October 19, 2024 • 8 mins
With the Australian TV Series "The Office" now live on Amazon Prime.
Star & Australian Comedian "Felicity Ward" drops by the podcast to chat about the show, Ricky Gervais's thoughts on the Aussie version of "The Office" plus what it was it's like recording the show and the pressure of re-marking a classic!
Full unedited interview, listen now!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
People ask me how can I become a great boss,
and the answer is having a happy staff.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
This is a proper h messy.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's your favorite hot mess me, Felicity.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Watch Yes, I am on a mile landed a present
thank you for old game ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
The Australian version of the Office has arrived because it
started many years ago with Ricky Gervase in the UK.
Steve Carell did a great job on the American version,
and now it's a lady boss.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
She's a female flicity war. Don't they like to remind
me of it?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, yeah, yes, it's It's definitely Look what I will say.
I think the great strength of this show is there
is absolutely nothing empowering for women in it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It is not it is.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I think if anything had sets the feminist movement back,
that's what Hannah does.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I think that's my favorite part of the show is
that she just incidental is a woman. And what you
don't often get to see is you don't often get
to see women who are chumps and incapable at their job.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And mate, if there's one thing that I am that's
true though.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
In comedy at the moment that they always write the.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Male characters are always the buffoons. Yes, and they get
on the brilliant. Yeah, they're brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And then years ago, you know, it was lots of
like women would roll their eyes and they didn't get
the funny lines.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
They were the straight person. So to be terrible at
your job and.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Be in a position of power the dream, the absolute dream.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So did you actually did you hear about this Australian
version of the Office coming out and put your hand
up for it or did they come to you.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Everyone just got an email, I think in the entire
comedy in industry or anyone that had even been a
child actor. But the email say, hey, we're auditioning. We're
remaking the Office. And I was like, remaking the Office?
Why would you remake That's that's a big call. And
then I saw it was a female boss. I'm like, oh,
that's I suppose that's a big point of difference. That's
the reason to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And then I read the screen. Someone's like, I really
hope I get this and this role. Yeah, I could
do it. I could do it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And then and then it was just a really long
audition process, and then by the time I got the part,
I'd almost forgotten about it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, which is the best way, because.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You're not like when you when you first audition and
then you get a callback, and then you get a
chemistry test, you're like, oh, is it gonna happen?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Is it not? Neural? Stressed out about it?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And then you know what I would say is really
drag it out and then and it's unsustainable for your
adrenal glands and your cortisol cortosole can't keep that up.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
And tell us about the character of Hannah Howard, So
I mean, I'm I'm thinking Ricky in the original Yeah,
sort of he was an asshole, but then had these
moments of going, oh maybe he does mean well and
quite a complex character.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It is Hannah similar. I think that that that's the
key to all of the Officers.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's like a magic trick where the writers have created,
in all of the incarnations of it, a character that
you think you don't like. You think you're like, I
don't They're annoying in there, and they ruin everyone else's life,
and why do they keep embarrassing themselves and why they
so say all these politically incorrect things You think you
don't like them, And the reason you don't like them
(03:10):
is because you're allowed to.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Because they're in delusion.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They don't know y're And so when they become aware,
when they have moments of self awareness, whether they become sad,
whether they become vulnerable, whether they think people don't like
them as an audience, you go, oh no, I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sorry, I love you. You're not allowed to think badly
of yourself. We are, but you're not.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
We love you, And it's so incredible, like to realize
that retrospectively. And that's the same thing with Michael Scott.
You love him because he's delusional, like you can dislike
him because he's delusional. And that's the same as Hannah.
She thinks that everyone likes her. She's still desperate for
everyone to like her, but she doesn't know that people aren't.
I've eaten almost an entire packet of Lolly bananas, you know,
(03:51):
those little fake ones.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Delicious. I don't think they have them in Australia. In
the UK.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I live in the UK, and so I get back
here and I just like, I'm just cobbers, I'm slamming bananas.
