October 20, 2021 • 58 mins
Today Brian talks to “the fastest gun in the west”, the man with arguably the best job in Hollywood - Chris Haston, the key photographer on The Office...who also happens to be Kate Flannery’s main man. Chris tells Brian about the days he had to bribe federales with Playboys, how he got his job at NBC by bugging one guy for five years, and his adorable love story with everyone’s favorite Office drunk. Oh, and you might just get a special cameo from her too!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
My name is Chris Hasten, and I'm an NBC staff photographer,
and i was the key photographer on the Office and
may man of Kate Flannery. Hello, Office family, Hi everyone,
(00:25):
welcome to another episode of The Office Deep Dive. I
am your host Brian Baumgartner. Today I have a very
special guest joining me. He was an essential part of
the crew of the Office and in many ways he
has actually helped shape our memories from the show. He's
(00:47):
the reason that we have so many incredible behind the
scene photos from our time on set because he was
our extremely talented and absolutely hello areas NBC staff photographer.
That's right, We're bringing on the incomparable Chris Hasten. Now
(01:09):
what why are you talking to the NBC staff photographer.
That doesn't make sense. Well, Chris was that, but he
also has become a part of our family. Yes, that's right.
He became the main man of Kate Flannery a ka
(01:30):
Meredith Palmer, who actually makes a cameo at the top
of this episode today. Gosh, I love these two. Everyone
in the Office community loves these two. Now. In addition
to the Office, Chris, having worked for NBC since has
(01:50):
worked on some other shows you may have heard of
maybe Okay, you've definitely heard of them. The TV he's
touched is almost unreal, you know, like Friends, Seinfeld, Fresh,
Prince of bel Air, Community, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
He has done it all, but only one show really
(02:12):
changed his life because I mean romantically right. Um. I
will tell you also that Chris also played a huge
role in my upcoming book, that's right, Welcome to dunder
Mifflin is coming out November. You can preorder it on
(02:35):
Amazon right now, so go grab yourself a copy, Grab
one for your friends, grab one for your family. Get
ready to be blown away. I cannot wait for you
guys to read it. And Chris offered so many behind
the scenes photos that are included in this book, so
I'm so excited to talk to him about those moments.
(02:59):
But for now, get ready to focus. Get it like
focus the camera. We're focusing, well, we're focusing on the
man behind the camera. Please give a warm welcome to
the amazing Chris Hasten. Everybody. Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
(03:23):
Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every moment.
Left over from the night before. What is happening? What's up, daddyo?
(03:45):
How are you? I'm great man, good to see you.
Where is your mustache? Oh? I haven't had that since
COVID Man, it just got too hot and sweaty, if
you know what I'm saying. That's what she said. But no,
I shaved it off just because wearing a mask all
the time is impossible. Right. Oh that's smart. Kate. Would
you get out of my eye line? Please? I've always
(04:06):
wanted to say that to an actor. Get the hell
out of my eyeline. Is Kate there? There? Right now? Kate, Kate,
come here? She is there. This is her mike, this
is this is where she does her Kate, what is happening?
I'm talking to your man. I know, I love it.
I can barely hear you on the headphones. Oh that's okay.
(04:27):
It looks like it looks like a Broadway show curtain
behind you. I mean, this is a man every night,
just for him, an audience of one. All right, can
I get on? Can I get on? How are you
guys going to talk? I love you too. We're being recorded,
don't worry. Alright, alrighty, well, there's a comedy portion of
(04:53):
the interview. Oh, it only begins there, and it's so
good to see. So you're well, everybody's okay, yes, yes,
absolutely fine, all right, So I want to go I
want to go backwards in time a little bit. How
did you get into photography? Well, as a kid, you know,
(05:14):
you always hear those stories. Oh, when I was nine
or eleven years old, you know, when I was nine,
somebody put a camera in my hand and I fell
in love with it. And when you know, all the
kids in the neighborhood. I'm from southern California, so skateboarding
and surfing was it. So when everyone else is skateboarding
half pipes and pools, I was taking photos of everybody,
(05:35):
of everybody doing half pipes and pool okay, exactly. So
we're still best friends. So you know, we we always
have our war stories, and mine has to do with photography.
But it just, yeah, it just I just started landing
jobs here and they're working really hard to get into places.
And I was going to school at the time in Torrance,
(05:56):
and UM started working for an agency shooting on racing.
That's my first professional gig, shooting auto racing. We shot
off road racing and eventually road racing, and yeah it
was great. I'm self taught. So they had a studio there,
which is the main reason I wanted to work there,
and then I taught myself lighting. It's funny. About a
(06:16):
year before I started at NBC, which by the way,
I did this waiting for NBC to open up, somebody goes,
do you ever think of shooting people? I go, no way, man,
I said, people get up and walk out on photo shoots.
There's no way I'm ever going to shoot people. A
year later, I'm shooting some of the worst subjects. No,
no offense, but you know, no, I mean none taken.
(06:37):
That was the early days. But wait a second. You
were self taught. I've taught myself lighting. I've taught myself
about exposure. I've taught myself, you know. I mean I
had one year of college that that's all I needed.
But I went to a small Christian school, so they
offered nothing. I shot for the newspaper and the yearbook,
which they were awful. I looked back on that stuff
(06:58):
and go find no and what I know now you know,
But yeah, it was just it's it's a learning thing
all the way, and um, you know, I've been at
NBC for a really really long time, and now I'm
the head guy. Now you're you're it, okay, But before that,
you're shooting off road racing. So you're shooting cars off
the road in the desert wed pre run for two
(07:20):
days and find our spots and then we'd either camp
there someb we would drop us off, and then the
race would start and you pretty much kind of new, Okay,
well there's a hundred cars and I've seen about ninety
five of them. I'm getting the heck out of here.
And it was dangerous because we were down in Mexico.
You know, you pull over machine guns in your face
and you either have a bunch of photos. We had
(07:42):
a lot of racer photos all the time, or my
my boss would go get Playboy magazines at garage sales.
And it's amazing how far you can get with the
federal ally with a machine gun in your face and
a Playboy magazine. Isn't that great? It's sounds like the
federalities are there right now. Actually. Um so yourself taught
(08:03):
as a photographer and then you're shooting off road and
then you find out about a job at NBC. This
is no. In nineteen eighty I found out, okay, okay.
First of all, my senior high school, I'm like, wait
a minute, somebody gets paid to take pictures in the movies.
And then I really freaked out. And then I ended
(08:24):
up meeting a guy, went to and went to NBC
and Burbank and it was the Johnny Carson stage and
Billy Crystal was doing a pilot It's back when he
did You Look Marvelous. It was the beginning of that.
And I was there with a girl and she goes, hey,
I know that guy down there, and it happened to
be a friend of her mom's and she knew that
he worked there. I never knew it, and uh, she
(08:45):
slipped him a note and he invented invited us down.
We went into the lab, which was my office for
twenty five years, and I'm I immediately hit him up
and he's like, you know, after three months, he's like,
don't ever call me again. And I bugged him every year.
I just I knew something. I knew it was going
to happen, and it was NBC the whole time, because
(09:05):
that was it, you know, NBC was the network. And finally,
after five years, they called and said, you're still interested.
And I went in as a lab guy, wiping everybody's
nose and taking out their trash. And again I go
in there, and I learned how they do it big time.
And what's funny about it is no photographer on staff
(09:26):
would tell me stay out of an actress, Eyeline, don't
hit on the actresses, don't don't do this, don't do that.
And I just went and I got to say and
I was a nervous wreck, but I never showed it.
And you know, I've worked on some of the biggest
shows in history. Right, what was the first show that
you worked on out of the lab, like when they
(09:46):
let you go on set? Well, Punky Brewster, the original
Punky Brewster was done on our lot and nobody and
everyone was bored with a lot of shows and this
was a kid show, and um, I knew the it.
There were some old school actors on there, and I thought, man,
maybe I can handle this, and they said, go, yeah, go,
grab a camera and go. And we used to use
(10:07):
these gigantic housings that went around a nikon or a
cannon that sound proved it. I grabbed it and I
was fumbling and all that. It was only thirty six frames,
so you have to you get through thirty six frames
and then you uh, you know, you gotta switch it out.
But anyway, I went down there and started doing that,
and I'm sure the pictures were awful. Uh. And then
the second thing, the second thing was like instantaneous because
(10:30):
they knew I can handle myself. I started shooting the
Johnny Carson Show. That was a rotation thing, so everybody
did it, you know, every fourth or fifth week. However,
many photographers were in that roster for it, and that was, um,
that was showbiz, baby. That's how I res when I
got bit wow, yeah Carson show me right, I mean
(10:52):
for for comedians at the time, I mean appearing on
that and you're back there shooting at How amazing was that?
Not just that, dude. It's like Stephen Wright would come
into the green room and I'd be sitting there waiting
for the show to start, and we never shot Johnny's
monologue unless it was required or asked by the producers,
and and like Stephen Wright would be there and like
(11:13):
I'd be like, hey man, I mean it's just like
you're trying not to like, you know, throw up and uh,
I would always you know, with the comedians especially, I
did it with some of the musicians. But I'm like, hey,
if you want me to send you some photos, which
you know I didn't have the authority to do that
in the beginning, but once it was really rolling, I
and you know, you know, I'd send Stephen write some photos.
(11:33):
And Jeff Fox were the God. That guy is such
a great guy. He saw me recently. He goes, Hey,
by the way, I don't hang a lot of stuff
in my house, but there's a black and white that
you shot of me and Johnny is belly laughing. He
goes that hangs right outside my kitchen and it's like
my Buddha. I touch it every morning. Which man, that's
that's my payoff right there. That is awesome. Who was
(11:56):
the coolest person on the on the Tonight Show that
you shot? Like for you, dude, I mean God. We
go sit in the audience durring rehearsals and the Chili
Peppers would play for like an hour and Iggy Pop
would just come this far from your face and just
be screaming at you l a singing, and they love
that stuff because we're an audience of like ten people
(12:18):
that wanted to see them. I don't know, man, it
was I mean, Jimmy Stewart. Uh, you know, I can't
even I can't even think it was all great. So
you shot Jimmy Stewart and me. So that's pretty much
all I really talked about. I mean, that's kind of right.
(12:40):
I mean, that's there's nothing in between those two. Um,
in addition to the tonight's show. And you mentioned this
before NBC, was it right? I mean NBC was much
by the way Warren Littlefield and I we were, We
were handed hand with each other and he calls me
his mussy TV photographer. Really, yeah, because I was there
(13:02):
through that whole era, and I was a go getter
and young and willing to just do anything. So Cheers.
You shot Cheers. I shot the end of Cheers. I
was Leno's photographer when Carson left for the first five years,
and we flew to Boston and we were in the
Bull and Finch the night it went off the air,
but Paramount sent me upstairs above the Bull and Finch
(13:23):
to be in a room with the cast while they
watched TV, and they go, you really shouldn't be there,
but try and get photos the finale. This was the finale.
They were watching the finale on TV in a hotel
room in Boston. It wasn't a big room and it
was really dark, and uh, yeah, it was very intimate.
(13:45):
I've been in some scary places, Brian. Well, but that
was I remember that night after the finale. They did
the Tonight Show afterward, and so you were with them
through I wash there were a lot of photos I
did not take that night. In fact, I was with
I'm sorry, didn't work. I was. I was with the
(14:06):
cast all day. I was in a limo with Kelsey
Grammer doing business on his way to the State House.
