October 12, 2021 • 39 mins
The man who brought Suck It into our lives joins Brian in the studio. Andy Buckley aka David Wallace, Dunder Mifflin’s very own CFO (and later CEO!), takes it back to the days he was only dreaming of becoming a brooding heartthrob, the time he tried to pull a Tony Soprano, and the special Office business cards he gives out to fans… and yes - he’s hiring!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm Andy Buckley and I've played David Wallace on the Office.
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another exciting episode of
the Office Deep Dive. I am your host Brian Baumgartner,
(00:25):
and this week we are coming at you with somebody
that you have all been waiting to hear from. I
cannot wait to get started. Today's guest is a man
who means business. And I mean he really means business.
Not only was he the CFO of dunder Mifflin, which
(00:46):
was arguably the greatest and most successful paper company, maybe
even any company of all time, but as a real
human person, he was moonlighting as a stockbroker for Merrill
Lynch the entire run of the show. Yep, you guessed it.
The genius who brought suck It into our lives Andy Buckley,
(01:09):
who also happens to be one of the treasured members
of our Office fantasy football team, who last week lost
by one point to MOA because I had Austin Ekeler
thanks to Rain Wilson, who dominated on Monday Night. So Andy,
suck it now. Andy came onto the show a little
(01:32):
bit later. In fact, he referred to himself as a
distant cousin of the cast for the first several seasons
he was on board, but he really grew to have
a special place in our hearts and the hearts of
the people back in Scranton, Pennsylvania. To this day, if
you run into Andy on the street, you might come
(01:54):
away with a special office themed surprise. Hint, hint. And
he has gone on to do so many big things,
from Jurassic World to Shameless and Veep, but he credits
it all to his time on the office. So from
the mean streets of Finance to the not so mean
(02:17):
streets of Scranton, get ready to hear from the boss
of the world's best boss, the master of dead Pan,
Andy Buckley. Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak,
(02:39):
Bubble and Squeaker cookie every month, left over from the
night before. Wow, how are you great? Good to see you. Ye,
(03:00):
good to see you. You know I wore my finest
There it is, you know under Mifflin. I'm not I'm
not playing around. You're not playing the owner of this company.
You want you are the last we left? Oh? Sit there, yes,
I will tell you. Have the fun I like to
put them on. Oh my god, Yeah, this is how
people get in trouble. They they think it's you know,
(03:23):
and then they say some thing they shouldn't say, and
then their career is over. Well, that's what I'm trying
to make happen for you. Hey, Alex, Alex, Hello, sir Alex,
I haven't seen your coat today. It's very are you cold? Well,
that's how Brian likes it, you know, That's how Audrey
(03:44):
Hepburn liked it. Catherinehipburn all the headburns. Catherine Hepburn like this, Yeah,
is that? Does that feel good? See? There you go?
There would be no here's the thing. Oh, I've gotten
(04:06):
people to say way worse than I'm sure. Yeah, how
are you? I'm great? Having five got picked up, which
is good. You got a job? Baby? There you go?
Where film across the pond? As they say in London,
like I'll move to I'll be in London for five months. Wow.
(04:26):
And Gabe is on it a ka Zach Woods, um great?
Can we swear? Yeah? We can say whatever we want.
It's so funny. I took a couple of notes of
like funny things. But it's then it reminds me of
the It was one of the last episodes it was
the opening teaser. I come in and I'm like, really
(04:47):
pissed at Jon Favreau directed, I'm really pissed at ed
because you were on a fucking boat for three months.
We did it three, I don't know, four or five times.
Everybody says great, fine, good um, and I said more
more and so like we did it like three or
four more times. I'm saying this, motherfuck are you fucking
(05:09):
like I was Tony soprano or something like that, and uh,
and you know, ultimately Greg said, now we we you
can't like we can't, you know, you're it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't match what like the character was. But it
was like Kate Flair, remember the time she walked and
she said, what the hell is going on? Because like
they walk in and they just they don't know what's good.
They just hear this explore almost it's just right, oh
(05:34):
my god. Um so you let's let's rewind. Yeah, before
you started on the office, that was our warm up.
What were you doing? I was born in Boston, No,
so you were You were born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Yeah,
at the Salem Hospital. But I'm from marble Head, Massachusetts.
So many of us from the marble Head, the Massachusetts area,
(05:58):
the Kip pack, the smack pack exactly, and now yes,
I got. I went to college, moved to New York,
studied acting, moved to l a meandered around. Didn't like
set the world on fire. But not only did I
do a Melrose Place, I did a Caroline in the city.
So there you go, check it out. I did a
silk Stockings. I was voted. I was voted the worst
(06:21):
acting in the history of silk Stockings. So like, that's
that's pretty that's me coming. I was horrible. Was your
actually the Razzies for but god, I was terrible? But
um yeah, no that I actually like packed in acting
and started working to Mary Lynch. I was a stockbroker.
(06:43):
Wait wait, so you stopped acting. Well, it's not like
I was doing much of it, but I officially said
all right, said I gotta get a come up with
a job. Or my wife, who was my girlfriend at
the time, said, Buckley, come up with the job. This
is ridiculous, your your life is ridiculous. So was you know?
I stumbled into Merrill Lynch and there was an actor
(07:04):
I knew who worked there, and he said, hey, come on,
interview and uh, and you know, they they hired me,
they were kind enough to hire me. I'm pleasant experience.
I had no experience, but yeah, I'm reasonably reasonably smart
and I you know, and I'm seemingly trustworthy, and you know,
I was a great golfer, you know, like just very important.
(07:24):
They I think they thought, Okay, this guy, I'll be
able to bring in some clients. So that was it. No,
So I was I was there, I was doing that
and I actually I loved it. I mean I I
stayed at Merrill Lynch in Century City is where the
office was um throughout the whole run of the show.
The last season is when I finally left, like halfway
through the very last season. So that's what I was doing.
(07:45):
In four and a half years into that, I had
run into Alison Jones. She'd be my patron saint. She's
completely changed my life for the good, for the for
the great. And uh, I ran into at the local
farmers market where we're in the living the same neighborhood.
C what are you doing. I got I'm a stockbroker,
like I'm I'm married, I got a kid name. Apparently
(08:07):
I've grown up. And she Uh's like, all right, we'll
give me your card just in case something comes up.
Who knows, you know, I said, okay. And my wife
is an acting coach and has become like a pretty
soft after ic caon coach. But she had started her
class and I was going to her class. So I
had started to like fall back in love with acting
and for the right reasons and really was loving doing it.
(08:28):
And it was, you know, small class. So then Alison
calls me five months after I saw her on the
thing or four and a half months something like that,
and says, Okay, Bucky, you should I can't believe I
found your card, but I'm glad I did. You should
come in. I think you're the right guy. He's the CFO.
Do you watched the office like yeah, Kevin Mullins incredible.
Um and uh. And so I go in and I
(08:50):
sit there and I'm waiting in the in the room
like I duck over from my office, you know, like
Centry City. Okay, so wait, wait what You're at Merrill
Lynch and you're taking acting classes from your wife just
because she had started Nancy Banks, great Nancy Banks. Yeah,
she had like seven people in her class. I'm like, oh,
I'll be the eighth. It will be an even number
of scenes. It's funny, like the two guys in the class,
(09:14):
we're me and Channing Tatum and so no, nobody, of
course wanted to do scenes with me. The teacher's husband,
who's the who's the hot you know? Um, yeah, she's been,
she've been. She's been working with him since before like
anybody knew him. And he's as lovely as as can be.
(09:35):
But yes, so I'm doing that. And so Allison calls
you and says, come in, but you're doing that because
you you are just liking it, You're falling in love
with acting exactly. Yeah, which was I mean, that's what
I wanted to do from the time I saw my
first James Dean movie when I was fifteen or whatever,
and thought I'd be you know, the brooding heartthrobber or whatever,
brooding confused teenage kids. And and I'm just a brooding,
(10:00):
confused adult, uh, you know, fifty year old man and
uh but no, so I go. But it was funny.
