Awkward Workplace Antics, Chaotic Colleagues and Cringey Bosses, Australian-Style: Felicity Ward Talks 'The Office'

It could've been a scene out of the series itself: when Felicity Ward learned that she'd be starring in the Australian version of The Office, she was in a memorable situation that couldn't better sum up the past five years. "I remember where I was. I was in New Zealand and I was about to do a COVID test — but in New Zealand, it's so gross. They don't stick a thingy up their nose. They spit into a tube. So you go into a booth and there's pictures of food, and you just have to try to summon the spit," she tells Concrete Playground. "And you have to get that much spit. And then there's someone next to you, 30 centimetres, 50 centimetres on the other side of this paper partition, and you can hear them. It's so fucking gross."

"I was working on another show in New Zealand, and twice a week I had to go and do a COVID test in the centre," Ward continues. "So I was about to walk in and I got a call from my agent, and he was like 'hey, can I have a chat?'. I was like 'yeah, yeah'. And then he's like 'I would like to offer you the lead role in The Office' — and I think I cried. I'm pretty sure I cried. I was pretty excited."

Now streaming all eight season-one episodes on Prime Video, the latest take on The Office doesn't just set up shop in Australia, in the Sydney office of packaging company Flinley Craddick, where Ward's (Time Bandits) Hannah Howard is the local Managing Director. It also firmly takes place in today's COVID-impacted world. The premise: attempting to capitalise upon the move to remote working post-lockdowns, and to also save money, Howard's employer wants to shut down its offices. As someone who sees her colleagues as family members — a fact that always sits at the heart of her OTT, awkward, chaotic and often-cringey behaviour — Sydney's head honcho couldn't be less onboard with the plan.

As Ricky Gervais' (After Life) David Brent and Steve Carell's (Despicable Me 4) Michael Scott likely also would've in the same scenario, Howard makes a deal with her own boss (Pallavi Sharda, The Twelve). If her staff can hit their targets and find savings quickly, their office will remain open. Unsurprisingly, though, returning to Flinley Craddick IRL full-time isn't a particularly popular proposal with her team — which includes flirty sales staff Nick (Steen Raskopoulos, The Duchess) and Greta (Shari Sebbens, Preppers), HR rep Martin Josh Thomson (Young Rock), IT manager Lloyd (Jonny Brugh, What We Do in the Shadows), finance head Deborah (Lucy Schmit, The Pledge), fellow salesperson Tina (Susan Ling Young, Barons) and intern Sebastian (Raj Labade, Back of the Net) — although Howard's right-hand-woman Lizzie (Edith Poor, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) will always follow her lead.

There's no stapler in jelly this time around, but there's still plenty that's recognisable — to viewers of the past two English-language versions of The Office, with the British OG running from 2001–03 and the American take airing from 2005–13, and to anyone who has ever worked in any iteration of its setting. One key difference, not only compared to the best-known versions of the show but also to their counterparts in Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Chile, Israel, India, Poland, the Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden and Saudi Arabia: somehow, the Aussie The Office is the first with a female boss.

Ward had only watched England's The Office before stepping into Howard's shoes. That said, her main source of inspiration didn't come from the screen — it was herself. We also chatted with the comedian and actor (and Wakefield, The Inbetweeners 2, Thank God You're Here and Spicks and Specks alum) about standing out in a franchise built on awkward bosses, her read on Hannah at her worst and best, and how all things The Office have evolved over the 23 years since the English version's debut.

On What Ward Drew Upon to Play Hannah Howard

"Just me. I did not draw upon any of my experience with other people. The character was so well written, I'm like 'she's annoying, I'm annoying, let's tap into that'.

Before you got online, I was just sitting here singing Jack Harlow — and that is how I live. That is basically what Hannah is. There's so little distance between me and Hannah. I would hope that I'm slightly more charming than Hannah. I have more self-awareness than Hannah. But she does, to be fair, have a job.

I had a job. I mean, my job at the moment is promoting a job that I had last year. But I don't have a salary, I will say that. Imagine having a salary!"

On Ensuring That Ward's Version of an Awkward Boss Stands Out From the Others in a Franchise Built on Awkward Bosses

"I didn't think about the other ones, to be honest. I just thought about it like it was a sitcom, and what would I do for this character? I read the script. I'm like 'I know who this character is'. And so I just did that, and then tried to be as stupid and as cringe as I could.

Every single take, I tried to make people laugh — I tried to break them in scenes. That was the only thing I thought about.

