Jenna Fischer Reveals Super Awkward 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' Audition
By Emily Lee
February 26, 2020
We all know and love Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly on The Office. Before landing the role that would launch her career as an actress, Fischer auditioned for a small guest role on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Unfortunately for Fischer, the audition didn't run as smoothly as she hoped. In her book The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide, the now 45-year-old actress detailed her super awkward audition experience with Larry David.
“My stomach was in knots. I’m pretty sure my voice was shaking. In the scene, I was supposed to pretend to see [Larry David] in a store, corner him, and ask if he was coming to my son’s birthday party, since I had never received his RSVP. Simple enough, right?” Fischer wrote. Instead of nailing her lines and directions, Fischer "just stood there, frozen, looking at Larry, offering nothing else. I just kept muttering, ‘You didn’t RSVP.’ It was so incredibly awkward, a total bomb.”
After the audition was over, Fischer had yet another uncomfortable encounter with David, who Fischer considered one of her greatest creative and comedic inspirations at the time. “The audition petered out, and I headed for the door. As I was walking out, Larry stood to say, ‘Thanks for coming in.’ I misinterpreted his gesture, for some reason thinking he wanted to hug me goodbye," she wrote. "I thought it was unusual to hug goodbye at the end of an audition, but since I’d already tanked the audition, I didn’t want to be rude as well.”
“As he moved toward me, I opened my arms and moved toward him, prepared to meet him halfway," she continued. "Inches from hugging him, I realized he was just gesturing to the door, not opening his arms for a hug. Ugh. It was too late. I was already hugging Larry David.”
Though her audition for Curb Your Enthusiasm didn't work out, Fischer spoke about her successful audition for The Office back in 2013. Unlike with the Curb Your Enthusiasm try out, things went swimmingly when she auditioned for the role of Pam Beesly. “My very first audition forThe Office, I had to sit in a chair, and the producer interviewed me in character," she explained. "And my take on the character of Pam was that she didn’t have any media training, so she didn’t know how to be a good interview. And also, she didn’t care about this interview.”
“And so, I gave very short one-word answers. And I tried very hard not to be funny or clever, because I thought that the comedy would come out of just, you know, the real human reactions to the situation. And it was great," Fischer said. "We clicked quickly. And they liked that take on it.”
Thankfully it all worked out for Fischer, despite a few bumps along the way. The Office just wouldn't be the same without Fischer's take on the fan favorite character.
Photo: Getty