The Unexpected Advice Jenna Fischer Was Given by 'The Office' Casting Director Before Her Audition

Even before Jenna Fischer landed her role as Pam Beesly on The Office, the show's casting director had her back from the start. In a throwback interview with NPR from 2013, the actress revealed the pivotal piece of advice she was given ahead of her audition.

"My very first audition for The Office, I had to sit in a chair, and the producer interviewed me in character," Fischer recalled. "There was no script. He just said, we want you to act like Pam, or your idea of Pam?"

Thankfully, Fischer knew just how to handle to character of Pam. "The casting director before I went in - I had known her for a few years and she had called me in for other jobs. And she gave me some coaching on the phone," she recalled. "What she said was, don't come in looking pretty; which, you know, a lot of times, when you go in on an audition, they want you to look inappropriately sexy or hot for the role. And I used to get called in to play things like, oh, like, a third-grade schoolteacher but look really hot. When I went in for The Office, the casting director said to me, she said, please look normal. Don't make yourself all pretty, and dare to bore me with your audition. Those were her words. Dare to bore me."

Clearly, Fischer nailed the audition, and now we can't imagine anyone else playing the secretary-turned-saleswoman!