Stars of The Office Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey have given viewers a behind-the-scenes breakdown of one of the show's funniest moments: Meredith's hair catching fire. Fischer (who played Pam Beesly in the series) and Kinsey (who played Angela Martin) are the co-hosts of the podcast Office Ladies, which began in 2019. In the weekly podcast, the two stars and real life friends re-watch all nine seasons of The Office and give listeners detailed insight into how the show was made, breaking down one episode a week.
In season 5, episode 11 of The Office (titled "Moroccan Christmas"), Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) throws a Moroccan-themed Christmas party for her first event as head of the office Party Planning Committee at Dunder Mifflin. After drinking heavily on a special cocktail mix developed by Michael (Steve Carell), Meredith (Kate Flannery) becomes intoxicated and accidentally sets her hair on fire while dancing. The situation is quickly de-escalated by Dwight (Rainn Wilson), who hoses Meredith down with a fire extinguisher.
According to Fischer and Kinsey on the most recent episode of Office Ladies (via Mashable), Meredith's hair fire scene was one of the biggest stunts ever performed on the show. While Flannery regularly did her own stunt work on The Office, a stunt double was brought in for the fire scene. From the The Office stars' recollection, the production team clearly didn't take any chances with safety. The stunt double, Marie Fink, was dressed in a full fireproof body suit, including a flameproof head stocking. But to pull the stunt off, Fink's body and hair were covered in a flammable gel, and a real candle was used to set her hair on fire. Fischer also discussed the intense planning that went into the scene:
Our stunt coordinator that day was Scott Leva. And he had to do a bunch of prep for this. He had to send a whole plan in to NBC Universal Safety Department explaining how exactly we would do this safely. We had safety officers on set. We had a special effects crew on set, and we had the [Los Angeles Fire Department] on set.
Impressively, the whole sequence was reportedly shot in a single take. However, the final version of the scene involved some swapping out of actors to make it look authentic. In the edit, Flannery was cut back in to the final shot, appearing in a flame-singed wig. This was made easier by the extra efforts of Flannery and her double who, with continuity in mind, even got together to collaborate on dance moves so the two women would convincingly appear to be the same person.
While The Office has been off the air since 2013, loyal viewers are still engaging with the series. Fischer and Kinsey's Office Ladies podcast has proved highly popular, gaining a 4.8/5 rating on Apple podcasts from tens of thousands of listeners. It's clear that the appetite for The Office content hasn't subsided over the last eight years, and there are still plenty of people out there who want to spend some time at Dunder Mifflin.
Source: Office Ladies (via Mashable)