And uh, Kelsey wasn't having a good phone call. He
was on that phone in a limo behind with the cable,
you know. And and the door opens and he gets
out and we walked up the steps of the Statehouse
for him to bang a gavel, and yeah, it was
(14:28):
I was. I've been in some places, Brian. And there's
some other stories will tell when we're not being recorded.
I'm sure I remember seeing the cast of Cheers that
night on the Tonight Show and I don't bombed. Weren't
they I don't bombed. That's exactly how it appeared. Yeah,
drunk appeared appeared to me. That is so amazing. And
(14:51):
so also you shot Seinfeld, you shot Saved by the Bell, Fresh,
Prince of bel Air, Will and Grace. You've spoken to
me a lot about Friends. You were you were at
NBC the whole time Friends was on, right, I did, uh,
Usually I did the pilot gallery. The gallery is there's
two types of photography. I do as their unit and
(15:13):
gallery unit is something that you're on a set. You
shoot images that look like they're coming out of the
motion picture camera. I take a liberty with that because
there are sometimes you don't want the camera on a set.
Could be on the floor shooting this wide room shot,
but I don't want some actress coming at me going
that is a terrible photo of me. So I I
(15:33):
sort of take the liberty of getting better pictures that way.
But the gallery stuff is kind of the rock and
roll stuff, and I have been fortunate to do several
years of galleries of the biggest shows on NBC Wow,
And the galleries are kind of pre set up shots
for those listening. That usually happens right before a season starts.
(15:57):
You'll shoot the cast in various thoses that will be
used for publicity and marketing throughout the year. Right, So
the covers you see on TV guides or you're sitting
at a light and there's a bus next to you,
that's all the stuff that we do. Yeah, so you
had I'm skipping ahead quite a bit here, but you
had one of the most famous at least from our show,
(16:20):
The Office, that George Sarah painting UM Sunday in the
park on the isle of French words. Um. And you
thought it was just a reservoir. Isn't that a French word? Right?
But you you set up the office characters as though
they were in that painting. One. You're tell me a
(16:40):
little bit about about that or your idea behind that.
One of our top designers at NBC is named Sean Serrio.
He's an award winning guy. It was his gig and
he always gets the real cool gigs. So we got
together and I took the original painting, not the original,
(17:01):
but you know, I took that image and and sort
of traced over and I took out a couple of
people or added a couple of people, and I placed
everyone where I thought, you know, with Craig Robinson and
the hat or Jim and Pam walking in with the
umbrella or Kate, you know, with a drink in her hand.
So we sort of designed all of that. We pretty
(17:21):
much shot everyone singly except Jim and Pam were there
together and that, I mean, you guys were amazing because
you look like you're there with a bunch of people.
That's the beauty of photography. Man, it's nothing but a
big fat lie and production. You can't everyone can't just
stop what they're doing and walk off set. So we did.
(17:43):
We did everybody one at a time, and I had
plenty of time with you guys. We had a really
good time. Yeah, yeah, we did. What was let's exclude
the office for a second. What was your favorite other show,
let's say to shoot at NBC. Well, one of the
most intense, most incredible shoots for me was Homicide Life
on the Street. I think it was the third season.
(18:05):
I mean it was like if Breaking Bad was going
and they asked me to go do that photo shoot.
It was like that because it was just rich and
sets in Baltimore were unbelievable, and I knew the show
inside and out. And that's another thing too, is I
really like to know what I'm doing going in. Sometimes
I don't pilot. You just don't know. But this one
(18:27):
I knew. I knew the box was a sacred place
and that the bad, the worst people in Baltimore were
inside the box, and Andre Brower was going to be
really in their face. So those are some pretty phenomenal photos.
I used to enjoy Third Rock from the Sun because
Lithgau is one of my favorite people in Hollywood, and
it was a party, oh e R. We had a
(18:49):
good time on the R even though it was very tense.
We I don't know if I should say this, but
I'm going to Occasionally we'd bring in beer and wine
and something a little harder sometimes so if somebody requested it.
But we get everybody lit. When we were shooting on
the backlot at Warner Brothers late at night, we'd do
these photo shoots of them coming out the door into
the ambulance. And yeah, those were crazy, wild parties, dangerous things.
(19:16):
You didn't we didn't have that on our show. We didn't.
I guess because you guys had a hundred people on
your show. Maybe I guess that's true. I guess that's true.
Talk a little bit about your your process. So, first off,
a multi camera show like Cheers or Friends, the cameras
(19:37):
are set up, do you have pretty much free rome
to to be able to take photos from anywhere sort
of in front? Sometimes if you have an actress that
doesn't want anybody in her eye line or or she'd
be too I don't even say she. I've had many
many A guy go hey, I can see you moving,
and you know, well, okay. I'll just let me start
(19:59):
by saying a still photographer is the only job on
set that can be asked not to do their job.
So you can't have the actor go out, you can't
have the sound guy leave, you can't have one of
the camera guys split. So I'm the one person who
could be asked not do their job. But um, when
all that's moving, it is one of the most beautiful
(20:21):
dances you've ever seen. One of my favorite directors in
the world is Jim Burrows. I have done so many
projects with Burrows, Will and Grace. I could run up
to the very front of the lenses and work if
I wanted to. Uh, I wouldn't do that. I'm big,
I'm a big dude, and I do take up a
lot of space. But it's it's a relationship you get
(20:44):
with the dolly grips. You know, if you've ever seen this,
if anybody's ever seen the big dollies that cameras roll on,
those guys will run you over. And those things can
run you over. There a tank. I've seen other guys
get clipped and it ain't pretty, but said dance and
as long as you know how to dance, you will
survive in that situation. And there are times where Burrows
(21:07):
is famous for putting his foot on the dolly and
kicking it and they're his guys are so good they
start rolling the wheels and the camera follows the actor.
Whatever it's it's truly amazing. But I've been in the
middle of two dollies when that happens, and you're just
gonna get out of there. Um, do you find that
you still have the same passion that you did that
(21:30):
first drew you in? Absolutely? Oh no, man, It's the
best job in Hollywood. It is the best job in Hollywood.
I love to joke. Uh, you know, you see some
guys shoving a whole giant piece of pizza down his
mouth at two in the morning and just to get
himself home. I'm like, hey, glamorous business, right, um, but
that I everywhere I go. I mean, I see so
(21:52):
many people from the office. I just saw Kelly Cantley
last week. I see guys from Well and Grace all
the time. I see, you know, even even working like
America's got talent. I see camera guys that I've known
for twenty five years, and it's and you know brand,
it's it's such a small, tiny business, but it's like
(22:13):
the biggest, tiniest business in the world. So I'm so excited.
I'm not gonna microrect But no, my passion is uh.
I mean, holy cow, I can't believe I get paid
to do this. And I just cat will argue with you,
but I just don't have the ego that photographers normally have.
And you know, I'm I mean, I'm taking photos. I'm
(22:35):
not a plastic surgeon. I'm a I'm a documentarian in
a way. It's I love to use that on people. Yes, no,
but you are you know you are a documentarian. I
never thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah, but I'm
I'm not just they're documenting. I'm most of the time
creating the documentation. Of that. So that's what I love
(22:58):
about being in a studio and doing a gallery and
just making It's amazing brain that Sunday in the Park
with George was such a great famous painting. It's been
copied so many times. And the fact that it carried
the weight, that image carries the weight that it does.
I mean, people like, oh my god, you worked on
(23:20):
The Office. I'm like, yeah, I'm a photographer and and
and then I mentioned that, and they think they're talking to,
you know, a big star. I'm like, that's all. I
move on to the next thing. Man, I'm not worried
about it. Obviously, you and I share a passion, which
(23:58):
is The Office. Two in four, NBC ordered this show. Now,
were you aware of the British version of the show.
You know what, when I heard this was coming at us,
I watched the British Uh, probably in a day or two.
I watched it all and it was I watched it
(24:18):
three times only because it was so frustrating and I
hated it so much. I'm like, I don't get it.
And then once I started watching it and the characters
grew on me, then I I loved it. The reason
I watched it so many times to get it is
because I had worked on fifty British shows already that
(24:38):
they were trying to make here that failed. By the way,
I shot the very first images for the gallery, which
we can get into if you want. UM. But I
went to that crappy little warehouse in Culver City and
we went in there and shot and I shot Pam
behind the desk, and I did that famous four shot
of them looking at the computer. UM. So we show
(25:02):
up and we had an art director who was a
very like UM he's a very show biz guy. His
name was Jim and Jim had this very like thunderous
voice who whatever Jim said Jim wanted and Jim was
going to get. So we get there and Greg Daniels
is there and he's walking around and UM, and I
(25:26):
was confused. I mean, I I you know, Okay, you're
gonna shoot this. They're all gonna be look at the
monitor and you know, normally we're having him looking to
the camera so we can identify them and you know,
people people connect with them. And then Jim Vince there
and he goes, all right, uh, hey, you any points
at Johnny goes you look at the camera and Adam nowhere,
(25:48):
Greg flies and he goes, if anybody looks at this camera,
the photo shoot is over. Because it was so new
in the process that I don't think we wanted to
give up any secrets and or or break that fourth
wall for the photos because we weren't quite there yet,
and this was our first group shot. And I completely
(26:09):
was with Greg. He knew what he wanted if I
could jump ahead real quick. There were times where we
would have a real secret or something that they did
not want to go out. I developed a relationship with
Greg and the producers the whole show where I would
shoot it and we would tag it so it wouldn't
(26:30):
go out. Like I knew people know that Steve was
in the finale, right, Can I say that? Finally? Oh?
Thank god? But I was probably one of five people
that knew that morning. Uh they warned me, which is
the greatest thing ever. Somebody doesn't warn you like Carson Show.
They've never warn us there's a big giant thing that's
going to fall down and just miss his head. It's
(26:51):
like you'll miss the shot if you're not ready for it.
So I was standing just off camera when he says,
I can't be your best disminch. And I heard Steve
walk up and I'm just like, oh my god, this
is this is I can't tell you how many of
those moments I've actually been there for so to know that.
(27:13):
And I didn't even tell Okay, I didn't tell a
soul because that's I mean, that's the way I am. Man.
I'm like, uh, if you tell me something no one's
supposed to know, no one's going to know it. If
the network's not supposed to know about it, They're only
only one person that the network's going to find out,
my editor. And I'm gonna say this doesn't go anywhere
until it airs, which is kind of powerful. But I
(27:33):
I never thought I'd like, so, wait when you got
there that day, you knew he was going to be there,
and they said, don't release not right away, not right away.
I think when I was geared up and walking on
walking on a set. Actually I did see him when
he walked up to the house, so I mean, I
probably knew about five ten minutes before he walked up.
(27:55):
So I think when he landed, they said Steve's here,
right to be so. And by the way, I want
to say one other thing, and I love telling people
this when we're on the set. There that very first
day when Greg said, nobody looks at the camera. I
had worked at least ten pilots with Correll, and I
(28:18):
mean I worked on some of the most amazing things
with him. And when he walked up, I jokingly said
to my crewmat you guys, Steve Carrell's in this, Let's
pack it up. We're getting out of here. This ain't
going anywhere. And he got a really good laugh out
of it. Steve and I always had the tightest relationship
because I had known him for so many years, and
you know, if he if I needed something, if he
needed something, I was always welcome into his trailer, which
(28:40):
was the coolest trailer in Hollywood, and you know it was.
