Written By: Michael D. McClellan | Melora Hardin is on a roll. The Houston-born actor, who cut her teeth on ‘80s TV shows like Diff’rent Strokes and Magnum P.I. and later rose to fame as Michael Scott’s tightly-wound love interest on The Office, scored a 2016 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her character Tammy Cashman on Amazon’s Transparent, and generated a stream of buzz from critically-acclaimed roles on Freeform’s The Bold Type and ABC’s A Million Little Things. Suffice it to say that Hardin is busier than ever, which is saying something since she’s worked nonstop in Hollywood since the age of six. Her IMDb is a roadmap of American television from the late ‘70s to today – skim it and you’ll find hit shows like The Love Boat, Little House on the Prairie, “Murder, She Wrote”, Friends, Caroline in the City, Family Guy, NCIS, Boston Legal, Gilmore Girls, and Monk. Impressive stuff for sure, but it’s as Jan Levinson on The Office that Hardin carved out the role of a lifetime, one that delivered international fame and legions of loyal fans.
“I still have so many fans,” Hardin says. “Because of the way things can stream and replay and play again, I sort of have a whole new generation of fans from The Office, so it’s really exciting to me.”
Adapted from a BBC series of the same name, The Office landed a whopping 42 Emmy nominations throughout its nine seasons, winning a total of five. Its cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award for best comedy ensemble twice in a row, and the sitcom itself earned a Peabody Award. For Hardin, not a day goes by that someone doesn’t bring it up.
“Fans know so many of the lines by heart,” she says, “and they feel like they know the characters personally. If someone says, ‘Walk of shame,’ it immediately brings back memories of Meredith stumbling back to her house at 6:00 A.M. to find Michael Scott and Deangelo Vickers delivering her Dundee Award nomination. The show has those types of iconic moments, and that kind of staying power.”
Hardin has a point. Try finding someone – anyone – who hasn’t heard the Michael Scott catchphrase, “That’s what she said!” Surprisingly, The Office wasn’t always on track to become the pop culture behemoth that it is today.
“We struggled that first season,” Hardin says. “Viewers compared it to the BBC version, which didn’t help, and there were only six episodes. We were still trying to find our footing, and it’s really hard to do that with so few episodes. The future of the show was on shaky ground.”
The first episode of The Office premiered in March 2005 to mixed reviews. The ratings steadily declined, which didn’t give the cast and crew much hope about the show’s future. One of the writers, Michael Schur (who also played Mose in the series), admitted in an interview (via Vox) that nobody liked the first season, and that everyone expected it would get axed.
Says Hardin: “Kevin Reilly was an NBC executive at the time, and he was extremely passionate about The Office. He believed in the show, and was able to get a second season which lasted 22 episodes. That changed everything.”
It didn’t hurt that, prior to the Season 2 premiere, Steve Carell starred in the summer comedy film, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The movie was a huge hit, and NBC loved the idea of having its newest comedy star under contract.
Propelled by a greenlit second season and Carell’s popularity, The Office now stood a fighting chance at survival. Lightening up Carell’s character was another shot in the arm. A masterful salesman with not much else, Michael Scott served as the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch through the first seven seasons. Jim Halpert (portrayed by John Krasinski) once made a color graph of how Michael spends his time: 80% distracting others; 19% procrastination; and 1% critical thinking. Jim added that he inflated the “critical thinking” percentage so people could actually see it on the graph. It was that kind of chemistry that turned the show into a hit.
“I always thought that Michael Scott’s character was a classic case of arrested development, and that he was really a 12-year-old kid,” says Robert Ray Shafer, who played Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. “There is a piece in Phyllis’s wedding, where they show flashback footage of Michael Scott when his mother marries his stepfather. When he sees himself at the wedding, I’m like, ‘You know, that’s who he is. He’s never gotten over Jeffrey getting his mom [laughs].’”
And then there is the chemistry – or lack thereof – between Michael Scott and his boss, Jan Levinson. There are very few Office fans out there who will attempt to argue that Michael and Jan were right for each other. That awkward dynamic, however, is what made them one of the show’s most interesting couples. In fact, “Dinner Party” is widely considered to be the best episode of the entire series.
“Every day,” Hardin replies, when asked how often that episode comes up.
Today, The Office is still going strong. According to data compiled and analyzed by Nielsen, the Wall Street Journal reported in April, 2019 that The Office was the most-watched show on Netflix during a 12-month period that concluded during the summer of 2018. It attracted almost 3 percent of total user minutes, meaning that Netflix users spent 45.8 billion minutes basking in Dunder Mifflin’s chaotic energy. This even bests Friends, a fellow NBC comedy that attracted 31.8 billion minutes of attention and cost Netflix $100 million to keep through 2019. For her part, Hardin couldn’t be happier.
