“The Office” star explains how a 'candy bag' of improv ideas was one of the show's secret weapons

Melora Hardin says that improv was the key to comedy on The Office.

"They would do a thing where, we would always do it the way it was written, and then they would hand us sort of a candy bag," the actress told Steve Kmetko on a recent episode of his Still Here Hollywood podcast. "They would call it a candy bag, and we could literally pull out lines. It would just be little lines that were options that we could throw in if we wanted to."

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Hardin said that the "candy bag" style of only slightly prepared improv "was always a thing we did with scenes. Once we got it as written, we would we would play."

Related: Jenna Fischer reveals Amy Adams almost wasn't cast on The Office because they looked too similar

On The Office, Hardin played the powerful, unpredictable Jan Levinson, the Vice President of Sales at Dunder Mufflin, the fictional paper company that provides the titular setting for the workplace comedy. Levinson wasn't based at the Scranton branch with Jim (John Krasinski), Pam (Jenna Fischer), or Michael (Steve Carell), so she used her sporadic presence to her advantage, intimidating everyone in sight when she did make an appearance.

The character is perhaps best known for her unlikely romance with Carell's Michael, which rollercoastered from seasons 2-4. "Most of my scenes were with Steve Carell," she told Kmetko. "And working together, you know, Steve was great. I would throw a ball straight one time, a curve ball next time, and and he would he would he would send it right back."

Hardin explained that she and Carell "both have a lot of improv in our background. So if you are an actor who has had improv and you work with other actors who who've done a lot of improv, it really is a lot of fun."

Related: The Office writer Mike Schur admits SNL's Japanese parody 'rankled' him: 'It didn't feel right to me in some way'

By way of example, Hardin recounted that even on the pilot, improv was encouraged.

"Ken Kwapis directed the pilot, and Ken was amazing. I remember one scene in the pilot, my phone went off when we were rehearsing. I think I said, 'Oh, God. I'll make sure that my phone doesn't go off.' And he goes, 'No no no, leave it on. It would be really funny, and if someone calls, answer it. You know, in character.' I just thought, 'This is my kind of group, where we get to really play like that, and they trusted our craft enough.'"

Related: The Office stars reveal Christmas episode scene that made everyone break: 'No one could get through it'

Other members of The Office cast and crew have discussed the "candy bag," including Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who played the conservative grouch Angela. On a 2019 episode of their Office Ladies podcast, the pair even introduced a fan question and answer segment called the "Office Ladies Candy Bag."

"It's named after the candy bag on The Office, which is the place where we put all of our extra stuff," Fischer said.

In a 2009 cast and crew interview at The Paley Center, series creator Greg Daniels explained, "The writing staff has the same desire to see a lot of their extra stuff in, so we have something called the 'candy bag.' So we'll have something in the script that says 'one talking head,' in the contest of everyone trying to write them." Meaning, the writers would leave in lines of confessional dialogue for any actor to grab and perform.

You can listen to the rest of Hardin's interview on Still Here Hollywood below.

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