I'm sitting in the waiting room and then all the
actor Why am I look at all these guys? These
I mean, you know, and then and then Chip Eston
is there also auditioning. I'm like, gosh, ship, there's there's
Chip like and he's the guy for the folks at
(10:21):
home and played Josh Porter and in my head and
think they're gonna hire him, Like what am I doing here?
This is ridiculous, Like he's great. And then to bake
matters worse for the negative actor had Rain pops his
head into the waiting room and he and Chip are buddies,
and he says, hey, good you're here. Great. Look I
also told them you should read for this other part.
(10:41):
Luckily because he's gonna do I don't know, a bunch
of episodes, just an existent one off. So then Rain
says this in front of you. Well he pulled him aside.
I just happened to be sitting close and I don't
think everybody else started. I just like it wasn't like
he broadcasting across the room. But uh like okay. So
then I go in and it's Allison and Michael Shure
(11:04):
and old Mikey can tremendous and I do the scene,
do the second scene, feel good about it? And Michael's like,
now wait, now you're you're like a financial guy, right,
you're that's what you're doing, like, yeah, you know a Meryl, Yeah,
that's what I'm and I'm a Marylynch guy. And he's
like okay, okay, good. And then the next day Alison
calls me and says, all right, they're gonna hire you Buckley.
(11:25):
They're gonna give you a glasses, maybe gray your hair
a little bit. And that was it, and it was
like it was awesome. Wow. Yeah. And at that point,
did you you thought it was just one episode? I
thought it was one episode. I mean, it was so
fun and Greg directed that episode and um, and it
was so great that it was. I just loved it.
I mean I remember the first scene that we did
(11:46):
was the conference room scene and I would do it
and then he would come up and he would say okay,
and he would just like whisper in your ok try
you know, try it whatever the suggestion was. And it
was awesome and that'll be fun. Maybe I'll get to you, like,
you know, one a year or something like that. And
then I really started to think, oh man, I may
be on this a fair amount. After we hired Ryan
(12:08):
to work in corporate. So to answer your question, I
was a stockbroker. Well, it's it's interesting to me because
it's the same thing with Phillis, Like Phillis was a
casting associate, right, who just read naturally with the people
who were involved and and yeah, so it's interesting that
(12:30):
Mike asked you those questions. Yeah, yeah, And it was
funny because the guy who ran my office at the time,
it was just a lovely guy. Like he wasn't some
corporate you know, asshole that you sort of the cliche
of what a corporate guy. He was just like a
great guy. Um, Dick Valentine if you're listening for still Buddies.
(12:51):
But it was like, and Dick's a good guys didn't
have to be like some you know jerk. You're a
good guy. Why not. So in that first episode it
was just Stephen Milaura, right, well that was the second scene.
The first scene it was Steve Malaura and then Chip
was in that Josh Porter and the guy that was like, well,
(13:15):
maybe I should have just slept with jan too. I'd
be funny, right right, right, right. But but in terms
of that, you know, the original sort of corecast with
Stephen Stephen Laura. I mean, at this point it was
occurring to me when I was looking at a meeting
with you today. By the time you came on the show,
Steve was a movie star. Yeah, like you know when
(13:36):
we started, he wasn't. Had you seen fourty year old virgin? Yeah? Yeah,
I'd seen that. I've seen the show and like, oh
my crap, you know, and uh and I mean, yeah,
he couldn't have been more every and everyone couldn't have
been more welcoming. And he's such a pro and he's
just always coming up with funny or different ways to
do it, and which is really I guess that's a
(13:57):
Second City thing. I've maybe it's a Steve thing too,
but it's a something they try to do in Second City.
You'd never do the same thing in a row or
you know, twice, right, right right? I mean you certainly
had scenes with other people, but so much of your
interaction was with Michael Scott, and you guys played so
well together. How was it for you playing with him?
(14:21):
Oh my god, it's spectacular. I would of course constantly laugh.
I mean, he would just make me laugh. If we
did eight takes, four of them, I would have burst
out laughing. Oh it was hard for It was hard
for anybody, for sure. Did you when you come on,
say for the first time, when you entered the bullpen
at under Melflin for the first time, or with working
(14:42):
with Steve or whatever, did that make you nervous? Of course? Yeah,
the first day I was nervous as as heck. Um,
And then that thing you sort of settled back into Okay,
what am I doing in this scene? Why am I
hear all that stuff? And you know, and Steve, you
walk on, I couldn't, you know, walks right over. Hey
you doing, I'm Steve, you know, glad you're here, blah
blah blah. You know, just couldn't be more gracious. And
(15:04):
Greg was like that as well, you know everybody um,
And well it's funny because, like as you said, the
first I don't know the first number of years, it
was always me and Steve mostly, but it was always corporate,
so I was never in the bullpen. It was always
he would come. It was season five or so. I
don't know when I started going to Scranton, but the
(15:26):
first few times like, oh wow, like I'm never here.
This is wild. And I mean I didn't really know anybody.
Didn't you know, I didn't know you. I didn't know
kid or you know Angela. Any of the people were
really and you were all very mean, No, especially No,
And so I was like, oh, wow, this is wild. Yeah,
like I'm never here, this is only smokes. The one
(15:49):
thing I think that really I feel like this made
a significant difference in them perhaps using me more was
the convention in Scranton. I said, A got myself invited
to that. So we had we had finished season three,
you know, we hired Ryan. He started thinking me, I
wonder if there's a way I can sort of figure
out how to grade some business Merrill Lynch wise with this.
(16:11):
So I just look up is there a Merrill Lynch
office in Scranton? And lo and behold, there there is.
I called the office and there's a fellow who was
there at the time, and he said, hey, we're they're
having a convention, you know, in about a month, and
are you coming to that? I like, oh't no. I
know the guy putting on the convention, Tim Holmes, And
he said, let me call him. So like he set
(16:31):
it up for me to meet Tim, and Tim said, hey,
come on, we'll bring in And so it was great
to get to be a part of that because I
didn't know anybody. I didn't know, the writers, I didn't know,
so for three days, like I get to be around
and I'm there and I'm talking to people, and I
feel like that made a I don't know, I feel
like it made a difference because then the writer's got
a sense of like, uh, he's all right, he's okay, Yeah,
(16:56):
he'll he'll do let's bring him back. That's fascinating. How
was it for you, just on a personal level, having
two jobs for such a long period of time, I mean,
was that about security for you? Or yeah? Yeah, and hey,
I mean I really enjoyed my time at Maryland, like
and uh, and I got partners when I started getting busy,
(17:18):
because when I started getting on the show a lot
that didn't necessarily take a ton of time. I mean
that most ever did, I think was twelve episodes. But
it was because of that that I was getting opportunities
to audition for a ton of stuff, for get to
be in some movies and things like that. Or I
had then had gotten on this other show when his
team Dramas. It was really great fun show, look called
The Lying Game like a pretty little liarsty think, so
(17:40):
then it was a little crys like, all right, I'll
probably leave in a year or two, but let's just
keep me on the books. And and then then I
eventually left at the end of two twelve. I guess,
through throughout your time on the going back a little bit,
how aware were you from episode to episode or season
two season how much you're going to be involved? Not
at all? Well, that was the crazy thing on season five.
(18:03):
I mean, it's kind of funny in hindsight because I
would just get a call from Alison Jones. Hey, they're
gonna use you next week. They'll EMAILI a script. Oh great,
I didn't have an agent. I had not, like, I
didn't have anything. That's awesome. And then after a little
while Alison was great. She's like, I'm gonna get you
some more money that you should be getting paid a
little more. And she did that, and then you know,
I ended up in a ton of the episodes that year.
