Half the Cast of The Office Started as Interns for Conan O'Brien

In this 2007 Late Night with Conan O'Brien clip just posted by Team Coco, Mindy Kaling reveals that three cast members of The Office started as interns on his show: John Krasinski, Angela Kinsey, and Kaling herself.

Kaling shared her favorite moment from her experience a script intern. "I was carrying all these scripts, and I got onto the elevator, and it was just you and I... and you, to be polite, said 'oh, what's your major?' And I blurted out 'art history,' which was not my major, because I was so nervous"

"Why did you lie to me?" O'Brien asked. 

"I don't know! I was so nervous! I was petrified. And then you were like 'oh, that's very interesting' and you had a follow-up question, it was like 'oh, the Venus of Willendorf' and I was sitting there being like 'please, God, let this elevator ride end! Why have I lied like this so badly?... The elevator doors opened and I bolted out.'"

"You ran away. That's what usually happens with me and interns," O'Brien joked. "They're like 'I"ve gotta get away from this horrible, horrible man." 

Kaling also told an embarrassing story about working with Steve Carell. "My boyfriend at the time beared passing resemblance to him, and so I ran up to him from behind and grabbed him and was like 'hey baby!' and kissed the back of his neck, and Steve was like '.... hey.... baby?' like that was a private joke we had or something, instead of being like 'get the hell away from me. Have this writer escorted from the set.'... He was totally sweet, and then I had to go around and pretend like 'hey baby' was something I did to perfect strangers." 

The Office is now streaming on Peacock. 

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.