Kevin McHale recalls playing a pizza delivery boy on 'The Office' (2024)

Remember when Michael Scott ordered pizza from Pizza by Alfredo's instead of Alfredo's Pizza Cafe?

It was mistake of epic proportions, and not just because Pizza by Alfredo's pizza tastes like a circle of hot garbage. The mixup also ended with a coupon disagreement and Michael taking a teenage pizza delivery boy hostage in the conference room for the day.

On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about the second half of the Season 4 episode, "Launch Party." (You may recall the last episode was about that fan-favorite DVD logo cold open.) The two talked about Alfredo-related restaurants around the country and also caught up with actor Kevin McHale — who you likely know from Glee — about what it was like playing The Office's pizza delivery boy and filming scenes with Steve Carell.

The pizza delivery boy callbacks

McHale's Office cameo was pre-Glee, and he was only 17 when he snagged the role after making Carell laugh in a callback.

"...The callback, I was waiting in the stairwell. It was me, and Dave Franco, and a couple other guys. And then one of the casting assistants comes out and says, 'Oh, we're going to start in a few minutes, but we just have to wait for Steve,'" McHale explained. "I'm someone who has terrible, terrible nerves. And I don't know if my manager didn't know and didn't tell me, but I was very unaware that Steve Carell was going to read with us for the callback."

McHale remembers trying so hard to make it through the scene and remember all his lines, and at one point he said he made Steve Carell and casting director Alison Jones laugh. "That was it. Like, if I didn't get the job, I was happy enough just with that that I made [them] laugh."

Filming with Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson

Spoiler alert: McHale did get the job. His next challenge? Not to break when filming with Carell and Wilson.

"I just remember more than anything, obviously, I was very nervous and scared to work with Steve, but I was just as nervous to work with everybody else because there's something about, one, I think I was 17 years old. I was the only kid and everyone else was, you know, a fully realized person. And I feel like I had tricked everybody into letting me get on the show. And everybody was just so good. And I did not understand how they could keep a straight face," McHale told Fischer and Kinsey.

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"Rainn Wilson and Steve would ad lib the craziest, craziest stuff. And I was locked in a room and Rainn would just be yelling at me, and watching it back I'm frowning almost every scene I'm in because that was my only way to stop from breaking," he continued. "That was the only thing I really, really remember in terms of working with them, specifically because I was just trying not to break, because they're obviously comedic geniuses."

What was it really like on-set of The Office?

If you've ever picture The Office set as one of the loveliest, most friendly places in the world, that description is pretty on-point according to McHale.

When asked about his biggest memory or takeaway from his cameo experience, the actor said, "the generosity and the kindness from everybody."

"Everybody went out of their way to accept me, to welcome me with open arms. I sat with a lot of the cast for lunch every day. I was totally a fish out of water, and I think everybody could see that. And it's one of those things where you come on set, they welcome you to set and rehearsal and everybody cheers. And that is something that I've taken with me," McHale explained.

"I remember going into Glee how it hit me at some point, like, 'Oh, I'm now in their position as a person who's on this show every week. And when people come on, I need to treat them how The Office people treated me,'" McHale continued, noting that whenever he'd see The Office cast members at events they'd always greet him with the same kindness they showed on set.

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Does McHale still get recognized as a Pizza by Alfredo's employee?

You bet.

"The amount of times I get recognized for The Office is mind boggling, truly. Like even in the midst of Glee, even after Glee, I get recognized a solid quarter of the time from The Office from one single episode," McHale said. "I did 120-something episodes of Glee, but the one episode I did of The Office, I get recognized that much. And it's absolutely a different demographic. And you can always tell."

Though McHale's Office cameo was almost 15 years ago he still takes a ton of pride in the job.

"I'm like, 'Yeah, that's right. I was on that show once. Well, you know, four days,'" he said.

Be sure to listen to the full podcast episode for more behind-the-scenes stories about filming "Launch Party."

You can stream episodes of The Office on Peaco*ck and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.