It was a good relationship to have with him. Such
a great guy, right well, I think I think also
going back to that first day, you know, a big
thing I know for Greg early on was he wanted
(29:01):
to establish these characters or these people, meaning Jim and
Pam and Michael and Dwight, and and this idea that
that they were not actors, right, and so actors pose
for the camera, Actors look into the camera and and
(29:21):
do you know, glamour shots or whatever you want to
call it, Whereas if you're a bunch of people at
a mid level slash small regional paper company, you wouldn't
look into the camera. You would be doing what you're
doing and hoping to capture it. That's really fascinating to
me that it started even before we started shooting the pilot,
(29:43):
when they were you were doing the gallery. That's amazing.
So you shot like ten pilots you mentioned with Steve Carrell.
Was there anybody else from the office that you had
shot prior to the office. Yeah. I was on a
pilot one time and we're working in this great old
school building near downtown and I walk in and there's
these two geeks that are there. One of them is
(30:04):
playing a robot, one of them is playing the robot's friend.
And it was a pilot. And I treat pilots the same.
You get in, you do your thing, and get out.
And this one guy comes up to me goes, you
know what I'd really like for you to do. I'd
like you to do this, that and the other. And
I turned to him and I go, look, pal, this
is a pilot. If this show is picked up, I
will kiss your ass and do whatever you want. And
(30:27):
it was Rain Wilson. Are you serious? It was his
very first pilot he ever did. And to this day,
when anybody's introduced to me by Rain, he goes, this
guy shot me on my very first pilot. And we
never have talked about me telling him that, but he
respected me and he went with it at that moment. Now, wait,
(30:48):
but let me ask you this. Did you so you
were there early on? Did you like the show? You
know I were? I was worried. I was worried at
first because I, uh, you know, like I said, I'd
been on so many shows that didn't think it worked,
and um, I felt that the first two episodes of
(31:10):
the British Office were so British, and I worried that,
wait a minute, this is just like it. But I
didn't understand. And of course since then I have found
I mean, I know how brilliant all of our top
notch people were, like all of our above the line
people were, and I've grown to really open up my
(31:32):
eyes now when I go on set, like those guys
are geniuses. Greg Daniels is a genius, a fearless genius,
and it was breaking my heart even back then that
it was, you know, six episodes and we might give
you one more episode. And when I see that now
I scream at people. You know, I'm like, are you
(31:54):
guys gonna do how many episodes? And while they're adding
three more, like how dare they? Don't they realize they're
sitting on a gold mine. Yeah. Now, on the office,
there was well, there were four walls, which there usually
are in a space. There was no place to hide,
and because of the way the show was shot, the
cameras moving around all of the time, so there is
(32:17):
a huge dance between you know, a lot of times
really three people excluding yourself are in the space. There's
a boom operator, you've got mix on people, and you've
got two camera guys who are swinging the camera around
and so then into that they bring your big bond
(32:38):
Like so so glad you asked this question. Yeah, so
how how do you you know? It's one thing, Yeah,
there's one thing to have this huge dolly that you know,
if you stay behind the dolly, they're not going to
shoot you because there's an audience behind you and everything else.
But in this you're having to learn the dance along
(32:59):
with the camera guys and the sound guys. How how
different was that for you doing your job on our show? Well,
Brian and I we occupied the same three inch square
on every floor, and that's hard to do at least
Brian soundner, sound guy, who's an amazing mixer now. But
he and I were in the same spot. And when
(33:19):
we were in a corner in that conference room or something,
that conference room was ten thousand times smaller when you've
got a photograph. It. We just managed and Brian, he
just jokingly rolled his eyes every time he saw me
and I, I'm very gracious, and I asked permission. I
would always ask Randall or Matt if I could be,
you know, in a certain place, and uh, I managed.
(33:43):
I mean again, that's where a longer lens will come
into play and you're able to sort of get in
and I'll try to do two passes on every scene.
I'll try to go wide and include everyone, and then
I try to get it fits. An argument at the
copier or Pam's talking to Michael at the desk, I'll
get I'll go in tight on that with a longer lens,
that's easy to get. Randall, God bless that guy. Those
(34:06):
him and Matt Man. Those guys are the two best
I've ever worked with. Sorry for all you other guys
I've worked with, but like, I learned this on the
Er on the R where it was a little sort
of island in the middle of the emergency room, and
when they were on a handhole handheld, they would do whips,
and um, I was okay. And there I watched and
(34:28):
if if I saw him open his eye, I knew
he was coming that way. Well, Randall and I developed
a thing where and Matt two. I think Randall gave
me a sort of a little click or or up,
and the moment he did that, I hit the deck.
I literally would drop to the floor and Matt would
actually whip through me. He didn't care, like, because you know,
(34:51):
whip you can't. You don't even if even if you
stop the frame on your on your recording, you're not
gonna You're not gonna see anything. I'm just a big
I wear black all the time, so it's just a black,
black white interesting but it was, Yeah, it was. And
that makes you feel like a rock star. That makes
you feel like, man, I am on the best set
(35:13):
in Hollywood, and and I'm here making it happen. Yeah,
there was a moment um several years ago that actually
it was right when Steve left. What when Steve left,
we I had management at NBC and they brought in
a guy over me who wasn't as qualified as myself
and my other partner that were there. And so yeah,
(35:35):
they were making life difficult. So some of the rock
star stuff was taken away from me, and the galleries
were being done by this other guy. Um, and the
new season was coming along, and um, you know I
I don't pay attention to anything until they're like, Okay,
we're gonna do this shoot. So um, I knew the
(35:55):
office shoot was coming up though, that was the one
I knew was coming up. And then John and I
had a conversation and he told me that he said
that unless Chris Hasten does this gallery, we're not doing it,
and that my friend is a powerful producer on a show,
and that my friend is somebody I will take a
(36:16):
bullet for and if he if he needs me to
do anything in life, he can call me at any
hour and I'll be there. Because that that was a
true friendship move. And Krasinski, man, I'm so glad he's
such a huge rock star now and won't talk to me.
I'm kidding. No, we we talked some. Yeah, we talked
(36:36):
recently about something. So, yeah, that's amazing. He's he's a
class act. He really is. Yeah. Yeah, Just so you know,
I I would have done whatever they asked me to do,
whether you were there or not. Just to be clear, Okay,
you talked about your relationship with Steve. You've known him
(36:57):
for a while. How accommodating was he to work with
throughout his time on the show. He was probably the
most intense and uh, I mean he has a big
movie star by the time things really started rolling. In fact,
he might have been the only one. Yeah, I was.
(37:17):
You know, here's an example. I was in his office once.
I was between Matt and Randall and Brian was somewhere
with his boom, and I hadn't watched the rehearsal. Sometimes
it's I don't want to be in a tight little
space like that for rehearsals. But I didn't know he's
going to cry in the scene. I don't even know
(37:39):
if he knew he was going to cry in the
scene in the beginning, and that soundproof housing wasn't sound
prof housing. So it was like, you know, click click click,
and it was you can barely hear it. But a
man who has to cry on cue he heard it,
and uh, he didn't even look up, but he just
goes Chris and I and it's like you might as
(38:01):
well hear that out of a out of a fog horn.
It's like great, and I'm like, I'm so sorry, Steve.
And all you can do is apologize and leave and
just you know, safe face. I mean, trust me, man.
There are other actors who are like if I told
you once, it's like you haven't told me once. There
was somebody else on the show later on, but I'm
(38:22):
not going to mention his name, but they'll really let
you have it. But and so unfortunately, at this point,
the room is so small Matt has to get up
off of his box, turn Brian has to get out
of the way so I can get the heck out
of the room. Oh god, So it's humiliating. It's humiliating.
But you know something, Brian, you can't take it personal.
(38:44):
It's hard not to um, but it's it's just a job.
So that's the the way I've looked at it. It's
your job and don't take it personal and you'll be fine.
(39:15):
What was your favorite memory being on set of The Office?
I was afraid you were gonna ask me this, because
I know you asked so many people this question. One
of the funniest things that happened on a regular basis.
Kate loves the fact that I hung out in the
fake men's room. But the fake men's room was the
(39:35):
route to the real men's room because there was no
back wall, and I'd be sitting there editing on my
computer or whatever, and uh, Leslie, David Baker did it
ten times. If he did it once, they opened the
door like, oh sorry, I'm like, I'm not taking a
ship here, dude. The restrooms right there, keep going um um.
You know what. I hate to be so cliche, but
(40:00):
it's like any day I walked in the door there, man,
it was a good day. And then, of course, you know,
in the middle of the second season, Kate and I
hooked up, so it's like I had a place to
eat my lunch, now, you know what I mean? How
how did this start? Like, was there a moment, was
(40:22):
there was there music playing in the background, or did
someone captured on film? I'm just wondering. You know. She
kept inviting me to see the lamp Shades, her comedy act,
which is absolutely brilliant. It's that's Kate Flannery brilliance all
the way. And I was, you know, uh, I'm invited
all the time. Hey, I go to band, you want
(40:42):
to come see my band? And I'm like whatever, whatever,
But she kept inviting me. And one night I happened
I was going to be at this club in Hollywood
to see some other girl and just somebody I was
hanging out with. And then um, I said, well, I'm
busy on Saturday. And I got, well, what time because
the thing I was going to was later. She goes
eight o'clock. I go, oh, I can make that work.
(41:04):
And I go, uh, where's it at? She goes right
on Hollywood Buever. I go, We're on Hollywood Blue. Where
she goes, it's in in prov Olympic. I go, that's
where I'm going to be at ten o'clock to that
same night, I said, this is meant to be and um,
we you know, it's funny. She she knew I had kids,
she didn't know if I was divorced or married, and uh,
(41:26):
after the show, we went and got a drink, and
five minutes in, I'm like, you and I should be dating,
and I am not that smooth. I had never said
that to anybody else, but I had connected with her
in such a way, and I knew she was brilliant.
I think she was very attracted to me. She invited
me a lot, and she invited you a lot. Yeah,
(41:49):
like every time it was, and it was she used
to do it every Saturday night. So but I think
the one moment that that we first had eye contact
is I used to go around like for almost every
time I was there, I would do portraits to you guys,
just because that's always really good filler if they're going
to do a story or whatever. And I think this
(42:09):
one time I don't even remember, but it was the
Christmas episode of TV Guide. They were going to do
photos of everybody because it was the show was picking
up steam, and there's a picture of her holding up
a Santa Claus doll and uh. And other times I
got her pulling a bottle of vodka of the out
of the thing, looking up at me and just she
was adorable and um, it's funny. I met her as
(42:32):
Meredith and then I saw her as her character on
stage and I'm like, and my friends like, look at her,
and I'm like, take it easy, take it easy. And
then she comes out walking like Kate Flanner. I'm like,
now we're talking. That's why five minutes and I go,
you and I should be dating. You said that to her.
