Ed Helms Recalls ‘The Office’ Star Steve Carell Making Him Break On-Camera in Christmas Episode Scene | Video
Ed Helms knows exactly which scene from “The Office” broke him the most, and it involved Steve Carell.
While speaking with Vulture, Helms – who played Andy Bernard in the series – was asked about working with Steve Carell and if there were scenes that kept him laughing and laughing. He knew exactly what that scene was and evidence of him breaking essentially made it into the episode.
“One of the hardest times I ever laughed in my life was Steve as Santa Claus and Kevin sits on his lap,” Helms remembered. “It’s funny the scene is funny with him on his lap but then when Kevin gets up Steve starts like moving around the space because his leg is asleep, and he’s like hammering his leg against the desk and then the chair.”
He continued: “I think you can see in the shot that I disappear. Like I duck behind a wall, because I can’t – and that was probably take 12 and I still couldn’t keep it together.”
Sure enough, during the scene in question – Season 6, Episode 13 “Secret Santa” – Kevin sits on Michael’s lap who is posing as the office Santa and having the employees tell him what they want for Christmas. After some grunts of discomfort, Kevin gets off and Michael wanders around struggling to get feeling back in his leg. In the background, Helms’ character Andy can be seen ducking around a corner while Michael bangs his leg against a chair.
“It was the commitment,” Helms finished. “It was one of the things, I could just tell Steve was so present that all of that flailing around with the asleep leg was like … I don’t think that was in the script. You feel like you’re watching, you really were immersed in Michael’s world. And then you’re just reduced to a fan and you’re laughing.”
Carell played Michael Scott from the beginning of the series until the end of Season 7. Helms joined the show in Season 3 and remained until the show ended with Season 9.
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