(18:26):
I was like, man, if I, like what I had
an agent, like I might have been able to make
like a lot more money, and like, what could have
been a regular man? What was I thinking? But I, like,
I would have that thought fleetingly and like, hey, man,
are you kidding? So I didn't really dwell too much
in that but no, I wouldn't really know. And then
at the end of season five is when Randy Cordray said, Hey,
(18:48):
they're gonna you know, we gotta get you some sort
of a deal next year. And I said, oh, great,
all right, And then that was the got rid of me, like, crap,
we'll give you eight or ten shows and at the
end you'll be gone. And you thought you were gone
for good. I was gone for good. And if we're
doing the table read and I'm reading it and huh,
and I said to Paul Am I gone. He's like, yeah,
(19:11):
you know, we'll figure out a way to bring you
back at some point. But then, you know, it's so
funny when they did ultimately bring me back. Like a
year and a half later, I met a local Scranton fundraiser.
I just happened to bump into edit the bark Buckley.
You're back. Let's go with it. Let's go with it. Okay,
that's amazing. So I want you to I want you
(19:52):
to teach me a little bit. In late two eight
early two thousand nine, the housing bubble burst and we
went into a recession. So first off, I want you
to educate me what was the financial crisis that happened?
I mean, I guess there were all kinds of things,
(20:12):
but what the big thing was the lending on questionable credit.
So what what you had was all this lending going on.
You know, you had had whether they're actually were at
the banks or actual individual more mortgage brokers. They all
these banks lowered the credit standards that were necessary, that
had been necessary to get alone. So all kinds of
(20:33):
people were getting houses or condos or and then buying
second houses and third houses and all kinds of stuff.
You had people who you know, generally would be lucky
to own one house with basic credit standards, who suddenly
owned like, you know, four or five houses, and and
then it just reaches a crescendo or like wait a second,
(20:53):
this guy can't pay a mortgage on five houses, he
can barely pay one. And so then the bank to
start losing all kinds of money. I mean, it was crazy.
There was There was a the weekend that Lehman Brothers
went out of business, like Mary Lynch almost when I like,
it was two or three different ones that were possibly
going to go out of business, and Lehman Brothers was
(21:15):
the one when all of this was happening. That was
my busiest year on the show. Like there was one
day the day um the stock market by three hours
in was down over seven hundred points, And back then
it would be like if the market was down fifteen
hundred points that you know by two hours in. And
that was the day that I think it was the
(21:35):
Michael Scott negotiation, buying back to Michael Scott Paper Company.
It was a big scene. And it's like Steve and
and I have to like keep ducking out, like whenever
they'd say, Okay, we're gonna you know, let's take let's
take five. You know, I'd like duck out and Dr Wilson,
Andy Buckley, We're gonna be fine. It's a temporary thing.
I have to be out of the office today, John
and and Danner and there. You know. Meanwhile, I say,
(21:58):
I'm like, I got a huge scene. This is no
fun like I wanted. I want to you cannot believe
what I'm getting to do today. Of course, couldn't say that.
Do you feel like the office spoke to or how
do you think that that crisis affected storylines, either you're
(22:18):
specifically or others. Well, it's yeah, like the shareholders, like
we went bankrupt, and that's sort of coincided with what
was going on in the world at the time. So,
I mean, I guess the writers were paying attention to
their own brokerage accounts, you know, which we're going down,
or paying attention to the news. Oh that was the
funny thing. Uh. There were some of the folks that, uh,
(22:40):
not my partners or whatever, but like just some of
the other folks at Mary Lynch at the time. They're like, well,
are you talking to them about their accounts? Like, no,
freaking way, I'm not mentioning. I want them to keep
writing from me, like I want to keep acting. I
don't want I don't want like someone's accounting, and I
certainly don't want them thinking I'm like sniffing around who
handles your money? You know? Once you come talk to
(23:02):
my partners, you know, that's so great. Yeah, So they're like, hey,
can you go get us Steve Carrell's wealth account, Greg Daniels,
And You're like, no, I don't want to work with
you guys anymore. I want to do that. I want
to do Yeah. Oh that's so interesting, And would you
(23:22):
be honest about that with them? Would you yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, like the ones that I knew, Like, no,
I'm not doing like, there's no freaking way I'm doing.
I just want them to see me as like the CFO,
and let's keep him around. Let's keep him around. Um,
how do you feel like David? What was his journey
through the show? Um? Hey, man, I don't know, well,
(23:52):
but I mean he actually he actually goes through quite
a lot. Yeah, I mean he's it's I always joke, Um,
like he must have been a terrible CFO because like
the company went bankruft, we had to sell and uh,
you know, getting involved in local branch things like why
are you know the Scranton branch? What's going on? And
they show up? Of course the companies gonna run out
(24:13):
of business if the CFO is doing that. Um, it's
so funny the way that the writers just get like
the whole sucket thing. I think Jen wrote that episode
and Krasinski directed that. It's funny. I remember at the time.
Thing boy, he's like he's a pretty good director. Cut
a Quiet Place, which was terrible. By the way, what
is that? I don't that is that a play he
(24:34):
was in? What? No, I'm kidding something good's gonna happen
for him. He'll have He's a good kids like, but
when they brought him back, it was, you know, I
don't know, he's ups and downs we have in life.
The He's just some creepy guy hanging out in the
tub for a while and then he gets lucky with
the suck it. Like I say about Steve in the deposition,
(24:57):
he's a good guy. I think Wallas was a good guy.
I but you know, he probably believed in people. You know,
whatever it was he did, he took his eye off
the ball too much. I guess, like like I guess
many people. I mean, it happened to many people during
that time, so you know, maybe he was halfway decent,
but he wasn't great at it, right. It happened to
a lot of people, oh meaning like like just in
(25:19):
the world. You know a lot of people that are
probably smart, capable of people didn't see the financial bubble
happening as it did. So we'll put Wallace in that pool.
It is interesting to me though, that you know that
I think a typical show would serve to demonize the CFO.
You know that, you know, the top top executives in
(25:40):
a way and both you know, through the writing and
your portrayal. He was like a good human being that like,
you know, everybody loves Jim, right that, like Jim wanted
to hang out with him, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
no that And I think that was the thing he
was just he was a pretty regular guy who you know,
he's married, got his kids, I mean all that stuff. Yeah,
(26:02):
and he's not a cliche, you know, caricature of the
corporate guy that you see on some I mean he's
just a a normal guy that works hard and does
you know, reasonably well. And then you know, like many
people lost and lost the company. But yeah, and and
Michael Scott like his like in the in the one
(26:22):
I forget what the episode is called. I think it's
in the duel. He uh, like, Michael, you're you know,
all the other branches are failing, but your branch is
doing well. You know, what are you doing? Right? Like
his branch always like succeeded even though he was bumbling
and all that. But well, hey, he keeps winning. You
know Mark fid Rich, you know, to reference someone, we know,
(26:44):
you know, the guy was a crazy picture, but he
kept winning. Look him up. You kids the bird. But
I think it goes to also your character that you
go to him and say, how are you succeeding? Yeah,
how are you doing this? So maybe he was good
at his job or he's best linger. I don't know.
(27:07):
Something I did hire Ryan though that you know, that
was a bad move. That was bad. That was a
bad move. What do you remember about finding out that
(27:38):
the show was going to be concluding? Do you remember? Yeah?
