Ken Jeong said that the “favourite guest-starring role of [his] career” was his appearance on the US version of The Office alongside Steve Carell.
The American comedian and actor landed a role in the season two episode “Email Surveillance”, in which he played Bill, as the main characters contend with additional scrutiny from their boss, Michael Scott (Carrell) and try to stop him from discovering a party they don’t want him to attend.
Jeong filmed his scenes with Carrell, whose bumbling office boss ends up crashing an improv class. He previously revealed that the crew would shoot the scenes as scripted for the first few takes, after which they would improvise.
Jeong told The Guardian: “It gave me goosebumps because my favourite comedy of all time was the UK Office.”
Jeong added that the on-screen workshop really was an acting lesson for him, as he and the other actors watched Carell improvise parts of the scene.
“The improv class was surreal,” he recalled. “It was strikingly similar because Steve Carell and the other actors would improvise on top of the scripted scenes.
“It was very real and very genuine. You get to watch Steve – one of my favourite actors – from the best seat in the house. It was a masterclass.”
Jeong previously spoke about his experiences in 2020 on Office Ladies – a podcast in which The Office stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsley recap each episode. Jeong considered his time on The Office his “breakthrough role”.
He was in awe of Carell during their scenes together.:“He was just coming of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and I’d literally just watched him in the movie theatre the previous month, so I’m sharing a scene with the biggest star in comedy.
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“He really is a role model to me because he’s just a professional, elegant, classy actor who has no weakness in his game.”
Jeong went on to feature in all three of The Hangover films. He also starred as the melodramatic teacher Ben Chang in all six seasons of the sitcom Community, and became a judge on the US version of The Masked Singer in 2019.
Jeong will appear in the action comedy My Spy: The Eternal City. The film comes out on 18 July on Prime Video.
