The Office presented its fair share of romantic drama over the course of nine seasons, but Dwight, Angela, and Andy will always remain a fan favorite love triangle.
In the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted all about the Season 5 episode, “The Surplus,” which features a memorable (kind of nauseating) kiss between Angela and Andy.
For those who need a refresher, Angela (Kinsey), Andy (Ed Helms), and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) spent the majority of this episode together at Schrute Farms. They were supposed to be prepping for Angela and Andy’s wedding, but when Dwight tricked Angela into marrying him right before Andy’s eyes with a little help from minister who spoke German, things understandably spiraled.
Angela tried to get back at Dwight by showing Andy some serious public affection in the office, so she marched over to him and planted a big old smooch on his lips. The only issue? Andy was in the middle of eating a tuna fish sandwich, which, gross. Blech. No!
In honor of rewatching the kiss, Kinsey shared what her tuna fish PDA experience with Ed Helms was really like, and she compared it to kissing her frequent scene partner, Rainn Wilson.
Behind the fishy kiss
After Fischer revealed that the stage direction for the kiss was, “Angela kisses Andy with a passion we haven’t seen since Jim and Pam in ‘Casino Night,'” Kinsey said that the tuna fish aspect was intentionally meant to disgust people.
“That was part of the joke. Lee [Eisenberg] and Gene [Stupnitsky], who wrote this episode, they thought it would be very funny if Andy was eating something gross when I had to go kiss him. And that’s why he has that line, ‘Look, Tuna — tuna fish sandwich just like you!’ Because they really wanted to make sure the audience knew he was eating this smelly tuna fish sandwich,” Kinsey said. “And I was supposed to go over and we’re supposed to have this huge kiss while he has tuna fish in his mouth. And then you see me get up and I wipe my mouth.”
The kiss sounds absolutely hideous, but Kinsey shared that Helms really made an effort to shield her from the tuna fish.
“Ed was so sweet. He said, ‘Angela, I am going to hold my lips together. I’m going to take a deep breath. I’m going to take a bite of the tuna fish sandwich, and then I am going to purse my lips together and not open them at all, because I don’t want you to get any of this tuna fish,'” Kinsey recalled. ‘I was like, ‘Oh Ed, that is so sweet.’ And so we literally did, you know, what we call like grandparent kissing. Where you just like, mmmmm.”
“He did not open his lips for a second. And they really wanted me to sort of have this long kiss, right?” she continued. “And I was in control. I was the one that grabbed him, and then I was the one that released him. And I remember one time they’re like, ‘Can you sell it a little bit more? Can you make it a little bit bigger of a moment?’ And poor Ed, the minute we broke apart, he [gasped].”
“Oh, because he hadn’t been breathing?” Fischer asked.
“He was holding his breath with a big bite of tuna fish sandwich in his mouth,” Kinsey confirmed. “…But Ed was a true gentleman. He kept his mouth closed. I didn’t get any tuna fish on my person. And you guys, when my character stands up and says, ‘And now I have a legal issue to attend to.’ I actually had a big speech that got deleted.”
Kinsey shared that she was so nervous about her big speech, because it was a moment where all eyes would be on her (and also after a nasty kiss).
“Everyone watches with disgust. Dwight’s eyes go wide, Angela pulls away, Andy continues to chew and then swallows the bite. Angela wipes her mouth,” she explained. “And here’s the speech: ‘I would marry you during an earthquake in the middle of a tornado. I would marry you in the front row of an Elton John concert. I don’t care how terrible a place it is. I just want to be with you. Now I have a legal matter to clear up.'”
Ultimately, the speech got cut, which Kinsey feels was a good edit, because truly, that kiss said it all.
“That was enough of like shoving it in Dwight’s face. I don’t need to make the speech. But yes. No tuna. Thank you, Ed,” she concluded.
Kissing Dwight was always surprising
The two actors have chatted about this on the podcast before, but Fischer was quick to chime in with and note that Kinsey’s kiss with Helms was much different from a kiss with Wilson.
According to Kinsey, Wilson would “actually [be] eating tuna in real life.”
“Backstage for no reason at all, before a kissing scene,” Fischer added.
“Yes. That or drinking coffee while eating like an everything bagel that had onions on it,” Kinsey said. “Very different.”
Yuck! C’mon, Dwight.
Be sure to listen to the full podcast and read about more behind-the-scenes stories and funniest scenes to film in “The Surplus.”
You can stream episodes of The Office on Peacock and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.