And um, I mean it was unfortunate obviously, but I
think it was great the way that ended, and they
had the year and created all the storylines and it
was interesting. So at the time I was on this
line game and I'm a regular on the show, and
luckily in the contract that you know that when you
(27:59):
do these things and said how you can't do any
other shows, blah blah blah. But we had put in
there like Jeff Frankel, my lawyer, and put in there
you know, if the office calls, he can do up
to X amount of episodes, which is great because they
greg wanted me for like thirteen or fourteen shows, and
technically that it was only you know, six or seven
(28:20):
or eight or something like that, and so I ended
up having to do the other four just like on
the phone. But I mean, it was fantastic to get
to be a fairly big part of the last season
at least, you know, to be around a lot, which
was fun because it because it was I mean, I
was kind of like an outsider. So like you guys
were there constantly all the time. You're there all and
(28:41):
I just kind of pop in and hey, and you know,
everybody's nice and friendly. But it's like I'm the I
don't know what, I'm like, the distant cousin sort of
thing who shows up every once in a while. I
don't know if you were really the distant cousin. I mean,
by the rap party, you are no distant. Think you
know you weren't a distant cousin anymore. It was so fun.
(29:04):
Oh my god. Yeah, I feel like you had a
special connection to Scranton. Yeah, I I loved it. I
mean Tim and Michelle and those are my two great buddies,
and I know with you as well, and you may
have others. Yeah, I love it. I mean it's funny.
I remember the first time I went there, I was, man,
I love this town. This is like, this is a
pretty great town. I mean I've I've been back there
(29:26):
maybe a dozen times. Right, I went back recently and
walked around that old ballpark. Yeah, I mean, my god,
how great. That was so fun. That was a blast
to get to do that. I mean, it's certainly a
fun place to walk around. You walk around and people
said to do a double take, and then, well was
because it's more than half the town probably knows this,
(29:48):
you know, knows the show perfectly. How do you interact
with fans? Now? I love it shown them. Yeah, I'm
on an HBO show. No I don't have time for
these people. Uh No, you kidd me, Im like, I'm
super interactive. You've seen the David Wallace business card that
I've that I hand out. Oh kids, you know, or
(30:11):
people generally, it's like college kids are they come up
to me in airports and they're you know, hey, well
I was probably give them that and say, you know,
we're hiring if you want to get in the paper
business and you have stress balls that Yeah, that. I
don't know how I can't thought of that, And it
was funny. I was thinking about this during season five
(30:32):
or six, and I was in New York and getting
to do the other guys like, which was the coolest thing,
because yeah, well Ferrell and Wallburg and and I meet Will.
He knows everything about the show. He's like, hey, what's
going on with the show? And he had seen the
episode the night before. And I mean, there's like one
of my comedy heroes and holy crappy like those who
I am, Oh my god. But so I I would
(30:54):
have these stress balls, and I would. I would. I
would walk around New York City and I would have
these and if somebody sort of you know, said something
or something like that, like I would have awesome at
dunder Mifflin's dress Ball just because I thought it was funny.
And then and then one night, a like a great
friend of mine she called and she said, Bucky, you
(31:15):
like walking around New York tossing out dunder Mifflin's dress
ball is my friend? You know. Tommy called me and said,
I think I think it was your buddy. But I mean,
I have a ton of fun with it. Why, you know,
why not? Because it's like, I'm not Steve, and I
think about you, I'm like, you must constantly just be
bombarded like I'm not once a day, twice a day,
and it's generally in like a line at a coffee
(31:38):
place or whatever. Yeah, hey, thanks man, you know whatever.
When it first started, I mean, frankly, I would purposely
wear my David Wallace glasses. You know that someone would
say something, this is like the first year or two
write like, which is so crazy. I remember one time
in New York doing the other guys during Halloween, and
(32:00):
I literally went out as as Wallace during Halloween and
walked all around. But it was funny, like nobody, nobody
I saw. I saw a couple of Dwhite shoots and
no one, you know, made the connection. But yeah, so
I would purposely walk around wearing the glasses. It's interesting
though for me that it began in a way in Scranton.
(32:25):
For you, Yes, I mean it was suddenly I'm the
convention at the convention and you know, there's like ten
thousand people there and they hey, it's Wallace, and uh,
I'm just so happy to be there. I'll I'm the
last guy, like you know, with you, the last guy
to leave the bar, and you're serving drinks and having
fun and talking to people and photos and everything else.
(32:47):
I mean, because I'm a fan of all that's like
what I like when I met Alec Baldwin during that time,
and I was a dirty rock fan. I was so excited,
you know there you know, Jack, you know what I mean.
Or if you meet whomever, you know, if you meet
a movie star you have been a fan of, and
it's uh, it's it's it's fun, you know, or a
ball player or something like that. Um, my favorite, my
(33:10):
favorite story is, uh, so, my wife is an acting
coach and she coaches off our garage and some people
come to the front door. Normally they just like walk
down the the driveway and so uh we we we
were were at home and I'm looking all scruffy, like
the suck at David Wallace, and the doorbell rings and
I know that she's she's this woman is coming. My
(33:32):
answered the door and it's Courtney Love and she looked great,
like she's in the suit, like she looks super put together,
and and I said, hey, um, Nancy's coming down. She'll
be back here, come on back and then wait in
the back or whatever. And then Nancy comes down and
they walk back to the studio and I guess the
first thing that that Courtney says to my wife is like,
why why is the guy from the office in your house?
(33:55):
What is why is he? Which is just like you
wouldn't necessarily picture her as as you know, but I
guess her in their their daughters love the show, like
the people who are huge fans, like what Obama was
watching it on the way to the inauguration, Like how
crazy is that? It's pretty cool? Yeah, what are you
(34:18):
most thankful for about doing the show? I mean, oh
my god, I gave like I got to have an
acting career, you know, I mean seriously, the fact that
Alison found that card that like given her that said
Mary Lynch Buckley, you know, and it was at the
bottom of a file drawer. She's just like, I took
me an hour to find this card Buckley. I can't
(34:39):
believe it. And um, and it's crazy because of the show.
I'm in Jurassic World. Colin is a huge office fan.
That's the only reason a minute, Like regular folks, guys
who are making shows are man's and like, hey, let's
get you know this guy right? Well, you know. One
of the reasons that we're having this just quession with
(35:00):
people is the show was the number one scripted show
on NBC for a number of years. But you know,
to a lot of us, the show is way bigger.
Oh my god, it's huge. It's like the numb number
of that and Friends of the two biggest shows in
the world. I mean in London it's certainly not what
(35:22):
it is here. But I mean a couple of times
a week, you know, some people say stuff. And then
certainly when the summer rolls around and you have all
the US tourists there. But yeah, and I mean I
think you know all over the world they're they're watching it.
You can get a table at a restaurant in Sydney, Australia.
I bet just say it's Brian Bonker. Why do you
(35:43):
think why do you think it has endured? Well, I
think it's probably the performance of the guy that played Wallace.
Um No. I mean, it's just exceptionally funny, for one,
and you have characters and like every everybody has it.
I mean, you know some guys you're their favorite character,
(36:04):
Rain Jim, you know Steve, and just that the heart
that Steve has and brought to it, aside from just
the crazy, great humor. So I think that's I think
that's probably and I mean the heart that Steve put
into Michael Scott. Even though he has all these potential negative,
(36:25):
you know, traits, he just had this heart of gold
and I think that is also part of it, along
with the comedy and then just the sexual chemistry between
Holly Flax and Kevin Malone. Well, it's all right. Last
thing I need you to say two things for me. Um.
(36:46):
This is for oral identification. I'm Andy Buckley and I
played David Wallace on the Office. I am Andy Buckley
and I played David Wallace on the Office. Good say
faster you. I'm Andy Buckley and I played David Wallace
(37:06):
on the Office. Awesome, Andy, Thank you so much. You
are wise, funny and exceptionally sexy. All Right, we good.
Not only are we good, We're good. Well, there you
(37:36):
have it, folks. I guess he really is as funny
in real life as he is on TV. All right,
maybe I already knew that, but now you do too.
Thank you, Andy, and thank all of you as always
for tuning in. Make sure to come back next week
to hear once again from everyone's favorite office heartthrob. Now
(38:01):
also John Krasitski. Have a fantastic week, everybody, and uh,
I will see you. I will see you next time
the office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior
(38:24):
producer is Tessa Kramer. Our producers are Diego Tapia and
Liz Hayes. My main man in the booth is Alec Moore.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by Seth
Olandski
I'm Andy Buckley and I've played David Wallace on the Office.