“The whole experience was amazing,” she says, reflecting on the show’s place in history. “The cast, the crew – it was a beautiful, fantastic, hilarious, wonderful journey. It will live forever in my heart, and it will live forever on film. I really feel grateful I was a part of it.”
You dad is actor Jerry Hardin, and your mother was an actress also. Is it safe to say that the acting bug bit at an early age?
Yeah, from the time I was six. I sort of tugged on their sleeves and begged and begged until they said, “Well, we’ll let her go on some auditions, and if she doesn’t get anything we’ll ease her out of it and she’ll never know the difference.” I got the first thing I went on, which was a commercial for a toothpaste called Peak, which is no longer around.
I’ve read where you started dancing at a very young age.
I was a very serious ballerina. I would’ve told you as a child that I was going to be a ballerina, and that acting was just my hobby. I went to Joffrey Ballet on scholarship when I was 13. I had some incredible dance teachers, and I’m so grateful for that. They gave me an incredible connection to my body, and confidence about my physical self and how to move through the world in a way that absolutely comes from my dance training.
What about acting lessons?
I was taught by my mom, but I also took a class with Stella Adler when I was 18 years old. At the time I was unsure about the direction I wanted to go, and I was contemplating whether I wanted to continue acting. My mom was an amazing acting teacher, and she had helped build this great foundation for me as an actor. She taught Leonardo DiCaprio, and discovered Jessica Biel and many, many, many people. But, at that point in my life, I had serious doubts about acting being a part of my future. I was thinking, “Is this really what I want to do?” Since I wasn’t sure at that point, I took the acting class with Stella Adler.
What was it like taking acting lessons from a legend like Stella Adler?
Ironically, she was really tough on women in particular. I did a scene from Agnes of God. I did all this work to prepare myself for the part, but I never felt like I arrived at what you might call a well-polished performance. I was very nervous when I got on stage to do it in the class, but it was one of those incredible moments as an actor where I got so in touch with the character that everything just seemed to fall into place. She turned to me at the end and said, “I have nothing to say to you, that was brilliant.” At that moment of time for me in my life, it was exactly what I needed to hear.
What advice did your parents give you that has helped in your acting career?
Teaching me the craft at a young age, and teaching me how to be professional, were very important. And most important of all: Persistence, persistence, persistence.
Did you have to audition for Jan, Michael Scott’s boss in The Office?
I did audition for the role of Jan Levinson. She was a guest star in the pilot, with the potential for the character to develop into a recurring role. I was made a regular in the second season. When I got the material for the audition I read it and I felt like, “I can connect to this.” So I auditioned, and I could feel from the vibe in the room that they really liked me. A big thing that worked in my favor was that they had taken my character from the BBC version, and [executive producer] Greg Daniels didn’t want to duplicate the same character on his show. He wanted it to be the character that I had created in the audition. I had never seen the BBC show until I got the role on The Office, and I didn’t watch the BBC version until the end of the first season.
When you took on the role of Jan in The Office, did you realize what was in store for her?
I really didn’t. It was written like she was this tightly-wound boss, because she needed to be a great “straight man” for Steve Carell. I hooked into her really well and that’s kind of how I played her, but we knew on the pilot that there was something special about the connection between Jan and Michael. There was a chemistry, I guess, that works with Steve and I, because we made jokes and played off of each other.
After we had filmed the pilot episode, Steve Carell and Greg Daniels and I were having lunch one day, and we all recognized that there was definitely an interesting spark between Michael and Jan. We kind of laughed and said, “Well, if this show gets picked up, Jan and Michael should hook up somewhere along the line, at some convention or something.” So we foresaw that that was in the cards for them. But as far as Jan’s weird unraveling, I don’t think anyone knew that was going to be the case.
Did the producers realize that there would be this crazy romance between the two characters?
I think we all just knew. We just felt that there was something going on there. So that was kind of what we did, we went down that road – I think hilariously. I think just the way she unraveled was kind of like the writers seeing something in me that I brought to the part and then me taking what they gave me and running with it. It was a wonderful, collaborative little dance that we did together to make it work.
Let’s talk a couple of popular episodes. In “The Client,” Jan kisses Michael during a weak moment in a Chili’s parking lot, jump starting their awkward romantic relationship.
I think to everybody, the first kiss in the Chili’s parking lot was ridiculous and surprising; the way the characters’ dynamic was just so push-pull, it was awful and pleasurable at the same time. It just sort of made you want them to hook up.
“Dinner Party” is an absolute fan favorite, and one of the most cringe-worthy episodes in a series made famous for its cringeworthy-ness.
