It sounds like a dream come true to be a working actor and then get the opportunity to be in your favorite show. Comedian Bill Burr told stories in the past about being such a big fan of Breaking Bad when he got to have a little stint on it. Rashida Jones would also share that she was a huge fan of The Office when she got the part to play Jim’s girlfriend. For Dakota Johnson, it would turn out to become a dream-turned-nightmare when she also got to appear on the popular NBC sitcom, The Office. Johnson appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers recently to promote her upcoming Sony/Marvel film, Madame Web, when she revealed that her experience on The Office was more surreal.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, on the talk show, Johnson joked, “That was honestly the worst time of my life. They were like, ‘Do you want to be in the series finale?’ And I was like, ‘Of course,’ thinking that I’d show up for like half a day. And I was there for two weeks, and I’m barely in the fucking show.” She would expound that her excitement of appearing in the finale was overtaken by the somber mood dominating the set due to the episode being the last for the cast and crew. Johnson continued, “There were weird dynamics that had been going on for the last 10 years. Some people didn’t speak to each other. And I’m coming in like, ‘So excited to be here!’ And no one wanted to talk to me. No one gave a f*ck…. I was like in the background of all of these scenes, faxing things.”
Host Seth Meyers piggybacked off her anecdote to joke, “I recently watched it, and it was some of the most believable faxing I’ve ever seen.” Meyers then revealed that he, too, had appeared on the series finale episode of The Office, which surprised Johnson. However, Meyers had a bit of a buffer from the set as he would appear in a fictional version of his Weekend Update segment from Saturday Night Live that the characters would see on TV.
Johnson is an offspring of famous actors Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, so she’s been around the business all her life. The actress has been refreshingly candid about certain aspects of Hollywood that aren’t as romanticized as some may think. Recently, she’s commented on the bleak nature of the industry where creative people are stilted by the business people, “The people who run streaming platforms don’t trust creative people or artists to know what’s going to work, and that is just going to make us implode. It’s really heartbreaking. It’s just f*cking so hard. It’s so hard to get anything made. All of the stuff I’m interested in making is really different, and it’s unique and it’s very forward in whatever it is.”