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another exciting episode of
the Office Deep Dive. I am your host Brian Baumgartner,
(00:25):
and this week we are coming at you with somebody
that you have all been waiting to hear from. I
cannot wait to get started. Today's guest is a man
who means business. And I mean he really means business.
Not only was he the CFO of dunder Mifflin, which
(00:46):
was arguably the greatest and most successful paper company, maybe
even any company of all time, but as a real
human person, he was moonlighting as a stockbroker for Merrill
Lynch the entire run of the show. Yep, you guessed it.
The genius who brought suck It into our lives Andy Buckley,
(01:09):
who also happens to be one of the treasured members
of our Office fantasy football team, who last week lost
by one point to MOA because I had Austin Ekeler
thanks to Rain Wilson, who dominated on Monday Night. So Andy,
suck it now. Andy came onto the show a little
(01:32):
bit later. In fact, he referred to himself as a
distant cousin of the cast for the first several seasons
he was on board, but he really grew to have
a special place in our hearts and the hearts of
the people back in Scranton, Pennsylvania. To this day, if
you run into Andy on the street, you might come
(01:54):
away with a special office themed surprise. Hint, hint. And
he has gone on to do so many big things,
from Jurassic World to Shameless and Veep, but he credits
it all to his time on the office. So from
the mean streets of Finance to the not so mean
(02:17):
streets of Scranton, get ready to hear from the boss
of the world's best boss, the master of dead Pan,
Andy Buckley. Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak,
(02:39):
Bubble and Squeaker cookie every month, left over from the
night before. Wow, how are you great? Good to see you. Ye,
(03:00):
good to see you. You know I wore my finest
There it is, you know under Mifflin. I'm not I'm
not playing around. You're not playing the owner of this company.
You want you are the last we left? Oh? Sit there, yes,
I will tell you. Have the fun I like to
put them on. Oh my god, Yeah, this is how
people get in trouble. They they think it's you know,
(03:23):
and then they say some thing they shouldn't say, and
then their career is over. Well, that's what I'm trying
to make happen for you. Hey, Alex, Alex, Hello, sir Alex,
I haven't seen your coat today. It's very are you cold? Well,
that's how Brian likes it, you know, That's how Audrey
(03:44):
Hepburn liked it. Catherinehipburn all the headburns. Catherine Hepburn like this, Yeah,
is that? Does that feel good? See? There you go?
There would be no here's the thing. Oh, I've gotten
(04:06):
people to say way worse than I'm sure. Yeah, how
are you? I'm great? Having five got picked up, which
is good. You got a job? Baby? There you go?
Where film across the pond? As they say in London,
like I'll move to I'll be in London for five months. Wow.
(04:26):
And Gabe is on it a ka Zach Woods, um great?
Can we swear? Yeah? We can say whatever we want.
It's so funny. I took a couple of notes of
like funny things. But it's then it reminds me of
the It was one of the last episodes it was
the opening teaser. I come in and I'm like, really
(04:47):
pissed at Jon Favreau directed, I'm really pissed at ed
because you were on a fucking boat for three months.
We did it three, I don't know, four or five times.
Everybody says great, fine, good um, and I said more
more and so like we did it like three or
four more times. I'm saying this, motherfuck are you fucking
(05:09):
like I was Tony soprano or something like that, and uh,
and you know, ultimately Greg said, now we we you
can't like we can't, you know, you're it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't match what like the character was. But it
was like Kate Flair, remember the time she walked and
she said, what the hell is going on? Because like
they walk in and they just they don't know what's good.
They just hear this explore almost it's just right, oh
(05:34):
my god. Um so you let's let's rewind. Yeah, before
you started on the office, that was our warm up.
What were you doing? I was born in Boston, No,
so you were You were born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Yeah,
at the Salem Hospital. But I'm from marble Head, Massachusetts.
So many of us from the marble Head, the Massachusetts area,
(05:58):
the Kip pack, the smack pack exactly, and now yes,
I got. I went to college, moved to New York,
studied acting, moved to l a meandered around. Didn't like
set the world on fire. But not only did I
do a Melrose Place, I did a Caroline in the city.
So there you go, check it out. I did a
silk Stockings. I was voted. I was voted the worst
(06:21):
acting in the history of silk Stockings. So like, that's
that's pretty that's me coming. I was horrible. Was your
actually the Razzies for but god, I was terrible? But
um yeah, no that I actually like packed in acting
and started working to Mary Lynch. I was a stockbroker.
(06:43):
Wait wait, so you stopped acting. Well, it's not like
I was doing much of it, but I officially said
all right, said I gotta get a come up with
a job. Or my wife, who was my girlfriend at
the time, said, Buckley, come up with the job. This
is ridiculous, your your life is ridiculous. So was you know?
I stumbled into Merrill Lynch and there was an actor
(07:04):
I knew who worked there, and he said, hey, come on,
interview and uh, and you know, they they hired me,
they were kind enough to hire me. I'm pleasant experience.
I had no experience, but yeah, I'm reasonably reasonably smart
and I you know, and I'm seemingly trustworthy, and you know,
I was a great golfer, you know, like just very important.
(07:24):
They I think they thought, Okay, this guy, I'll be
able to bring in some clients. So that was it. No,
So I was I was there, I was doing that
and I actually I loved it. I mean I I
stayed at Merrill Lynch in Century City is where the
office was um throughout the whole run of the show.
The last season is when I finally left, like halfway
through the very last season. So that's what I was doing.
(07:45):
In four and a half years into that, I had
run into Alison Jones. She'd be my patron saint. She's
completely changed my life for the good, for the for
the great. And uh, I ran into at the local
farmers market where we're in the living the same neighborhood.
C what are you doing. I got I'm a stockbroker,
like I'm I'm married, I got a kid name. Apparently
(08:07):
I've grown up. And she Uh's like, all right, we'll
give me your card just in case something comes up.
Who knows, you know, I said, okay. And my wife
is an acting coach and has become like a pretty
soft after ic caon coach. But she had started her
class and I was going to her class. So I
had started to like fall back in love with acting
and for the right reasons and really was loving doing it.
(08:28):
And it was, you know, small class. So then Alison
calls me five months after I saw her on the
thing or four and a half months something like that,
and says, Okay, Bucky, you should I can't believe I
found your card, but I'm glad I did. You should
come in. I think you're the right guy. He's the CFO.
Do you watched the office like yeah, Kevin Mullins incredible.
Um and uh. And so I go in and I
(08:50):
sit there and I'm waiting in the in the room
like I duck over from my office, you know, like
Centry City. Okay, so wait, wait what You're at Merrill
Lynch and you're taking acting classes from your wife just
because she had started Nancy Banks, great Nancy Banks. Yeah,
she had like seven people in her class. I'm like, oh,
I'll be the eighth. It will be an even number
of scenes. It's funny, like the two guys in the class,
(09:14):
we're me and Channing Tatum and so no, nobody, of
course wanted to do scenes with me. The teacher's husband,
who's the who's the hot you know? Um, yeah, she's been,
she've been. She's been working with him since before like
anybody knew him. And he's as lovely as as can be.
(09:35):
But yes, so I'm doing that. And so Allison calls
you and says, come in, but you're doing that because
you you are just liking it, You're falling in love
with acting exactly. Yeah, which was I mean, that's what
I wanted to do from the time I saw my
first James Dean movie when I was fifteen or whatever,
and thought I'd be you know, the brooding heartthrobber or whatever,
brooding confused teenage kids. And and I'm just a brooding,
(10:00):
confused adult, uh, you know, fifty year old man and
uh but no, so I go. But it was funny.
