The Office Star Jenna Fischer Has A Surprising Connection To Jurassic Park
It's always funs to learn how some of our favorite stars are indirectly or directly connected to some of our favorite franchises. Director Sofia Coppola in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" immediately comes to mind as an example. But last year we learned that one of our faves from "The Office" actually had a connection with "Jurassic Park," but it's not quite in the way you'd expect.
1993's "Jurassic Park" turned into a global sensation. The concept of a theme park containing real actual dinosaurs was like lightning in a bottle. Throw in actual consequences for containing these creatures, and the magic was undeniable. Universal Studios Hollywood started working on a ride for the theme park while filming was in production. Once ready to go, though, they needed to start filming some advertisements, and that's where Jenna Fischer, aka Pam Beasley, came into play.
During episode 64 of "Office Ladies," a weekly podcast hosted by Fischer and fellow "Office" castmate, Angela Kinsley, the topic of early acting jobs came up between the two while they were answering questions. The discussion turned to Fischer admitting her love of acting jobs before she said, "This is reminding me of when I was a background extra for the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios."
She went further and described how her and her friend landed the gig, and how it was her first acting job when she got to Los Angeles. But what was shooting the advertisement for Jurassic Park: The Ride like?
Not enough water
Picture it. Bright-eyed bushy tailed Fischer newly arrived to Los Angeles, and she books a gig to be one of the first people to ride Jurassic Park: The Ride. So, what was the experience shooting it like? As she shared with Kingsley, the shoot lasted for about 12 hours and she was paid about $100 for her gig. Mind you, this was in the '90s, so that $100 stretched a bit farther than you'd think. But, according to Fischer, the experience was not all sunshine and roses:
"The difference of us walking to the gig and walking from the gig at the end of the day, we were so beaten down. I want to say at a certain point they felt like they weren't getting on camera enough water splashing on us to indicate that it was a water ride. So the first thing they did was they had guys with buckets of water that they would just throw on us as we scooted by in the little boat. But at one point, not even that was enough. They got out what's called a water cannon. They shoot cannon balls of water at you."
She still was in disbelief that the experience didn't make her get back in a car and run back to Missouri after shooting the commercial for the Jurassic Park Ride. But she stuck it out and years later, we'd come to see her in the hit comedy series, "The Office."