In the eyes of The Office fans, Emily Blunt had one major rival for husband John Krasinski‘s affections – Pam Beasley. Known for playing Jim Halpert on The Office, Krasinski married the 40-year-old actress in 2010. The couple have daughters Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7, but Blunt says her relationship with the actor/director often disappoints fans.
“Do you know how many people still yell out, ‘I wish you were with Pam!’ like when I’m walking next to him?” Blunt said on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast. “‘Where’s Pam?’ I’m like, ‘She’s not here!’”
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As Pam, Jenna Fischer played the character in the popular comedy, which was adapted from a British show of the same name. Fans dubbed Jim and Pam’s relationship “PB&J.” The series began with Pam in a different relationship and ended with them getting married and having children together.
Blunt said of Fischer: “She’s the best. She’s one of our dearest friends. We love Jenna.” Fischer was married to filmmaker James Gunn from 2000 to 2008. She married writer, director, and actor Lee Kirk in 2010, and they have two children.
Fisher opened up about her on-screen chemistry with Krasinski on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2016. “Oh, John and I have real chemistry,” Fischer shared at the time. “There’s like a real part of me that is Pam and a real part of him that’s Jim and those parts of us were genuinely in love with one another.”
Krasinski responded to the widely reported quote by telling The Daily Beast he believed Fischer had been “trying to say something nice about how genuine their acting relationship was.”
“I think we both feel it’s such an honor to be a part of that relationship,” Krasinski said. “As far as how she was quoted about saying we were ‘genuinely in love,’ I think that was taken wildly out of context and I feel bad for her.”
During a December 2022 interview, Krasinski discussed his and Blunt’s daughters’ first-time viewings of The Office. “My oldest, turns out she’s a screen-talker-atter, so she’s talking to the screen and when Steve [Carell, who played boss Michael Scott] fired Jenna, she goes, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?’ And then she goes, ‘You’re a horrible person.’ And I go, ‘You should meet Steve Carell,’” Krasinski joked on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Violet, his younger daughter, couldn’t quite grasp that her famous dad appeared on the television show. “She goes, ‘You look very different.’ I was like, ‘OK, I’ll try not to take that as a hurtful thing, but sure,’” Krasinski said with a laugh. “She goes, ‘You look very different.’ And I said, ‘No, that’s me, I’m just playing a character.’ She goes, ‘That’s not you.’ She watched two more episodes being like, ‘That’s not you. The guy looks a lot like you though.’”