I'm sitting in the waiting room and then all the
actor Why am I look at all these guys? These
I mean, you know, and then and then Chip Eston
is there also auditioning. I'm like, gosh, ship, there's there's
Chip like and he's the guy for the folks at
(10:21):
home and played Josh Porter and in my head and
think they're gonna hire him, Like what am I doing here?
This is ridiculous, Like he's great. And then to bake
matters worse for the negative actor had Rain pops his
head into the waiting room and he and Chip are buddies,
and he says, hey, good you're here. Great. Look I
also told them you should read for this other part.
(10:41):
Luckily because he's gonna do I don't know, a bunch
of episodes, just an existent one off. So then Rain
says this in front of you. Well he pulled him aside.
I just happened to be sitting close and I don't
think everybody else started. I just like it wasn't like
he broadcasting across the room. But uh like okay. So
then I go in and it's Allison and Michael Shure
(11:04):
and old Mikey can tremendous and I do the scene,
do the second scene, feel good about it? And Michael's like,
now wait, now you're you're like a financial guy, right,
you're that's what you're doing, like, yeah, you know a Meryl, Yeah,
that's what I'm and I'm a Marylynch guy. And he's
like okay, okay, good. And then the next day Alison
calls me and says, all right, they're gonna hire you Buckley.
(11:25):
They're gonna give you a glasses, maybe gray your hair
a little bit. And that was it, and it was
like it was awesome. Wow. Yeah. And at that point,
did you you thought it was just one episode? I
thought it was one episode. I mean, it was so
fun and Greg directed that episode and um, and it
was so great that it was. I just loved it.
I mean I remember the first scene that we did
(11:46):
was the conference room scene and I would do it
and then he would come up and he would say okay,
and he would just like whisper in your ok try
you know, try it whatever the suggestion was. And it
was awesome and that'll be fun. Maybe I'll get to you, like,
you know, one a year or something like that. And
then I really started to think, oh man, I may
be on this a fair amount. After we hired Ryan
(12:08):
to work in corporate. So to answer your question, I
was a stockbroker. Well, it's it's interesting to me because
it's the same thing with Phillis, Like Phillis was a
casting associate, right, who just read naturally with the people
who were involved and and yeah, so it's interesting that
(12:30):
Mike asked you those questions. Yeah, yeah, And it was
funny because the guy who ran my office at the time,
it was just a lovely guy. Like he wasn't some
corporate you know, asshole that you sort of the cliche
of what a corporate guy. He was just like a
great guy. Um, Dick Valentine if you're listening for still Buddies.
(12:51):
But it was like, and Dick's a good guys didn't
have to be like some you know jerk. You're a
good guy. Why not. So in that first episode it
was just Stephen Milaura, right, well that was the second scene.
The first scene it was Steve Malaura and then Chip
was in that Josh Porter and the guy that was like, well,
(13:15):
maybe I should have just slept with jan too. I'd
be funny, right right, right, right. But but in terms
of that, you know, the original sort of corecast with
Stephen Stephen Laura. I mean, at this point it was
occurring to me when I was looking at a meeting
with you today. By the time you came on the show,
Steve was a movie star. Yeah, like you know when
(13:36):
we started, he wasn't. Had you seen fourty year old virgin? Yeah? Yeah,
I'd seen that. I've seen the show and like, oh
my crap, you know, and uh and I mean, yeah,
he couldn't have been more every and everyone couldn't have
been more welcoming. And he's such a pro and he's
just always coming up with funny or different ways to
do it, and which is really I guess that's a
(13:57):
Second City thing. I've maybe it's a Steve thing too,
but it's a something they try to do in Second City.
You'd never do the same thing in a row or
you know, twice, right, right right? I mean you certainly
had scenes with other people, but so much of your
interaction was with Michael Scott, and you guys played so
well together. How was it for you playing with him?
(14:21):
Oh my god, it's spectacular. I would of course constantly laugh.
I mean, he would just make me laugh. If we
did eight takes, four of them, I would have burst
out laughing. Oh it was hard for It was hard
for anybody, for sure. Did you when you come on,
say for the first time, when you entered the bullpen
at under Melflin for the first time, or with working
(14:42):
with Steve or whatever, did that make you nervous? Of course? Yeah,
the first day I was nervous as as heck. Um,
And then that thing you sort of settled back into Okay,
what am I doing in this scene? Why am I
hear all that stuff? And you know, and Steve, you
walk on, I couldn't, you know, walks right over. Hey
you doing, I'm Steve, you know, glad you're here, blah
blah blah. You know, just couldn't be more gracious. And
(15:04):
Greg was like that as well, you know everybody um,
And well it's funny because, like as you said, the
first I don't know the first number of years, it
was always me and Steve mostly, but it was always corporate,
so I was never in the bullpen. It was always
he would come. It was season five or so. I
don't know when I started going to Scranton, but the
(15:26):
first few times like, oh wow, like I'm never here.
This is wild. And I mean I didn't really know anybody.
Didn't you know, I didn't know you. I didn't know
kid or you know Angela. Any of the people were
really and you were all very mean, No, especially No,
And so I was like, oh, wow, this is wild. Yeah,
like I'm never here, this is only smokes. The one
(15:49):
thing I think that really I feel like this made
a significant difference in them perhaps using me more was
the convention in Scranton. I said, A got myself invited
to that. So we had we had finished season three,
you know, we hired Ryan. He started thinking me, I
wonder if there's a way I can sort of figure
out how to grade some business Merrill Lynch wise with this.
(16:11):
So I just look up is there a Merrill Lynch
office in Scranton? And lo and behold, there there is.
I called the office and there's a fellow who was
there at the time, and he said, hey, we're they're
having a convention, you know, in about a month, and
are you coming to that? I like, oh't no. I
know the guy putting on the convention, Tim Holmes, And
he said, let me call him. So like he set
(16:31):
it up for me to meet Tim, and Tim said, hey,
come on, we'll bring in And so it was great
to get to be a part of that because I
didn't know anybody. I didn't know, the writers, I didn't know,
so for three days, like I get to be around
and I'm there and I'm talking to people, and I
feel like that made a I don't know, I feel
like it made a difference because then the writer's got
a sense of like, uh, he's all right, he's okay, Yeah,
(16:56):
he'll he'll do let's bring him back. That's fascinating. How
was it for you, just on a personal level, having
two jobs for such a long period of time, I mean,
was that about security for you? Or yeah? Yeah, and hey,
I mean I really enjoyed my time at Maryland, like
and uh, and I got partners when I started getting busy,
(17:18):
because when I started getting on the show a lot
that didn't necessarily take a ton of time. I mean
that most ever did, I think was twelve episodes. But
it was because of that that I was getting opportunities
to audition for a ton of stuff, for get to
be in some movies and things like that. Or I
had then had gotten on this other show when his
team Dramas. It was really great fun show, look called
The Lying Game like a pretty little liarsty think, so
(17:40):
then it was a little crys like, all right, I'll
probably leave in a year or two, but let's just
keep me on the books. And and then then I
eventually left at the end of two twelve. I guess,
through throughout your time on the going back a little bit,
how aware were you from episode to episode or season
two season how much you're going to be involved? Not
at all? Well, that was the crazy thing on season five.
(18:03):
I mean, it's kind of funny in hindsight because I
would just get a call from Alison Jones. Hey, they're
gonna use you next week. They'll EMAILI a script. Oh great,
I didn't have an agent. I had not, like, I
didn't have anything. That's awesome. And then after a little
while Alison was great. She's like, I'm gonna get you
some more money that you should be getting paid a
little more. And she did that, and then you know,
I ended up in a ton of the episodes that year.
