Felicity Ward and Edith Poor in The Office Australia (Photo: Supplied)

Pop CultureOctober 17, 2024

‘I know this woman’: The Office Australia stars on gender-flipping the franchise

Senior writer

Felicity Ward and Edith Poor in The Office Australia (Photo: Supplied)

Ahead of the release of The Office Australia, Alex Casey chats to stars Felicity Ward and Edith Poor about bringing the beloved franchise down under.

Felicity Ward and Edith Poor admit they are both knackered when they join the video call for our interview about The Office Australia. Ward just arrived from the UK and is delirious with jetlag. Poor just had a baby five weeks ago, and says she is equal parts excited and exhausted. “It’s an amazing time in my life where everything is coming to fruition,” she laughs, explaining she feels like she’s been growing “one baby inside of my body and one baby outside of my body.”

The latter baby, of course, is The Office Australia, the latest reboot of the hugely popular, hugely influential workplace sitcom originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in 2001. Felicity Ward plays Hannah, the incompetent manager of the fourth biggest packaging manufacturer in Australia and a female counterpart to David Brent and Michael Scott. Her devoted right hand woman, the Gareth/Dwight, is the twitchy and endlessly strange Lizzie, played by Edith Poor.

It’s very much a trans-Tasman affair – Poor features alongside fellow New Zealanders Johnny Brugh, Josh Thomson and Lucy Schmidt, with Jackie van Beek developing the series and Jesse Griffin directing several episodes. Given that it’s both the first English-language iteration of the franchise in 13 years, and the first to feature women in the lead roles, there’s no doubt The Office Australia will be one of the most talked-about comedy releases of the year.

As Ward and Poor settled their weary bodies into their velour seats, we got stuck into how they not only brought The Office back from the dead, but brought it down under.

First of all, I want to know about your own relationships with The Office franchise. What do you remember about first encountering this universe?

Felicity Ward: All my friends were in drama school when The Office UK came out, and they all just turned into Ricky Gervais. It had such a huge cultural impact on me and my friends. Not for a second did I actively try to be like Ricky Gervais, but I think that my 20s were just so culturally infused with Gervais-like humour that there are probably different points where he comes through. Again, that has nothing to do with me trying to impersonate him, but just that 20 years ago, he had such a comedic impact on the cultural landscape for everyone.

Lizzie and Hannah run a team meeting. (Image: Supplied)

Edith Poor: I’m a massive TV fan and I was obsessed with The Office UK. My friend had the DVD box set and I stole it from her and, to this day, she hasn’t forgiven me for losing one of the discs. And then The Office US became one of my comfort watches in my late teens and early 20s, so I’ve watched that whole series like five times. I really like character acting and big characters that absolutely go for it. To be able to play a woman version of those big characters like Dwight and Gareth that I adored for years and years is such an honour and is still bugging me out a lot.

With all those character archetypes already existing in other franchises, how much were you thinking about them while you were shooting?

EP: Well, first of all I had to stop using The Office US as my comfort watch to fall asleep to. And then I tried to block Dwight out as much as possible. It helped that when I got the audition script through from Jackie van Beek, I immediately was like, “I know this woman.” I did an audition where I improvised in my front room with my partner for hours, and I wasn’t at all trying to mimic anyone. Lizzie just jumped off the page at me.

FW: I had exactly the same experience with Hannah. I just knew her straight away. I didn’t have to block anything out, it was just this fully-formed character. I read it and was like “oh, that’s just me without any of the likeability.” What I have that Hannah doesn’t have is a crippling self awareness. She is delusionally avoidant of any awareness. What a dream, how freeing.

Hannah, a perfect delusion. (Image: Supplied)

Have either of you had that really corporate office experience, and how did you draw from those experiences while shooting?

EP: Big time. I worked in corporate in Sydney as well, so right in the heart of it. I found it was a very unique culture and I found it very bro-ey. I actually found Hannah very true to character for a lot of male bosses that I’ve had to work with, so I found that very authentic. What I also found from working in an office, while also working part-time as an actor, is that you blink and suddenly you’re 26 and you realise your career is more the office thing than the other thing.

That’s what I think The Office is really all about. It’s about time passing, ambition fading a bit, and maybe even finding that you’re in the same spot where you started. But then you still manage to carve out these beautiful and human moments among all of that. I think that’s what makes it so joyous, that love still springs from that and weirdos still spring from that, even if you are just plodding along and trying to find nuggets of joy within the mundane.

Lucy Schmidt and Jonny Brugh (Image: Supplied)

FW: Yeah, I think that that’s what the franchise does best, it captures the beauty of mundanity. It’s like when there’s a bushfire – sorry, very Australian reference – but it’s all black after a bushfire, and then you just see the first green shoots coming through. That’s kind of what The Office is, it’s this bushfire of mundanity, and you get green shoots of joy where you can find it. But I never worked in an office. I worked in hospitality, where every day was a bushfire.

