The Office's Felicity Ward responds to haters of the Aussie reboot: 'People will be angry'

When the Australian reboot of The Office was announced, there was a resounding message from fans of the US and UK versions – do we really need this? And Felicity Ward, who plays Hannah Howard, Australia's version of Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and David Brent (Ricky Gervais), has responded to the haters, saying she understands the criticism.

The show, which premieres on October 18, is the thirteenth version of the franchise and is the first to feature a female lead. Hannah is the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick, who “goes into survival mode making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her ‘work family’ together” when she finds out her branch is being shut down.

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Felicity says 'people will be angry' with the Australian reboot of The Office

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, Felicity says, "Look, I know what it's like to love something and feel protective over it being remade. I absolutely understand that.

"But if you look at the American one, there was a huge backlash. People were very, very angry. And it's its own thing. And that's the same with the Australian one. People will be angry, and people will be really happy about it as well, and have your feelings, and we're all just doing our best."

She adds, "I would say, just watch it and then decide, like, with anything we can all have our contempt prior to investigation, but if you watch it, then have an opinion."

Speaking about what she thinks sets it aside from the US and UK versions, Felicity jokes, "We have Roombas. I think that's very important. There are animals in an episode. There's an episode where we're all in pyjamas.

"And may I say to everyone that watches that episode, I apologise – we intentionally got a pair of pyjamas that were not quite the right size, so we took four days to film an episode. Just had a wedgie for four days, and just gangly, just the most unruly t*ts you've ever seen."

Referencing the wedgie, she quips, "That's what I do, I suffer for my art."

Felicity continues, saying, "I think it's just very Australian. It's like when you get Australians who write a script, it's just Australian. Then you put a bunch of Australians in and just makes it more Australian. And so I think that it's sort of got the warmth of the American one, but it has the space and the awkward pauses of the British one."

"With the American Office, for example, the first series was all the same as the British scripts and it found its success when it wrote its own scripts. And it was like, not Americanised, but it was like, appropriate to its own culture, like it reflected its own culture.

"And from the beginning, we've started with original scripts. They're all Australian scripts, well, and Kiwi, our director who sort of helped create it, and another director are Kiwis. And there's lots of Kiwis in the cast. It's very Antipodean."

Did Felicity get inspiration from Michael Scott and David Brent?

Interestingly, Felicity reveals that while she'd watched the UK version of the show, she had never seen Steve Carell's turn as Michael Scott before filming the show.

"I had never seen an episode of the American one until I'd finished filming, never," she tells us. "One of the background actors one day said after a task, 'That was so Michael Scott,' and I'm like, 'I have never seen an episode of the show, so... thank you?'"

Felicity also says that she hasn't spoken to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created the show originally and have credits on the Australian version.

"I haven't [spoken to them]," she says. "I did do a gig with Stephen Merchant earlier this year, but it was a very small green room and it was before the show, and it was a new material night, which is where you test your jokes for the first time. And I thought, if I say this to him, and he goes, 'What?' I don't want to deal with that for the next two hours, while we're doing new material. So, I just didn't say anything!"

Felicity's connection with popular Office star

Speaking about her dream guest star on the show, Felicity jokes, "My dream guest star is me for 22 more seasons, just to have another job, would be lovely!"

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She adds, "I actually, on a whim, I messaged Jenna Fisher, and I was like, 'Hello, I don't even know if you'll read this – I don't know if you check your own Instagram – my name is Felicity Ward,' and she wrote back like immediately, she's like, 'I never check my DMs, we know about the show, we're so excited, can you come on our podcast?' So, I'm like, 'Oh my God, imagine,' I would love to have Jenna on the show."

The Office will be available to stream on Prime Video from Friday, October 18.

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