How would you describe you character's personality? Are you anything like the Angela we see on the show? How are you two similar and how are you different?
How similar am I to Angela Martin? Well, we share the same name, but really, that's about where it stops. She is sort of this judgmental, busybody and she loves animals and she tolerates people. She loves everything to be in it's place and be in order, she is just the ultimate "Type A" person. She doesn't like to goof around at work. It's pretty simple; she just goes to work to work. She doesn't appreciate the pranks and stuff that Jim and Pam do. I think in the office, she has a lot in common with Stanley because Stanley is just clocking in and clocking out. Except, she takes great pride in doing her job and doing it well. She's also the office lady that's the cat lady/grump. I think everyone has that person in their office.

I’d say the one thing we have in common other than the name is I think sometimes I can be a little bossy, but only with people I care a lot about, which is probably horrible.

How much of the show is scripted and how much is improvised? Do the writers encourage you to improv in your scenes?
The show is 100 percent scripted. It is written down to the last detail and our writers are great about that. Every once in a while, if the scene permits, if it's obviously nothing that's going to change the story, there might be room to add a line or two at the end. And usually at the end, so that way if it doesn't work, it can be edited out.

When the show first started did you have any idea it would turn into such a big hit? When did you first get the sense that this show could really take off?
I was so hopeful, we all were. We are all so respectful of the BBC show. I was a huge fan of the British version. We were a little nervous. I remember in our first season, it was the "Diversity Day" and we were all in the conference room with those crazy postcards on our forehead and mine said "Jamaica" and I'm looking around at this group of people and we spent the better part of a day together in that conference room and we were just laughing and having so much fun. It really felt special. We just so enjoy each other and I think as a result, you can see that.

During the six episodes of season one it seemed like the show focused solely on the five main characters (Steve Carell, Jenna Fischer, John Krasinski, B.J. Novak and Rainn Wilson). How tough is it to go an entire episode without actually having any lines?
I was just hopeful. This was my first steady paycheck and I was just happy to be patient. A really good friend of mine, Neil Flynn, he plays the janitor on Scrubs, and we've performed improv together at Improv Olympic for years. I saw him one night at Improv Olympic and asked me how it was going and I said, "It's good. Sometimes I get a line and that's real exciting and I'm just hopeful."

He told me, "Angela, just be patient. On Scrubs, I didn't really know what my character was going to be about, but I knew that I would have my moment and I just held out for it. Don't worry, you're going to have your moment. Just be patient. And when you do, they're going to see how funny you are and maybe you'll get a chance to improvise and they'll see that you have that tool." He was so right. They were such great words of wisdom for me and everything completely played out the way he said.

What is your favorite episode so far, and why do you like that one so much?
I loved "The Secret" because I've just been in an office when some chatty information has gotten out and how quickly it has spread through and of course Michael wouldn't be able to keep that secret. And the "Booze Cruise," that was just a great episode. It was a great Jim/Pam episode and it was so cool because we shot it out on this boat. I think it's hard for me to pick a favorite because a lot of times, I remember what we were doing that week and how much fun it was to do. I recently though just loved this latest Valentine's episode and I loved the Christmas episode because I got to go ballistic and smash ornaments. See, I can't pick one. Can I do a top five?

I loved Diversity Day, Health Care, The Secret, The Christmas Episode and I guess I'm going to have to say the Valentine's episode. And there's an episode coming up that's great, but I can't give it away. And I want to put Booze Cruise in there too, so it would be a top six. And now I'm done.

This may be the most important question of the entire interview – do you get custom-made bobbleheads for all of your men?
This is truly an important question. Let's not talk about peace in the middle east. No, I don't. Just Dwight because he's a person that could truly appreciate a bobblehead, don't you think? But no, I loved that, I thought that was awesome and I think they are going to try to have those available so that you can have your very own Dwight bobblehead.

We know you don't want to give anything away, but are there big things in store for the Dwangela love story?
I think that there's going to be some interesting turns in the Dwangela love story. How's that? There’s going to be some things that you're like, "Na uh, no they didn't." I know the younger generation won't know this, but we’ve been compared to Hot Lips Hoolahan and Frank on M.A.S.H. and I think that's pretty perfect as far as that creepy guilty pleasure.