That is amazing. Apparently a recent interview she gave, she
(42:53):
said that the two of you are like Jim and
Pam because you worked together but didn't start dating until
the end of season too. Yeah, that's about it. That's
about right, yea. But she was never as mean to
me as Pam was to Jim. Just kidding, I'm just
talking storyline here. Yeah, in the in the finale of
(43:18):
The Office, um, Greg, let you dance with Meredith during
Dwight and Angela's wedding. How cool is that? You know,
Kate wanted me in the wanted me in the show,
and I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, I didn't think
it was gonna happen. And then she wanted me to
(43:38):
be I think would be one of the cops that
takes crete out at the end, but those were real
motor cops that stopped traffic for us. Those are real
L A. P. D guys. Um. So I was fine,
you know, with just being her her boyfriend at the
at the wedding, and then you know, end up they
gave me a line in the warehouse when Pam reveals
her mural, and which here's a great story. She's gonna
(43:59):
be so mad when I tell you this. So Copus
comes up and he goes, hey, just say what a
photographer would say, Oh yes, sir, And uh so, Pam's like,
all right, anybody, let's do this photo. And then everybody
gets in and I said, all right, everybody right here.
That looks great. That looks great, you know. And then
they cut and Kate goes and you're all standing right there,
and this was a nervous moment for me anyway, and
(44:22):
Kate goes, you can't talk, and I was just like
I was told I can talk. And all of a sudden,
Kelly Cantley, who's this tall, walks through and she goes,
you can talk, and she looks at her she goes,
he can talk, and then she she takes off and
then uh, Kate was just like oh no, oh no.
So and then what happened was they didn't have a
(44:45):
funny enough line, and Greg brought me into a d
R and I think you might have been there. I
don't know, no was it was Angela, but they wanted
to add um, just a couple of dozen more, which
a photographer would never say, because the whole reason I
wouldn't say that this is because you guys get bored
with what's happening and you go upstairs brilliant writing. And
(45:06):
so I meant, I'm at Universal one day and they're like,
you need to go do a d R. I'm like what.
And I went in and Angela is doing her thing
and then for some reason, Brian and God bless actors, man,
God bless you guys. I could not say that line
to save my life. I was. I was a bumbling idiot.
It was like I had a couple, just a couple
dozen more, And and Greg got right here and he's like,
(45:29):
say it, say it, You could say it. And I
should have just put my full trust in this genius
who I had watched for the last nineteen years be
the most absolute genius. And I and finally I mumbled
it out. And the moment I'm done, he's all right,
we got it. And I turned and Rain does like
a cop kick in the door and he's screaming my
(45:51):
line because he was coming in to do a d
R after me, and I'm like, I'm like, let's just
have Rain do it. You know. It was a funny moment,
but my god, I felt like an idiot. That's amazing.
Do do when you're out with Kate? Do people make
jokes to you about about dating Meredith? They don't even
(46:13):
see me? No, you know a few things have happened since. Well,
first of all, when Syndication happened, when it started hitting
regular uh like a cable thing, uh, Kate started getting
bothered all the time by so many people. And then
when it hit Netflix, she was mid byte and people
would stop and say, can we get a photo of
(46:35):
that kind of thing? But now people are stopping me
like if it's it doesn't happen all the time. But
somebody goes, hey, weren't you in the finale? I saw
you in the finale and the oven like, oh my god.
It's really weird for me because I'm all about you know,
I can spot somebody spotting Kate from a mile away,
(46:57):
and we have a little code word which I'm not
going to tell you, but it's from the show. I'm
not I'm not going to private. I'm gonna tell you private.
You'll find out private. But um I let her know, Okay,
in coming, you know what I mean. So, but that's
not the code word. What's the code not gonna will
(47:18):
be mad at me if I tell you. Um, well, listen,
I've been talking to people, you know for now the
last couple of years, which has been amazing, and how
willing people are now after eight years of the show
being done talking about it. And as you just mentioned,
you know, the sustained not just success, but you know,
(47:42):
as I say, not just survived, but it's thriving now
all of this time later and this exploration that I've
been going through. Now we have collected it all together
and uh, and we're coming out with a book that's
going to be launched really soon. And you are a
(48:04):
huge part of that book because there are hundreds of
never before seeing photos that you took on set in
some of the most intimate moments during the show. So
when we started talking about photos for the book, I went,
wait a second. There was a cast book that I
(48:27):
understand you helped put together at the end of the show.
That was like it was one of those things like
right in front of me the whole time. It's like
right in my living room on my coffee table. It
has been for the last eight years. And so I
started looking through a book. How did how did that
come about? That that creation of that amazingly beautiful book.
(48:47):
That happens a lot, like when Willie and Grace was
wrapping up, I did, Uh, I did that. Almost every
show doesn't now, And I think that that is the
greatest gift you can get as a rap gift. I mean,
that's the great the great thing about being a photographer
in general. Like even if you're at a party or
an event, you're going to talk to every single person
in the room. That was my chance to work with
(49:08):
every person, and a lot of people try to ditch
you and not you know, but I was pretty sneaky
and I was able to get people. But yeah, that's
that's always something really fun to do. It's a so
much work, especially at the end of a run. But uh,
it's yeah, like what you're saying right now, it's like
it's unbelievable. Well, it's it's so it's so beautiful and
(49:30):
so for you know, the last eight years, when people
you know, come over to my house and we're talking
about the show, always refer to the book and they
look through it and they're like, oh my god, I
can't believe you have these photos. Well, now everyone in
the world can't come to my house to look at
my book. But now so many of these photos are
(49:51):
going to be in this book. And so I'm we're
gonna I feel like Conan O'Brien here, but we're gonna
play a little game. All right, We're gonna play game.
Describe that picture hashtag, hashtag copyright, hashtag Brian Baumgartner, hashtag
the Office, deep dive. I don't know if that covers it,
(50:11):
but I'm gonna make these photos available on my Instagram
so other people can can mention it. But I'm gonna
show you a series of photos and this can be
fast round. You can say one word, you can describe
something that you remember from some of these iconic photos
of the show. So the first photo Steve Carrell sitting
at what looks like a dinner party with the st
(50:35):
Holy girl. Uh, you know, light up thing behind that
sign was so bright, man, it was so bright, which
was the joke but in a still or you want
the actor to look good, so the signs blown out.
That was one of the most unforgettable nights of my life.
I can't even believe how hard we left. And and
(50:55):
that's hard when as the photographer, man, there were tears.
Just my whole shirt was wet from just laughing so
hard with that stupid TV, the plasma TV. Yeah, but
this was this was intense. You know, if I had
one word for this intense because that fight was intense,
I'll try to give you one word answer. No, no, no,
(51:16):
you can describe more. I'm just saying it can be fast. Okay,
photo too, Oh Jesus Christ Meredith with intense infusing because
it's never made. There was never a reason in the
episode of why her face looked like she was dropped
into a pizza oven. Okay, so so go ahead, you
(51:38):
can say this is her go ahead. Yeah, so there
was she got was it sunburned or for extremely sunburned?
And we even did a big shot I hope to
not ruin another photo, but there's a group shot in
the warehouse and she looks like this, and um, there
was no explanation why because the storyline was cut so
(52:01):
I think a valuable lessons were learned during this episode
that you know, if you have something like this, you
better back it up. Yes, do you. She's just as
beautiful there as the moment you met her. Beauty is
skin deep. Brian, Oh no, no, no, she's she's she's lovely.
(52:24):
She's lovely, all right. Photo three? Okay, a group of people,
Oh yeah, around a giant one. Tell me about this.
I think Phyllis's hair speaks for all of us. It
was so hot and dusty there. Um, we were out
at the Calamugos ranch, I think. And you guys, uh,
(52:45):
usually when they cut a cake like this, they're telling
you about your next pickup, and that might have been
what happened this day. But all I know is I
never got any cake. You never got any cake, and
a gigantic cake like that. I know. This is this
was the celebration of the hundredth episode, huge milestone in
a show huge. I've been there for hundreds of them. Yes,
(53:07):
company company picnic and you see Greg they're cutting the cake.
But yes, we were all we were all very very
very very hot out there in Malibu, alright. Picture four,
Oh Jesus, yeah, that was scary Will Ferrell dunking a
basketball over me sitting on the ground. What do you
(53:28):
remember about this day? You know what, Brian, and it's
I'm not bullshitting you, but I could have easily shot
that in a way to see his face, but I
wanted you in there looking like you're about to get crushed.
But yeah, this this was the shot to me, even
though he used his right hand and covered his face.
(53:49):
That was a pretty crazy day. Yeah, that was a
classic Will Ferrell day where you keep you keep checking
yourself like is this really happening? Yes, he's amazing, He
is amazing. Alright, this picture here, picture five. This is
our final table Street. Yeah, that was I was crying
(54:12):
as hard then as I was when Steve left, but
just seeing everyone's emotion and everything else, and a lot
of you guys held it together. But again, I've been
at a million of these things too, a million of
the last table read but this one, man, this was like,
you know, finding out that your grandparents are are both
(54:32):
gonna doctor or something. I always feel that way at
the end of the show. It's like there's a death
in the family, but we're still going to see each
other down the road. But it's always that sad. Yeah,
and a lot of people have this photo and yeah,
well Chris Workman called me and said, hey, I'd love
to do this gift for the cast, and uh, he
(54:54):
blew it up big. But I remember I walked around
the entire room made sure you get all the faces.
But this one has so many great expressions and and
it was you know, and Chris just blew it up
for everybody, and it's fantastic. I'm sure it's hanging in
everyone's house. And that's how I I love too, to
(55:15):
judge my work by not how much money I make
or where my pictures are published, but where they're hanging.
That's important to me. That's awesome. Yeah, alright, picture six
and seven, oh Man, rough night. H That was a
very touching moment when she took that off the wall. Um.
But you know, I everyone always posts pictures like the
(55:38):
one on the right of you know, when Steve left,
I shot that famous shot at him with the slate
and uh, and I got a wide shot and everyone
are bawling their eyes out so hard. This was the
equivalent of that. I do have another picture of Pam
doing the very last shot was Ham's talking head. It
(56:01):
doesn't appear and the show. That is the last thing
that I think her taking the picture. No, it's as
by the tree outside, right, But anyway, I was outside
of the conference room and I have a photograph of
everyone's silhouetted watching that final Have I not sent that
to you? It's everyone watching her talking head through the
(56:22):
window of the conference room. It's a beautiful shot. I
haven't seen it, but I'll send it to I'll send
it to Yeah, Chris, thank you so much, oh, my
pleasure for talking, for being so candid and open about
your no, your experience not just on our show, but
but your time at NBC. I appreciate you and your friendship.
(56:46):
So thank you so much for coming in and talking
to me. Pleasure and pleasure. Yeah, onwards and upwards to
the next show, right to the next on NBC. I'm
not sure if I don't think will ride to that occasion,
but we'll see, all right. Thanks, Thanks buddy, and there
(57:15):
you have it. What a guy, Chris Daddy. Oh, it
was so great having you on. Thank you for sharing
your story with all of us. And I know that
you're a fan of this podcast. So my only question
is after today what is your favorite episode? To all
of you listeners out there, thanks for coming back now.
(57:35):
If you come back next Tuesday, then you'll find we'll
be talking to another man that you all have been
dying to hear from. Hint, his first name starts with
the same letter as Chris's. Five seconds. Okay, I'll tell
you it's Craig. Craig Robinson, the funniest man I have
(57:56):
ever seen on a stand up stage. That's right, Mr
Darryl Philbin himself. But until then, have a great week everyone.
