Jenna Fischer Talks About Celebrity Baby Weight, Is Completely Awesome

You know who I love? Betty White. I say that because when you go to the Jenna Fischer category, the first thing you see is a big ol’ picture of Betty, because two years ago Betty and Jenna both went to the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and that was the last time we “talked” about Jenna Fischer (but also I didn’t want to be too obvious). Isn’t that tragic? To be fair to us, Jenna isn’t in the news all that often at all. The only times I see anything about her are when she gets pregnant and then when she has a baby, and sometimes there are more prevalent things to talk about, you know?

But this interview that Jenna did, this is prevalent, and pretty refreshing. But then again, that’s just Jenna!

On the importance placed on celebrity moms losing weight soon after giving birth: “I think it’s unnatural. There’s so much pressure on you as a new mom that the last thing you need to have hanging over your head is some expectation of what your body is supposed to look like. I actually think that the scrutiny of new mothers bodies has gotten out of control.

“Every new mother just gets a free pass. I’m actually angered by the ‘posing in a bikini six weeks after having my baby’ [trend] … Who cares if our boobs are hanging low and we have a little more junk in the trunk? We created a human being, everybody. Let’s celebrate!”

On real life office work: “I was a temp in real life. I’ve had a lot of office jobs. But I also quit a lot of them. If I would get an audition the first time, I would lie and say I had a dentist appointment. If I got a callback, I’d say, ‘Oh yeah, the dentist said I need I cap,’ so I’d have to go back to ‘the dentist.’”

Eventually, Jenna says she had so many fake appointments, she had to start changing her story from dentist appointments to — wait for it — trips to see the gynecologist.

“Nobody wants to ask you about gyno appointments when you say they need you to come back,” she said, laughing. “But you can only have so many bad teeth and gynecologist appointments gone wrong before they start to suspect [something]. So, at that point, I’d just have to quit or be fired.”

So it’s quite ironic, then, that the 38-year-old actress found fame playing, of all things, an office worker.

“It was if I’d been doing the most in-depth acting research of my life and I didn’t even know it,” she said, referring to her role on the Emmy-winning NBC comedy The Office.

On the new season of The Office: “We’ve kind of had to reinvent ourselves. In the greater scheme of what’s on TV. I still feel we’re one of the best things.”

See, this is why I sat through Hall Pass. I love Pam. Uh, I mean, Jenna. I love Jenna.