You mentioned the broey-ness of corporate culture Edith, which aligns with the broey-ness of The Office franchise in general. Obviously this iteration is a huge departure from that – how much did the weight of that representation loom over you?

FW: I think the great strength of this show is that it is just incidental that Hannah is a woman. This is not a show about female empowerment. If anything, she’s bad for feminism. I used to say this about Liz Truss, who was the prime minister for 43 days in the UK, that feminism has finally reached a point where we are allowed to be mediocre as well. Except Hannah is not just mediocre, she is totally incompetent and delusionally optimistic. And so I think it operates well beyond just being a power move for the show to have women.

EP: For me as well, the gender thing didn’t really play into it – except the fact that I’m so delighted to see Lizzie being such a weirdo. You very rarely get to see a woman being a jobsworth and a bit of a dickhead. It was great to play this pedantic weirdo who was authentically letting her freak flag fly. I don’t think I’ve seen a woman like that before.

FW: That’s the great thing about Gareth and Dwight too. They are deeply weird characters, but Lizzie has this extra wonderful, weird androgyny to her. Why is she dressed like David Byrne? Why does she look like she’s from Talking Heads?

EP: It is how I would prefer to dress every day, to be honest.

Was there much improvising on set or did you stick closely to the script?

EP: We did a bit of improv. We ran these meeting room scenes and Jackie [van Beek] would say “just go for it” and all this beautiful stuff would come out. When we first got to the set, we had this amazing play day where they ran the cameras and we just improvised for hours, and that was really joyous. We then brought smidges of that play into the actual shooting – we’d do the takes as close to script as possible, and then we’d be able to add things in. I’m not as genius as Flick [Felicity Ward], so my responses would sometimes be just to smile and giggle.

FW: In the script for the personal boundaries episodes, it said “Hannah uses the hula hoop to hula hoop”. And I said to Jackie “I can’t do it around my waist for very long, but I can do it around my neck for fucking ages. Can I do it around my neck?” She let me do the neck hula hoop which is physically a funny thing to do, but then she said, “oh, can you try to flick it off?” So I did and it hit the wall, hit Josh Thomson in the eye, and I also think it smashed a lamp too.

EP: But doesn’t all great art break something at some point?

FW: Right? If not a person, then a lamp.

We also have to address the huge number of New Zealanders in this show. What do you think the New Zealand sensibility brings to The Office universe?

EP: The difference for me between Kiwis and Aussies is that Aussies are much more confident and are OK celebrating their success. They are a bit more front-footed and opinionated and outspoken. New Zealanders don’t want to rock the boat. There’s the tall poppy syndrome, and they prefer to back off from things and don’t like confrontation. Johnny, Josh and Lucy are all perfect in that they bring a real even keel to the dynamic.

FW: They are much more muted. It’s almost like there’s lots of feelings underneath the mutedness, but you can’t hear or see it. It’s like with a trumpet, when you put a mute on the end, and it takes off all the top notes so you can only hear what wants to come through. I love that as a contrast of tones, because Hannah is so big and annoying and loud all the time. For her to be surrounded by the steady despair of New Zealanders is a really nice contrast.

The Office Australia begins on Prime Video October 18.

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Pop CultureOctober 16, 2024

Celebrity Treasure Island Power Rankings: And the winner is…

Alex Casey

Senior writer

Alex Casey power ranks the sixth and final week of Celebrity Treasure Island 2024.

We’ve come to the end of another season of CTI, and what have we learned? We’ve learned that Bubbah reps Tony’s Steakhouse harder than any other human on planet Earth. We’ve learned that Christian Cullen is a sullen superstar. We’ve learned that any agonising situation can be overcome with a humble song. We’ve learned to look at this photograph, and every time we do it makes us laugh (or cry because we accidentally left it back in the love shack).

We also learned that JP Foliaki is the winner of Celebrity Treasure Island. Red, White and Brass? More like Red, White and Gold! Although he had a quiet beginning, the uber-charismatic and endlessly funny multi-hyphenate provided the bulk of the sassy narration this season. When it came to his competitors, he said he would simply hit them with a shovel and run away. When it came to the multiple plot twists in the middle of the game, he simply said this: “plot twist.”

And now, Foliaki has pulled off the biggest plot twist of all, proudly repping Tonga and South Auckland all the way to the $100K finish line for his charity Child Fund. Here’s how it went down.

ELIMINATED: Duncan Garner

Duncan Garner might take the entire cake for most incredible televised transformation this season (and absolutely “hoof” the damn thing, for that matter). “People always told me not to go, so I decided to go,” the broadcaster grinned, reflecting on his decision to come on the show. “It’s a detox in life, social media, internet, this game brings you right back to the basics of life.” My kingdom for even a modicum of this level of inner harmony and peace.

Alas, the peace wasn’t entirely to last. Garner got snaked by a sandbag snake in the group challenge, which saw him facing off against Millen Baird and JP in the “hang-off-a-rope-in-the-ice-cold-drink” challenge. “Three of us in there, two of us go home, it’s as simple as that, simple maths,” he said. If E=mc squared then trouble=Millen Baird, as the long-limbed actor soon outlasted Garner and the Story host plunged into the water first.

