him in.
• He recounts the remarkable warmth and “hospitality” from the existing cast and crew:

  “It was the photo negative of what happened to the character Gabe...it was the exact opposite.” (Zach Woods, 23:02)

4. Favorite Behind-the-Scenes Stories

[25:06 - 26:05]

• Jenna reminisces about Zach’s legendary white elephant gift—the sarcophagus jewelry box—still on her bookshelf.
• Zach jokes about the “spiritually fraught” nature of white elephant gift exchanges and the pressure to impress one’s peers.

5. The Kathy Bates & Great Danes Era

[26:23 - 27:09; 48:53 - 49:32]

• Zach shares that his earliest episodes included wild moments: entering Dunder Mifflin to hot dogs, the “Sabre Song,” wrestling Great Danes, and scenes with Kathy Bates.
• All recall the intimidating arrival of Bates on set, the awe they felt, and the inside stories that come with celebrity cameos.
• The Great Danes, he notes, were “frustratingly professional,” acting like experienced pros rather than cuddly pets.

6. Impressions of Being Recognized as Gabe

[57:34 - 59:14]

• Zach recounts a painfully awkward moment: being recognized by a fan in an airport while (innocently) photographing a lactation station for his show’s research, mirroring Gabe’s on-screen awkwardness.

7. Acting, Anxiety, and Artistic Advice

[63:27 - 69:01]

• The group discusses what they wish they could tell their earlier selves in The Office years: about saying ‘enough’ for themselves, not being pressured into others’ ideas of success, and the importance of diversifying self-worth beyond career.
• Zach shares:

  “Don’t mistake your neuroses for your artistic process...tell a new story at work. Tell someone else’s story.” (Zach Woods, 70:21)

8. Favorite Lines, Scenes, and Legend Status

[39:39 - 41:26]

• Jenna shares a rundown of Gabe’s fan-favorite quotes, including the infamous:

  "Shut up about the sun. Shut up about the sun!" (Jenna quoting Zach/Gabe, 40:30)

• They laugh over the “sometimes I wonder if I have ovaries in my scrotum” line, with Zach genuinely appalled at the phrasing.

9. Reflection, Connection, and Kindness

[77:44 - 79:40]

• Zach beautifully articulates the kindness he experienced and how it shaped his life and career:

  “I want people who like the show to know how kind the people who worked on the show were and are, you know.” (Zach Woods, 79:40)

10. Gabe’s Legacy & The Enduring Comfort of The Office

[59:01 - 61:25]

• Zach discusses the demographic split of his fans, the show’s enduring comfort for young people, and how The Office acts as “emotional wallpaper”—a safe, familiar escape for viewers.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Allison Jones praise:

  "Allison Jones... tapped me with her magic wand and gave me my life in LA, basically."
  (Zach Woods, 14:37)

• On improv and happiness:

  “Grown adults just being so cringe so happily out in public... I found it so moving.”
  (Zach Woods, 17:05)

• First-day nerves:

  “I was in a Walmart, buying multiple humidifiers and lozenges... muttering my lines to myself like a crazy person.”
  (Zach Woods, 19:18)

• Welcomed by the cast:

  “It was like the photo negative of what happened to the character Gabe... The group of people is just, like, so envelopingly sweet.”
  (Zach Woods, 23:02)

• White elephant gift:

  “It feels like a moral, spiritual test. So I’m glad that I passed.”
  (Zach Woods, 24:33)

• Favorite Gabe line:

  “Shut up about the sun. Shut up about the sun.”
  (Jenna quoting, 40:30)

• On being recognized in public:

  "This guy just saw me by myself in an airport photographing a lactation station... he must think I'm like, that Gabe is a toned down version of me."
  (Zach Woods, 58:23)

• On legacy and comfort of the show:

  "It's so sweet to me that kids find it so comforting that it's a kind of emotional wallpaper."
  (Zach Woods, 59:14)

• On success and authenticity:

  "Success on somebody else's terms is not success. And success on your own terms doesn't have to look like somebody else's..."
  (Zach Woods, 67:03)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Zach’s Introduction and Allison Jones’ impact:
  [11:47 – 16:15]

• Improv background & early dreams:
  [16:14 – 17:49]

• Joining The Office and overt nervousness:
  [18:09 – 20:41]

• Experiencing the warmth of the cast:
  [21:07 – 24:47]

• Reflecting on favorite gifts and memories:
  [24:47 – 26:05]

• First run-ins with Kathy Bates and early set experiences:
  [26:23 – 28:56]

• Being the “old-timers” now & fan interactions:
  [29:25 – 34:06]

• Blog post for actors and comfort in vulnerability:
  [34:06 – 36:47]

• Favorite moments and improv scenes:
  [39:39 – 41:26]

• Search Committee, Lady Gaga, and working with guest stars:
  [45:18 – 48:53]

• Life, identity, and choosing your own ‘enough’:
  [63:27 – 66:43]

• Deep artistic and philosophical takeaways:
  [67:03 – 70:32]

• Most magical moments on set:
  [71:17 – 76:18]

• Kindness, connection, and cast family:
  [77:44 – 79:40]

---

Conclusion

This episode is a testament to the lasting bonds forged on The Office and the personal growth, humor, and kindness that defined its off-screen family. Zach Woods, with his signature wit and introspective warmth, offered memorable stories and authentic perspective—a true treat for fans longing for new insights into the show’s legacy and the lives it touched. Jenna and Angela, as ever, bring equal parts heart and hilarity, sustaining the connection and joy that made The Office a comfort for so many.

---

For more behind-the-scenes content, be sure to follow Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, and Zach Woods online, and keep an eye out for Zach’s upcoming stop-motion series, “In the Know.”

Transcript

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[Jenna Fischer]

Hello, everybody.

Hey there.

Guess what? My play just opened.

Her play just opened and I went for opening night.

You did, but you actually haven't done it yet because we're recording this before the play opened. But I'm hoping that you had a great time and you loved it.

Lady, I'm sure I had a wonderful time and I'm sure you were fantastic, and the play was amazing. And I probably ate great food in Chicago.

Yeah. What else do you think happened while you were there? Did you meet some wonderful people? I introduced you to the cast. I'm sure.

Yeah. I'm also sure I made really good friends with a perfect stranger at the airport.

I'm sure this is awesome.

I tend to do that. I probably got to know, like, my cab driver really well. Probably know his backstory. Maybe he in another life, you know, before he was a cab driver, did river rafting. I probably got really deep into that conversation. These are all of our probablys because we are actually recording this before you go off. And lady, you know what? I know we're joking around here, but I am really gonna miss you. Aw. Yeah.

I'm gonna miss you. I'm gonna miss this.

[Angela Kinsey]

I know.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think we might need to pop on and do a little Friday chit chat.

[Angela Kinsey]

We have to.

[Jenna Fischer]

You're gonna have all these great Chicago stories. I am going to Iceland. I am going to the penis museum.

Yeah. And we're gonna need to let people know how that went.

All right, well, listen, on that note, on that note, how do we segue here? Since we're out of town, we wanted to re air one of our favorite.

[Angela Kinsey]

Interviews was Zach Woods.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know, he played Gabe Lewis on the Office. He shares with us what it was like to join the show in the.

[Angela Kinsey]

Middle of season six.

[Jenna Fischer]

Plus, we ask him about some of his favorite memories on the show, and then he ends up kind of interviewing us. It's such a great conversation. We hope you enjoy it and we.

[Angela Kinsey]

Will see you next Week with all new episodes.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, have a good one.

I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on the Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week we will break down an episode of the Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the Office ladies.

[Zach Woods]

Hello.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hey. Welcome back.

Welcome back from Thanksgiving. We hope everybody had good meals and good times.

Yes. With friends and family. Some people do. Friendsgiving.

One of my favorite Thanksgivings was a friendsgiving. It was my first year in Los Angeles. I couldn't afford to fly home to see family.

Yeah.

So me and my other friends who were in la, we got together and we had a Thanksgiving. My friend Luda, she's Russian, she brought this Russian vodka. We all got so, so hammered.

That's a friendsgiving.

It was so fun. I actually just found a picture of us recently. It came up in my memory.

Really?

Uh huh.

Yeah. Yeah, I love that.

Yeah, we had traded it.

You know, Josh, he. He bought me the most insane thing last year for Thanksgiving. And he was like, this is gonna be a tradition now. You're gonna have to wear it every Thanksgiving. I was like, babe, what is it? Okay. You know, I'm always cold and I always want a cozy onesie. I'm like, babe, get me a onesie. Get me a cozy onesie. Okay, lady, It's a turkey.

A turkey.

What is it? First of all, it's a one size fits all, so it's enormous.

Do you eat in it? I wear it all day.

No, I can't. It's like wearing a giant blanket. I can't eat in it, but I do put it on. Well, I've only done. This is my second year.

Okay.

I don't know what the tradition of this turkey onesie's gonna be, but I told him, here's what I'll do. Cause he thinks it's so cute. I put it on and I watched the Macy's Day parade in my turkey onesie. Okay.