I'm going to target and Cama. We don't have that
in the UK. Devastating. So I just am just looking
at Rosella's tim tams.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You stuck it up on some mint slices of my
I'll pack a couple of family packs on the way back.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So you just here promoting the office and then flying
back to the UK.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Then I'm back. Yeah. Yeah, I was in New Zealand
last week.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Oh mate, getting I know that, Like, I know, New
Zealand's a long way from London, but I went to London, Dubai, Brisbane, Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm like, this feels bad.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, that feels like a look And so have you
actually met Ricky Gervais?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Did he give you any tips or points?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
No, No, I haven't. I haven't had any contact with
him at all.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Does he have to sign off on an Australian version? Yes, yes,
So I actually only heard for the first time last.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Night we had we had a screener and and the
producer was saying that maybe five or six years ago
she first had a conversation with Ricky Dabas and they
spoke for like an hour and a half and he said,
why now, what's going to be different? And they said,
we're going to have a female boss and he went wow,
but David Brent's a man baby, Like, what does it
(05:09):
look like if there's a woman baby, what does that
look like?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And that's what Hannah is. Yeah, how cool.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Speaking of the uniquely Australian things like tim tams and
mint slices, I can see if there's an episode called
the Melbourne Cup Now that's beautiful because that wouldn't work
anywhere else in the Melbourne Cup Day in Australian offices,
so unique does Hannah get totally blind?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Absolutely shit face, man, absolutely shit face.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's one of my favorite episodes also because there's a
character called Danny who lives in the he's in Brisbane
and he's her best friend and he's in the Brisbane
branch and so he flies down every Melbourne Cup Day.
And every single person knows someone who has a friend
that is that awful or they are that friend, but
when they get together they get so disgusting.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So Rick Donaldson plays Danny.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And for anyone to come in on set like we've
been filming for weeks and weeks and a week the
time we do that, it's such a tall order to
come into an established ensemble.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But Rick came in and just he just brought a new.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Level of grossness that I prayed for but I didn't
know he could deliver, and it was. There is one moment,
and I think it's my most cringe moment of the
whole series, where Danny first arrives and Hannah's there and
they're welcoming each other, but they're pretending they're doing like
an imaginary like a voiceover of a horse race. They
going oh yeah and sticky fingers and that we're just
(06:29):
pelvising towards each other. It's the only way I can
describe it. We're like fake riding a horse to each
other and it's just awful.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Is Are most the actors in the show also comedians?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, most of them are.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, you gotta you've gotta have to be like you'd
have to have that dry sense of humor and like
be able to really like immerse yourself into the character.
I think that, you know, I think that the joy
of it, Like so half the cast of Kiwi and
half the cast of Australian and the Kiwis are very
heavily involved in a show. At One of the characters, Lloyd,
(07:02):
is played by Johnny Bruff he along with Jackie van
Beek who's the director and who co developed the show,
and Jesse Griffin, who directed two episodes as well. They
have a show called The Educators in New Zealand. I
think the entire show is improvised.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I think. I think it's a sitcom that's entirely improvised.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And Edith, who plays Lizzie sort of like the Gareth
or Dwight character, She's also been involved in that show
as well, so I think that they've worked with a
lot of those people before and they know who they
like to improvise with.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Good.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
The Office Australia is on Amazon Prime right now. It's
not like the olden days where it's Thursday night seven.
You can watch it whenever you want, at your leisure.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes, I've been calling it. You can have a cringe binge, yes, cring.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
She makes you want to take your skin off, give
yourself an appercut.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Right Honestly, you see they're going, oh stop it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I do it like I mean, obviously I have a
different relationship to Hannah. But there's one clip that I
was watching and I reckon, it's five seconds long and
I must pull thirty three different faces I'm like, you
need botox just to chill out, mate.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So much going on at all times. It's so good.
I feel like you've nailed the role.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Then if you're cringing it yourself, you've absolutely nailed the character.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I'm going to go and watch this guarantee cringebinge starring
in a remake of one of the best TV shows
of all time.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
No pressure, nosure, mate, It's done now, nothing I can
do about it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Give it to the universe, enjoy on Prime Video now.
