Idris Elba Remembers 'The Office' Cast Being 'Relentless' Trying to Make Him Break Character

The British actor memorably appeared in six episodes of Season 5.

Idris Elba smiling in a black suit and bow tie at a BAFTA event
Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images
Idris Elba smiling in a black suit and bow tie at a BAFTA event

Idris Elba’s character in The Office was very serious.

For six episodes in Season 5, the British actor played Charles Miner, Michael Scott’s new boss. And it seems during Elba's tenure on the show, The Office cast—especially one person in particular—tried to get him to break character.

Idris Elba says #TheOffice cast always tried to make him laugh. https://t.co/h1Txf0YIsX pic.twitter.com/Fmvz1mFsxJ

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) April 19, 2024
Twitter: @EW

“They was always trying to make me laugh. It was all the time. It was relentless—especially John Krasinski,” Elba said in a new video from Entertainment Weekly. “Trying to keep a straight face while I’m doing my lines, someone else would make another sound over here. I mean, it was a lot of work.”

He loved the show though, for its “cringe comedy,” saying he likes “dad jokes.”

“That’s my sense of humor,” added the father of three.

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Recently, there have been talks of an Office movie reboot. In early February, Bryan Cranston appeared on Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's Office Ladies podcast to discuss the idea. The Breaking Bad star directed a Season 9 episode of the NBC show.

“Let’s say that there’s not a reboot series, but what if there was a movie?” Cranston posed to the hosts. “Something to where we can see where these people are. These people in the entire cast that we’re curious about. We wondered at the end, where did they go? What did become of them?”

Both actresses expressed interest in a reboot, with Fischer adding that she’d definitely be in as long as showrunner Greg Daniels has a hand in the project.

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