(18:26):
I was like, man, if I, like what I had
an agent, like I might have been able to make
like a lot more money, and like, what could have
been a regular man? What was I thinking? But I, like,
I would have that thought fleetingly and like, hey, man,
are you kidding? So I didn't really dwell too much
in that but no, I wouldn't really know. And then
at the end of season five is when Randy Cordray said, Hey,
(18:48):
they're gonna you know, we gotta get you some sort
of a deal next year. And I said, oh, great,
all right, And then that was the got rid of me, like, crap,
we'll give you eight or ten shows and at the
end you'll be gone. And you thought you were gone
for good. I was gone for good. And if we're
doing the table read and I'm reading it and huh,
and I said to Paul Am I gone. He's like, yeah,
(19:11):
you know, we'll figure out a way to bring you
back at some point. But then, you know, it's so
funny when they did ultimately bring me back. Like a
year and a half later, I met a local Scranton fundraiser.
I just happened to bump into edit the bark Buckley.
You're back. Let's go with it. Let's go with it. Okay,
that's amazing. So I want you to I want you
(19:52):
to teach me a little bit. In late two eight
early two thousand nine, the housing bubble burst and we
went into a recession. So first off, I want you
to educate me what was the financial crisis that happened?
I mean, I guess there were all kinds of things,
(20:12):
but what the big thing was the lending on questionable credit.
So what what you had was all this lending going on.
You know, you had had whether they're actually were at
the banks or actual individual more mortgage brokers. They all
these banks lowered the credit standards that were necessary, that
had been necessary to get alone. So all kinds of
(20:33):
people were getting houses or condos or and then buying
second houses and third houses and all kinds of stuff.
You had people who you know, generally would be lucky
to own one house with basic credit standards, who suddenly
owned like, you know, four or five houses, and and
then it just reaches a crescendo or like wait a second,
(20:53):
this guy can't pay a mortgage on five houses, he
can barely pay one. And so then the bank to
start losing all kinds of money. I mean, it was crazy.
There was There was a the weekend that Lehman Brothers
went out of business, like Mary Lynch almost when I like,
it was two or three different ones that were possibly
going to go out of business, and Lehman Brothers was
(21:15):
the one when all of this was happening. That was
my busiest year on the show. Like there was one
day the day um the stock market by three hours
in was down over seven hundred points, And back then
it would be like if the market was down fifteen
hundred points that you know by two hours in. And
that was the day that I think it was the
(21:35):
Michael Scott negotiation, buying back to Michael Scott Paper Company.
It was a big scene. And it's like Steve and
and I have to like keep ducking out, like whenever
they'd say, Okay, we're gonna you know, let's take let's
take five. You know, I'd like duck out and Dr Wilson,
Andy Buckley, We're gonna be fine. It's a temporary thing.
I have to be out of the office today, John
and and Danner and there. You know. Meanwhile, I say,
(21:58):
I'm like, I got a huge scene. This is no
fun like I wanted. I want to you cannot believe
what I'm getting to do today. Of course, couldn't say that.
Do you feel like the office spoke to or how
do you think that that crisis affected storylines, either you're
(22:18):
specifically or others. Well, it's yeah, like the shareholders, like
we went bankrupt, and that's sort of coincided with what
was going on in the world at the time. So,
I mean, I guess the writers were paying attention to
their own brokerage accounts, you know, which we're going down,
or paying attention to the news. Oh that was the
funny thing. Uh. There were some of the folks that, uh,
(22:40):
not my partners or whatever, but like just some of
the other folks at Mary Lynch at the time. They're like, well,
are you talking to them about their accounts? Like, no,
freaking way, I'm not mentioning. I want them to keep
writing from me, like I want to keep acting. I
don't want I don't want like someone's accounting, and I
certainly don't want them thinking I'm like sniffing around who
handles your money? You know? Once you come talk to
(23:02):
my partners, you know, that's so great. Yeah, So they're like, hey,
can you go get us Steve Carrell's wealth account, Greg Daniels,
And You're like, no, I don't want to work with
you guys anymore. I want to do that. I want
to do Yeah. Oh that's so interesting, And would you
(23:22):
be honest about that with them? Would you yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know, like the ones that I knew, Like, no,
I'm not doing like, there's no freaking way I'm doing.
I just want them to see me as like the CFO,
and let's keep him around. Let's keep him around. Um,
how do you feel like David? What was his journey
through the show? Um? Hey, man, I don't know, well,
(23:52):
but I mean he actually he actually goes through quite
a lot. Yeah, I mean he's it's I always joke, Um,
like he must have been a terrible CFO because like
the company went bankruft, we had to sell and uh,
you know, getting involved in local branch things like why
are you know the Scranton branch? What's going on? And
they show up? Of course the companies gonna run out
(24:13):
of business if the CFO is doing that. Um, it's
so funny the way that the writers just get like
the whole sucket thing. I think Jen wrote that episode
and Krasinski directed that. It's funny. I remember at the time.
Thing boy, he's like he's a pretty good director. Cut
a Quiet Place, which was terrible. By the way, what
is that? I don't that is that a play he
(24:34):
was in? What? No, I'm kidding something good's gonna happen
for him. He'll have He's a good kids like, but
when they brought him back, it was, you know, I
don't know, he's ups and downs we have in life.
The He's just some creepy guy hanging out in the
tub for a while and then he gets lucky with
the suck it. Like I say about Steve in the deposition,
(24:57):
he's a good guy. I think Wallas was a good guy.
I but you know, he probably believed in people. You know,
whatever it was he did, he took his eye off
the ball too much. I guess, like like I guess
many people. I mean, it happened to many people during
that time, so you know, maybe he was halfway decent,
but he wasn't great at it, right. It happened to
a lot of people, oh meaning like like just in
(25:19):
the world. You know a lot of people that are
probably smart, capable of people didn't see the financial bubble
happening as it did. So we'll put Wallace in that pool.
It is interesting to me though, that you know that
I think a typical show would serve to demonize the CFO.
You know that, you know, the top top executives in
(25:40):
a way and both you know, through the writing and
your portrayal. He was like a good human being that like,
you know, everybody loves Jim, right that, like Jim wanted
to hang out with him, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
no that And I think that was the thing he
was just he was a pretty regular guy who you know,
he's married, got his kids, I mean all that stuff. Yeah,
(26:02):
and he's not a cliche, you know, caricature of the
corporate guy that you see on some I mean he's
just a a normal guy that works hard and does
you know, reasonably well. And then you know, like many
people lost and lost the company. But yeah, and and
Michael Scott like his like in the in the one
(26:22):
I forget what the episode is called. I think it's
in the duel. He uh, like, Michael, you're you know,
all the other branches are failing, but your branch is
doing well. You know, what are you doing? Right? Like
his branch always like succeeded even though he was bumbling
and all that. But well, hey, he keeps winning. You
know Mark fid Rich, you know, to reference someone, we know,
(26:44):
you know, the guy was a crazy picture, but he
kept winning. Look him up. You kids the bird. But
I think it goes to also your character that you
go to him and say, how are you succeeding? Yeah,
how are you doing this? So maybe he was good
at his job or he's best linger. I don't know.
(27:07):
Something I did hire Ryan though that you know, that
was a bad move. That was bad. That was a
bad move. What do you remember about finding out that
(27:38):
the show was going to be concluding? Do you remember? Yeah?
And um, I mean it was unfortunate obviously, but I
think it was great the way that ended, and they
had the year and created all the storylines and it
was interesting. So at the time I was on this
line game and I'm a regular on the show, and
luckily in the contract that you know that when you
(27:59):
do these things and said how you can't do any
other shows, blah blah blah. But we had put in
there like Jeff Frankel, my lawyer, and put in there
you know, if the office calls, he can do up
to X amount of episodes, which is great because they
greg wanted me for like thirteen or fourteen shows, and
technically that it was only you know, six or seven
(28:20):
or eight or something like that, and so I ended
up having to do the other four just like on
the phone. But I mean, it was fantastic to get
to be a fairly big part of the last season
at least, you know, to be around a lot, which
was fun because it because it was I mean, I
was kind of like an outsider. So like you guys
were there constantly all the time. You're there all and
(28:41):
I just kind of pop in and hey, and you know,
everybody's nice and friendly. But it's like I'm the I
don't know what, I'm like, the distant cousin sort of
thing who shows up every once in a while. I
don't know if you were really the distant cousin. I mean,
by the rap party, you are no distant. Think you
know you weren't a distant cousin anymore. It was so fun.
