Anyway, I sent an email. It’s so mortifying looking back because I thought the show took place in Boston. I thought that because they were playing up my Boston accent, which is where I’m from. And I thought her name was Paula, and I thought the show was going to be about a radio station. So I wrote this whole email being like, “You’re not going to find anybody who is Paula, who works at a radio station, who’s from Boston, all these things.” And then I got the part and finally read the real script and was like, Not one part of that is about this character. [Laughs.] But I’m happy I did it, because where else do you get to reach out to the person who’s made your favorite show ever and say how much you adore him? I was like, whatever happens, I think I’ll be happy that I said something.
What’s your favorite episode of The Office?
Oh, the one where Michael Scott steps on the George Foreman grill. “I like waking up to the smell of bacon. Sue me.” That’s one of my favorites ever. It’s wild. I feel like it’ll never totally sink in. It feels too ridiculous.
Without spoiling too much, is it safe to say that your character, Mare, and Domhnall’s character, Ned, are the Pam and Jim of this series? There’s such chemistry there.
I am so scared of saying anything wrong. I don’t want to lose my job before the show comes out, but the one thing I’ll say is, as somebody who’s such an Office fan, my hope is that people just see it as its own world. I do think all the characters are incredibly different than the characters from the Office itself. I am the biggest fan of Pam and Jim, so it would be too terrifying for me to be compared to anything like that. It’s too big of shoes to fill.
Well, whatever happens, I love the chemistry between you two. Ned respects Mare in the workplace because she’s the only one who seems to have any idea of what it means to be a journalist. It’s a great foundation for whatever their relationship is.
I love the show’s focus on local journalism. That’s been my favorite thing, especially with Mare, because she is somebody who gave up on this dream of having a career that really fulfilled her. She was used to just living in a 9-to-5 job, so when Ned comes and revitalizes the paper, I’m excited for people to see that trajectory of her finding her voice and doing the thing that she always wanted to do.
What was cool was that we got to interview people from local newspapers [to prep for the show]. We talked to reporters from the Palisadian-Post, and it was amazing. Now I’m a subscriber to the Palisadian-Post, which has honestly had insanely important information about what’s happening in the Palisades, where my parents actually have a place. Local news—when you have people on the ground in your small towns—is the news you’re not going to get anywhere else.
