Why Oscar Nuñez Is 'Just Like Barack Obama' On 'The Office Deep Dive'

This episode of The Office Deep Dive is super special for two reasons: First, Brian Baumgartner is sitting down with his fellow accountant Oscar Nuñez, “working my hardest to get a serious answer from him” about everything from what he was doing before being cast on The Office to the time he had duck behind some boxes in the warehouse to secretly cry. The second reason is that this episode is presented in iHeartRadio’s 3D experience! The cinematic audio and fluidity of the sound effects from one ear to another puts you right into the scene, as if you’re sitting in the studio with Brian and Oscar talking about how awesome Greg Daniels is. Brian, as usual, says it best: “For maximum effect – and fun – headphones are recommended.”

Unlike his character Oscar Martinez, Oscar is Cuban, and he actually learned English by watching American sitcoms; he talks about his major influences, like Tony Randall in The Odd Couple and Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show. He was doing catering and babysitting – “Not at the same time” – when he was cast for the pilot, and he knew Angela Kinsey from improv comedy already. But neither of them knew the other had been cast until the first day on set. “I was like, ‘What are you doing here?’ and she was like, ‘What are you doing here?’” he laughs. “It’s every actor’s dream come true.” He loved shooting “Diversity Day” and the joke about Oscar being Mexican: “I love edgy stuff, I love not being condescending to the audience….I think, if it’s genuinely funny, you could pretty much make a joke about anything. But it’s gotta be funny,” he says. “Michael Scott got away with so much stuff because he’s coming at it from a place of innocence….his character wasn’t mean, he wasn’t a bully. Everything was organic.” 

He says Oscar was probably always going to turn out to be a gay character, but they wrote the reveal early on so he could leave the show for a little while to shoot another series with NBC called Halfway Home. He remembers asking Steve Carrell what he should do, because he loved being on The Office but didn’t want to give up an opportunity. Steve told him to “say yes to everything” and that it was his agent’s and manager’s jobs to figure out how to make it work. Which is how his character became the very first LGBTQ person of color to be a regular on a network show. “I’m just like Barack Obama,” he jokes. “Or better! Can I say that?” Hear the entire hilarious conversation, including how hard it is to be older than the President, how to keep a straight face during “the f**king Carrell build-up,” and so much more on this special 3D episode of The Office Deep Dive.

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