(29:04):
Oh my god. Yeah, I feel like you had a
special connection to Scranton. Yeah, I I loved it. I
mean Tim and Michelle and those are my two great buddies,
and I know with you as well, and you may
have others. Yeah, I love it. I mean it's funny.
I remember the first time I went there, I was, man,
I love this town. This is like, this is a
pretty great town. I mean I've I've been back there
(29:26):
maybe a dozen times. Right, I went back recently and
walked around that old ballpark. Yeah, I mean, my god,
how great. That was so fun. That was a blast
to get to do that. I mean, it's certainly a
fun place to walk around. You walk around and people
said to do a double take, and then, well was
because it's more than half the town probably knows this,
(29:48):
you know, knows the show perfectly. How do you interact
with fans? Now? I love it shown them. Yeah, I'm
on an HBO show. No I don't have time for
these people. Uh No, you kidd me, Im like, I'm
super interactive. You've seen the David Wallace business card that
I've that I hand out. Oh kids, you know, or
(30:11):
people generally, it's like college kids are they come up
to me in airports and they're you know, hey, well
I was probably give them that and say, you know,
we're hiring if you want to get in the paper
business and you have stress balls that Yeah, that. I
don't know how I can't thought of that, And it
was funny. I was thinking about this during season five
(30:32):
or six, and I was in New York and getting
to do the other guys like, which was the coolest thing,
because yeah, well Ferrell and Wallburg and and I meet Will.
He knows everything about the show. He's like, hey, what's
going on with the show? And he had seen the
episode the night before. And I mean, there's like one
of my comedy heroes and holy crappy like those who
I am, Oh my god. But so I I would
(30:54):
have these stress balls, and I would. I would. I
would walk around New York City and I would have
these and if somebody sort of you know, said something
or something like that, like I would have awesome at
dunder Mifflin's dress Ball just because I thought it was funny.
And then and then one night, a like a great
friend of mine she called and she said, Bucky, you
(31:15):
like walking around New York tossing out dunder Mifflin's dress
ball is my friend? You know. Tommy called me and said,
I think I think it was your buddy. But I mean,
I have a ton of fun with it. Why, you know,
why not? Because it's like, I'm not Steve, and I
think about you, I'm like, you must constantly just be
bombarded like I'm not once a day, twice a day,
and it's generally in like a line at a coffee
(31:38):
place or whatever. Yeah, hey, thanks man, you know whatever.
When it first started, I mean, frankly, I would purposely
wear my David Wallace glasses. You know that someone would
say something, this is like the first year or two
write like, which is so crazy. I remember one time
in New York doing the other guys during Halloween, and
(32:00):
I literally went out as as Wallace during Halloween and
walked all around. But it was funny, like nobody, nobody
I saw. I saw a couple of Dwhite shoots and
no one, you know, made the connection. But yeah, so
I would purposely walk around wearing the glasses. It's interesting
though for me that it began in a way in Scranton.
(32:25):
For you, Yes, I mean it was suddenly I'm the
convention at the convention and you know, there's like ten
thousand people there and they hey, it's Wallace, and uh,
I'm just so happy to be there. I'll I'm the
last guy, like you know, with you, the last guy
to leave the bar, and you're serving drinks and having
fun and talking to people and photos and everything else.
(32:47):
I mean, because I'm a fan of all that's like
what I like when I met Alec Baldwin during that time,
and I was a dirty rock fan. I was so excited,
you know there you know, Jack, you know what I mean.
Or if you meet whomever, you know, if you meet
a movie star you have been a fan of, and
it's uh, it's it's it's fun, you know, or a
ball player or something like that. Um, my favorite, my
(33:10):
favorite story is, uh, so, my wife is an acting
coach and she coaches off our garage and some people
come to the front door. Normally they just like walk
down the the driveway and so uh we we we
were were at home and I'm looking all scruffy, like
the suck at David Wallace, and the doorbell rings and
I know that she's she's this woman is coming. My
(33:32):
answered the door and it's Courtney Love and she looked great,
like she's in the suit, like she looks super put together,
and and I said, hey, um, Nancy's coming down. She'll
be back here, come on back and then wait in
the back or whatever. And then Nancy comes down and
they walk back to the studio and I guess the
first thing that that Courtney says to my wife is like,
why why is the guy from the office in your house?
(33:55):
What is why is he? Which is just like you
wouldn't necessarily picture her as as you know, but I
guess her in their their daughters love the show, like
the people who are huge fans, like what Obama was
watching it on the way to the inauguration, Like how
crazy is that? It's pretty cool? Yeah, what are you
(34:18):
most thankful for about doing the show? I mean, oh
my god, I gave like I got to have an
acting career, you know, I mean seriously, the fact that
Alison found that card that like given her that said
Mary Lynch Buckley, you know, and it was at the
bottom of a file drawer. She's just like, I took
me an hour to find this card Buckley. I can't
(34:39):
believe it. And um, and it's crazy because of the show.
I'm in Jurassic World. Colin is a huge office fan.
That's the only reason a minute, Like regular folks, guys
who are making shows are man's and like, hey, let's
get you know this guy right? Well, you know. One
of the reasons that we're having this just quession with
(35:00):
people is the show was the number one scripted show
on NBC for a number of years. But you know,
to a lot of us, the show is way bigger.
Oh my god, it's huge. It's like the numb number
of that and Friends of the two biggest shows in
the world. I mean in London it's certainly not what
(35:22):
it is here. But I mean a couple of times
a week, you know, some people say stuff. And then
certainly when the summer rolls around and you have all
the US tourists there. But yeah, and I mean I
think you know all over the world they're they're watching it.
You can get a table at a restaurant in Sydney, Australia.
I bet just say it's Brian Bonker. Why do you
(35:43):
think why do you think it has endured? Well, I
think it's probably the performance of the guy that played Wallace.
Um No. I mean, it's just exceptionally funny, for one,
and you have characters and like every everybody has it.
I mean, you know some guys you're their favorite character,
(36:04):
Rain Jim, you know Steve, and just that the heart
that Steve has and brought to it, aside from just
the crazy, great humor. So I think that's I think
that's probably and I mean the heart that Steve put
into Michael Scott. Even though he has all these potential negative,
(36:25):
you know, traits, he just had this heart of gold
and I think that is also part of it, along
with the comedy and then just the sexual chemistry between
Holly Flax and Kevin Malone. Well, it's all right. Last
thing I need you to say two things for me. Um.
(36:46):
This is for oral identification. I'm Andy Buckley and I
played David Wallace on the Office. I am Andy Buckley
and I played David Wallace on the Office. Good say
faster you. I'm Andy Buckley and I played David Wallace
(37:06):
on the Office. Awesome, Andy, Thank you so much. You
are wise, funny and exceptionally sexy. All Right, we good.
Not only are we good, We're good. Well, there you
(37:36):
have it, folks. I guess he really is as funny
in real life as he is on TV. All right,
maybe I already knew that, but now you do too.
Thank you, Andy, and thank all of you as always
for tuning in. Make sure to come back next week
to hear once again from everyone's favorite office heartthrob. Now
(38:01):
also John Krasitski. Have a fantastic week, everybody, and uh,
I will see you. I will see you next time
the office. Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by
me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior
(38:24):
producer is Tessa Kramer. Our producers are Diego Tapia and
Liz Hayes. My main man in the booth is Alec Moore.
Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great
friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by Seth
Olandski
Host
Brian Baumgartner
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