How excited were you to hear that The Office has been picked up for a third season?
Oh my gosh, I spazzed out. I like jumped up and down and yelled by myself in my apartment. And of course, no one was home. I couldn't get a hold of anyone. I had to have my whole spaz attack on my own. And then, I called Jenna, she's my partner in crime, and we just geeked out. We just yelled, got excited and talked about how we're going to get matching sweatsuits that say season three. It was so great to find out early on and not have to sweat it through all of spring.

You're also set to appear in a movie called Tripping Forward this year. What can you tell us about the movie and your character Jennifer?
I play an agent, but I'm a sweetheart. I'm not like a shark or anything. My client gets himself into quite a bit of trouble and I bail him out. It's a small part, but it was really fun to shoot. A lot of people who worked on that in the crew also worked on Career Suicide. And my nephew was visiting from Archer City, Texas, I flew him out as his graduation gift and the day he got there, I was shooting and my husband brought him down to the set and we were shooting in a precinct and they let him walk in the background as an extra and be an FBI agent. So he thought that was pretty cool – gets off the plane from Archer City, Texas and is in the background of a movie. That was a lot of fun for me, to have that and share it with him in a little way.

Which do you enjoy more – working on a television show or on movies? How do the two differ?
I just can't imagine working on anything as great as The Office, so if this is what work on a TV show can be like, then sign me up. It's just such an amazing experience. It's by far, the coolest, most amazing job I've ever had in my life. If I can be on TV for years doing it, I'm great with that. Doing movies is a lot of fun and I hope to do more film and I hope that I can be a character actress for a long time.

How often do you get recognized in public? Can you and your husband go out to eat without being bombarded with people wanting your autograph and to have their photo taken with you?
At lunch, me and Jenna and Steve usually eat together, because Brian, John and Rainn play Madden football on the Sony Playstation in their trailers. So we were talking about getting recognized and Steve is really starting to get recognized like crazy. For the rest of us, it happens every once in a while, but it's getting way more frequent. I was telling him it's just so hard for me to wrap my head around it, maybe because I've done these little theatre shows, these improv clubs.

One of the coolest places I got recognized was my husband and I got tickets to U2. I'm walking onto the floor where our seats were and these two young guys like in their twenties, they yell "Angela," and I turn around – they're in the section above me – and I'm like "hi," thinking, "How do I know them?" And they were like, "We love you on The Office." Then they quoted lines at me, they said, "We'd take the DaVinci Code because we'd burn the DaVinci Code."

Then, I get recognized at like the most random places, like at Starbucks, at the grocery store, I was test driving cars at the Ford dealership and the salesman recognized me – this group of men in their forties. It's kind of fun and also freaky at the same time.

What goals do you have set for yourself? Where would you like to see your career go, and who in Hollywood would you like to work with some day?
I think one of the goals I've had for a long time is to write and create my own show, just because I do perform, I do write and create and I do improv and stand up and all of that. So I think someday down the road it would be really fun to see some of my ideas come to fruition.

Tell us something not many people know about you.
I'm so chatty. I never meet a stranger, so a lot of people know all my secrets. Well, I'm a great rollerskater. I used to get in trouble when I was a kid because I wouldn't take my rollerskates off at the dinner table and our house in Indonesia was all tile and I would just whiz all through it. I just lived with them on my feet. Recently, a friend of mine had a birthday party at a rollerskating rink and I own rollerskates still, like I never got into the rollerblade thing, I stayed true to my rollerskating roots. So I was at this birthday party and I put on a pair of rollerskates and I was doing all these things and people were like, "Okay, who’s the dork whose really good?"

We've got one last thing for you here. We're going to do a word association. We'll just throw out a name and you tell us the first thing that comes to your mind.

Hollywood.
Stars.

Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Cold.

Steve Carell.
Hilarious.

Jenna Fisher.
So warm.

Dwangela.
Kinky.

Angela Kinsey.
Small town.

The future.
Bright.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, February 2006. The Office is on NBC Thursday nights at 9:30 PM. You can find out more information about Angela Kinsey by reading her MySpace blog. To hear audio highlights from this interview, listen to Hobo Radio.