And then, you know, that sounds cozy.

We get the food prep going, but I don't wear it to the actual Thanksgiving dinner. What is it that Josh thinks This is so funny. I look like a tiny, tiny turkey.

Do you watch football?

Oh, yeah, Football's always on.

So when I got into football, I was dating a guy who was from Detroit. And you know, Detroit plays every Thanksgiving and the Cowboys. Yes. Now I'm married to a Dallas Man.

Yeah.

Now I'm a Cowboys fan.

Oh, yeah?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So Cowboys every Thanksgiving, you gotta work the meal around it.

Half of my family's from Texas, lady.

It's always fun, you know? What am I saying? I know, of course. Well, listen, we have a really exciting show for you today. I don't even know what to say about it. It's maybe one of my favorite episodes we've ever done.

Jenna and I are in love with this interview, you guys. I'm sorry it's an interview, but it was so wonderful. Well, Jenna, you tell everyone.

Well, we got to sit down with Zach Woods. As you know, Zach played Gabe Lewis on 52 episodes of the Office. He was on from season six to season nine. We talk all about it. We talk about his entire time on the show and other things.

Here's the thing. He's just so interesting and he's so smart and funny and we would be talking about the show and then he would throw you and I like a curveball question, like a deep life question.

About what it means to be just human and alive.

Yes.

So fun.

I just can't wait for everyone to listen to this interview. I just love it.

Well, you guys, Zach is currently working on a new stop motion animation series called in the Know. He's the co creator, the director and star of the show, and Greg Daniels is one of the executive producers. So, you know, this is gonna be good. The show premieres on Peacock in the new year, so be on the lookout.

Yeah, we'll share about it in stories. But you know what? I think we take a quick break and get to this interview because it's so fantastic.

You're going to love it. And the second half, dare I say, is even better than the first.

It keeps getting better and better.

Here it is.

[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

Hello, Zach.

[Zach Woods]

Hello, Zach.

[Jenna Fischer]

How wonderful to see you.

[Zach Woods]

How wonderful to see you. And you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Should we tell people? We've actually been chatting off mic for, like, 30 minutes.

Oh, seriously? We've been talking for half an hour, but we decided we should probably get to the podcast.

Yes.

[Zach Woods]

They literally said we're gonna do a big fake hello and then you immediately call it on yourselves.

[Jenna Fischer]

You're giving away our secret.

[Zach Woods]

Sorry. I'm gonna do an Office Man Office Ladies podcast where I tell the stories behind the Office Ladies podcast.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, it'll be like Russian dolls. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So you listen to Office Ladies and you break down our podcast.

[Zach Woods]

Right. And I'll have you guys on to talk about the podcast when you're talking about the.

[Jenna Fischer]

This might be a genius idea. Well, we're gonna kick things off with the question we ask all of our guests to start, which is, how did you get your job on the Office?

[Zach Woods]

It's a good question. Alison Jones, who you guys both know, was like a fairy godmother to me. Like, she. For people who. I mean, I know you've talked about her on the show, but she was the casting director for the show and like, basically American comedy for a decade or more. Right. And she brought me in to her office, which was in Gower Studios, where I guess they used to shoot I Love Lucy and stuff.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Zach Woods]

Right? Isn't that right?

[Jenna Fischer]

I think so, yeah.

[Zach Woods]

It was like one of these old Hollywood things.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's got, like, plaques everywhere, right? Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

And, like, plaster, and it just feels like, you know, whatever you can, like, it's like where you can imagine, like, Clark Gable stumbling into there after he, like, killed someone and be like, telling his publicist, like, bury it. But anyway.

[Jenna Fischer]

Poor Clark Gable.

[Zach Woods]

Sorry, Clark Gable. You probably never killed anyone. I'm sorry. I just feel like. I feel like old Hollywood stars are always killing people and telling their publicists.

[Jenna Fischer]

To come bury it, get rid of it. Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Woods]

She was just some girl. No one's gonna know. Yeah. Anyway, but got distracted. Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

Alison Jones. Alison Jones.

[Zach Woods]

So I remember meeting with her and I'd done this movie called in the Loop and she'd seen it and she brought me in for a meeting and I really hadn't done anything except for this one little independent movie. And she talked to me for like an hour and then at the end of it she just went, I'm gonna help you. Which is such a wild thing for someone to say in Hollywood, you know, and then even a wilder thing to mean. And. And then she got me a meeting with Greg Daniels and Paul and they just gave me a part on the Office, which is a show that I had been obsessively watching. I felt like I won a contest. You know what I mean? You win a raffle and you can do a walk on. On a TV show. I felt like it was so bizarre to me that she almost, to a suspicious degree where I was like, who's.

[Jenna Fischer]

Gonna jump out and say gotcha or something, right? Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

Or is she gonna like, am I gonna get a colony? Or Alison Jones is like, throw napalm in one of my enemies faces. It's like time for payback, you know, he's got money. Yeah, exactly. And then. Yeah. And then I just got this part and then I moved into this house in Echo park where it was a basement and I'm tall and there were these rafters so I had to constantly duck. Like I couldn't. The ceiling was too low. So I was constantly doing these kind of body rolls around my living room. And somehow she got wind of this and she was like, oh, I have an empty condo in Beechw, which I'll give to you for a song, basically. And then she gave me this like beautiful condo to live in for like very low rent. Where they used to house, it was like a dormitory for starlets back in the, like, it was like the MGM gals would be there and in the basement there was a beauty salon where they had to go through the works before they could go out into the world because they didn't want anyone seeing like the MGM girls looking less than their best, basically.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wow.

[Zach Woods]

So I was effectively an MGM girl thanks to Allison Jones. But I'm being long winded I'm a little like, we're a little nervous cause we're starting by Allison. I'll be less long winded. But I will just say, allison Jones. I will never be able to adequately express the difference that Allison Jones made in my life, professionally, residentially, personally. Just like that woman just, like, tapped me with her magic wand and gave me my life in la, basically.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, we feel the same way about Alison Jones.

Yeah.

I had a general meeting with her, and she sort of did the same thing. It was like one hour meeting. Hey, I like you. I think you're talented. I'm gonna help you out. And then just called me in for years for little bit parts. And then eventually, how lucky am I that the person who decided to help me was hired to cast the Office? That was just my good luck.

Yeah.

You know, because then she was like, well, I'm gonna have you meet on this new show, the Office. So it was the same thing. Like. And I've heard people tell this story about Allison Jones many, many times. It's crazy.

[Zach Woods]

And she has, like, this kind of like, flinty New Englander quality where if you try to tell this to her face, it's just like. It's like shining light on a vampire or something. She just.

[Jenna Fischer]

She refuses the accolades, right?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, that's right. She can't tolerate. It's just like. That's been my experience anyway, where you try to, like, look her in the eyes and be like, thank you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

She's like, no, it's fine.

[Jenna Fischer]

Here, have a homemade cookie I just made. Cause she always has, like, delicious cookies, Right. She just feels like that awesome, warm aunt that's gonna look out for you.

It's true.

Alison, we love you.

[Zach Woods]

I love you.

[Jenna Fischer]

FYI, if you haven't gathered it, besides.

In the Loop, which I remember in which everyone was talking about when you came to work with us, it's a great movie. Besides that, what was your background like? Do you have an improv background?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. I started doing improv at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York, and I mostly just thought I was gonna do that. I remember talking to someone and being like, I just want to get a temp job and do improv at night.

[Jenna Fischer]

That was eight years of my life.

[Zach Woods]

It's fun, right?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

Did you feel like when you were doing that, did it feel unsatisfying in some fundamental way?

[Jenna Fischer]

No, it was the most fun, right? It was the most fun because the job I didn't really care about. I just needed to pay bills so I could go do Improv.

[Zach Woods]

And then you're with, like, you have a community.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. And they all are like minded. And we were so into it. We were probably really obnoxious.

[Zach Woods]

Well, I used to teach too, when I was in New York to help. I like teaching and also it helped me survive. But I remember once being in a cab in New York and going past an improv theater and seeing all these adults outside and they were throwing imaginary knives to each other or whatever. They were doing some warm up. It was so humiliating and so you could not look nerdier and less cool. And these people, I just felt my heart swell in my chest, like seeing these like grown adults just like kind of, they look so happy. They were just like being so cringe so happily out in public in New York on the street. I was just like, God bless you guys. Like, it's so sweet. Like, I found it so moving.

[Jenna Fischer]

You're like, I want in.

I thought it was so perfect when they made the choice to have Michael Scott in an improv group.

[Zach Woods]

It's so perfect.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was so perfect. Like, I took improv classes with Michael Scott.

[Zach Woods]

Oh my God. It's mostly Michael Scott.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Oh my gosh. How much were you told about the character, Gabe? Did you know it was gonna be like a long arc?

