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Melora Hardin played the intimidating VP Jan Levinson inThe Office. The character shared a tumultuous relationship with Steve Carell’s Michael Scott in the series and made regular appearances till its final ninth season. Her role was highly appreciated and added to the awkward humor style of the sitcom.
Hardin recently spoke about the unorthodox style of filming the makers ofThe Officeused to have. The show had a stacked cast of comedy actors and used to regularly make them improvise on set. Hardin spoke about one particular game they used to play while filming the episodes that made the show infinite times better.
Melora Hardin explains the improv-style filming methods ofThe Office
Melora Hardinplayed Jan Levinson in all nine seasons ofThe Office. First introduced as the VP who Steve Carell’s Michael Scott directly reports to at Dunder Mifflin, she then slowly develops a dysfunctional relationship with Scott that leads to several hilarious instances in the sitcom.
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Hardin received SAG nominations as part of the ensemble cast and even won twice along with the rest of the actors. In a recent appearance on theStill Here Hollywoodpodcast, Hardin mentioned that the makers of the show would first let them learn the lines and then feed in small words to use while performing so that they may improvise.
Describing a game called ‘candy bag’ that they used to play while filmingThe Office, Hardin said,
They would do a thing where we would always do it the way it was written, and then they would hand us sort of a candy bag. They would call it a candy bag, and we could literally pull out lines. It would just be little lines that were options that we could throw in if we wanted to.
This balance in preparing and leaving room for improvisation is why many of the jokes inThe Officework so well, especially in the hands of talented comedic actors in the cast.
Melora Hardin found it incredible to improvise with co-star Steve Carell
The romance between Jan and Michael inThe Officeis one of the most uncomfortable yet hilarious arcs in the show. Jan’s transition from being his boss to a fling to his overly controlling girlfriendis an insane arcin the show and their history keeps popping up every now and then until Carell left the show after season 7.
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Melora Hardin, who shared most of her scenes with Steve Carell mentioned that their background in improv really got them working with each other and made the scenes more hilarious. She said,
Most of my scenes were with Steve Carell. And working together, you know, Steve was great. I would throw a ball straight one time, a curve ball next time, and he would send it right back…Both [of us] have a lot of improv in our background. So if you are an actor who has had improv and you work with other actors who’ve done a lot of improv, it really is a lot of fun.
Hardin mentioned thatThe Office’s work culture of leaving room for improv was there even from its pilot episode.
The Officeis available to stream on Peacock.
Nishanth A
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2417
Nishanth A is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows with over 2,000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years and a scriptwriter at various corporations before that, working on educational content. With a Communications, English Literature, and Psychology triple major, Nishanth usually covers news and analyses on Star Trek, particularly Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation; Doctor Who, the DCU, and more.A Nolan fan, Nishanth spends his time exploring the filmographies of various directors with an auteurial style or can be found making short movies of his own. He has also contributed as a feature writer for Film Companion, focusing on the South division.
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Melora HardinThe Office