The Office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers
(58:22):
for this episode are Liz Hayes and Diego Tapia. My
main man in the booth is Colin Tadeshi. Our theme
song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,
and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski
My name is Chris Hasten, and I'm an NBC staff photographer,
and i was the key photographer on the Office and
may man of Kate Flannery. Hello, Office family, Hi everyone,
(00:25):
welcome to another episode of The Office Deep Dive. I
am your host Brian Baumgartner. Today I have a very
special guest joining me. He was an essential part of
the crew of the Office and in many ways he
has actually helped shape our memories from the show. He's
(00:47):
the reason that we have so many incredible behind the
scene photos from our time on set because he was
our extremely talented and absolutely hello areas NBC staff photographer.
That's right, We're bringing on the incomparable Chris Hasten. Now
(01:09):
what why are you talking to the NBC staff photographer.
That doesn't make sense. Well, Chris was that, but he
also has become a part of our family. Yes, that's right.
He became the main man of Kate Flannery a ka
(01:30):
Meredith Palmer, who actually makes a cameo at the top
of this episode today. Gosh, I love these two. Everyone
in the Office community loves these two. Now. In addition
to the Office, Chris, having worked for NBC since has
(01:50):
worked on some other shows you may have heard of
maybe Okay, you've definitely heard of them. The TV he's
touched is almost unreal, you know, like Friends, Seinfeld, Fresh,
Prince of bel Air, Community, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
He has done it all, but only one show really
(02:12):
changed his life because I mean romantically right. Um. I
will tell you also that Chris also played a huge
role in my upcoming book, that's right, Welcome to dunder
Mifflin is coming out November. You can preorder it on
(02:35):
Amazon right now, so go grab yourself a copy, Grab
one for your friends, grab one for your family. Get
ready to be blown away. I cannot wait for you
guys to read it. And Chris offered so many behind
the scenes photos that are included in this book, so
I'm so excited to talk to him about those moments.
(02:59):
But for now, get ready to focus. Get it like
focus the camera. We're focusing, well, we're focusing on the
man behind the camera. Please give a warm welcome to
the amazing Chris Hasten. Everybody. Bubble and Squeak. I love it,
(03:23):
Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every moment.
Left over from the night before. What is happening? What's up, daddyo?
(03:45):
How are you? I'm great man, good to see you.
Where is your mustache? Oh? I haven't had that since
COVID Man, it just got too hot and sweaty, if
you know what I'm saying. That's what she said. But no,
I shaved it off just because wearing a mask all
the time is impossible. Right. Oh that's smart. Kate. Would
you get out of my eye line? Please? I've always
(04:06):
wanted to say that to an actor. Get the hell
out of my eyeline. Is Kate there? There? Right now? Kate, Kate,
come here? She is there. This is her mike, this
is this is where she does her Kate, what is happening?
I'm talking to your man. I know, I love it.
I can barely hear you on the headphones. Oh that's okay.
(04:27):
It looks like it looks like a Broadway show curtain
behind you. I mean, this is a man every night,
just for him, an audience of one. All right, can
I get on? Can I get on? How are you
guys going to talk? I love you too. We're being recorded,
don't worry. Alright, alrighty, well, there's a comedy portion of
(04:53):
the interview. Oh, it only begins there, and it's so
good to see. So you're well, everybody's okay, yes, yes,
absolutely fine, all right, So I want to go I
want to go backwards in time a little bit. How
did you get into photography? Well, as a kid, you know,
(05:14):
you always hear those stories. Oh, when I was nine
or eleven years old, you know, when I was nine,
somebody put a camera in my hand and I fell
in love with it. And when you know, all the
kids in the neighborhood. I'm from southern California, so skateboarding
and surfing was it. So when everyone else is skateboarding
half pipes and pools, I was taking photos of everybody,
(05:35):
of everybody doing half pipes and pool okay, exactly. So
we're still best friends. So you know, we we always
have our war stories, and mine has to do with photography.
But it just, yeah, it just I just started landing
jobs here and they're working really hard to get into places.
And I was going to school at the time in Torrance,
(05:56):
and UM started working for an agency shooting on racing.
That's my first professional gig, shooting auto racing. We shot
off road racing and eventually road racing, and yeah it
was great. I'm self taught. So they had a studio there,
which is the main reason I wanted to work there,
and then I taught myself lighting. It's funny. About a
(06:16):
year before I started at NBC, which by the way,
I did this waiting for NBC to open up, somebody goes,
do you ever think of shooting people? I go, no way, man,
I said, people get up and walk out on photo shoots.
There's no way I'm ever going to shoot people. A
year later, I'm shooting some of the worst subjects. No,
no offense, but you know, no, I mean none taken.
(06:37):
That was the early days. But wait a second. You
were self taught. I've taught myself lighting. I've taught myself
about exposure. I've taught myself, you know. I mean I
had one year of college that that's all I needed.
But I went to a small Christian school, so they
offered nothing. I shot for the newspaper and the yearbook,
which they were awful. I looked back on that stuff
(06:58):
and go find no and what I know now you know,
But yeah, it was just it's it's a learning thing
all the way, and um, you know, I've been at
NBC for a really really long time, and now I'm
the head guy. Now you're you're it, okay, But before that,
you're shooting off road racing. So you're shooting cars off
the road in the desert wed pre run for two
(07:20):
days and find our spots and then we'd either camp
there someb we would drop us off, and then the
race would start and you pretty much kind of new, Okay,
well there's a hundred cars and I've seen about ninety
five of them. I'm getting the heck out of here.
And it was dangerous because we were down in Mexico.
You know, you pull over machine guns in your face
and you either have a bunch of photos. We had
(07:42):
a lot of racer photos all the time, or my
my boss would go get Playboy magazines at garage sales.
And it's amazing how far you can get with the
federal ally with a machine gun in your face and
a Playboy magazine. Isn't that great? It's sounds like the
federalities are there right now. Actually. Um so yourself taught
(08:03):
as a photographer and then you're shooting off road and
then you find out about a job at NBC. This
is no. In nineteen eighty I found out, okay, okay.
First of all, my senior high school, I'm like, wait
a minute, somebody gets paid to take pictures in the movies.
And then I really freaked out. And then I ended
(08:24):
up meeting a guy, went to and went to NBC
and Burbank and it was the Johnny Carson stage and
Billy Crystal was doing a pilot It's back when he
did You Look Marvelous. It was the beginning of that.
And I was there with a girl and she goes, hey,
I know that guy down there, and it happened to
be a friend of her mom's and she knew that
he worked there. I never knew it, and uh, she
(08:45):
slipped him a note and he invented invited us down.
We went into the lab, which was my office for
twenty five years, and I'm I immediately hit him up
and he's like, you know, after three months, he's like,
don't ever call me again. And I bugged him every year.
I just I knew something. I knew it was going
to happen, and it was NBC the whole time, because
(09:05):
that was it, you know, NBC was the network. And finally,
after five years, they called and said, you're still interested.
And I went in as a lab guy, wiping everybody's
nose and taking out their trash. And again I go
in there, and I learned how they do it big time.
And what's funny about it is no photographer on staff
(09:26):
would tell me stay out of an actress, Eyeline, don't
hit on the actresses, don't don't do this, don't do that.
And I just went and I got to say and
I was a nervous wreck, but I never showed it.
And you know, I've worked on some of the biggest
shows in history. Right, what was the first show that
you worked on out of the lab, like when they
(09:46):
let you go on set? Well, Punky Brewster, the original
Punky Brewster was done on our lot and nobody and
everyone was bored with a lot of shows and this
was a kid show, and um, I knew the it.
There were some old school actors on there, and I thought, man,
maybe I can handle this, and they said, go, yeah, go,
grab a camera and go. And we used to use
(10:07):
these gigantic housings that went around a nikon or a
cannon that sound proved it. I grabbed it and I
was fumbling and all that. It was only thirty six frames,
so you have to you get through thirty six frames
and then you uh, you know, you gotta switch it out.
But anyway, I went down there and started doing that,
and I'm sure the pictures were awful. Uh. And then
the second thing, the second thing was like instantaneous because
(10:30):
they knew I can handle myself. I started shooting the
Johnny Carson Show. That was a rotation thing, so everybody
did it, you know, every fourth or fifth week. However,
many photographers were in that roster for it, and that was, um,
that was showbiz, baby. That's how I res when I
got bit wow, yeah Carson show me right, I mean
(10:52):
for for comedians at the time, I mean appearing on
that and you're back there shooting at How amazing was that?
Not just that, dude. It's like Stephen Wright would come
into the green room and I'd be sitting there waiting
for the show to start, and we never shot Johnny's
monologue unless it was required or asked by the producers,
and and like Stephen Wright would be there and like
(11:13):
I'd be like, hey man, I mean it's just like
you're trying not to like, you know, throw up and uh,
I would always you know, with the comedians especially, I
did it with some of the musicians. But I'm like, hey,
if you want me to send you some photos, which
you know I didn't have the authority to do that
in the beginning, but once it was really rolling, I
and you know, you know, I'd send Stephen write some photos.
(11:33):
And Jeff Fox were the God. That guy is such
a great guy. He saw me recently. He goes, Hey,
by the way, I don't hang a lot of stuff
in my house, but there's a black and white that
you shot of me and Johnny is belly laughing. He
goes that hangs right outside my kitchen and it's like
my Buddha. I touch it every morning. Which man, that's
that's my payoff right there. That is awesome. Who was
(11:56):
the coolest person on the on the Tonight Show that
you shot? Like for you, dude, I mean God. We
go sit in the audience durring rehearsals and the Chili
Peppers would play for like an hour and Iggy Pop
would just come this far from your face and just
be screaming at you l a singing, and they love
that stuff because we're an audience of like ten people
(12:18):
that wanted to see them. I don't know, man, it
was I mean, Jimmy Stewart. Uh, you know, I can't
even I can't even think it was all great. So
you shot Jimmy Stewart and me. So that's pretty much
all I really talked about. I mean, that's kind of right.
(12:40):
I mean, that's there's nothing in between those two. Um,
in addition to the tonight's show. And you mentioned this
before NBC, was it right? I mean NBC was much
by the way Warren Littlefield and I we were, We
were handed hand with each other and he calls me
his mussy TV photographer. Really, yeah, because I was there
(13:02):
through that whole era, and I was a go getter
and young and willing to just do anything. So Cheers.
You shot Cheers. I shot the end of Cheers. I
was Leno's photographer when Carson left for the first five years,
and we flew to Boston and we were in the
Bull and Finch the night it went off the air,
but Paramount sent me upstairs above the Bull and Finch
(13:23):
to be in a room with the cast while they
watched TV, and they go, you really shouldn't be there,
but try and get photos the finale. This was the finale.
They were watching the finale on TV in a hotel
room in Boston. It wasn't a big room and it
was really dark, and uh, yeah, it was very intimate.
(13:45):
I've been in some scary places, Brian. Well, but that
was I remember that night after the finale. They did
the Tonight Show afterward, and so you were with them
through I wash there were a lot of photos I
did not take that night. In fact, I was with
I'm sorry, didn't work. I was. I was with the
(14:06):
cast all day. I was in a limo with Kelsey
Grammer doing business on his way to the State House.
