The main cast members of The Office have become some of the most famous names in Hollywood, but some of the show's minor guest stars have also made it big.
For instance, Sharp Objects star Amy Adams played Katy, a woman who sold purses to the Scranton branch in the sixth and final episode of Season 1. Adams first appears in the episode titled "Hot Girl," which aired on April 26, 2005. Michael allows her character Katy to sell purses in the conference room, and he and Dwight spend the day trying to impress her.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about Amy Adams on the show, and finally told the story behind their iconic photo with Adams and Meryl Streep at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. (Spoiler alert: The story is fairly embarrassing.)
"Amy Adams was 'Purse Girl,'" Fischer said. "This is who [Mindy Kaling] wanted to cast as the purse girl from her audition, but something that I think people don’t realize is that Amy Adams wasn't Amy Adams when she was cast as the purse girl. She became Amy Adams later."
Fischer explained that while the episode aired in Spring 2005, the cast filmed "Hot Girl" in fall 2004 before Adams' career had really taken off. In 2005, Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the film Junebug, and then her career really skyrocketed.
"I remember her first day on set we were talking and I was like, 'How are things going?'" Kinsey recalled. "She was like, 'I was on a show on CBS called Dr. Vegas but they like let me go.'" At the time, Adams reportedly told Kinsey that she was "bummed out" about losing the Dr. Vegas role, but that she felt great about Junebug.
Fischer explained that because the cast and crew of The Office had no idea if the show would do well there were no real plans to bring Adams' character back at first. But once the show got picked up, the writers knew they definitely wanted Katy to return. "By then she was Academy Award-nominated Amy Adams," Fischer laughed. "I was like, I hope we can get her back! And we did, she came back for two more episodes."
Kinsey and Fischer loved working with Adams, and were especially thankful for their connection to her when the 2010 Golden Globes came around. They spotted Adams across the room talking to *the* Meryl Streep and hatched a pretty weak plan to go over and introduce themselves.
"How do you get into the conversation is always the mystery, so at this Golden Globes we had our in," Fischer recalled. “We'll just basically glom onto Amy Adams was our plan."
"I pulled you from the table, and I said we are meeting Meryl Streep. We are doing this. This is a story for my mother, come on," Fischer said to Kinsey. And then she explained what she thought would be a foolproof plan: The two would walk up to Adams and Streep laughing.
"Just laugh. It doesn’t matter," Fischer said. "Just walk up to them laughing. I don't know what I thought, I just knew that we had to seize the moment. And we did just that."
"We walked up to Meryl Streep and Amy Adams laughing and right at that moment a house photographer came by and snapped a photo of us," Fischer said. "So we have a photo that looks like we are having a hilarious conversation with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep."
Though the interaction was cut short by a cue for everyone in the room to return to their seats, Fischer did get a chance to tell Streep, "It’s such a pleasure to meet you, I'm a big admirer of your work." Kinsey, unfortunately, was walking too slowly and didn't make it to Meryl in time.
“I'm like a good three paces behind you,” Kinsey said. "I'm glad you had that moment, but I did not meet her." Tragic!
The two reportedly haven't interacted with Streep since that night in 2010, but their Office co-star John Krasinski went on to star alongside Streep in the stunning 2009 film, It's Complicated. Steve Carell also starred alongside her in the 2012 film Hope Springs. So the next time Fischer and Kinsey run into Streep they'll have several solid connections.
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