[Zach Woods]

No, I didn't know much. It's a pretty foggy memory because I think, because it felt like such a. I felt like such a raffle winner where it's like, you can be on your favorite show. It created such a rush of anxiety that I've never experienced anything like it before since. To be completely inexperienced as a TV actor and to be thr into a show where you're like, you know what I mean? It's just like, it was really overwhelming. And I remember, like, when I first moved out here, right before I started filming, I remember there was like some moment. This is a really crazy, compromising moment. I was at Walmart. First of all, I didn't know how to drive because I'd been living in New York. So I had to like, as an adult man, go to Pennsylvania and have my father like reteach me to drive. Because I was like, I'm going to be in la. You have to teach me to drive. So my dad taught me to drive, like some weird little short film or something. And then I remember when we started shooting, driving terrified me so much that I would show up on set and my jaw would be so clenched that I had a hard time saying words. So I would take CDs, Frank Sinatra CDs, and I would put them in the car and force myself to sing along with Old Blue Eyes so that my jaw would stay open so that I wouldn't show up with rigor mortis face. Yeah. And then I think before I'd even shot my first scene being in a Walmart, buying multiple humidifiers and lozenges. And because I was like, I'm gonna lose my voice and then I'm not gonna be able to do it and I'm gonna. I was so panicked and I was worried I was gonna forget my lines. So I was muttering my lines in a Walmart. For some reason, I didn't get a basket. So I just had armfuls of humidifiers and lozenges, just muttering my lines to myself like a crazy person. So what I really remember from that time is just the white hot pan, you know?

[Jenna Fischer]

Like, were you prone to losing your voice? What was this anxiety about losing your voice?

[Zach Woods]

I was prone to losing my mind.

[Jenna Fischer]

I was like, were you in the Walmart?

[Zach Woods]

I think it was just like anything, you know, you have, like, free ranging. Sometimes I feel like anxiety is just like a giant, like, military helicopter that needs someplace to land. You know what I mean? And it was like, oh, today it'll be landing on the landing pad of, like, vocal anxiety. Tomorrow it'll be like, whatever that, you know, some weird hypochondriac whole thing in a different direction.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, yes.

[Zach Woods]

So I don't remember what they told me, but I didn't think I was. I thought it might just be a few episodes and then they gave me more and I was like, wow, that's great.

[Jenna Fischer]

Do you remember your first day on set?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

What did you shoot your very first day?

[Zach Woods]

I think the first thing I shot was to camera, like one of the interviews.

[Jenna Fischer]

A talking head.

[Zach Woods]

Talking head.

[Jenna Fischer]

Okay.

Yeah, That's a good way to start, actually, because it's just you. No one is dependent on your line for timing. You're not driving a scene. So I think that's actually a really smart way to start. Done that on purpose, too.

What was your first impression coming on the set?

[Zach Woods]

Well, John Krasinski directed the episode that I was doing. And I remember something happened on set and it took longer than they were expecting. So I was sort of in my trailer just churning. And then they called me to set. And I think John knew that I was kind of like, pent up and terrified. And so he just, like. Even though I'm sure it had been a long day and there was a lot left to shoot, he let me just improvise a lot in the talking head. I doubt they used any of it, but it just was like, it let me relax. And he was so kind about it. But the big thing that I remember and part of why I was excited to do this is because I'm not good at staying in touch with people and stuff. But that I feel is important to me to communicate to people who listen to this, which is the level of kindness and hospitality that was extended to me on that show was bizarre. If you're in the late seasons of a TV show that has such a deep bench of amazing characters and some new person shows up who's gonna suck even more oxygen, eat up more story time, you know what I mean? It would be very easy to understand if people were not all that receptive to that. Especially if it's someone who's a rookie who's still just learning about, okay, what's an eye line? How do I. What's a mark? You know what I mean? Just very rookie stuff that I'm having to learn on the go. It would be totally reasonable if people had a kind of professional detachment from that person. But everyone was so ostentatiously kind to me. Ostentatious makes it sound bad. Just generous kind. Like, you guys were so lovely to me. You guys were so sweet to me and inclusive. I remember, like, I would just sort of camp out at, like, Phyllis and Leslie's desk and watch them, like, shop for. They were both, like, decorating their houses. And they were like, yes, she was.

[Jenna Fischer]

Looking for a gate for, like, I think two years.

She wanted more, maybe.

Yeah, we looked at every gate possible.

[Zach Woods]

I just. I just remember, basically, yeah, like, gate shopping with Leslie and Phyllis. And, like, they would show me and they would be so nice and joke around with me. I remember Kate Flannery really went out of her way. Oscar, all the. And not just in a kind again, not just in a perfunctory, like, professional way. They'd invite me to their houses. You guys would include me in, like, social stuff. I just. It was so. It was like the photo negative of what happened to the character Gabe, right? Like, Gabe is like this unfortunate, creepy guy shows up and is immediately an utterly ostracized. It was like. Yeah, it was the exact opposite where I was like, oh, my God, look at this. Like, this group of people is just, like, so envelopingly sweet. So that was life changing because I was already so fragile and terrified because it was such a new experience, and I wanted so desperately to do A good job. And to be met with that kind of generosity of spirit was, I think, formative for me.

[Jenna Fischer]

I mean, we loved the character Gabe. I mean, in rewatching, like, Gabe has made us laugh so hard. But one of the things we've been most excited about doing this podcast is being able to reconnect with these people that were such an amazing chapter of our life. And you're one of those people. We've talked about you so much. We're so happy you're here. I mean, we still talked about the gift you brought to my Yankee Swap Christmas party, which was a sarcophagus jewelry box. It was the gift that everyone wanted. I mean, legend gift.

[Zach Woods]

Thank you. I mean, that's like, white elephant stuff is, like, a real source of anxiety, right? Because it's like. It feels like a moral, spiritual test. So I'm glad that I passed.

[Jenna Fischer]

You passed. And I have the sarcophagus.

Yes, it's mine.

Yeah. I went home with it. Yeah, I have it on my bookshelf.

[Zach Woods]

And it's not cursed or anything, right?

[Jenna Fischer]

Doesn't seem like it.

[Zach Woods]

Okay, cool.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, it seems like it. Dead you.

[Zach Woods]

I hadn't actively pursued a curse, but if there's a small sarcophagus, the odds that it has some sort of curse feels pretty high.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's been good so far.

It's doing great for you.

It is.

It was a heated battle that you won. I also off topic here, but in anticipation of talking to you today, I sort of went back through old emails, and I have some great photos of you that I sent a long, long time ago to you to probably an old email, but they're great. They're just of you hanging out on set, so I need to make sure you get those.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, I would love that. Yeah, I would love that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Not that I was a creeper taking pictures of you.

[Zach Woods]

We've been on the camera in the men's room with, like, got a lot of candid snaps.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, but I did. I found a few when we were.

[Angela Kinsey]

At Schrute Farms, and they're just great.

[Jenna Fischer]

So I'm gonna make sure you get those.

[Zach Woods]

With Groban.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes, with Josh. Josh Groban.

[Zach Woods]

That's a really surreal moment being like, I'm on a farm with Josh Groban, and, like, all these people have been watching for years. It's just such a weird.

[Jenna Fischer]

Who am I?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. Did someone, like, dose me with acid? And I'm, like, just back in my, like, in my, like, basement apartment in Hell's Kitchen having, like, A weird fever dream. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So I watched, like, your first couple of episodes, which must have been so insane. Cause you're talking about being new and everything. So, like, there's the scene where you enter Dunder Mifflin for the first time and Dwight is holding a giant tray of hot dogs. And then Aaron and Andy sing the Sabre Song.

Yes.

That is so crazy. And then the next episode, you're, like, wrestling some Great Danes and you're talking to Kathy Bates.

Kathy Bates.

[Zach Woods]

I know. That's crazy.

[Jenna Fischer]

When did they tell you that you would be working with Kathy Bates?

[Zach Woods]

You know, this is not a satisfying answer, but the truth is, again, it was just this sort of like, pummeling of anxiety. Yeah. Like, I don't even know. I felt like I was like being beaten into a happy gang or something. It was like, just like. It's just like, I don't know, like Kathy Bates. Like the office. Like you're driving and you're going to be like. It just felt like this kind of like, word jumble of like, I don't know what's next. Yeah. I just felt like I don't remember finding it out. Like, it's like the fog of war. I'm just like, I don't remember.

[Jenna Fischer]

That's very funny. We were so nervous about Kathy Bates being on set.

[Zach Woods]

Really?

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

What were you nervous about? Just that she would tell me just anything.

[Jenna Fischer]

Just like making eye contact. She was such a presence. And then she was so kind.

I think it was just her stature and her body of work. And we had avoided for so long having, like, these big name actors on the show. And so this was kind of a turning point. And it was very shocking. It felt like, you know.

Yeah.

So my hair colorist had once colored Kathy Bates hair.

This is Janice.