And uh, Kelsey wasn't having a good phone call. He
was on that phone in a limo behind with the cable,
you know. And and the door opens and he gets
out and we walked up the steps of the Statehouse
for him to bang a gavel, and yeah, it was
(14:28):
I was. I've been in some places, Brian. And there's
some other stories will tell when we're not being recorded.
I'm sure I remember seeing the cast of Cheers that
night on the Tonight Show and I don't bombed. Weren't
they I don't bombed. That's exactly how it appeared. Yeah,
drunk appeared appeared to me. That is so amazing. And
(14:51):
so also you shot Seinfeld, you shot Saved by the Bell, Fresh,
Prince of bel Air, Will and Grace. You've spoken to
me a lot about Friends. You were you were at
NBC the whole time Friends was on, right, I did, uh,
Usually I did the pilot gallery. The gallery is there's
two types of photography. I do as their unit and
(15:13):
gallery unit is something that you're on a set. You
shoot images that look like they're coming out of the
motion picture camera. I take a liberty with that because
there are sometimes you don't want the camera on a set.
Could be on the floor shooting this wide room shot,
but I don't want some actress coming at me going
that is a terrible photo of me. So I I
(15:33):
sort of take the liberty of getting better pictures that way.
But the gallery stuff is kind of the rock and
roll stuff, and I have been fortunate to do several
years of galleries of the biggest shows on NBC Wow,
And the galleries are kind of pre set up shots
for those listening. That usually happens right before a season starts.
(15:57):
You'll shoot the cast in various thoses that will be
used for publicity and marketing throughout the year. Right, So
the covers you see on TV guides or you're sitting
at a light and there's a bus next to you,
that's all the stuff that we do. Yeah, so you
had I'm skipping ahead quite a bit here, but you
had one of the most famous at least from our show,
(16:20):
The Office, that George Sarah painting UM Sunday in the
park on the isle of French words. Um. And you
thought it was just a reservoir. Isn't that a French word? Right?
But you you set up the office characters as though
they were in that painting. One. You're tell me a
(16:40):
little bit about about that or your idea behind that.
One of our top designers at NBC is named Sean Serrio.
He's an award winning guy. It was his gig and
he always gets the real cool gigs. So we got
together and I took the original painting, not the original,
(17:01):
but you know, I took that image and and sort
of traced over and I took out a couple of
people or added a couple of people, and I placed
everyone where I thought, you know, with Craig Robinson and
the hat or Jim and Pam walking in with the
umbrella or Kate, you know, with a drink in her hand.
So we sort of designed all of that. We pretty
(17:21):
much shot everyone singly except Jim and Pam were there
together and that, I mean, you guys were amazing because
you look like you're there with a bunch of people.
That's the beauty of photography. Man, it's nothing but a
big fat lie and production. You can't everyone can't just
stop what they're doing and walk off set. So we did.
(17:43):
We did everybody one at a time, and I had
plenty of time with you guys. We had a really
good time. Yeah, yeah, we did. What was let's exclude
the office for a second. What was your favorite other show,
let's say to shoot at NBC. Well, one of the
most intense, most incredible shoots for me was Homicide Life
on the Street. I think it was the third season.
(18:05):
I mean it was like if Breaking Bad was going
and they asked me to go do that photo shoot.
It was like that because it was just rich and
sets in Baltimore were unbelievable, and I knew the show
inside and out. And that's another thing too, is I
really like to know what I'm doing going in. Sometimes
I don't pilot. You just don't know. But this one
(18:27):
I knew. I knew the box was a sacred place
and that the bad, the worst people in Baltimore were
inside the box, and Andre Brower was going to be
really in their face. So those are some pretty phenomenal photos.
I used to enjoy Third Rock from the Sun because
Lithgau is one of my favorite people in Hollywood, and
it was a party, oh e R. We had a
(18:49):
good time on the R even though it was very tense.
We I don't know if I should say this, but
I'm going to Occasionally we'd bring in beer and wine
and something a little harder sometimes so if somebody requested it.
But we get everybody lit. When we were shooting on
the backlot at Warner Brothers late at night, we'd do
these photo shoots of them coming out the door into
the ambulance. And yeah, those were crazy, wild parties, dangerous things.
(19:16):
You didn't we didn't have that on our show. We didn't.
I guess because you guys had a hundred people on
your show. Maybe I guess that's true. I guess that's true.
Talk a little bit about your your process. So, first off,
a multi camera show like Cheers or Friends, the cameras
(19:37):
are set up, do you have pretty much free rome
to to be able to take photos from anywhere sort
of in front? Sometimes if you have an actress that
doesn't want anybody in her eye line or or she'd
be too I don't even say she. I've had many
many A guy go hey, I can see you moving,
and you know, well, okay. I'll just let me start
(19:59):
by saying a still photographer is the only job on
set that can be asked not to do their job.
So you can't have the actor go out, you can't
have the sound guy leave, you can't have one of
the camera guys split. So I'm the one person who
could be asked not do their job. But um, when
all that's moving, it is one of the most beautiful
(20:21):
dances you've ever seen. One of my favorite directors in
the world is Jim Burrows. I have done so many
projects with Burrows, Will and Grace. I could run up
to the very front of the lenses and work if
I wanted to. Uh, I wouldn't do that. I'm big,
I'm a big dude, and I do take up a
lot of space. But it's it's a relationship you get
(20:44):
with the dolly grips. You know, if you've ever seen this,
if anybody's ever seen the big dollies that cameras roll on,
those guys will run you over. And those things can
run you over. There a tank. I've seen other guys
get clipped and it ain't pretty, but said dance and
as long as you know how to dance, you will
survive in that situation. And there are times where Burrows
(21:07):
is famous for putting his foot on the dolly and
kicking it and they're his guys are so good they
start rolling the wheels and the camera follows the actor.
Whatever it's it's truly amazing. But I've been in the
middle of two dollies when that happens, and you're just
gonna get out of there. Um, do you find that
you still have the same passion that you did that
(21:30):
first drew you in? Absolutely? Oh no, man, It's the
best job in Hollywood. It is the best job in Hollywood.
I love to joke. Uh, you know, you see some
guys shoving a whole giant piece of pizza down his
mouth at two in the morning and just to get
himself home. I'm like, hey, glamorous business, right, um, but
that I everywhere I go. I mean, I see so
(21:52):
many people from the office. I just saw Kelly Cantley
last week. I see guys from Well and Grace all
the time. I see, you know, even even working like
America's got talent. I see camera guys that I've known
for twenty five years, and it's and you know brand,
it's it's such a small, tiny business, but it's like
(22:13):
the biggest, tiniest business in the world. So I'm so excited.
I'm not gonna microrect But no, my passion is uh.
I mean, holy cow, I can't believe I get paid
to do this. And I just cat will argue with you,
but I just don't have the ego that photographers normally have.
And you know, I'm I mean, I'm taking photos. I'm
(22:35):
not a plastic surgeon. I'm a I'm a documentarian in
a way. It's I love to use that on people. Yes, no,
but you are you know you are a documentarian. I
never thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah, but I'm
I'm not just they're documenting. I'm most of the time
creating the documentation. Of that. So that's what I love
(22:58):
about being in a studio and doing a gallery and
just making It's amazing brain that Sunday in the Park
with George was such a great famous painting. It's been
copied so many times. And the fact that it carried
the weight, that image carries the weight that it does.
I mean, people like, oh my god, you worked on
(23:20):
The Office. I'm like, yeah, I'm a photographer and and
and then I mentioned that, and they think they're talking to,
you know, a big star. I'm like, that's all. I
move on to the next thing. Man, I'm not worried
about it. Obviously, you and I share a passion, which
(23:58):
is The Office. Two in four, NBC ordered this show. Now,
were you aware of the British version of the show.
You know what, when I heard this was coming at us,
I watched the British Uh, probably in a day or two.
I watched it all and it was I watched it
(24:18):
three times only because it was so frustrating and I
hated it so much. I'm like, I don't get it.
And then once I started watching it and the characters
grew on me, then I I loved it. The reason
I watched it so many times to get it is
because I had worked on fifty British shows already that
(24:38):
they were trying to make here that failed. By the way,
I shot the very first images for the gallery, which
we can get into if you want. UM. But I
went to that crappy little warehouse in Culver City and
we went in there and shot and I shot Pam
behind the desk, and I did that famous four shot
of them looking at the computer. UM. So we show
(25:02):
up and we had an art director who was a
very like UM he's a very show biz guy. His
name was Jim and Jim had this very like thunderous
voice who whatever Jim said Jim wanted and Jim was
going to get. So we get there and Greg Daniels
is there and he's walking around and UM, and I
(25:26):
was confused. I mean, I I you know, Okay, you're
gonna shoot this. They're all gonna be look at the
monitor and you know, normally we're having him looking to
the camera so we can identify them and you know,
people people connect with them. And then Jim Vince there
and he goes, all right, uh, hey, you any points
at Johnny goes you look at the camera and Adam nowhere,
(25:48):
Greg flies and he goes, if anybody looks at this camera,
the photo shoot is over. Because it was so new
in the process that I don't think we wanted to
give up any secrets and or or break that fourth
wall for the photos because we weren't quite there yet,
and this was our first group shot. And I completely
(26:09):
was with Greg. He knew what he wanted if I
could jump ahead real quick. There were times where we
would have a real secret or something that they did
not want to go out. I developed a relationship with
Greg and the producers the whole show where I would
shoot it and we would tag it so it wouldn't
(26:30):
go out. Like I knew people know that Steve was
in the finale, right, Can I say that? Finally? Oh?
Thank god? But I was probably one of five people
that knew that morning. Uh they warned me, which is
the greatest thing ever. Somebody doesn't warn you like Carson Show.
They've never warn us there's a big giant thing that's
going to fall down and just miss his head. It's
(26:51):
like you'll miss the shot if you're not ready for it.
So I was standing just off camera when he says,
I can't be your best disminch. And I heard Steve
walk up and I'm just like, oh my god, this
is this is I can't tell you how many of
those moments I've actually been there for so to know that.
(27:13):
And I didn't even tell Okay, I didn't tell a
soul because that's I mean, that's the way I am. Man.
I'm like, uh, if you tell me something no one's
supposed to know, no one's going to know it. If
the network's not supposed to know about it, They're only
only one person that the network's going to find out,
my editor. And I'm gonna say this doesn't go anywhere
until it airs, which is kind of powerful. But I
(27:33):
I never thought I'd like, so, wait when you got
there that day, you knew he was going to be there,
and they said, don't release not right away, not right away.
I think when I was geared up and walking on
walking on a set. Actually I did see him when
he walked up to the house, so I mean, I
probably knew about five ten minutes before he walked up.
(27:55):
So I think when he landed, they said Steve's here,
right to be so. And by the way, I want
to say one other thing, and I love telling people
this when we're on the set. There that very first
day when Greg said, nobody looks at the camera. I
had worked at least ten pilots with Correll, and I
(28:18):
mean I worked on some of the most amazing things
with him. And when he walked up, I jokingly said
to my crewmat you guys, Steve Carrell's in this, Let's
pack it up. We're getting out of here. This ain't
going anywhere. And he got a really good laugh out
of it. Steve and I always had the tightest relationship
because I had known him for so many years, and
you know, if he if I needed something, if he
needed something, I was always welcome into his trailer, which
(28:40):
was the coolest trailer in Hollywood, and you know it was.
