Angela Kinsey wasn’t always happy with the jokes about Christianity on The Office — and she even asked to have one removed.
During a reunion with former costar Rainn Wilson on his “Soul Boom” podcast earlier this month, Kinsey, 52, opened up about her character Angela’s Christian faith — and how it mirrored her own religious beliefs.
Wilson, 58, specifically asked whether playing an “uptight Christian” was tough for Kinsey since she was raised having a “very warm, meaningful relationship” with her faith. In response, Kinsey recalled jokes about Christianity that she didn’t feel properly reflected her outlook.
“There were one or two times in which there would be a joke written for her that I thought was just really stereotypical, maybe one note,” she shared. “I like to think of her as a full, well-rounded person.”
Kinsey specifically cited an episode from the third season when Oscar Martinez’s (Oscar Nuñez) sexuality was addressed.
“There was a particular story line between Angela and Oscar, where Angela was being super judgey,” the actress said. “I never went up to [creator] Greg [Daniels] about any joke, but there was a joke at Oscar’s expense, and I went up to Greg and I was like, ‘I can’t.’ I just was like, ‘I don’t feel good about it. I don’t feel good about that. I don’t feel like that’s what Jesus represented to me.’”
According to Kinsey, the joke used God as a reason why Angela didn’t support Oscar. The line was removed after Kinsey’s feedback.
“[Greg] was like, ‘OK.’ And he heard me, and he took the joke out. And the episode, it was ‘Gay Witch Hunt,’ had so many already,” she concluded. “But that’s the one pivotal moment I remember being like, OK, this is feeling like a stereotype and very one note. I feel like she has more depth than that.”
The Office, which aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013, focused on the lives of office employees at a paper company named Dunder Mifflin in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition to Kinsey and Wilson, the hit sitcom starred Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, B.J. Novak, Melora Hardin, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery and more familiar faces.
The mockumentary wrapped after nine seasons, but many of the cast members continued to stay in touch personally and professionally. Fischer, 50, and Kinsey, specifically, reunited to work together on a podcast that explored behind-the-scenes details about each episode of The Office.
“We became friends for life in those first episodes. You have to remember after we did the pilot, to totally date us, there was no social media, we all had flip phones, so it was just a different time, where when you left a job you didn’t necessarily see those people again,” Kinsey told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 about the “Office Ladies” podcast. “The first season was only six episodes, and it kind of felt like we were doing this one-act play that we didn’t know if anyone would ever see, and there was a real camaraderie in the cast because of that. I think it really was the beginnings of all of us being very close.”
Kinsey later weighed in on the difference between working together on a podcast compared to a TV show.
“There were people within our circles who were like, ‘Hey, it can be tricky becoming a business partner with your best friend. Are you worried about how your friendship will be affected?’” she recalled during an interview with Hello Giggles that same year. “But we both felt really certain that we were gonna be just fine — and not only have we been just fine, but we’ve really, truly deepened our friendship. We have a whole new level of respect for one another and each other’s work ethics. Jenna makes me want to do better, and vice versa.”