And he told me this, like, years ago, you know, and just, you know when hairdressers just tell you their lore while they're doing your hair. And he's like, well, you know, I used to color Kathy Bates hair and oh, what a woman. And he just, like, so admired her and all this. He didn't gossip, but he just did name drop that he had colored her hair. So when I knew she was coming on the show, I had to resist that urge, you know, when, like, the second I saw her, not to be like, we have the same hair colorist. Hi, I'm Jenna, our hair colorist. He colored your hair once. Welcome to the show.

I'm so impressed that you suppressed that, because I know that would come just Tumbling out of my mouth.

I held it. I can't remember for how long. I think I made it several days. And then I did finally say, you know, Robert Hickland, hair colorist? I think we. I think he. Oh, yes, Bobby. Yes, I know him. Yes. Wonderful guy.

We should be best friends now.

Well, that was my next line. So we are clearly best friends, then. The same hair colorist. So much in common, right?

[Zach Woods]

I'm your emergency contact.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, exactly.

[Zach Woods]

Let me ask you, because for many people, you are that, like, in other words, when people see you. Right. It generates the same feelings in them that Kathy Bates generated in you. So what is the version, like, when people come up to you guys and are like, actually, did you know that we shared a. You know, whatever. We stayed in the same summer camp cabin? Da, da, da, da, da. Does it feel alienating to you when people do that? Or does it feel nice? Or does it just depend on the person? Like, well, I guess what I'm asking is, like. Or maybe is it okay to ask you guys.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Yes, please.

[Zach Woods]

What is the version of being approached in a situation like that where maybe it's not just, like, in the airport, but it's like, a situation that has some containment that feels good to you, versus the one that feels like. If you're Kathy Bates, how do you want someone to approach you?

[Jenna Fischer]

Well, I'll say that I just did the Mean Girls movie musical. I play the mom. Yay. And after I got on the set and I, like, was working, I called Angela, and I was like, angela, we are now, like, the old lady. Like, the people, like, these kids and the crew and stuff, they're treating me like the way we were around, like, Kathy Bates or around some of these, like, people who had, like, the resumes and all that kind of stuff. I'm like, it's so weird. And it. It feels like it was so bizarre because I was like, oh. I'm like, not at all worthy of your. What do you call it? Like, they're just giving me, like, yes. Like, sort of like, we thank you so much for doing our film. And the directors were just like, we can't believe we got you. And I'm like, you can't. I like, it's the Mean Girls movie musical. I feel like people are lining up to do this. You're being so overly kind to me. But I do remember that, like, when we would be at an award show, like, someone from a television show that we had watched, you get a chance to meet them, or they give you an award or something. You're like, oh, my God, I can't believe this person. I was like, we're the old timers now. We're the old timers who have been in the biz for a while. And I actually thought it was really cool.

I'm still very humbled by it all, that, that I got to stop temping and got to take the skills I learned from my improv classes and get paid to do something I love. It's still very humbling to me that people watch the show, enjoy the show, want to watch me be silly or whatever it is. I always feel like I won the lottery, so I'm still taken aback by it, like what you're saying. It just. I don't think that'll ever go away. I still can't believe I got to do this, you know?

[Zach Woods]

I wonder if Kathy Bates had that feeling.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, maybe. I will tell you, here's an example of when maybe it's not fun or appropriate. I, towards the end of my pregnancy was having some pain and they said, okay, let's get you to the specialist for this special kind of sonogram where they can make sure everything's okay. I was having a lot of pain in my pelvis. So I met with this person I've never met before, and he's conducting the sonogram. You know, I'm just like laying there and he's like, so is Dwight gonna be stopping by?

[Zach Woods]

Oh boy.

[Jenna Fischer]

Uh huh. And I was like, you mean a fictional character I'm in a television show with that is not the father of my baby? No. What? Like I'm coming to you because I have pain in my pelvis giving me his sonogram, and I'm laying here feeling so exposed. And you asked me, I knew he was like whole, and he had been like 20 minutes. So he'd been holding on to that. And then he was just like, when is Dwight stopping by? So maybe, maybe here's a tip. Like if. If you're in that situation, maybe don't bring up the TV show.

Medical professionals in particular should never bring up your celebrity in an exam room.

Well, I think that's fair.

That's just a good solid boundary.

Yeah. You're probably there because you're worried about something.

Yes, that's right.

Yeah. You know what? Tell me in the lobby. Tell me in the lobby.

You need to be you. Yeah, right. You need to be who you are and know that that person sees you. Right. You know, I think an analogy that I think of all the time Is like, I'm an adult person and I pay a mortgage and I'm raising two children and. And all this stuff. And yet all the time I feel like a little bit of, like, I can't believe that I am tasked with these adult responsibilities. Like, I can't. Like young people will look at me and I know that I look like an old person to them, but like, inside I still kind of feel like a flailing 23 year old who doesn't know what they're doing. So I feel like that, like when people are approaching me and they're like, oh my God, I love your body of work and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I still feel like the struggling actor who's trying to make it. Like, that's never left me.

[Zach Woods]

I will say, before I was on the show, that blog post you wrote to actors.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. That I turned into a book later. Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

But at that point I think it was just available.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was just a blog post. Yeah. Advice to actors.

[Zach Woods]

It was so. Cause I'd read that multiple times before ever meeting you or being on the show. Because I was like, oh my gosh.

[Jenna Fischer]

I didn't even know that, Zack.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. It was so orienting, I think, because a lot of times, I think when people can feel the distance between how they're perceived and how. And their interior sense of themselves, what you're describing, I think sometimes people's response to that is to try to identify publicly only with the way they're perceived or something. But I remember for you at that time, to share the flailing, to share the kind of blemishy, angsty, unsure kind of experience that you'd had was so helpful because it's so isolating to aspire to some. Well, I don't know if that's even true. It's scary to. What am I trying to say? There's a Cherry Jones, you know Cherry Jones, the actor? Cherry Jones. She has this quote that I love so much where she says, theater is where we comfort each other with our shortcomings. Whereas, like, I'll show you mine and you'll see yours reflected and then we'll have a night of laughs and catharsis and whatever. And in a way, when you wrote that thing, it's like, not that that's shortcomings exactly, but I felt comforted by your vulnerability and by your ownership of that vulnerability. Because I felt so vulnerable. So seeing like, oh, wow. Someone who I admire, who has an exciting career and who is willing to be introspective and revealing in this way. And expose the gap between public perception and interior experience. That, for me, was really helpful. Sorry, that's such a long winded answer.

[Jenna Fischer]

I loved every word of that.

No, and I think it's your question too, which is like, we were so in awe of Kathy Bates, but like, maybe Kathy Bates just feels like the same tripping over her own feet actor that we all feel like when we first start a role or first start a job or whatever. But we never asked because we just assumed she must be filled with all this confidence and all of this. All of it. But that also goes back to you, Zach. You talk about all this anxiety and you're holding these things in Walmart and you can't believe you're on the show. You were seamlessly a part of our show from the very beginning. Like, it's kind of blowing my mind that you're telling me that you were anxious or that you even were inexperienced. Cause I knew you had done in the Loop, but I assumed, like, there were all these other things too. I really had no idea that the Office was your first television job and for how just amazing you were.

Right? So. Just amazing. Right out of the gate. And such a smart improviser. I know I'm being improv nerd here, but I just love it when people are really smart and say really witty, smart things and don't go for the obvious joke and don't go for too much and are understated. And you're all of those things. And I have loved watching your scenes so much. And I love going to the script and reading the script and then watching your scenes. Because you. I think maybe you and Steve improvise the most. Honestly.

I think so too.

If you look at how many episodes you're in and improvise so well, you.

[Zach Woods]

Know, that's very sweet. I mean, yeah, it's so nice. I started taking acting classes because I would hire in between. Like, when we'd be shooting, I would go back to New York and I had this acting coach named Anya Safer. Who is this? Who? I would go shout out Tanya Zafra. Cause I'd never gone to acting school or anything. So I would go do like scenes from Tennessee Williams Place and take voice classes and do Alexander Technique and all this. Cause I was like, I just felt I had such deep imposter syndrome because I hadn't done it before. So it's nice to hear that it wasn't flagrantly obvious on set. That's good. That's a relief.

[Jenna Fischer]

This is a great segue for us. To ask you if you had ever played Abe Lincoln other than on the Office.

[Zach Woods]

I'd been sent an audition for Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, where I had to learn the Gettysburg Address. And I was not hired to be Abe Lincoln, vampire hunter, but other than that, I'd never played Abe Lincoln.

[Jenna Fischer]

Wait, so Abe Lincoln recited the Gettysburg Address while killing vampires or being a vampire vampire hunter.

[Zach Woods]

I think he hunted the vampires.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, he hunted the vampires.

[Zach Woods]

But you know how it is with vampires. You start out hunting them, and then.

[Jenna Fischer]

You want to be one, you become one.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, I think they just wanted to see people do the Gettysburg Address to see if they were plausible as Lincoln, and then they were gonna get to the vampire hunting in a later stage of the casting process or something. So I did for a while know the Gettysburg Address.

