Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have explained how the cast of The Office were “almost killed twice” while filming episode ‘Work Bus’.
The two actors, who play Pam Beesley and Angela Martin respectively in the sitcom, recalled the incident in their new book The Office BFFs: Tales Of The Office From Two Best Friends Who Were There, which was released on Tuesday (May 17).
The episode, directed by Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston, saw Dwight (Rainn Wilson) convert a bus into an office space after Jim (John Krasinski) convinces him the office building is unsafe.
In an excerpt from the book on Mashable, Kinsey wrote: “We want you to know that we see the irony that Bryan Cranston, aka Walter White Sr. or ‘Heisenberg’ as he was known in crystal methamphetamine circles, was an accessory to almost murdering the entire cast of The Office. I assure you this is pure coincidence.”
The bus itself fits 14 actors and four crew members, along with work furniture props. After the air conditioning had to be turned off because it was too loud, Kinsey thought “the heat and the nausea seemed like our worst obstacles” but the trip’s dangers escalated when a stunt driver was brought in to make a bus swerve look more authentic.
Kinsey added: “We were saying our lines and everything was going smoothly when all of a sudden, we heard the assistant director yell, ‘Swerve!’. The stunt driver swerved HARD. I mean he cranked that wheel like Cole Trickle in Days Of Thunder.
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“As a result, the entire cast and contents of the bus went flying into the side of the party bus! What no one had considered when they told this stunt driver to serve as hard as he could without flipping the bus over was that none of our office furniture, props, or set decorations were securely tied down.
“We were all smushed up against the side of the bus. Ellie [Kemper]’s chair crashed into Jake [Lacy]’s. Jake’s crashed into mine, and I was shoved against the glass window.”
The second incident occurred when a portable air conditioner was brought onto the set, which led to them almost being poisoned.
After they noticed “a funny smell” on the bus, Fischer wrote: “The portable air-conditioning unit’s INTAKE hose was right next to the EXHAUST pipe on the bus. So that hose was sucking in exhaust and blowing it straight into the sunroof of the bus.
“We were all being slowly poisoned. Or not so slowly, actually.”
As a result of the experience, Kinsey and Fischer both refer to the episode as ‘Death Bus’.
In August last year, NBC said a reboot of The Office could happen if creator Greg Daniels was on board with the idea.