I’m quite proud of the Dundie hitting the television every time. We shot that scene three times and I hit it every time – I think all the crew guys kind of had a crush on me after that! I loved the moment in “Dinner Party” where I put on the Hunter song and I danced inappropriately, because I am a dancer, and it was super fun for me to try to dance just a little off the beat, just a little wrong. I also loved the moment where Michael Scott heard the ice cream truck and he ran through the glass door, because Steve [Carell] and I were kind of improvising there and I said, “That makes me the devil.” And then I did those little devil horns, and he had such a real reaction! They were filming both of us at the same time, so you get to see me doing that and you also see his reaction to it in the moment.
Would you be up for a reboot of The Office?
If it was a feature film, absolutely. If it was a series I couldn’t do it. I’ve been too busy with other projects like The Bold Type and A Million Little Things to commit to a series. And I don’t think the idea of going back and being Jan Levinson again for a series reboot is really that interesting. I don’t even think the fans would really like that.
I would love to do The Office in a film because I think in a film you could get everybody, and you could probably get Ricky Gervais to pop in. A film would also be the best chance to get Steve to do it, and since all of my storyline revolves around Steve Carell’s character, Michael, I couldn’t really do it without him. I just can’t see him doing another series of The Office.
Although The Office ran on NBC from 2005 to 2013, it is reportedly the most-watched show of all time on Netflix.
It’s amazing. Jan has become an iconic character and she certainly is loved. I get people coming up to me every single day telling me how much they love her. It’s incredible to be a part of a show that has brought so much joy to people, and it’s exciting to know that it continues today. I mean, The Office seems to have a bigger, stronger life now that when it was being filmed. It’s like the show that never dies!
Your husband, Gildart Jackson, wrote the independent film You, released in 2009. You starred in it and directed it, and your parents were in it as well.
My husband went away on location for another project, and while he was there he wrote the screenplay. He was really missing us, which led him to write what I consider a love letter to me and the girls. The inspiration came from a moment that we had with our first daughter, Rory, where I had a daydream about what I might say at her wedding. And then he thought, “What if that time came and you weren’t there to say those things? How sad that would be?” So he explored how somebody who lost their soulmate would go through that process, how they would recover, and how they would find their way through the grief.
What did you remember most about filming You?
Wearing all the different hats on You was very exciting to me. It was my very first time directing and producing and being a part of the editing process. I have often thought it would be wonderful to try on the hat of every person involved in making a film. To have compassion and understanding of specific challenges and victories would give me a new appreciation for filmmaking. Taking on a project like You did just that.
What types of movies interest you, and did any film in particular have an impact on this project?
I’m very attracted to foreign, arty, and indie films. I see everything, but I find that I remember more detail from films like Amelie, The Secret of Roan Inish, The Cook the Thief his Wife and her Lover, The Piano, Delicatessen, Like Water for Chocolate, and many others. These films have made a distinct impression on me with their unique visual storytelling. Mostly what I wanted to do with You was to get the emotion, sensitivity, love and depth to leap off the page and up onto the screen.
You are also a wonderful singer. One of the producers for All the Way to Mars was acclaimed Broadway producer and director Richard Jay-Alexander. How did that come about?
Richard and I found each other through my mother, who called an agent friend of hers in New York and told her that her daughter needed to do an act. The agent connected me with Richard, and we met and really hit it off. He liked my music, and we ended up collaborating on an act together, which I performed at the Catalina Jazz Club. Then he hired me for the role of Fantine in Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl. Performing there was a pretty amazing moment for me, because it is one of the most beautiful outdoor amphitheaters we have in Los Angeles. That led to talks about my singing, and out of that came a decision to put out a new record. It had been ten years, and my previous record just wasn’t representative of how my voice had grown. So, with Richard’s coaching and Ben Toth, my musical director, we built a really beautiful repertoire of music.
Singing or acting – do you prefer one over the other?
You know, I can’t really say that I prefer one over the other. Music is one of the things that sort of rolls through you. With acting, you’re getting inside of different characters that really aren’t you. So I love them both. I’m constantly searching to express myself creatively in different ways, and I’m sure I’ll find other outlets as time goes by.
Do you enjoy performing on stage?
I played Roxie on Broadway in Chicago for three months when I was on hiatus from The Office. I am one of those people that there’s nothing more gratifying than being completely used up. I have been dancing since I was five. I’ve been singing all my life. I’ve been acting professionally since I was six. To be able to act, sing and dance all at once eight times a week was heaven on a stick. You basically don’t even need to pay me, I’ll show up!
Transparent earned you a 2016 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. What was that like?