Felicity Ward, thanks for coming in. Thanks having so much.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Chris
People ask me how can I become a great boss,
and the answer is having a happy staff.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I love you.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
This is a proper h messy.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's your favorite hot mess me, Felicity.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Watch Yes, I am on a mile landed a present
thank you for old game ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 4 (00:20):
The Australian version of the Office has arrived because it
started many years ago with Ricky Gervase in the UK.
Steve Carell did a great job on the American version,
and now it's a lady boss.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
She's a female flicity war. Don't they like to remind
me of it?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Yeah, yeah, yes, it's It's definitely Look what I will say.
I think the great strength of this show is there
is absolutely nothing empowering for women in it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
It is not it is.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I think if anything had sets the feminist movement back,
that's what Hannah does.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Anyway.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I think that's my favorite part of the show is
that she just incidental is a woman. And what you
don't often get to see is you don't often get
to see women who are chumps and incapable at their job.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And mate, if there's one thing that I am that's
true though.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
In comedy at the moment that they always write the.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Male characters are always the buffoons. Yes, and they get
on the brilliant. Yeah, they're brilliant.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And then years ago, you know, it was lots of
like women would roll their eyes and they didn't get
the funny lines.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
They were the straight person. So to be terrible at
your job and.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Be in a position of power the dream, the absolute dream.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
So did you actually did you hear about this Australian
version of the Office coming out and put your hand
up for it or did they come to you.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Everyone just got an email, I think in the entire
comedy in industry or anyone that had even been a
child actor. But the email say, hey, we're auditioning. We're
remaking the Office. And I was like, remaking the Office?
Why would you remake That's that's a big call. And
then I saw it was a female boss. I'm like, oh,
that's I suppose that's a big point of difference. That's
the reason to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
And then I read the screen. Someone's like, I really
hope I get this and this role. Yeah, I could
do it. I could do it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And then and then it was just a really long
audition process, and then by the time I got the part,
I'd almost forgotten about it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, which is the best way, because.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You're not like when you when you first audition and
then you get a callback, and then you get a
chemistry test, you're like, oh, is it gonna happen?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Is it not? Neural? Stressed out about it?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
And then you know what I would say is really
drag it out and then and it's unsustainable for your
adrenal glands and your cortisol cortosole can't keep that up.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
And tell us about the character of Hannah Howard, So
I mean, I'm I'm thinking Ricky in the original Yeah,
sort of he was an asshole, but then had these
moments of going, oh maybe he does mean well and
quite a complex character.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
It is Hannah similar. I think that that that's the
key to all of the Officers.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
It's like a magic trick where the writers have created,
in all of the incarnations of it, a character that
you think you don't like. You think you're like, I
don't They're annoying in there, and they ruin everyone else's life,
and why do they keep embarrassing themselves and why they
so say all these politically incorrect things You think you
don't like them, And the reason you don't like them
(03:10):
is because you're allowed to.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Because they're in delusion.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
They don't know y're And so when they become aware,
when they have moments of self awareness, whether they become sad,
whether they become vulnerable, whether they think people don't like
them as an audience, you go, oh no, I'm.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Sorry, I love you. You're not allowed to think badly
of yourself. We are, but you're not.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
We love you, And it's so incredible, like to realize
that retrospectively. And that's the same thing with Michael Scott.
You love him because he's delusional, like you can dislike
him because he's delusional. And that's the same as Hannah.
She thinks that everyone likes her. She's still desperate for
everyone to like her, but she doesn't know that people aren't.
I've eaten almost an entire packet of Lolly bananas, you know,
(03:51):
those little fake ones.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Delicious. I don't think they have them in Australia. In
the UK.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I live in the UK, and so I get back
here and I just like, I'm just cobbers, I'm slamming bananas.