It was a good relationship to have with him. Such
a great guy, right well, I think I think also
going back to that first day, you know, a big
thing I know for Greg early on was he wanted
(29:01):
to establish these characters or these people, meaning Jim and
Pam and Michael and Dwight, and and this idea that
that they were not actors, right, and so actors pose
for the camera, Actors look into the camera and and
(29:21):
do you know, glamour shots or whatever you want to
call it, Whereas if you're a bunch of people at
a mid level slash small regional paper company, you wouldn't
look into the camera. You would be doing what you're
doing and hoping to capture it. That's really fascinating to
me that it started even before we started shooting the pilot,
(29:43):
when they were you were doing the gallery. That's amazing.
So you shot like ten pilots you mentioned with Steve Carrell.
Was there anybody else from the office that you had
shot prior to the office. Yeah. I was on a
pilot one time and we're working in this great old
school building near downtown and I walk in and there's
these two geeks that are there. One of them is
(30:04):
playing a robot, one of them is playing the robot's friend.
And it was a pilot. And I treat pilots the same.
You get in, you do your thing, and get out.
And this one guy comes up to me goes, you
know what I'd really like for you to do. I'd
like you to do this, that and the other. And
I turned to him and I go, look, pal, this
is a pilot. If this show is picked up, I
will kiss your ass and do whatever you want. And
(30:27):
it was Rain Wilson. Are you serious? It was his
very first pilot he ever did. And to this day,
when anybody's introduced to me by Rain, he goes, this
guy shot me on my very first pilot. And we
never have talked about me telling him that, but he
respected me and he went with it at that moment. Now, wait,
(30:48):
but let me ask you this. Did you so you
were there early on? Did you like the show? You
know I were? I was worried. I was worried at
first because I, uh, you know, like I said, I'd
been on so many shows that didn't think it worked,
and um, I felt that the first two episodes of
(31:10):
the British Office were so British, and I worried that,
wait a minute, this is just like it. But I
didn't understand. And of course since then I have found
I mean, I know how brilliant all of our top
notch people were, like all of our above the line
people were, and I've grown to really open up my
(31:32):
eyes now when I go on set, like those guys
are geniuses. Greg Daniels is a genius, a fearless genius,
and it was breaking my heart even back then that
it was, you know, six episodes and we might give
you one more episode. And when I see that now
I scream at people. You know, I'm like, are you
(31:54):
guys gonna do how many episodes? And while they're adding
three more, like how dare they? Don't they realize they're
sitting on a gold mine. Yeah. Now, on the office,
there was well, there were four walls, which there usually
are in a space. There was no place to hide,
and because of the way the show was shot, the
cameras moving around all of the time, so there is
(32:17):
a huge dance between you know, a lot of times
really three people excluding yourself are in the space. There's
a boom operator, you've got mix on people, and you've
got two camera guys who are swinging the camera around
and so then into that they bring your big bond
(32:38):
Like so so glad you asked this question. Yeah, so
how how do you you know? It's one thing, Yeah,
there's one thing to have this huge dolly that you know,
if you stay behind the dolly, they're not going to
shoot you because there's an audience behind you and everything else.
But in this you're having to learn the dance along
(32:59):
with the camera guys and the sound guys. How how
different was that for you doing your job on our show? Well,
Brian and I we occupied the same three inch square
on every floor, and that's hard to do at least
Brian soundner, sound guy, who's an amazing mixer now. But
he and I were in the same spot. And when
(33:19):
we were in a corner in that conference room or something,
that conference room was ten thousand times smaller when you've
got a photograph. It. We just managed and Brian, he
just jokingly rolled his eyes every time he saw me
and I, I'm very gracious, and I asked permission. I
would always ask Randall or Matt if I could be,
you know, in a certain place, and uh, I managed.
(33:43):
I mean again, that's where a longer lens will come
into play and you're able to sort of get in
and I'll try to do two passes on every scene.
I'll try to go wide and include everyone, and then
I try to get it fits. An argument at the
copier or Pam's talking to Michael at the desk, I'll
get I'll go in tight on that with a longer lens,
that's easy to get. Randall, God bless that guy. Those
(34:06):
him and Matt Man. Those guys are the two best
I've ever worked with. Sorry for all you other guys
I've worked with, but like, I learned this on the
Er on the R where it was a little sort
of island in the middle of the emergency room, and
when they were on a handhole handheld, they would do whips,
and um, I was okay. And there I watched and
(34:28):
if if I saw him open his eye, I knew
he was coming that way. Well, Randall and I developed
a thing where and Matt two. I think Randall gave
me a sort of a little click or or up,
and the moment he did that, I hit the deck.
I literally would drop to the floor and Matt would
actually whip through me. He didn't care, like, because you know,
(34:51):
whip you can't. You don't even if even if you
stop the frame on your on your recording, you're not
gonna You're not gonna see anything. I'm just a big
I wear black all the time, so it's just a black,
black white interesting but it was, Yeah, it was. And
that makes you feel like a rock star. That makes
you feel like, man, I am on the best set
(35:13):
in Hollywood, and and I'm here making it happen. Yeah,
there was a moment um several years ago that actually
it was right when Steve left. What when Steve left,
we I had management at NBC and they brought in
a guy over me who wasn't as qualified as myself
and my other partner that were there. And so yeah,
(35:35):
they were making life difficult. So some of the rock
star stuff was taken away from me, and the galleries
were being done by this other guy. Um, and the
new season was coming along, and um, you know I
I don't pay attention to anything until they're like, Okay,
we're gonna do this shoot. So um, I knew the
(35:55):
office shoot was coming up though, that was the one
I knew was coming up. And then John and I
had a conversation and he told me that he said
that unless Chris Hasten does this gallery, we're not doing it,
and that my friend is a powerful producer on a show,
and that my friend is somebody I will take a
(36:16):
bullet for and if he if he needs me to
do anything in life, he can call me at any
hour and I'll be there. Because that that was a
true friendship move. And Krasinski, man, I'm so glad he's
such a huge rock star now and won't talk to me.
I'm kidding. No, we we talked some. Yeah, we talked
(36:36):
recently about something. So, yeah, that's amazing. He's he's a
class act. He really is. Yeah. Yeah, Just so you know,
I I would have done whatever they asked me to do,
whether you were there or not. Just to be clear, Okay,
you talked about your relationship with Steve. You've known him
(36:57):
for a while. How accommodating was he to work with
throughout his time on the show. He was probably the
most intense and uh, I mean he has a big
movie star by the time things really started rolling. In fact,
he might have been the only one. Yeah, I was.
(37:17):
You know, here's an example. I was in his office once.
I was between Matt and Randall and Brian was somewhere
with his boom, and I hadn't watched the rehearsal. Sometimes
it's I don't want to be in a tight little
space like that for rehearsals. But I didn't know he's
going to cry in the scene. I don't even know
(37:39):
if he knew he was going to cry in the
scene in the beginning, and that soundproof housing wasn't sound
prof housing. So it was like, you know, click click click,
and it was you can barely hear it. But a
man who has to cry on cue he heard it,
and uh, he didn't even look up, but he just
goes Chris and I and it's like you might as
(38:01):
well hear that out of a out of a fog horn.
It's like great, and I'm like, I'm so sorry, Steve.
And all you can do is apologize and leave and
just you know, safe face. I mean, trust me, man.
There are other actors who are like if I told
you once, it's like you haven't told me once. There
was somebody else on the show later on, but I'm
(38:22):
not going to mention his name, but they'll really let
you have it. But and so unfortunately, at this point,
the room is so small Matt has to get up
off of his box, turn Brian has to get out
of the way so I can get the heck out
of the room. Oh god, So it's humiliating. It's humiliating.
But you know something, Brian, you can't take it personal.
(38:44):
It's hard not to um, but it's it's just a job.
So that's the the way I've looked at it. It's
your job and don't take it personal and you'll be fine.
(39:15):
What was your favorite memory being on set of The Office?
I was afraid you were gonna ask me this, because
I know you asked so many people this question. One
of the funniest things that happened on a regular basis.
Kate loves the fact that I hung out in the
fake men's room. But the fake men's room was the
(39:35):
route to the real men's room because there was no
back wall, and I'd be sitting there editing on my
computer or whatever, and uh, Leslie, David Baker did it
ten times. If he did it once, they opened the
door like, oh sorry, I'm like, I'm not taking a
ship here, dude. The restrooms right there, keep going um um.
You know what. I hate to be so cliche, but
(40:00):
it's like any day I walked in the door there, man,
it was a good day. And then, of course, you know,
in the middle of the second season, Kate and I
hooked up, so it's like I had a place to
eat my lunch, now, you know what I mean? How
how did this start? Like, was there a moment, was
(40:22):
there was there music playing in the background, or did
someone captured on film? I'm just wondering. You know. She
kept inviting me to see the lamp Shades, her comedy act,
which is absolutely brilliant. It's that's Kate Flannery brilliance all
the way. And I was, you know, uh, I'm invited
all the time. Hey, I go to band, you want
(40:42):
to come see my band? And I'm like whatever, whatever,
But she kept inviting me. And one night I happened
I was going to be at this club in Hollywood
to see some other girl and just somebody I was
hanging out with. And then um, I said, well, I'm
busy on Saturday. And I got, well, what time because
the thing I was going to was later. She goes
eight o'clock. I go, oh, I can make that work.
(41:04):
And I go, uh, where's it at? She goes right
on Hollywood Buever. I go, We're on Hollywood Blue. Where
she goes, it's in in prov Olympic. I go, that's
where I'm going to be at ten o'clock to that
same night, I said, this is meant to be and um,
we you know, it's funny. She she knew I had kids,
she didn't know if I was divorced or married, and uh,
(41:26):
after the show, we went and got a drink, and
five minutes in, I'm like, you and I should be dating,
and I am not that smooth. I had never said
that to anybody else, but I had connected with her
in such a way, and I knew she was brilliant.
I think she was very attracted to me. She invited
me a lot, and she invited you a lot. Yeah,
(41:49):
like every time it was, and it was she used
to do it every Saturday night. So but I think
the one moment that that we first had eye contact
is I used to go around like for almost every
time I was there, I would do portraits to you guys,
just because that's always really good filler if they're going
to do a story or whatever. And I think this
(42:09):
one time I don't even remember, but it was the
Christmas episode of TV Guide. They were going to do
photos of everybody because it was the show was picking
up steam, and there's a picture of her holding up
a Santa Claus doll and uh. And other times I
got her pulling a bottle of vodka of the out
of the thing, looking up at me and just she
was adorable and um, it's funny. I met her as
(42:32):
Meredith and then I saw her as her character on
stage and I'm like, and my friends like, look at her,
and I'm like, take it easy, take it easy. And
then she comes out walking like Kate Flanner. I'm like,
now we're talking. That's why five minutes and I go,
you and I should be dating. You said that to her.