[Jenna Fischer]

Because you had done that prior to playing Abe Lincoln on the Office?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, I think so.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

I see.

[Zach Woods]

Wow. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

So there was a small part of you that had played Abe Lincoln, if not for an audition.

[Zach Woods]

I mean, like, my body had played Abe Lincoln my entire life. I had the Doctor. I remember Abe Lincoln had something called Marfan syndrome, which is like this. I guess it's like a congenital heart defect or something. I don't know. Basically, the symptoms are your wing span is greater than your height, and you have something called a pectus excavatum, I think, which I have. It's like this weird divot in your chest. I remember going to the doctor and him being like, oh, Abe Lincoln had Marfan syndrome. We're going to screen you for it. And then being just shocked that I didn't have it because I had all the.

[Jenna Fischer]

All the other.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, I had all the symptoms of Abe Lincoln's disease, but not the actual diagnosis. Not to brag. Hold your applause.

[Jenna Fischer]

What are some of your favorite scenes or moments from the show?

[Zach Woods]

It's funny, I remember hearing some interview with Mark Rylance, the actor, where he said, when you die, probably the thing that flashes before your eyes isn't the episodes of the shows, but the experience you had making them. And I think for me, when I think of the show, it's sort of a gauzy feeling of, I remember lunch a lot. I remember hanging out with people in between setups and stuff. In terms of scenes, I think it took me a while till after I was off the Office when I started to be able to really enjoy scenes because I didn't feel like, oh, God, what if I this up? You know?

[Jenna Fischer]

Right, right.

You could be an audience member and watch it.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. And I really Liked stuff where I liked getting into fights with Ed Helms. I thought that was fun. I liked menacing Ed Helms.

[Jenna Fischer]

I looked online to see what are the fan favorite quotes of Gabe.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, really?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. And I share one of them, please. With the Internet. So I love so much in search committee when you just start asking him questions about the sun and then Andy knows all this information about the sun and you say, shut up about the sun. Shut up about the sun. So that made it as one of best Gabe quotes. It's also one of mine. Here's another one. Walk away, bitch.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, yeah, that was to Andy, right?

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, that's to Andy.

[Zach Woods]

I remember that.

[Jenna Fischer]

And then this is one I forgot. And I actually had to go and rewatch the episode. We haven't gotten to it yet, Jenna. That's from Turf War. And Gabe says, sometimes I wonder if I have ovaries in my scrotum because I am great at girl talking.

[Zach Woods]

Jesus Christ. That's the most upsetting. Sorry. Sorry, America. That's the most upsetting phrase I've ever heard.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, my gosh. And the other one was there are plenty of people who love touching me.

Oh, I remember that scene.

[Zach Woods]

That's heartbreaking.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's when Kelly hugs Gabe.

[Zach Woods]

Foreign.

[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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I'm very passionate about Instacart, so buckle in.

I would say almost every single time.

[Angela Kinsey]

Jenna leaves me a message after a.

[Jenna Fischer]

Trip, we always let each other know.

[Angela Kinsey]

If we landed, if we made it safe.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yep.

Jenna's like, lady, I landed.

[Angela Kinsey]

And I'm just doing my Instacart so.

[Jenna Fischer]

That when I get home, my groceries are gonna be there so I don't.

[Angela Kinsey]

Come home to a house with no food.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we've had a long travel day. And so you'll talk to me while you're doing your Instacart.

This was one of my favorite discoveries because when you travel and then you, like, are coming home, sometimes you get home really late, especially if there's been a travel delay. And that can be very stressful because you're thinking, I have no milk for tomorrow.

Right.

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

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[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

Come on, get me to the deli counter.

[Angela Kinsey]

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[Jenna Fischer]

When we were rewatching search committee. It's Toby, Gabe and Jim are the search committee. And you got to interview all of those amazing, like, actors doing the cameos. Are there any that stood out to you?

[Zach Woods]

I remember Will Arnett would do this thing where he would sort of start improvising. Like, he'd be joking around in this way that was so unbelievably funny in between takes. And then when they was sort of like, just continue. In a way, I remember being like, oh, wow, that's fascinating. Like, he's kind of in a. It doesn't stop in between. Cut. And action. He's, like, kind of not in a tiring way. You know, there's people who are, like, on in a way. It wasn't like that. It was just like he was sort of in this. It was like he was keeping it, like, simmering or something. I remember being fascinated by that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

And I remember feeling, like, immediately like Ray Romano. I just went to, like, rest my head on his shoulder. Like, he was, like, so warm and sweet, and I really loved him. And then I also, like. It was fun. I remember we interviewed people from the office, which was fun to do.

[Jenna Fischer]

Your interview of Mindy as Kelly was really funny. And I think it's in the bloopers because Gabe decides that, oh, maybe I'm gonna be the voice of reason here. And he looks at Jim and Toby when Kelly walks in and goes, we don't really need to go through all this, do we? If we not, we're not. This isn't, like, a serious interview. Right. And they both just throw you under the bus. And Toby's like, no, I think we. It is serious. And then Gabe says to Kelly, what are your weaknesses? And Kelly goes, I don't have any.

Asshole.

Something like that. But you guys, you could tell that Mindy was, like, breaking, you know, and just the whole scene is so funny. I imagine there's a lot of great bloopers from that day.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. I mean, and by that point, I guess that was late enough in the shooting process where I felt like my blood pressure had dropped incrementally a little bit. And I was able to.

[Jenna Fischer]

It looked like you were having fun.

[Zach Woods]

I remember enjoying those scenes more where I was like, okay. I think after they brought me back for another season, I thought, like, well, if they were horrified, they wouldn't have done that. And that really put me at ease where I just thought, okay, well, if they've decided they want me here, then it's their funeral. I can't. You know, I'll take it.

[Jenna Fischer]

The other thing, when I looked up the character, Gabe and I did, like, an image search One of the first things that comes up is Gabe is Lady Gaga.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

That costume was. Oh, my gosh. I just remember you were in hair and makeup for so long. You had the eyelashes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Zach Woods]

I've never felt more like myself on set, I think. You know, I never walked in high heels before. I don't know where they found high heels my size, but it was your shoe size.

[Jenna Fischer]

Nice.

[Zach Woods]

Eleven and a half. A modest eleven and a half. We're not, you know. But it was. I don't know if you guys know this. Extremely hard to walk.

[Jenna Fischer]

We have an idea.

What?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, yeah, I know. No man has ever told you this. It was so hard to move. I couldn't believe it. I was like, wait. People do this for hours at a time.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's kind of insane.

It's ridiculous when you think about it. It's like, I'm gonna design a shoe where you're up on your tippy toes now go walk all day.

Not just that. So many high heels, they're made for a foot where you just have one long center toe.

Yeah, it's true.

It's like, not even the shape of.

[Zach Woods]

Your foot, which luckily, I do have. That is a long center toe.

[Jenna Fischer]

That was also an Abraham Lincoln.

[Zach Woods]

Yes. That's one of the symptoms of Arvin syndrome. Just a single long toe. In terms of volume, it's the same volume as five toes, but just in one length. Yes, right. Exactly.

[Jenna Fischer]

All right, we have one other question we've been curious about the Great Danes. You had to work a lot with these giant dogs. Was there anything, like, any memory from working with those dogs?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, they were frustratingly professional.

[Jenna Fischer]

Really?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. I was like, you know, with a dog, you just want to rub your face in their snout. You just want to be like, oh, I love you. You're beautiful. You're a miracle. And they were just like, we're working. They just were so focused. They had that working dog thing where they were just not screwing around.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

And I was like, no snuggles. No snuggles.

[Zach Woods]

I was like, spoon me. Great team. And they're like, no, thank you. No, thank you. Strange human.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm working.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah. I was like. It truly was like. They were like, you ever meet one of those former child stars who's been working from the time they were three? And they're like, where's my light? Okay, I just need a little bit of eyebrow pencil, and let's go. Those people who are just like. They were like that, but just the canine. Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Do you share Gabe's Love of horror films?

[Zach Woods]

No. I mean, I like some horror movies, but not really. What I do love is I really like wake up pranks. Do you guys know about wake up pranks?

[Jenna Fischer]

No. Do you wake up someone in a horrible manner?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, it's like people waking up their friends in mean ways.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, no.

[Zach Woods]

And people get scared. And I think it's very funny and very mean. And there's one where they're like, this guy's asleep. I guess they got like, fast food. They're in a van. This guy's asleep. He's got like a burger on his lap, but he fell asleep before he ate his burger. And. And I think there's like a truck with one of those. It's like one of those trucks that pulls cars behind it so it looks like the car is facing.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, yeah, like the vehicle.

