NBC’s The Office may have tied up many loose ends before the series concluded, but one nagging fan theory was that office pals Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker) and Phyllis Lapin-Vance (Phyllis Smith) hooked up.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet asked Baker and Smith if they thought their characters had a romantic tryst and they answered in a way that only Stanley and Phyllis would have tackled the question. “What would Bob (Phyllis’s husband) have done to Stanley?” Baker laughed.
“Stanley wouldn’t be sitting here today if that were true,” Smith sweetly added.
Leslie David Baker and Phyllis Smith don’t think Phyllis and Stanley hooked up on ‘The Office’
Smith and Baker, who remained close friends after The Office ended in 2013, can’t envision romance between Stanley and Phyllis. “Stanley would be in triage,” Baker joked.
“Or in a refrigerator,” Smith joked. Phyllis’s husband Bob Vance owned the Scranton business Vance Refrigeration.
“Stanley was busy with his wife, and he had an ex-wife, and then he had a girlfriend and then somebody else,” Baker mused. “I guess Stanley was a busy dude. He was saving all his energy at work to go out into the world.”
“That’s what I was gonna say, you used all your energy after work,” Smith added.
Baker really didn’t think they would have hooked up.
“We just had the camaraderie,” Smith said. “And when he gave me the whittled bird, those tears were real that day.”
Leslie David Baker and Phyllis Smith reveal a favorite scene from ‘The Office’ that never made it on air
The chemistry on camera was real between Baker and Smith. In fact, they recalled a favorite scene they shot that never made it on air. “There was one scene that they never used in the show when Stanley and Phyllis were sitting at the desk and they were sharing some brandy or something,” Baker recalled. “And we just sat there, toasting and just talking and it was very, very well done.”
Of course, they weren’t actually drinking alcohol. “You’re getting up at 4 and 4:30 in the morning, you can’t drink any alcohol,” Baker laughed. “You’ll look back and be lying in the parking lot.”
Smith and Baker said their bond formed in a way many “office” type friendships form. “I know for me, I sense goodness in somebody and Phyllis has got it radiating off of her. So it wasn’t difficult [to form a bond],” Baker said.
“Gosh. Well, that was the same thing for me with Les,” Smith said. “I mean, we just immediately hit it off and we sat across from each other for nine years and we got to the point we could almost look at each other and know what the other one was thinking. We talked a lot without even opening our mouths.”
Leslie David Baker surprises Phyllis Smith with ‘The Office’ trivia
Even though they are close friends, Smith learned something about Baker she never knew. Baker shared that Stanely’s signature crossword puzzle obsession actually came from him. “From the very beginning, when Greg Daniels gave us an opportunity to formulate our characters,” Baker recalled. “He said, ‘We’re going into the conference room, bring what you would need to bring in there to be in a conference room.'”
“And I ran across this crossword puzzle book,” he said. “So Stanley, he’d be in the meeting, but not of the meeting. So even at times when he would have dialog, instead of looking at the person and directing the dialog to them, he would just give the line back without even looking up.”
It was Baker’s idea to make Stanely a crossword puzzle junkie. “I didn’t know that Les,” Smith said. “That’s interesting.”
‘The Office’ friends share a love of health too
Baker and Smith also continue to bond over health and well-being. They partnered with Cheerios to celebrate heart health during the month of February. Baker and Smith sat down over a bowl of Cheerios to help bring joy to a heart health journey and remind people why this topic is so important to talk about with your loved ones.
The actors joked about how Stanley and Phyllis on The Office would have been enormous Cheerios stans, especially after Stanley had a heart attack on the show.
“Stanley was grumpy about a lot of things. But when it came to self-preservation, he was adamant about it,” Baker said. “He would want to take his hot baths and sit in the tub with a glass of red wine and relax. Cheerios would be part of his heart-healthy lifestyle, because in spite of the fact that he was dating at times, he was still able to maintain his health, especially after having his little heart issue with Michael Scott.”
“Bob and I, we loved our Cheerios,” Smith said. “We would have them together in various rooms of the house. So Cheerios is a big part of our lives.”
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