Phyllis Smith Recalls Being On The Set Of The Office ‘All The Time’ During Season 1 – Looper

Phyllis Smith sat down with Den of Geek to talk about her time on “The Office,” as well as several other projects she’s worked on over the years. When asked what it was like working on “The Office,” she said, “It was a good nine years. A quick nine years.”

Smith explained what working on the first season of “The Office” was like in a bit more detail. Apparently, there was a lot of trial and error in the earlier renditions of the show. She said, “The first season we started out, they kept us all on set, all the periphery characters, all the time because they weren’t sure what element of the office was going to be shot. So they had to have the backs of our heads or this or that. So for the whole first season, we were there all the time pretty much – even if we weren’t on camera, we’d be on set.”

The cast spent countless hours on set even if they weren’t working during the filming of Season 1. According to Smith, they needed to be around in case the episode decided to go in a direction that needed one of them. Apparently, they’d spend up to 12 hours on set not doing anything if they weren’t needed.

“Then as the years progressed, they said, ‘We’re not going to see them. Don’t bring them in!’ They knew how to splice it down so that we wouldn’t be sitting there for 12 hours and not be on camera,” Smith added, which was probably a huge relief for all the stars of “The Office.” Being on set for such long hours without actually working must have been exhausting, tedious, and above all else, boring.