I'd never seen an episode of the American one until I'd finished filming the Australian one, so I wasn't drawing on anything from them. And then Ricky's character — 'Ricky', like we're mates. 'Hey babe!'. I've never met the man — that was a male boss in 2002 or 2003, or whatever.

So there's no crossover really there even with the character, apart from the conceit of the show, which is so clever. And it's actually only since I've been doing interviews about it that it makes sense to me. It's that the audience are so embarrassed for the lead that they don't like them. The bosses are delusional. They they're not aware that other people don't like them. And then the second that the bosses start to have self-awareness, that they doubt themselves, the audience go 'oh no, you can't doubt yourself. We love you. We can doubt you, but you can't doubt you'.

And it's so subtle. I think it's incredible to make a character that you don't necessarily like that you absolutely love."

On How Ward Sees Hannah — and Ensuring That She Isn't Just OTT and Frustrating, But Genuine in Her Affection for Her Colleagues, and Also Vulnerable

"I think that there's an enormous amount of heart to Hannah, which is embarrassing at points, but ultimately you do love her because of how much she cares. Even though she's a loser and she's very annoying, you do kind of want her to win.

You want her to win definitely over her bosses. No one wants the big boss to win ever in any show.

For me, it wasn't a balancing act because it's all written. Julie De Fina [Aftertaste], who is the head writer, and Jackie [van Beek, The Breaker Upperers] and Jesse [Griffin, Educators], they broke all the storylines together and they direct different episodes, and it was all on the page. I didn't have to go 'so how can I bring heart to this character?'. It was just in the script.

In the Melbourne Cup episode — I don't want to give the plot away for anyone — but when she sort of gets her heart a little bit broken, my entire teenage years I was in love with my friends, my male friends, and I was like 'I know, I'll just be really matey with them and really aggressive, and rip the piss out of them and try to beat them in shit. And that how they'll like me'. Yeah, great, great equation there.

So when the character Danny's like 'oh yeah, I'm doing this other thing', it was so easy for me to go 'oh yeah, do you remember the years 1992 to 1998, Felicity? Why don't you think about that while you're doing this thing?'. So it was easy."

On What Makes an Australian Version of The Office Unique

"I don't know if you're from a funny family, but I remember trying to explain to someone else why my family was funny, and I couldn't do it. But I know when we're all together why we're funny and what would make us laugh.

Trying to explain to other people why this is an Australian show, apart from the fact that Julie is Australian — I was going to say we're all Australia, but we're not, half the cast are Kiwis — it's just intrinsic to the characters. It's implicit in the workplace. And what's been amazing is speaking to people who have worked in corporate, who've gone 'oh my god, this thing happened to me, and this thing happened to me that happened in the show. And that thing when Hannah did this, my boss used to do that all the time'.

Obviously Julie and Jackie and Jesse — the three Js, cute! — they know the world, they understand the world, and they just write the world in a way that resonates with people that have watched it so far."

On Why The Office's Brand of Workplace Sitcom Still Appeals to Audiences 23 Years After the First One — and How It Has Evolved

"I suppose what's fascinating is how relevant it's become. I don't work in an office, I don't work in corporate, I never have, I'm hospitality till I die, but I thought the conversation about working from home, working in the office, I thought that had wound up. I thought we'd come to the end of that and the show would still be post-COVID and it wouldn't be time-stamped, so it would still be relevant. But this conversation has come up again in the last month, that people are still trying to get everyone back to working in the office full time. And so it's become even more relevant again. So the timing of it is pretty good.

I think if you're going to remake a show 23 years later, there has to be a point of difference. The fact that it's Australian — it will be uniquely Australian because it's Australian, and because we are Australian and Kiwi, it will be antipodean.

And then I think the reason to do it 23 years later is to have a female boss. I think that's the only reason you remake it, because you're doing something so wildly different.

The American Office came out, what, like three years after the British one? Something like that. And there was — I was there — there was a big backlash at the time. And then in the second season, it started writing its own scripts and it became its own show.

I had never seen an episode of the American Office until we'd finished filming our one, and I watched it and I'm like 'these aren't the same show'. There's echoes of the same vehicle, but they're so brilliant, both of them. They do their own thing and they operate in their own world, and they love it. And hopefully ours does the same thing."

The first season of the Australian version of The Office hit Prime Video on Friday, October 18, 2024.

Images: John Platt and Prime Video, © BBCS and Bunya Entertainment.