Leslie David Baker

Leslie: (on the pilot of The Office) You know what happens with pilots. You shoot them and they go to the land of pilot world and you never hear from them again. So we do the pilot. The morning we were shooting, Kevin Riley, who was with NBC at the time, and everybody was there, and the suits were all sitting around in chairs and, you know, all right, okay. We sat down and we started to read the script. At that moment I was like, I see it. I feel it. And I think even the suits at NBC were impressed by the collection of people we have here.

Leslie: (on moving to L.A) It just felt right. I had been to L.A. once before, looked around and taken an acting course at this place called TVI. I signed up for it like a year before and they would bring in casting directors and agents where you meet and you had to do your monologues in front of them and if they liked it then they would want to represent you. So I happened to meet an agent and he was on me to move out here. When I made the move, I didn't even tell him I was coming. I got here, got settled in my apartment and then I called him one day and I said, "You probably don't remember me, but"-- He said, "Leslie I know who you are. I remember you. When are you moving?" I said "I'm actually here." He saw me the next day and I got the first part he sent me out on.

Leslie: (on the bobbleheads) Actually, a couple of weeks after we went on strike, I got an email from NBC with the prototype of my bobble head. They wanted me to add some comments about what needed to be done with it, and I need to tell them to make the adjustment on the eyes, because you know, as Steve says, Stanley has baleful eyes. And the eyes weren't looking baleful enough, you know. They were looking more sad than disgusted. And the clothes needed to be done a little bit, because you know, Stanley does dress. They had him looking kind of homeless. So I told them to bump these clothes up a little notch.

Leslie: (on the internet) Our computers on our desks are connected to the Internet. So we have five computers on the set that are just like the ones in your office or at home. So we can sit there at our desks and surf the net and check our email and do all the stuff that you would do at your own office. We have been known to correspond with one another or our families or friends while we're sitting and filming. I found my house on the Internet while I was sitting at work. Stanley was looking for Leslie's house and Stanley found Leslie a house in L.A from Scranton.

Leslie: (on how he got cast as Stanley) I got a call to audition for something called The Office. It was very crowded for the callback, and I had another audition scheduled, so I went to the other audition. On the way back, I ran into a whole bunch of traffic … And by then I was kind of sweaty, my clothes were rumpled, and I was cranky. And the character was written the way I was feeling that day, and I just let 'er rip. Two weeks later I got a call: "You got the pilot." And, voilà, here I am.

Leslie: (on what everyone is like behind the scenes of The Office) Creed likes to create stories. Especially when new people come around on set just to draw them in. Phyllis and I will often wave our hands, go don't listen to him, he's suckering you in.

Leslie: (On improv on The Office) People are realizing that improv is something they do every day at work. There's a bunch of people looking at you, waiting on you to do something, so you have to come up with something off the top of your head. We do the same thing, in many cases, on our show.

Leslie: (on the reason why his "The Office" character Stanley doesn't blog) No, Stanley doesn't blog. I have had several people tell me that he needs to start blogging. I thought about it. I've asked myself, would Stanley do something like that? And I'm like, no, Stanley wouldn't do that. Once he left the office he wouldn't turn on his computer. He'd say, "I'm not doing that. That's too much like work. I'm going to go and sit down and" -- This is the thing: After he goes home, Stanley likes to listen to his music and have him a little glass of wine. Michael called him one time when he was at home, and Stanley was just flabbergasted, like what are you doing calling me at home? This is my sanctuary.

Leslie: (on playing a character in The Office) I've worked in real offices before. And you know how you get to work in the morning and you look around and go, 'Damn, nobody died on the way to work today.' And now I have to play a person who comes to work every day and wonders, 'Damn, nobody died on the way to work today.'

Leslie: (having once worked in the medical care industry) Acting was what I would do to deal with the fact that I was working in the AIDS/HIV arena. You can't work in that arena and not have some sort of an outlet.

Leslie: (on what he did during the writers' strike) I finished decorating my house -- almost. Just caught up with friends and relatives and just, you know, went to a lunch went friends, and went on the picket line a few times, of course.

Leslie: (comparing his real-life experience to working on "The Office") I still have the nine-to-five experience without the nine-to-five responsibilities. In the nine-to-five world, you don't have anybody who has your breakfast waiting for you in the morning, or lays out your wardrobe, or styles your hair.

Leslie: (on the beginning of his show "The Office") As our show began to pick up momentum people were genuinely surprised. But I wasn't really that shocked. The first day we sat down and met for the table read for the first script, you could feel something special in the room. It wasn't anything that I had ever experienced before. But it was something tangible, something that you could feel. It made me say to myself, "This is going to work." I remember telling Greg Daniels the show was going to be a hit show. He said, "I hope so." And I was like, "No, it's going to be a hit." It's kind of like getting struck by lightning. It had never happened to me before, but as I was sitting there at the table I thought, hmmm, so this is what it feels like when lightning strikes.

Leslie: (on turning 50) I'm glad to be here. They say 50 is the new 40 or whatever it is they say. I don't feel 50, whatever 50 is supposed to feel like. I'm doing exactly what I want to do at this point in my life. I'm having a great time. How many 50-year-olds do you know who get to go and play every day and get paid for it? Plus I have wonderful playmates.