It was an emotional exit, but Garner revealed that he felt closer to his late father – and closer to himself – after his time on the island. Perhaps the real treasure… was inside us all along.

ELIMINATED: Millen Baird

He started the week saying “it would be my pleasure to find this treasure”, but Baird sadly had to walk his javelin legs all the way home on Monday night. After hanging on for dear life to a rope above freezing waters alongside JP Foliaki, Millsy also “did a Garner” and plunged into the icy depths. He also “did a Garner” and ended his journey with some poignant self-reflection. “I’ve learned to love all my flaws and all my strengths,” he said. “I think I’ll come away from this a complete person.” An Outward Bound story indeed, complete with bonus beach boy band shot.

ELIMINATED: Bubbah

“You don’t know: I’m good at stuff,” Bubbah cackled at the start of the week, in the understatement of the century. Coming into the final days with two strong alliances, the “hood princess” of Tony’s Steakhouse was sitting pretty until she was forced to face off against her own grandfather (Christian Cullen) in the most high stakes game of wobbly dominos ever committed to the silver screen. God this was tense.

After nearly completing the full stack of dominos, Bubbah ducked under the plank they were sitting on, which of course knocked them over. It seemed like Cully had it in the bag, until he also knocked his over. So it went back and forth for about 45 minutes, until finally Cully triumphed in a bittersweet win over the people’s princess. “Don’t cry,” he whispered, hugging her in their final moments on the show together. Too late for me Cully, too late for me.

RUNNER-UP: James Rolleston

What a remarkable journey for the boy from Boy. You can’t help but feel like James won a prize just as important as the cold hard cash as he revealed, week after week, his strength and resilience while still living every day with a traumatic brain injury. And he wasn’t going down without a fight. “I’ve only got two grand for my charity, and I’d like to make that 102 grand,” he said after winning the group challenge and being the first to visit the hallowed lover’s shed.

Fossicking about and finding clues and wedding dresses, James uttered an involuntary “OOSH” before tucking into a tin of tuna. But the dream vacation was not to last. A note about the hidden fortune upstream eventually sent James on the treasure hunt with Cully and JP, but some crucial oversights provided insurmountable hurdles. He left his photograph clue behind which gave him a huge delay, and even Lance’s wisdom from the cheap seats couldn’t save him.

RUNNER-UP: Christian Cullen

First of all, sung to the tune of Mr Brightside: Cully out of the cage and he’s been doing just fine.

The smoothest guy on the island began his week reflecting on what a “cool tour” they have had, and figuring out who he would be in the CTI reboot of The Fantastic Four (“I’ll be the invisible guy,” he said). From there, the invisible Cully knocked out Bubbah (who had selected “Jessica Alba” from the Fantastic Four cast) and had to say goodbye to his dearest friend in the game. At least she left him a lovely time penalty rock and a Samoan flag for the final showdown.

Heading into finals, Cully was spinning more sports philosophy yarns from “there’s no tomorrow you have to go hard today” to “it’s not over until the final whistle.” But perhaps he should have embraced the ancient mantra “should have gone to Specsavers” as he was left squinting in confusion at the padlock during the first obstacle. Not to worry through, soon he had made it to the tree puzzle where he handled himself with total composure and grace.

He brazenly copied JP’s homework and used his time penalties to try and take the lead, but ultimately it all came down to The Big Dig. He faked us out a few times when his shovel hit tree roots and hardened earth, and ultimately leaned back on his shovel and watched JP take the win. Cully, you left it all out on the field. In the parting words of the man himself: “ciao for now, won’t see you for three, four, 20 years maybe.”

WINNER: JP Foliaki

On reflection, of course the star of heartwarming underdog story Red White and Brass would pull off the most theatrical and wholesome win possible. JP has spent much of the competition talking about how he feels driven by a bigger purpose, how he’s playing for all his people in Tonga and South Auckland. “Representation is important to me,” he said in week four. “Any dream is more attainable if I can see someone who looks like me that has achieved it.”

This week, he achieved that dream – although it didn’t come easily. “I feel like I’m on Sensing Murder,” he said, pacing around looking for the lovers’ initials carved on a tree. “I’ve walked past this three about 50 times.” As it turns out, 51st time’s a charm, and JP got digging for the treasure alongside Cully. “The last time I dug this hard was at a funeral, and at this stage I want to dig my own grave,” he said. Also, king of The Office glance to camera.

Thankfully there was no need for an undertaker as JP’s shovel eventually hit the side of an old leather suitcase containing all manner of trinkets, and he got to take home $100,000 for a charity that does meaningful work across the Pacific. He hugged Cully, he hugged James, and he thanked his community for being there every step of the way. “I’m glad that I’m doing this for a bigger purpose than just myself,” he said, before letting out a hearty chee-hoo in celebration.

Click here to watch Celebrity Treasure Island on TVNZ+