[Zach Woods]

You could mistake it as an oncoming vehicle. So this guy's asleep. So everyone in the car decides to wake up, prank him. And what they do is they swerve and scream all at the same time. And he wakes up and he sees this car in front of him and he thinks, you know, this is it. And he screams and he just squeezes the hell out of his burger. He just squeezes this burger so hard. And then they show it in slow mo. It's just like face contorting and him squeezing the burger. It's so fun. It's very mean. And I don't think it's right, but it is very funny. And then I also like close call videos where it's like, I can't stand fail videos where people get hurt. I can't stand it. But close call videos.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, and someone almost falls. Yes, yes, that I.

[Zach Woods]

It's the best.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's the best. Like, I haven't seen the videos, but I will tell you, I have a memory I will never forget. I was in the Dallas Fort Worth airport, and there was this long corridor that we were all walking down, right? And there's a woman coming kind of swimming upstream against all of us. She was clearly very late for her flight.

[Zach Woods]

Okay.

[Jenna Fischer]

And she is running. I'm talking a full sprint with, like, trying to juggle a carry on, but a full sprint. And she's in wedge flip flops and she is running and we can see her from so far in this corridor and she's running. And the front of her flip flop bends forward under her foot and then she lurches forward and then she tries to overcompensate and she lurches back and she did she. She did it probably. It felt like 10 minutes. It was like. And we were all so invested. It was like. Like, I don't know, 80 strangers. And we're like, is she going down? What do we do? And then she. Right before she. Face planted, she pulled herself up.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we were all like. And she ran past us. I'll never forget it. Oh, my God.

I've seen videos. Have you seen the videos of someone who's like, slipping on ice, but for like, a very long time?

It's like that.

Yes.

[Zach Woods]

Like, that's what it feels like. To be a person is to be just like a prolonged ice slip that seems to never stop. And when it turns out good. Right.

[Jenna Fischer]

I'm so relieved.

[Zach Woods]

And it. But there's so many. And you can watch in the compilations, it's like people like their kid almost, like, is riding a bike and almost runs into something and they swoop in and grab them. Or it's like. It's just like. Like humans evading disaster is like the best.

[Jenna Fischer]

Have you seen the videos of people who. They're scaring someone.

[Zach Woods]

Yes.

[Jenna Fischer]

But they're doing it by pretending that they're scared of something themselves. Yes.

And then the other person runs away.

Yes.

They're brilliant.

So, like, there's like a woman and she's like, taking out the trash with her husband and she opens up the trash can and then she's like. And then he.

She loses.

He hasn't even seen anything.

Just like the firefly response. But it's so. But the. The psychology behind it to me is so interesting because it's like. It's like I share fear with you. Yeah, we share that.

But the one person's just pretending and. Yes, the other person.

I know, it's really fascinating. I kind of want to try it out.

[Zach Woods]

You should try it. It's. It's a cheap prank. All you have to do is act scared.

[Jenna Fischer]

There's one more I have to say. These are now fascinating me. You might like it. So there's the other one where you're in a group, like your family, and you pick someone and you say, like, I learned. We're gonna do a magic trick. I'm making you visible. And you put a sheet over them, and then you, like, say some magic words and then you pull the sheet off, and everyone in the room has agreed to pretend that the person is invisible.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, that's amazing.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's always the mom. They always do it to the mom. Right? And then. So then they pull the sheet off and then everyone's like, no way.

Holy.

Oh, my God. And then the person's like, what? Oh, my God.

What?

What?

What?

You can't. I don't get it.

[Zach Woods]

That's amazing. Also, the fact that it's the mom, like. Like an invisible mom. I feel like so many moms in Family Dynamics are just the invisible caretaker of everyone. They're already invisible.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's like invisible labor.

That SNL sketch at Christmas. Everyone's saying, I got a piano. And the mom goes, and I got a row.

And that's all she got.

And it's like, over and over. But then I got a car. I got a robe.

Also, at the end, they're like, wait a second. What's this secret pile of presents? And the mom's like, oh. And they're like, it's presents for the dog. And then the dog gets a robe as well.

[Zach Woods]

I think I'm gonna watch the one of. Particularly the one where they're scared, where they act scared.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

It's very fun.

[Zach Woods]

I cannot wait. It's so interesting.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's so interesting that people share fear. It's fascinating.

[Zach Woods]

I heard that. I don't even know if this is true. This could just be something I am basically making up. But that laughter, the origins of laughter, was a way that monkeys could tell each other that a perceived danger was no longer a threat. So basically, it's like, okay, we're a bunch of monkeys. We think we see a tiger. Everyone gets tense. And then I realized, oh, it's not a tiger. It's something that looked like a tiger, but it isn't a tiger. Then we all laugh, and it's a way of quickly dispersing the information that what seemed to be threatening is, in fact, not a threat. So it's like this rolling sound that lets everyone know. It's like a fire drill in reverse.

[Jenna Fischer]

It makes so much sense, right? And then also, it makes so much sense why comedy is something we're drawn to watch. And that, like, soothes us. It's a roll.

[Zach Woods]

That's interesting.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

I mean, like, I remember when I injured my back, when I broke my back and I watched the Larry Sanders.

Show, me and Creed and Jenna, one night in her hotel room, binged the Larry Sanders Show.

And, like, that laughter, like, it brings you relief, right? And maybe it goes all the way back to that.

[Zach Woods]

Just a bunch of monkeys releasing some.

[Jenna Fischer]

There's no tiger.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

That's. Our whole show is just. I'm very scared of what Michael Scott is gonna say or do right now. Okay. All Right. All right, all right.

[Zach Woods]

I think that's right. It's like tension, cringe, release, setup, tension punchline. Yeah. I don't know if again, that could be total malarkey, but, I mean, it tracks.

[Jenna Fischer]

I've been really into. There's a show about animals on Netflix, and we watched the one about dogs. It's so good.

Yeah.

And dogs do this little sniffy, snorty thing when they're. You know how they play fight, and it's to let the other dog know that I'm not serious. And they. So if you hear your dog. And now my little. Two Chihuahua rescues, when they play, I hear it, they go.

[Zach Woods]

Really?

[Jenna Fischer]

And it's like. It's like I'm. I'm. I'm just having fun.

[Zach Woods]

That must be so hard on dogs who, like, want to be aggressive but have allergies, where they're, like, trying to, like, really, like, big dog and dog, and they're just like, yeah, like a pug. A pug can never be taken seriously.

[Jenna Fischer]

When he's trying to, like, be aggressive.

I'm actually angry.

[Zach Woods]

I really mean it, guy. No, you don't.

[Jenna Fischer]

No, you don't. You're being silly.

[Zach Woods]

That's funny.

[Jenna Fischer]

Do you get recognized as Gabe sometimes?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, it happens.

[Jenna Fischer]

What is that?

[Zach Woods]

Like, I had a really bad one recently. Cause I saw. So I'm making the show now, this, like, stop motion show. And in it, there's like a lactation station, you know, that they have at the airport. And we were getting designs for them, and I was like, oh, I want something really simple. And I was in an airport, There was an empty lactation station, and I wanted to send a picture to the production designer to be like, this is what we're going for. This is perfect example. Right. So I started to take a picture of the lactation station as someone came up to me and was like, hey, man, you were Gabe on the Office. No, it's not lost on me that Gabe is in many ways quite a creepy character.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

And so this guy just saw me by myself in an airport photographing a lactation station.

[Jenna Fischer]

Oh, no.

[Zach Woods]

Like a true predator from hell. I mean, like, that's insane thing to do, right? To take a picture, like, from. He has no context. And if I say, this is for a show, this is for a show, that sounds even worse. It's like, it's for a show. Really, buddy? And so that was a truly mortifying where I'm like, he must think I'm like, that Gabe is a toned down version of me based on that experience. But yeah, people sometimes will recognize me from the show.

[Jenna Fischer]

So after the Office, you did Silicon Valley. You've done all these other things. Do you still get approached more for being on the Office or for other roles or is it pretty 50, 50?

[Zach Woods]

I'd say it's like probably 50, 50 with the office and then everything else I've ever done. So it's like the single thing. Maybe more. Well, I don't know. Silicon Valley. Yeah, it's probably around 50 50. It depends. It's demographically specific.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

You know, and it's interesting, like if it's younger people, it's probably the Office. If it's really young people, I think it's so sweet to me that kids find it so comforting that it's a kind of emotional wallpaper. People who've watched it a million times will turn it on as a way of feeling like they're kind of among their friends or in a kind of soothing, warm, silly environment. I think it's so sweet and so it's nice when it's some whatever 19 year old who's immersed in the Scranton paper industry. Fictional world. I think that's so sweet. I like that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Have you rewatched the show?

[Zach Woods]

Some of it. I hate watching anything I'm in. So not that stuff. But I'd already watched the show so much when I came up. I would rewatch the show a lot before I was on the show, but I haven't done the wall to wall rewatch.

[Jenna Fischer]

We hadn't either. This is the first time for us. I'd seen episodes here and there. We've talked about that. But this is really our first time to see some of these episodes in a long time since they aired.

