Jenna Fischer is best known as the sensible, down-to-earth receptionist-turned-saleswoman Pam Halpert on “The Office.” And when she gets a chance at other projects, she often takes on roles that are very much like receptionist-turned-saleswoman Pam Halpert from “The Office.”
In “Solitary Man,” out now, Fischer plays a more dramatic version of her longtime character, as the long-suffering daughter of Michael Douglas’ fallen-from-grace auto magnate, a man who lives in a perpetual state of midlife crisis. But while Fischer’s characters often have their heads screwed on extra tight, there are exceptions, such as the upcoming drama “A Little Help,” in which she’ll play an alcoholic mother dealing with the death of her husband. Fischer told The Post about her well-adjusted persona.
You often play the sensible one. Is that really who you are?
I’ve never been one to be too wild and crazy — I’m always pretty put together. Even back in college, I would stay home and watch old movies with my cat rather than go to a fraternity party because I just didn’t want the hassle of any trouble I might get into.
What does Pam mean to you?
She’s such a sacred character that I’m not out there to just take roles that are the opposite of her. She’s a real person to me. I’ve been playing her now for six years, and I do think about the effects of [stuff like that].
A few years back, you posed nude, holding a sign, for Wired magazine. Was that awkward?
I think I had on some flesh-colored bottoms and a little tube top behind that sign — no need for the gaffer and boom operator to take that in. But I had done a nude shoot before where I was actually not wearing anything, just holding up a towel for a charity shoot. So I had gotten over that.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done as an actress?
I did this crazy play where I put on full Kabuki makeup and did a musical adaptation of the film “Nosferatu.”
Your ex-husband, James Gunn, directed the 2006 horror flick “Slither,” and gave you a part as a zombie. What was that like?
A series of lecherous worms come out of the ceiling and infest me. I play a receptionist, and in this movie people would repeat behavior [after they turn into zombies], so the mailman keeps delivering mail and I just kept answering the phone.
So even as a zombie, you still get cast as a receptionist.
Exactly.