Steve Carell and John Krasinski may not appear in “The Paper,” but the two actors crashed the set of “The Office” spinoff on its first day of shooting to wish the cast good luck.
As “The Paper” star Sabrina Impacciatore told Entertainment Weekly, she and her co-stars Domhnall Gleeson and Chelsea Frei were in their makeup trailer at the Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles when they were visited by a couple of surprise guests.
“No makeup yet. We are very anxious. Like, oh my God, we’re so scared. And then we hear knock, knock,” Impacciatore said. “Someone enters the trailer, and it’s Steve Carell and John Krasinski! We’re fainting. Like, what? Can you imagine? Isn’t it crazy? The first day of shooting!”
Carell and Krasinski just so happened to be on the studio lot that day, filming a commercial for the Italian coffee brand Lavazza right next door. “I thought, this is a blessing. Italian coffee, which is the coffee that I’ve been drinking all my life,” said Impacciatore, the Italian actor who broke out after her role in the Sicily-set second season of “The White Lotus.”
Impacciatore said Carell and Krasinski, who played Michael Scott and Jim Halpert on “The Office,” stopped by the set of “The Paper” to wish the cast good luck on their first day.
It wasn’t the first time Impacciatore met Carell. She had never seen “The Office” prior to boarding the Peacock offshoot “The Paper,” so she binged the workplace comedy before beginning production. She became “addicted” to the show, telling EW, “Steve Carell became someone that I loved.” So, when she learned Carell was starring in a Broadway production of “Uncle Vanya,” Impacciatore decided to fly from Rome to New York to see the actor in the flesh. She asked “The Paper” co-creator and “Office” showrunner Greg Daniels to tell Carell “I think he’s one of the most incredible artists on this planet.”
“I bought a fucking flight,” Impacciatore said. “I went to see the show. I went to the green room. I waited for him. He came out. I was shaking. I said, ‘I’m Sabrina! Can you bless me?’ I needed his blessing [for ‘The Paper’]. He was the sweetest. He was so warm. He was encouraging me so much. He said, ‘These people are brilliant. You are going to have the best experience of your life. You’re going to be great.’”
“He was giving me confidence,” Impacciatore added. “I will never forget that. Never. It was so right to do that.”
In “The Paper,” Impacciatore plays an editor at a struggling Midwestern newspaper. When an eager new editor-in-chief arrives, she and a group of ragtag staffers are tasked with breathing new life into the Toledo Truth Teller. The series also stars Melvin Gregg, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Ramona Young, Tim Key and “Office” favorite Oscar Nuñez, reprising his role of Oscar Martinez.
All 10 episodes of the series will drop on Peacock on Sept. 4.
