With a heavy roster of press interviews for The Office Australia, star Felicity Ward has noticed something about workplace comedies.
“Fiction does two things. It either gives people an escape, or it reflects the world around them in a way that they want to have interpreted,” she tells TV Tonight.
“I’m in hospitality, so I’ve never worked in an office in my life. I cannot do an Excel spreadsheet. I can do an excellent cafe latte. But from what I understand, from media that have watched this, every single person has got a story …people want to tell me what their boss did.It just taps into a middle management office culture that people want to exorcise. They want to be seen. They want to feel like they’re not going mad.
“I think the key to The Office is specifically that David Brent, Michael Scott and now Hannah Howard are all people that their staff don’t know how they got the job. You don’t know how they kept the job, and you don’t know how they’re not fired today. They do something every day where you’re like that is a fireable offense. And I think that people like to see that exasperation reflected back to them.”
The Office Australia is the 15th international adaptation of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s original 2001 mockumentary. Felicity Ward may be the first female boss, but it is clearly a recognisable, universal experience.
The US adaptation with Steve Carell ran for 9 seasons -7 longer than the original. It managed that rare feat of finding its own voice and audience against the odds. It’s worth remembering given reaction to Prime Video’s trailer has been, well, polarising at best.
As Ward explains it, the rest of the world were furious at the thought of a US Office.
“Exactly the same thing happened. The first season came out, and they were exactly the same scripts, and people were still angry after the first season. And then the second season came out, where they had original scripts and it reflected their own American work culture, and it’s turned into one of the most beloved (comedies), if not more beloved, than the original,” she continues.
“They’re not even comparable. They’re both so brilliant, they’re both so extraordinary in what they bring to it. Lots of people that I’m doing interviews with, are talking to me as if this has never happened. This literally happened 20 years ago to the American Office. We’re doing what the American Office did 20 years ago, except we’ve got original scripts and original storylines.
“So it’s not like we’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. I mean, to be fair, this is the first time it’s a woman so it brings a little extra edge.”
Ward insists she avoided the online reaction and articles to the Australian trailer. Who can blame her?
“I didn’t read the comments. It’s none of my business. I have no idea what reaction there was. All I have is my friends and my family and people on Instagram who follow me, saying really nice things, and so that’s what I’m aware of. I’m sure that other people were really angry about it, and I absolutely understand that, because I’ve loved things that have been remade befor,” she observes.
“But what I did is I went and spoke to my friends about it. I didn’t hunt down the lead of the show that was being remade and leave comments in a hope that they would feel bad enough about themselves.
“Other people’s opinions is none of my business. It’s not for me. People have got to sell their papers. People want to create clickbait, whatever their purpose is, or people are angry and don’t want it. Also these are people writing articles about a trailer.
“It’s all engagement, though, right?”
Joining her in the Sydney branch of packaging firm Flinley Craddick are Steen Raskopoulos, Shari Sebbens, Edith Poor, Josh Thomson, Jonny Brugh, Susan Ling Young, Raj Labade, Lucy Schmidt, Zoe Terakes, Pallavi Sharda, Claude Jabbour.
Ward describes managing director, Hannah Howard as lonely, needy and delusionally optimistic.
“What I really admire about Hannah is she wants everyone to be her friend, and she has no awareness that no-one is her friend. Lizzie (Edith Poor) is the only one who’s her actual friend, and she could give or take Lizzy on a day to day basis.”
So she tries too hard?
“That’s the whole thing. That is her whole M.O. She tries too hard. That’s why it’s so annoying. I think if Hannah was like 10% Hannah and 90% someone else, it might be endearing to work with. But as a boss, absolutely insufferable.”
But Ward is also counting on viewers warming to the layers in Hannah Howard.
“David Brent (Ricky Gervais) is not a likable character. Michael Scott was not a likable character. They’re likable now because they’ve become iconic. But the magic of the show is you think you don’t like these characters because they are impervious to feedback. They have no self-awareness. They’re invulnerable, basically, and so you don’t like them. But the second that they become aware of their own flaws, as an audience, you go, ‘Oh no, you can’t be vulnerable! No, don’t you feel sad! We’re allowed to not like you, but you’re not allowed to not like you!’” she suggests.
“So it’s this trick where you think you’ve got these unlikable characters, but actually deep down, you love them. And that’s the show.”
The Office Australia premieres Friday on Prime Video.
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