I'm going to target and Cama. We don't have that
in the UK. Devastating. So I just am just looking
at Rosella's tim tams.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
You stuck it up on some mint slices of my
I'll pack a couple of family packs on the way back.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So you just here promoting the office and then flying
back to the UK.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Then I'm back. Yeah. Yeah, I was in New Zealand
last week.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Oh mate, getting I know that, Like, I know, New
Zealand's a long way from London, but I went to London, Dubai, Brisbane, Auckland.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm like, this feels bad.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Yeah, that feels like a look And so have you
actually met Ricky Gervais?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Did he give you any tips or points?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
No, No, I haven't. I haven't had any contact with
him at all.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Does he have to sign off on an Australian version? Yes, yes,
So I actually only heard for the first time last.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Night we had we had a screener and and the
producer was saying that maybe five or six years ago
she first had a conversation with Ricky Dabas and they
spoke for like an hour and a half and he said,
why now, what's going to be different? And they said,
we're going to have a female boss and he went wow,
but David Brent's a man baby, Like, what does it
(05:09):
look like if there's a woman baby, what does that
look like?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And that's what Hannah is. Yeah, how cool.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Speaking of the uniquely Australian things like tim tams and
mint slices, I can see if there's an episode called
the Melbourne Cup Now that's beautiful because that wouldn't work
anywhere else in the Melbourne Cup Day in Australian offices,
so unique does Hannah get totally blind?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Absolutely shit face, man, absolutely shit face.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's one of my favorite episodes also because there's a
character called Danny who lives in the he's in Brisbane
and he's her best friend and he's in the Brisbane
branch and so he flies down every Melbourne Cup Day.
And every single person knows someone who has a friend
that is that awful or they are that friend, but
when they get together they get so disgusting.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So Rick Donaldson plays Danny.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
And for anyone to come in on set like we've
been filming for weeks and weeks and a week the
time we do that, it's such a tall order to
come into an established ensemble.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But Rick came in and just he just brought a new.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Level of grossness that I prayed for but I didn't
know he could deliver, and it was. There is one moment,
and I think it's my most cringe moment of the
whole series, where Danny first arrives and Hannah's there and
they're welcoming each other, but they're pretending they're doing like
an imaginary like a voiceover of a horse race. They
going oh yeah and sticky fingers and that we're just
(06:29):
pelvising towards each other. It's the only way I can
describe it. We're like fake riding a horse to each
other and it's just awful.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Is Are most the actors in the show also comedians?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, most of them are.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah, you gotta you've gotta have to be like you'd
have to have that dry sense of humor and like
be able to really like immerse yourself into the character.
I think that, you know, I think that the joy
of it, Like so half the cast of Kiwi and
half the cast of Australian and the Kiwis are very
heavily involved in a show. At One of the characters, Lloyd,
(07:02):
is played by Johnny Bruff he along with Jackie van
Beek who's the director and who co developed the show,
and Jesse Griffin, who directed two episodes as well. They
have a show called The Educators in New Zealand. I
think the entire show is improvised.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
I think. I think it's a sitcom that's entirely improvised.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And Edith, who plays Lizzie sort of like the Gareth
or Dwight character, She's also been involved in that show
as well, so I think that they've worked with a
lot of those people before and they know who they
like to improvise with.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Good.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
The Office Australia is on Amazon Prime right now. It's
not like the olden days where it's Thursday night seven.
You can watch it whenever you want, at your leisure.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes, I've been calling it. You can have a cringe binge, yes, cring.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
She makes you want to take your skin off, give
yourself an appercut.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Right Honestly, you see they're going, oh stop it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I do it like I mean, obviously I have a
different relationship to Hannah. But there's one clip that I
was watching and I reckon, it's five seconds long and
I must pull thirty three different faces I'm like, you
need botox just to chill out, mate.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
So much going on at all times. It's so good.
I feel like you've nailed the role.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Then if you're cringing it yourself, you've absolutely nailed the character.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
I'm going to go and watch this guarantee cringebinge starring
in a remake of one of the best TV shows
of all time.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
No pressure, nosure, mate, It's done now, nothing I can
do about it.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Give it to the universe, enjoy on Prime Video now.
Felicity Ward, thanks for coming in. Thanks having so much.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Chris
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