An Interview with Melora Hardin

Melora Hardin is best known as Jan, the stoic former boss/lover of Michael Scott (Steve Carell) on "The Office," but she's also an accomplished singer and songwriter and a filmmaker in her own right.

JS: In “The Comebacks “you are playing the wife of Lambeau Fields.

MH: Yes, David Koechner’s character.

JS: Can you tell me a little about your character?

MH: I play the ultra-supportive sports wife who is the stereotypical sports widow. Ultimately I get set up with his sort of obsessiveness with sports to the detriment of everyone else. The family and our relationship and everything. I kind of go to extreme measures to get him to pay attention to me. And he does.

JS: Can you tell me how you got connected with the movie?

MH: Tom Brady directed me in “The Hot Chick” as well, a few years ago, and actually my character was named Barb in that as well, and I think he kind of wrote this character with me in mind and he called me up and said he really wanted me to do it.

JS: I noticed the link to the Frat Pack. One of my favorite phenomena right now is the thing with Steve Carell and David Koechner and it all kind of goes back to Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn and Old School and how all these supporting players show up in their films. Was there any of that involved?

MH: Not in this case. It was really Tom Brady who pulled me in.

JS: So it was an accidental connection, then.

MH: Yeah, I guess it was. (laughs)

JS: I noticed you’ve done a ton of TV work and a smattering of movies. Can you tell me some of the differences between doing movies and doing TV shows?

MH: If you’re guest-starring on a TV show you don’t get to have this experience so much, but when you’re a regular on a TV show you kind of create a sort of extended professional family. In a movie, things happen a lot faster. You have to come in and make these relationships real, and you know at the end of the movie, in three months’ time or whatever you go your separate ways. Whereas with a series you feel like you’re going to hopefully be with people for a long time to come. I also think with television you’re creating a character they’re going to be having in their living rooms every week, and with a feature you’re creating something on a big screen, and it’s going to be there and then it’s going to be gone, though there is DVD and everything. But they’re similar, as far as what the craft of it all is about, trying to find the honesty, the truth of the moments, and bringing your best stuff to it.

JS: Would you say you have to do more preparation for a movie role than a TV where you have more time to let character traits play out?

MH: When you’re doing a TV series you get to where you know the character inside and out. You almost get to the point where you don’t even have to think about it. It kind of just rolls off your tongue the right way, and you can hook right into the character, and that’s it. Whereas when you’re doing a feature, sometimes it takes a little longer to get to that point. You have to use your brain a little bit while you’re preparing. In that respect more time would go into the preparation, but that’s kind of a deceiving thing to say because when you’re on a series the time of doing the character week after week is the time that goes into preparation.

JS: I noticed also that you are making a movie. Have you finished filming on that?

MH: I actually finished just yesterday. It’s called “You.” I directed it and produced it, and I’m in it. My husband wrote it and stars in it and our kids are in it and my parents are in it, and it’s a real family affair. It’s a drama, a love story, about love and loss and kind of a coming of age story for a man and his daughter and also the past three years of his life.

JS: It seems like there’s a lot among the filmmaking community who are acting want to get into want to get into directing. Is that something you’ve always wanted to do?

MH: I’ve been told by a lot of people that I should direct, and I always thought oh well, maybe some day. And then I taught some acting, my mom’s an acting teacher and I taught at her acting studio, and my husband is a writer and has been bringing scripts home to me for a very long time, and this one I read and thought “Wow, I have to direct this.” I guess I was just waiting for something that really made me feel that way.” IT made me feel like I wanted to direct it.

JS: Well, we’re running out of time. Is this something you want to do more of?

MH: Absolutely. I definitely want to direct again. I already am working on optioning a book, and working on a screenplay, and there are a lot of things going on.

JS: Well thank you. I managed to get through without asking about The Office. It is my absolute favorite show and please tell everyone they’re doing a great job, and I’m a big fan.

MH: I’m glad you enjoy it!

JS. Thank you.

MH: Nice talking to you.