[Zach Woods]

Does it feel like. Does watching the show feel like you're looking at a photo album of your friends and your life in a way, or does it feel like you can sort of susp. Suspend disbelief and get lost in the story of the show? Are you able to invest in the fictional reality of the show when you're watching it?

[Jenna Fischer]

I think so. Because of the passage of time. It's both things. So I have a lot of nostalgic thoughts and feelings. I get really sentimental when I'm watching it. I remember parts of my life that were happening when we were making those episodes. I miss people when I watch it, but I can also when I watch it. What's weird is I have images of all the things you can't see in the episode. So like I can feel Brian Whittle holding his Boom. Above my desk in a scene when I'm watching the rewatch, you know, I can, like, feel where. Oh, I bet Video Village was over in the conference room for this one. And Kelly's shouting out some safety meetings. So it's like all of the behind the camera stuff pops into my head as well. But then at the same time, I have found myself getting invested in the characters. Like, I personally feel that Aaron is not the one for Andy.

Not at all.

I am getting angry. It's being shoved down my throat that I'm being told that they're the perfect couple. When I actually feel like Andy is thriving with his current girlfriend, Jessica. Jessica is great.

[Zach Woods]

I like Jessica.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

You know, so I don't know. So I do. I have, like, some fan reactions when I watch the show as well. What about you, Ange?

Oh, I mean, I think you said that so well. That's exactly how I feel. It's both. For me, it's a photo album, and I'm in the audience, and I kind of switch back and forth. I have really strong memories of episodes when things were happening in my life, and. And I watch it with that layer.

[Zach Woods]

Wow. So it's not even just the environment of the set, but it's the environment of your life at that time.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

That's fascinating.

[Jenna Fischer]

It was, what, nine years of our life. And, you know, babies were born and family members passed away. And so a lot of life happens in nine years. And I just watched that play out through this other filter of being a character. It's kind of. It's really surreal.

[Zach Woods]

That's trippy. Yeah. A friend of mine said to me, I was talking about some. Maybe New York or something. She goes, well, places aren't places as much as they're times. When you think of a place, often you're thinking of a time. And so it's not necessarily the geography of the place, but it's the sort of psychic place you were in in your life. Right. Like, what was happening or who you were at that time. So it's so interesting that it's the show where you're being somebody different. Like, you're playing a different person, but also you were a different person in your life at that time. Right. Like, the circumstances of your life were different, your relationships were different, everything was different. Can I ask just, like, one more. I'm just curious for you guys, if there's something you guys could go back and tell yourselves in that Our Town style. What would you. If you could go back to season one and Visit with you as your own fairy godmother, Ghost of Christmas Future or whatever, what would you say? Or maybe that's too hard a question.

[Jenna Fischer]

I would say, I think there are a lot of ways that I know how to advocate for myself professionally now that I had to really learn on the go. And I feel like in some cases, I even got, like, some bad advice. You know, there were ways where, like, as you're. As you're kind of an up and coming actor and maybe you're suddenly on this hit show, there are a lot of people that have ideas for you professionally. And I was just happy being on the office. I didn't need an aunt. I didn't need to also have a product line or also be a movie star. And yet I felt the energy coming at me, telling me I needed to do all this more. And I think in some ways, you know, I would do the TV show, and then I would spend my hiatus doing all the more that everyone was telling me that I wanted and that I had to do, and that this is what you do next. And the truth is, I just wanted to spend my hiatus traveling and enjoying my life and being in love. And sometimes I look back on that time and I think, wow, I was just too busy doing a bunch of things that I felt like were expected of me. But my truth was, I just want to be on this TV show. I love it. I'm happy. This is enough. And it took me a really long time to get to a place where I didn't let other people's idea of what my life should be like. I figured out what my ambition is in life, but I spent a lot of years. I don't know. I mean, I don't necessarily regret any of those movies or any of those experiences or any of those things, but.

I think it's a life lesson coming to a place where you're like, well, what's enough for me is okay.

Yes, that's right.

Want or need things other people need. What I need is enough. And that's okay.

Yeah. And I think it's even still shocking to people when I say, no, the podcast is enough. I enjoy this. I like concentrating on it. I like this being my one thing. I think maybe that's me. Maybe I'm like a monogamous worker. Like, I have a job I like to do, and that's the job I like to do and fully, and I enjoy it. And then I like to put it away. Like, I don't need a lot of ands.

[Zach Woods]

I don't so that's a great.

[Jenna Fischer]

I wish I could have, like, told myself to trust that more in me.

[Zach Woods]

It's so noisy, probably when you. Right. Like. And if all of a sudden you're on the show and it's a success and it's the cacophony of that and all of the. It is. And all the projection that it cooks up and everything.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think they're a lot of like, fear based sort of communication in that too, which is like, well, listen, if you don't do this now, it's not gonna be there later. No one's gonna work. Want you later if you don't do this now.

[Angela Kinsey]

Right.

[Jenna Fischer]

Or you won't work later if you're not working now or any of it, you know? And so you're like, oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't. I don't want this to go away. So there. It's very. It can be kind of confusing what to do with that. And then of course, I had spent 10 years not working at all. So you're like, yeah, yeah. I don't want. I mean, I don't want to go back to that. I guess so. I don't.

Yeah. I think for me, I would look back and just tell myself I'm going to be just fine. I think I was just worried that I wasn't going to be everything I thought I should be and that I don't need to be anything other than just okay with myself. That's what I think.

[Zach Woods]

It's interesting how similar. It's sort of like success on somebody else's terms is not success. And success on your own terms doesn't have to look like somebody else's is. Or like the sort of consensus aspiration. Right.

[Jenna Fischer]

It's like.

[Zach Woods]

And to be like, I'm basically, I'm enough. Who I am is enough. What I want is enough. I think that was something in that blog post that made an impression on me when I read it too, which is. I think. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it's basically like, don't postpone joy. Don't make a certain kind of professional success a prerequisite for participating in your own life. That's my recollection.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. Well, that was a thing. When you're struggling actor especially, you're like, well, I can't go to my friend's wedding because I might get a callback for a thing that I auditioned for, so I need to be here or whatever it is. It's like, well, I don't want to have a boyfriend because I don't want to be distracted. There's like all these limits and all these superstitions that you have as an artist because you are holding the art as the only thing, the only aspiration. And so what I found was, oh my gosh, the material and characters that I saw at that wedding and the life experience I got from going to that thing is just gonna feed my art. So it's like, you can't do art if you're just doing art.

[Zach Woods]

Right.

[Jenna Fischer]

I think you have to have a whole life in order to feed it.

[Zach Woods]

And an identity that's like where your self esteem is a little bit more diversified. In other words, if your whole worth originates from your ability to do this one thing and you're not doing that one thing, then you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Then who are you?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, exactly.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

So like, to have like. If you're like, oh, yeah, I'm not just an actor, I'm someone's mom or I'm someone's.

[Jenna Fischer]

Right.

[Zach Woods]

You know, or I'm. Or not someone's. I am a mom. I am a bicycle enthusiast. I am a. Whatever, a volunteer. You know, Then you. Then it's not like, oh, when I'm auditioning for a part, I'm auditioning for my self worth. It's like, I'm just auditioning for the part. It's like, yeah, which is hard enough or daunting enough. That makes sense. That's beautiful.

[Jenna Fischer]

What about you, Zach? What would you go back and tell yourself?

[Zach Woods]

Get a basket at Walmart if you're going to be carrying that many humidifiers. I was basically like a walking Close Call video. I think what did I tell myself is something similar. It's an interesting. I don't know, let me think for a second. I think I probably would try to tell myself and I probably wouldn't be able to hear it, but you don't need so much fear to protect you. You know what I mean? I think I used anxiety as a kind of. As a motivator and as a kind of protection where I sort of felt like, well, if I'm buying enough humidifiers and running my lines enough times and freaking out enough, then surely I'm doing everything in my power to do a good job. And if I don't do that, then I'm going to be kind of culpable if it doesn't go well. I think if I could go back and say, when you're doing all of that, it has more to do with like, it's more neurotic. Than artistic. You know what I mean? That actually isn't serving. It's not really. Hopefully it doesn't hurt the character or the work, but it's about something different that's more about, like, your childhood than it is about the job you're doing. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I think if I could be like, don't mistake your neuroses for your artistic process. Like, develop an artistic process independent of that as much as possible, so that you're not just reenacting your own, like, cuckoo bird story again and again at work. Like, tell a new story at work. Tell someone else's story at work. You know what I mean?

[Jenna Fischer]

I think you did hear it, because I think just the fact that you recognize it, that even though.

[Zach Woods]

I mean, I took a minute. Took a many minutes.

[Jenna Fischer]

What was your second question?

[Zach Woods]

Oh, yes. Second question is, like, did you have a moment where you felt that kind of, like. Because so often I think when you get the thing that you want is it doesn't feel the way you thought it'd feel. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, the behind the music kind of, like, thing. Was there a moment, though, where you had that kind of, like, shimmering magic feeling, like, where you looked around and you were like, oh, my God. Like that moment where you're just like, the sort of the gift of it where you felt really wholly present in it and able to just enjoy it. Do you remember either the first or the most intense version of that for you guys?

