4 behind-the-scenes revelations from 'The Office' cast filming at that ice rink
The Office didn't shoot on location often, but whenever they did it was a real treat for cast members and viewers alike.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about a huge episode for shooting locations: "Michael's Birthday."
In Season 2, Episode 19 of the show, the crew not only filmed in the office and travelled to a Rite Aid for a scene with Jim and Pam, but the Dunder Mifflin employees also made their way to an ice rink to celebrate Michael's big day (and await the results of Kevin's biopsy).
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Fischer and Kinsey reminisced over what went into filming those hilarious skating scenes, and revealed a bunch of behind-the-scenes tidbits about the episode.
Here are four delightful revelations from the podcast about The Office cast filming at Pickwick Ice in Burbank, California.
1. Steve Carell is really that good at skating
Though a few cast members required some assistance on the ice, Carell wasn't one of them. In the episode you see that Michael's a genuinely great skater, and that was all Steve.
"Steve Carell is a very, very good ice skater," Fischer said. "He played hockey growing up, he played pickup hockey every week as an adult."
Carell is so good that the ice skating plots in the show were built solely around his talents.
"The writers had on one of their cards up on the wall [in the writer's room] this fact about Steve being a good ice skater, and they had been looking forever for a way to incorporate it," Fischer said. "You guys might remember that later when we film Threat Level Midnight the movie takes place in an ice skating rink? That was just like another opportunity to feature Steve's ice skating ability."
"This was for sure one of Steve’s favorite film days I think. I mean he loved being on the ice, he was having the best time!" Fischer said. "It had to be," Kinsey agreed.
2. The episode featured a professional stunt skater
Though Carell had some real skills on the ice, Kinsey revealed that he wasn't the skilled skater at the rink that day.
"There was a stunt ice skater. Do you remember, Jenna?" Kinsey asked, to which Fischer replied, "Oh yeah, the guy who filled in for Oscar!"
"You’ll see later in the episode that Oscar is like a very good ice skater," Kinsey said. "He does kind of like a pirouette and spins around — well that's because there was a stunt guy that looked like him that was a really great figure skater."
Fischer shared that the stunt skater's name was Burt Jude Lancon and he was "a famous pairs skater who won the silver medal in the 1982 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, and then later placed sixth at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games."
Per Fischer, there's a great shot of Lancon in the back of Michael's talking head at around 17:42.
3. Fischer had to act like she didn't know how to skate
In this episode, viewers also see Jim helping Pam out on the ice. In real life, however, Fischer absolutely did not require assistance.
"When we filmed this episode I had actually been in some intense ice skating training because I was filming a movie with Will Ferrell called Blades of Glory," Fischer said. "Every Saturday morning for a few months I had to go and spend about three hours [training,] and the crazy thing is my character didn’t even ice skate in the movie."
4. Mindy Kaling wound up needing the on-site medic
Since the cast and camera operators were going to be filming on the ice from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. the show provided an on-site medic, which Kaling ended up needing.
"I don't know if you remember, Angela, but Mindy fell while we were shooting and she hurt her knee," Fischer said. "You know there’s that little bit of ice skating where Kelly is helping Ryan? She fell and she hurt her knee and the medic had to give her some ice."
Thankfully Kaling was OK and able to finish out the day of shooting, but falling on the ice really does sound like a Kelly Kapoor move.
Be sure to listen to the full episode of Office Ladies for the entire episode recap. You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Topics The Office Celebrities
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