Oh, my God! It was an unbelievably exciting time in my professional life, as you can imagine. I was totally shocked and just thrilled.
What was it like to be a part of such a respected show as Transparent?
You know, it’s funny. There was nothing difficult about working on the set of Transparent. It was so joyful because of its richness, and everything is really held in such love. As actors, what do we want? We want opportunities to stretch and to go places that we don’t go in our everyday lives, and I had that opportunity. It was really quite glorious to be honest. It feels really good to hook into the truth of a character and allow her to come through me that is, in a way, cathartic.
You have such an amazing onscreen chemistry with Amy Landecker. Can you tell me a little bit about working with her?
Everyone always asks, “How did you create the chemistry with her?” The formula for creating chemistry with any actor is the same: It takes two people that dive in 150 percent. That’s all it takes. The thing that I can say that I loved the most – and there’s a lot I love about her – is that she jumps in with both feet. I think we were both very fearless in that we did a lot of very risky stuff together. That helps to create chemistry, because you have two actors who are willing to take chances.
What was it like playing a woman who unraveled the way Tammy did in Season 2?
It’s interesting, because when you play a very together character, obviously there’s something underneath those coils that is tightly wound. I think that Tammy, in a lot of ways, was tightly wound, even though her facade was very cool and easy with everything. I think Tammy was all about making the picture look right, and I think the picture looked really right with Sarah. I think that when they broke up, not only did it break her heart, but it also broke her vision of this perfect family.
In The Bold Type, you play the Editor-in-Chief for a Cosmopolitan-esque women’s lifestyle magazine called “Scarlet.”
The show is inspired by the ex-Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief, Joanna Coles, who’s one of our Executive Producers and who is now the Chief Content Officer at Hearst [Magazines]. The show revolves around three young women who are working at Scarlet magazine, which is a Cosmo-type magazine. It features empowering women, sex, relationships, workplace conversations, fashion and beauty and all other things in the magazine.
It has to be exciting having Joanna at your fingertips as Executive Producer of this series.
Oh yeah. We spent quite a bit of time together in the workplace, also socially. I’ve been able to observe her and I’ve called her a couple of times to say, “Is this something you would say?” or “How would you say this?” or “what do you think, does this sound right to you?” And she’s reading all the scripts as well. We’re definitely in collaboration about all those things.
Please tell me about your character, Jacqueline Carlyle.
I’m the Editor-In-Chief of the magazine, and I think she’s a very empowering boss, not a Devil Wears Prada kind-of-boss. She’s much more realistic. She thinks of what real women of power are like in today’s world. Just much more collaborative, empowering, nurturing, setting a high bar for her employees and expecting them to reach outside their comfort zone and pushing them, but not doing it in a mean or manipulative or deceptive way. You don’t have to like her but she’s really going to make you your best at what you do. She has integrity, and she’s decent. That’s the main reason I accepted the role. I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of it just being a flat character. I really wanted her to be three dimensional, which I think she is.
Your character is tough on the girls, but she also cares about them and sincerely wants to see them thrive.
I was really drawn to my character for that reason. I was originally chosen to play the role of Jennifer Parker in Back To The Future, when Eric Stoltz was supposed to play Marty McFly. When they recast that character, I was actually fired because I was considered too tall to play opposite Michael J. Fox. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale called me at home when I was 17 years old and told me that it had nothing to do with me, that it was just that I was too tall. I later learned that they had no trouble with me being taller than Michael J. Fox. It was actually a female executive who pushed for the casting change, which was shocking to me. But again, that was 1985. I cannot think of one female executive that would say something like that today. I believe women in power want to support other women who are out there trying to make a name for themselves.
The show also shines the light on the importance of balancing a career with personal life.
You can be focused on being in the present. If you’re at work, be at work, if you’re at home, be at home. Turn the screens off in the house, put your phone down. Don’t be texting and emailing and being pulled and distracted. Stay with each other and take the time to be really connected. Eat dinners together and talk about the day. Ask questions of your kids, let your kids ask questions of you. I think that’s really, really important, to just really be where you are, don’t be half where you are. I think the people that struggle are the people that are half where they are and I think that sometimes you’re in one place and then you get pulled somewhere else. But I think that’s the exception more than the rule, and I think most women are learning how to have both things.
Let’s talk about A Million Little Things. What was your approach to building a character that was originally cast as a guest spot?
Well, I knew that they were probably going to bring her back. I probably wouldn’t have done it if it was going to be a one-off thing. I knew that my character was interesting, and her character’s daughter on the show was struggling with cancer, and that was something that really drew me in.
Final Question – If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring actors, what would that be?
Persistence, persistence, persistence!!!