[Jenna Fischer]

The first one for me was when we were shooting the pilot on the first day, and our director, Ken Kwapas, said, I want to do 30 minutes of all of you all just working in this space. Do your job. And we're just going to come around and silently document you like a documentary. We're going to set the tone of this show. All right, go ahead. And I will never forget that 30 minutes of. First of all, there was silence because nobody really knew what to do. And then I feel like it was. Phyllis picked up her phone and hit some buttons and started a fake phone call. And then I started to hear buttons over the partition and accounting. And then everybody just started being their character and pretending like we worked at a paper company, like, all together. And I was like, the theater nerd in me was delighted. And I thought, I'm a part of something very special. And I don't know what's gonna happen from here, but this is pretty dang cool.

[Zach Woods]

Wow. The sound, it sounds like an orchestra tuning up right before like, here we go. We're about to play. Like, wow, that's so exciting. I really felt that.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I loved that so much. For me, there's so many moments that felt like that, and they were almost always in the conference room because we were all in there together and we were all Each other's background. We were all in the moment. And so many times I would have a minute where I was in the scene, but then I would step out of my body, and I would just watch these amazing actors just fire off all these lines. And everyone had their own character backstory. And I just would be there in awe, being like, this is so cool. This is so cool. And I get to do this. And there were times my character didn't even have lines, but I just couldn't believe I was in the moment. There was a scene where Michael Scott is brainstorming animal hybrid hybrids, and. And no one is saying anything. And Steve had his scripted lines, but then he started to just. They just let the camera roll, and he just kept improvising animal hybrids. And we all just had to sit there and look at him where he was like, head of an owl, body.

[Angela Kinsey]

Of a walrus, like, whatever it was he was saying.

[Jenna Fischer]

And we were just all patiently looking at him. And then one by one, people started to file like they were over it. And I just remember being like, this is one of. This is the coolest. Like, this is the coolest. And I can't believe I get to do it.

[Zach Woods]

It's so sweet that in both your cases, it's sort of like, it's not the kind of grand slam scene for your character. It's just the scene where you're able to kind of behold the majesty of this working situation, right? Where you're like, it's about watching it and participating, but not in a way that foregrounds you. It's just. I think being a small part of a big thing is the best feeling ever, right? Feeling like you're part of a squad that is. That's such an exciting. So it's interesting, both of you guys. It was kind of like that feeling of like, oh, I'm part of this. When everyone starts improvising the filing out and Michael's still doing his animals, right? Or everyone's sort of slowly coming into the joining the showing up for the first time in the fictional office.

[Jenna Fischer]

In a way, it was such a smart thing that Ken did by doing that exercise with us, because we. We didn't start with a scene like we didn't Start with. Okay, Steve Carell, our lead character, Michael Scott, is gonna do a scene. He made every single one of us equally important in the very first thing we shot.

[Zach Woods]

Wow.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know, nobody had any lines, but everyone was in character. And you really felt how. Okay, so whatever scene is going on, this is also always going on. So now we're gonna do a scene. But don't forget, you all are still working in this office, and you always have to be. It was really genius.

[Zach Woods]

That's cool. I didn't. I think I missed that. It was the first. Literally the first thing you shot.

[Jenna Fischer]

The very first thing ever.

Yeah.

First time the cameras rolled, right? Yeah, I know.

[Zach Woods]

Just give everyone a chance to kind of. It's sort of what John did for me when I did that little talking head where it was like, okay, just like. I mean, that's different. Cause I was talking. But I just mean, like, giving a lot of space.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yes.

[Zach Woods]

Even though it was even. That's costly. You're making a pil. Like, time is money, everything. Right? But just to be like, we got time, we got space. Just exist.

[Jenna Fischer]

And I also think, because it was Ken the very first time, we were all in a room and we were all going to be these characters. No one yelled, action. He just said, go ahead. Oh, that's nice, because that's Ken. Right? So he just said, go ahead. So it was just like this very slow, comfortable, easing into this world.

[Zach Woods]

Did you ever see that John Cazale documentary? I knew it was you. Do you know John Cazale, the guy who played Fredo? He was in five movies, and they were all, like, the best. He was in deer Hunter, Godfather 1 and 2, the Conversation. He died when he was a young man, but they made a documentary about him because he did these incredible movies. And that's it. He just did these and then theater and stuff. But Al Pacino, he was in Dog Day Afternoon. Al Pacino told these stories where they'd be shooting on film and they would start rolling, and Al Pacino would be all kind of coiled up and do his line. And he said, this guy, the giant, would be like, what'd you do this weekend alone? And he'd hear the film moving through the camera, and he'd be like, I don't know. I made dinner with my girlfriend on Saturday. Oh, yeah? What'd you make? Oh, we made a rigatoni and. Oh, yeah, What'd you do after that? And just talk until Al Pacino settled down. And then he'd just say the first line of the scene. Where he would just sort of get them in a place of like, we're just here. We're just here with each other and then slowly sort of introduce the dialogue, which is like such a ballsy, crazy thing to do where like 35 millimeter film is running through a camera. But I just was like, it sounds like in a version of that, right? Where it's just like, go ahead.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah, go ahead.

[Zach Woods]

We're not. It's not. Ready, set, go.

[Jenna Fischer]

Hit your adding machine a few times.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, that's nice.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

I feel bad. I feel like I've now distended your.

[Jenna Fischer]

I love this so much. It's just made my heart so happy.

[Zach Woods]

Me too.

[Jenna Fischer]

Yeah.

[Zach Woods]

And I really. Yeah. I can't say it enough, like. Like it's a real talent I don't have, which is like, to maintain like, you know. Did you ever see those, like Richard Linklater, the, like Before Sunset, Before Sunrise. I love those movies. But that's sometimes what like shooting feels like to me, where it's like this like very discreet, specific experience of like real like big emotion, intimacy, connection. And then you're like off to your lives and you don't. To me, it often feels that way where it's like, it's like this amazing woman night stand or something, except it happened to be a two year stand. And so I feel like I've kind of lost touch with you guys and this larger squad. But I can just never say enough how much it meant that everyone was so kind. I just in a way that you guys stood to gain nothing from that I had nothing to offer you. And in a way I could have been either. Like, I could have been a problem in that it's like another mouth to feed on this big show. But that was not how I was received. And that really set the tone for the rest of my working life thus far. And it's so I just. Yeah, I don't know, I just wanted. I felt when you guys kindly invited me on, I was like, I want to say to people, I want people who like the show to know how kind the people who worked on the show were and are, you know.

[Jenna Fischer]

You know, I think we were happy, Zach. Like, we were a happy cast, we were a happy crew. And we just knew, like, there's enough to go around for everyone. There just is. There always is in good comedy and good art. You do not need to be stingy. You know, it's a collective. It is.

And it was an abundant universe and I think we all looked at it that way. We all always felt like we won the lottery. We always talk about that and I think everyone felt that way. So why not share it?

[Zach Woods]

A lot of lottery winners hire like private security and like a bunch of Dobermans. And you guys are like, you know, you guys are like the good lottery winners.

[Jenna Fischer]

Aw, Zach, thank you so much for coming on.

[Zach Woods]

Thank you for having me. It was really fun.

[Jenna Fischer]

What are you doing now that we can tell people about?

[Zach Woods]

I'm making this stop motion show that actually Greg Daniels is like, he, he's, it's his company, but it's is one of the producers on. It's a stop motion show about an NPR host. So I'm doing that right now and that'll come out.

[Jenna Fischer]

Are you the voice of the NPR host?

[Zach Woods]

Yeah.

[Jenna Fischer]

Amazing. You'll have to let us know when it comes out and where people can find it and we're going to share it.

[Zach Woods]

Oh, that's so sweet. But anyway, thanks for having me on. It was really a treat. It's so nice to reconnect with you guys. Nice to see you.

[Jenna Fischer]

Love you, Zach.

[Zach Woods]

Yeah, you too.

[Jenna Fischer]

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our in studio engineer is Sam Kiefer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Ainslie Bubico.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

As a young adult, finding the right path to your future can feel overwhelming.

[Angela Kinsey]

It starts with year up United's tuition free job training program Career pathways.

[Jenna Fischer]

If you're without a bachelor's degree but have a high school diploma or ged, you can get skills first training to succeed in the industries you're passionate about. All while earning a weekly educational stipend to offset basic expenses.

[Angela Kinsey]

From there, you'll have access to internships and hands on experiences with Fortune 500 companies. And with Europe United's job placement services and personalized coaching and mentorship. You can put your knowledge, skills and most importantly, confidence into practice.

[Jenna Fischer]

Apply to Europe United today and take the first step toward achieving the career you want. Visit europe.org to learn more.