Hardin revisited her beloved, tough-as-nails executive character with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey on their “Office Ladies” rewatch podcast.

Melora Hardin reveals one classic *Office *scene with Steve Carell was ‘90 percent improvised’

Hardin revisited her beloved, tough-as-nails executive character with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey on their "Office Ladies" rewatch podcast.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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April 29, 2026 11:21 p.m. ET

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Melora Hardin and Steve Carell on 'The Office' in 2005. Credit:

Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

- Melora Hardin is looking back on her comedic dynamic with Steve Carell on *The Office*.

- The actress told her former castmates, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, that she and Carell improvised "90 percent" of one classic Michael-Jan fight scene.

- Hardin praised the U.S. *Office *creator Greg Daniels for the "extraordinary" way he allowed improvisation and collaboration on set.

*The Office** *wouldn't be *The Office *without Steve Carell's Michael Scott. And Michael wouldn't be Michael without Melora Hardin's Jan Levinson-Gould.

Hardin reconnected with her old castmates, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, on Wednesday's episode of their *Office Ladies** *rewatch podcast, which was dedicated to the character of Jan. Fischer showered Hardin with praise for, especially, her many "non-verbals" with Carell. In other words, Hardin's often improvised looks of disgust and disrespect while trading dialogue with the actor.

Fischer highlighted one in particular, in which Jan and Michael fight while walking to and riding an elevator together that ends with a cutting look from Hardin, as her "favorite Jan non-verbal."

Hardin then shocked Fischer and Kinsey by revealing the scene in question was nearly entirely improvised.

Melora Hardin on 'The Office'.

Dean Hendler/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

"That was one where we got given the candy bag," Hardin explained, referencing the now-legendary grab-bag of improv cues that *Office *stars were encouraged to reach into now and again to spice scenes up.

"That was that scene where they basically said, 'We're going rewrite the scene. We don't like it. Basically, we need you to hit this beat. You guys improvise. We're gonna go rewrite it. We'll be back, have fun,'" Hardin recalled.

She and Carell had no choice. "We went off, and I do know that definitely that scene is, I would say, 90 percent improvised."

Melora Hardin has a perfect pitch for her 'Office' character to appear on spinoff 'The Paper'

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One of Jan and Michael's most memorable scenes takes place moments after an elevator ride. Way back on "Valentine's Day," the 16th episode of season 2, Michael lets slip that he slept with Jan (his boss, and for the record, and they actually just slept side by side) to a crude colleague, who uses it against him in a moment of weakness. That lands Michael and Jan in the hot seat with the powerful CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley).

Jan and Michael bicker on their way in and out of the office, with Jan assuming the pair will be fired, because "people get fired for much less." Michael's sincere apology and Jan's ace rhetorical maneuvering spares their respective jobs. But flush with the thrill of absolution, Jan impulsively kisses Michael by the elevators, unaware that the mockumentary camera crew is filming everything.

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"They weren't liking the way it was playing, the way it was written," Hardin recalled. She shouted out Greg Daniels, who adapted the American spinoff from the original British *Office*, as "extraordinary that way. That was the first set I'd ever been on with that much collaboration with the writers and the actors."

The cast of 'The Office'.

Mitchell Haaseth/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

*The Office *ran from 2005-2013 on NBC, where it racked up five Primetime Emmys and made stars of many in its cast. It has now also officially become a legacy franchise too, with its first spinoff, *The Paper*, premiering on Peacock in 2025.

Hardin shared her perfect pitch to cameo Jan on the spinoff with * *in December. The actress had the idea to get Oscar Nuñez, the only actor to cross from the core *Office *cast onto *The Paper*, to do one of his fourth-wall breaking "did you guys get enough out of this?" gestures to the spinoff's new mockumentary crew.

Then, Hardin laughed, "I said to Greg and to Suzanne, his wife, 'It would be really fun if Jan was the director, and eventually, every now and then, the camera turns around, and it's her."

You can listen to Hardin's full appearance on the *Office Ladies *podcast above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”