That is amazing. Apparently a recent interview she gave, she
(42:53):
said that the two of you are like Jim and
Pam because you worked together but didn't start dating until
the end of season too. Yeah, that's about it. That's
about right, yea. But she was never as mean to
me as Pam was to Jim. Just kidding, I'm just
talking storyline here. Yeah, in the in the finale of
(43:18):
The Office, um, Greg, let you dance with Meredith during
Dwight and Angela's wedding. How cool is that? You know,
Kate wanted me in the wanted me in the show,
and I'm like, okay, whatever, you know, I didn't think
it was gonna happen. And then she wanted me to
(43:38):
be I think would be one of the cops that
takes crete out at the end, but those were real
motor cops that stopped traffic for us. Those are real
L A. P. D guys. Um. So I was fine,
you know, with just being her her boyfriend at the
at the wedding, and then you know, end up they
gave me a line in the warehouse when Pam reveals
her mural, and which here's a great story. She's gonna
(43:59):
be so mad when I tell you this. So Copus
comes up and he goes, hey, just say what a
photographer would say, Oh yes, sir, And uh so, Pam's like,
all right, anybody, let's do this photo. And then everybody
gets in and I said, all right, everybody right here.
That looks great. That looks great, you know. And then
they cut and Kate goes and you're all standing right there,
and this was a nervous moment for me anyway, and
(44:22):
Kate goes, you can't talk, and I was just like
I was told I can talk. And all of a sudden,
Kelly Cantley, who's this tall, walks through and she goes,
you can talk, and she looks at her she goes,
he can talk, and then she she takes off and
then uh, Kate was just like oh no, oh no.
So and then what happened was they didn't have a
(44:45):
funny enough line, and Greg brought me into a d
R and I think you might have been there. I
don't know, no was it was Angela, but they wanted
to add um, just a couple of dozen more, which
a photographer would never say, because the whole reason I
wouldn't say that this is because you guys get bored
with what's happening and you go upstairs brilliant writing. And
(45:06):
so I meant, I'm at Universal one day and they're like,
you need to go do a d R. I'm like what.
And I went in and Angela is doing her thing
and then for some reason, Brian and God bless actors, man,
God bless you guys. I could not say that line
to save my life. I was. I was a bumbling idiot.
It was like I had a couple, just a couple
dozen more, And and Greg got right here and he's like,
(45:29):
say it, say it, You could say it. And I
should have just put my full trust in this genius
who I had watched for the last nineteen years be
the most absolute genius. And I and finally I mumbled
it out. And the moment I'm done, he's all right,
we got it. And I turned and Rain does like
a cop kick in the door and he's screaming my
(45:51):
line because he was coming in to do a d
R after me, and I'm like, I'm like, let's just
have Rain do it. You know. It was a funny moment,
but my god, I felt like an idiot. That's amazing.
Do do when you're out with Kate? Do people make
jokes to you about about dating Meredith? They don't even
(46:13):
see me? No, you know a few things have happened since. Well,
first of all, when Syndication happened, when it started hitting
regular uh like a cable thing, uh, Kate started getting
bothered all the time by so many people. And then
when it hit Netflix, she was mid byte and people
would stop and say, can we get a photo of
(46:35):
that kind of thing? But now people are stopping me
like if it's it doesn't happen all the time. But
somebody goes, hey, weren't you in the finale? I saw
you in the finale and the oven like, oh my god.
It's really weird for me because I'm all about you know,
I can spot somebody spotting Kate from a mile away,
(46:57):
and we have a little code word which I'm not
going to tell you, but it's from the show. I'm
not I'm not going to private. I'm gonna tell you private.
You'll find out private. But um I let her know, Okay,
in coming, you know what I mean. So, but that's
not the code word. What's the code not gonna will
(47:18):
be mad at me if I tell you. Um, well, listen,
I've been talking to people, you know for now the
last couple of years, which has been amazing, and how
willing people are now after eight years of the show
being done talking about it. And as you just mentioned,
you know, the sustained not just success, but you know,
(47:42):
as I say, not just survived, but it's thriving now
all of this time later and this exploration that I've
been going through. Now we have collected it all together
and uh, and we're coming out with a book that's
going to be launched really soon. And you are a
(48:04):
huge part of that book because there are hundreds of
never before seeing photos that you took on set in
some of the most intimate moments during the show. So
when we started talking about photos for the book, I went,
wait a second. There was a cast book that I
(48:27):
understand you helped put together at the end of the show.
That was like it was one of those things like
right in front of me the whole time. It's like
right in my living room on my coffee table. It
has been for the last eight years. And so I
started looking through a book. How did how did that
come about? That that creation of that amazingly beautiful book.
(48:47):
That happens a lot, like when Willie and Grace was
wrapping up, I did, Uh, I did that. Almost every
show doesn't now, And I think that that is the
greatest gift you can get as a rap gift. I mean,
that's the great the great thing about being a photographer
in general. Like even if you're at a party or
an event, you're going to talk to every single person
in the room. That was my chance to work with
(49:08):
every person, and a lot of people try to ditch
you and not you know, but I was pretty sneaky
and I was able to get people. But yeah, that's
that's always something really fun to do. It's a so
much work, especially at the end of a run. But uh,
it's yeah, like what you're saying right now, it's like
it's unbelievable. Well, it's it's so it's so beautiful and
(49:30):
so for you know, the last eight years, when people
you know, come over to my house and we're talking
about the show, always refer to the book and they
look through it and they're like, oh my god, I
can't believe you have these photos. Well, now everyone in
the world can't come to my house to look at
my book. But now so many of these photos are
(49:51):
going to be in this book. And so I'm we're
gonna I feel like Conan O'Brien here, but we're gonna
play a little game. All right, We're gonna play game.
Describe that picture hashtag, hashtag copyright, hashtag Brian Baumgartner, hashtag
the Office, deep dive. I don't know if that covers it,
(50:11):
but I'm gonna make these photos available on my Instagram
so other people can can mention it. But I'm gonna
show you a series of photos and this can be
fast round. You can say one word, you can describe
something that you remember from some of these iconic photos
of the show. So the first photo Steve Carrell sitting
at what looks like a dinner party with the st
(50:35):
Holy girl. Uh, you know, light up thing behind that
sign was so bright, man, it was so bright, which
was the joke but in a still or you want
the actor to look good, so the signs blown out.
That was one of the most unforgettable nights of my life.
I can't even believe how hard we left. And and
(50:55):
that's hard when as the photographer, man, there were tears.
Just my whole shirt was wet from just laughing so
hard with that stupid TV, the plasma TV. Yeah, but
this was this was intense. You know, if I had
one word for this intense because that fight was intense,
I'll try to give you one word answer. No, no, no,
(51:16):
you can describe more. I'm just saying it can be fast. Okay,
photo too, Oh Jesus Christ Meredith with intense infusing because
it's never made. There was never a reason in the
episode of why her face looked like she was dropped
into a pizza oven. Okay, so so go ahead, you
(51:38):
can say this is her go ahead. Yeah, so there
was she got was it sunburned or for extremely sunburned?
And we even did a big shot I hope to
not ruin another photo, but there's a group shot in
the warehouse and she looks like this, and um, there
was no explanation why because the storyline was cut so
(52:01):
I think a valuable lessons were learned during this episode
that you know, if you have something like this, you
better back it up. Yes, do you. She's just as
beautiful there as the moment you met her. Beauty is
skin deep. Brian, Oh no, no, no, she's she's she's lovely.
(52:24):
She's lovely, all right. Photo three? Okay, a group of people,
Oh yeah, around a giant one. Tell me about this.
I think Phyllis's hair speaks for all of us. It
was so hot and dusty there. Um, we were out
at the Calamugos ranch, I think. And you guys, uh,
(52:45):
usually when they cut a cake like this, they're telling
you about your next pickup, and that might have been
what happened this day. But all I know is I
never got any cake. You never got any cake, and
a gigantic cake like that. I know. This is this
was the celebration of the hundredth episode, huge milestone in
a show huge. I've been there for hundreds of them. Yes,
(53:07):
company company picnic and you see Greg they're cutting the cake.
But yes, we were all we were all very very
very very hot out there in Malibu, alright. Picture four,
Oh Jesus, yeah, that was scary Will Ferrell dunking a
basketball over me sitting on the ground. What do you
(53:28):
remember about this day? You know what, Brian, and it's
I'm not bullshitting you, but I could have easily shot
that in a way to see his face, but I
wanted you in there looking like you're about to get crushed.
But yeah, this this was the shot to me, even
though he used his right hand and covered his face.
(53:49):
That was a pretty crazy day. Yeah, that was a
classic Will Ferrell day where you keep you keep checking
yourself like is this really happening? Yes, he's amazing, He
is amazing. Alright, this picture here, picture five. This is
our final table Street. Yeah, that was I was crying
(54:12):
as hard then as I was when Steve left, but
just seeing everyone's emotion and everything else, and a lot
of you guys held it together. But again, I've been
at a million of these things too, a million of
the last table read but this one, man, this was like,
you know, finding out that your grandparents are are both
(54:32):
gonna doctor or something. I always feel that way at
the end of the show. It's like there's a death
in the family, but we're still going to see each
other down the road. But it's always that sad. Yeah,
and a lot of people have this photo and yeah,
well Chris Workman called me and said, hey, I'd love
to do this gift for the cast, and uh, he
(54:54):
blew it up big. But I remember I walked around
the entire room made sure you get all the faces.
But this one has so many great expressions and and
it was you know, and Chris just blew it up
for everybody, and it's fantastic. I'm sure it's hanging in
everyone's house. And that's how I I love too, to
(55:15):
judge my work by not how much money I make
or where my pictures are published, but where they're hanging.
That's important to me. That's awesome. Yeah, alright, picture six
and seven, oh Man, rough night. H That was a
very touching moment when she took that off the wall. Um.
But you know, I everyone always posts pictures like the
(55:38):
one on the right of you know, when Steve left,
I shot that famous shot at him with the slate
and uh, and I got a wide shot and everyone
are bawling their eyes out so hard. This was the
equivalent of that. I do have another picture of Pam
doing the very last shot was Ham's talking head. It
(56:01):
doesn't appear and the show. That is the last thing
that I think her taking the picture. No, it's as
by the tree outside, right, But anyway, I was outside
of the conference room and I have a photograph of
everyone's silhouetted watching that final Have I not sent that
to you? It's everyone watching her talking head through the
(56:22):
window of the conference room. It's a beautiful shot. I
haven't seen it, but I'll send it to I'll send
it to Yeah, Chris, thank you so much, oh, my
pleasure for talking, for being so candid and open about
your no, your experience not just on our show, but
but your time at NBC. I appreciate you and your friendship.
(56:46):
So thank you so much for coming in and talking
to me. Pleasure and pleasure. Yeah, onwards and upwards to
the next show, right to the next on NBC. I'm
not sure if I don't think will ride to that occasion,
but we'll see, all right. Thanks, Thanks buddy, and there
(57:15):
you have it. What a guy, Chris Daddy. Oh, it
was so great having you on. Thank you for sharing
your story with all of us. And I know that
you're a fan of this podcast. So my only question
is after today what is your favorite episode? To all
of you listeners out there, thanks for coming back now.
(57:35):
If you come back next Tuesday, then you'll find we'll
be talking to another man that you all have been
dying to hear from. Hint, his first name starts with
the same letter as Chris's. Five seconds. Okay, I'll tell
you it's Craig. Craig Robinson, the funniest man I have
(57:56):
ever seen on a stand up stage. That's right, Mr
Darryl Philbin himself. But until then, have a great week everyone.
The Office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our producers
(58:22):
for this episode are Liz Hayes and Diego Tapia. My
main man in the booth is Colin Tadeshi. Our theme
song Bubble and Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,
and the episode was mixed by seth Olandski
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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