The Paper Interviews #4 with Ramona Young & Gbemisola Ikumelo

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Hello, hello.

Happy Friday, everyone.

We are getting really close to the premiere of the paper.

Yeah, it's next week.

It's Thursday, September 4th.

And then our breakdown of the pilot comes out September 10th.

I know.

Ah!

There is no special episode next Friday because we assume you're all going to be busy watching the paper.

Yes.

So today we have two interviews for you.

The first one is with Ramona Young.

You might know her from Mindy Kaling's show, Never Have I Ever.

She played Eleanor or maybe on DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

And you know, we've been sharing in these interviews how during our set visit, we were just grabbing people as they became available.

Well, within like seven minutes of talking to Ramona, a production assistant came over and pulled her back to set.

I know.

And she's so lovely.

She shared some fun tidbits, but because our interview with her was cut so short, we thought that after the break, you could hear the interview we did with Bimisola Icumelo, who is both a writer and an actor on the show.

She was also a writer and actor on the TV series A League of Their Own.

Yes, carrying on the tradition of having writer performers on a Greg Daniels show.

Yeah.

You know, we'll have even more to share about that when we get to our full breakdown of the paper, but let's jump in.

Here are your interviews with Ramona Young and Bimisola Icumelo.

Ramona, thank you so much for talking to office ladies today about your role on the paper.

Can you tell us your character's name and who she is in the world of the show?

Yes.

I like that you're holding the microphone like a reporter.

Yeah, so my character's name is Nicole Lee.

She works in circulation.

So basically, that means she mass emails people who are signed up and she keeps subscriptions going.

How did you get your job on the paper?

We always like to hear people's like origin stories.

I sent, it was a long process.

It took like several months.

And so it felt like a really big deal.

And it is.

But I started off with a self-tape.

And then I did like

a sit-down.

Did you guys have that too?

Like a sit-down with just like Greg.

And

I sat down with Greg and Michael and we just like talked for like over an hour about my life.

And I

didn't know what to expect.

I was just told to show up.

This is very Greg.

You know, Kelly Cantley, who's one of the first ADs on the show, was also first AD on the office.

And her interview, when she shares about when she interviewed with Greg, was they talked for like an hour and he just asked her about her hobbies and that she likes to sail and didn't ask her at all about being an AD.

But I think he likes to get to know the essence of a person so he can see if he can be like a creative collaborator with that person.

Yeah, I mean, I think there's,

there's so much about like building a community when you're making a show.

And I think Greg is really cognizant of that.

And so I think he's looking for people who inspire him, you know?

And so I, I think that's part of his process.

It's, it's weird though, right?

Because as an actor, you think it's just all about the audition.

Right.

Like I'm used to just kind of like showing up and doing my job, but I do feel like this is one of the first projects where I feel like oh this is like really personal and they do want to like

you know they do want me to like share ideas and if I want I can like reach out like I you know like I never felt really comfortable or as comfortable doing that in the past but I feel like on this show it's kind of like a necessity

yeah we felt that too we were able to pitch storylines or ideas that we had and some of them ended up being episodes and when we both left the office we learned pretty quickly that is not the norm on a set.

Yeah, are there any character traits or storylines that you've pitched so far that have made it into the episodes?

Storylines?

No.

I don't know if I've actually like pitched anything just because I love seeing what the writers come up with, but I do like journaling a lot.

And so I'll journal like, what I think Nicole's been through and her life and stuff so that maybe it'll inspire something for other people to write.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Oh, I do.

I had a whole Pam document and her whole backstory were things that I invented.

And every once in a while, over those nine years, some little thing that was in my journal, my backstory, would find its way into the show.

Just little bitty details.

So keep it up.

Yeah, it makes a difference.

Sometimes I'm like, oh, I hope I'm not like overstepping, but they kind of make it feel really welcomed.

So no, I knew my character really well.

I still know exactly how she would react in any moment.

In fact, we were watching a scene with Oscar and I was like, oh, I know exactly how Angela Martin would react in this moment.

I could just walk right on that stage.

So it's really fun to know your character that well, because then you can play.

Whatever they throw your way, you know what she's going to say.

We would love to ask you about your journey in your career and like how it started and what your background was, sort of like how you got to where you are today.

Yeah, I guess I started off just kind of like everyone else.

I started

making a profile on Actor's Access back when I was a teenager and did a lot of background work and YouTube shorts and booked my first co-star and did that.

And I don't know if you know this, Angela, but we've worked together like three times.

Oh my God.

We've never had any scenes together, but we were on three projects together where I watched you do scenes, which is really creepy to say.

I

don't know.

Oh no.

Oh, but can she finish this one thing?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so I will fess up and say that we were on the Real O'Neals together.

We were on a a Netflix show that I was then recast in, but I showed up for that week together.

And we were,

I forget the title.

It was like Miranda.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was there.

And we also did Never Have I Ever together.

Never have I Ever.

Yes.

I mean, I have a very small cameo in that.

You're great.

I have like, I'm barely in it, but that, wow.

So, you know what this means?

We're meant to finally be in a scene together.

Someday, me and you are going to have a scene together.

We're just putting it out into the world.

I really hope so.

That would be great.

Yeah, I will.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for your time.

We hope we get to talk to you again.

We know you have to go to work now, but thanks for making the time for us.

Thanks.

And I just want to say, like,

I

love the original Office Cast so much.

And you guys seem so intelligent and thoughtful.

And that was one of the things that made me really excited about this project was how great everyone was.

Thank you so much.

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Hello, hello.

Hello.

Could you please tell us your name and your character name?

My name is Bimisola Ikumelo,

and I play Adelola Olofin, or as you guys may say, Adelola Alofin.

And will you tell us what your character's story is on the show, who she is to the world?

Yeah, I mean, I think Adelola is,

she's an accountant, so she works under Oscar, and she works with Adam.

And I think she's been there for a while.

And I think her whole aim in life is just to get through the day,

have as little interaction with humans as possible and get home and

get under the covers and sleep and

genuinely sort of build up enough money so that she can move out of the place that she lives with, with her.

her brother and his fiancée.

That's kind of the story I have

in my mind for her.

Yeah.

I love that.

We both knew our characters very well and kind of had our own backstories.

We would love to know a little bit about your audition process and how you came to be on the show.

Yeah, I mean, it was just like, it's just like any other day, I got

a sort of a

tape for sort of come through a sort of self-tape for a top secret show.

And they was like, we can't tell you what it is.

So it was just, and it was obviously sort of dummy script.

And there was

sort of lines in there that were said, talking head stuff.

And I started going, sort of stroking my whiskers, going, Could it be?

Could it be?

But I didn't want to assume anything.

But yeah, so I just sort of did a lot of tapes for a random character whose name I don't even remember anymore.

And

then my agent after that was like, yeah, Greg really liked the tape.

And we can confirm it is for

a show that's going to be set in the office universe.

I was like, okay.

And then I met with Greg and with Comen via Zoom because I was in the UK.

And he was just like, yeah, we loved it.

And talking a little bit about what this is going to be.

Because it, I mean, even the scripts didn't.

weren't what they were so it was all we have no idea what where we're going with this story with this character So it's all sort of just trusting the genius that is, you know, the creatives on this show.

And then, uh, and then we started bringing up writing.

He goes, Are you a writer, right?

And I said, Yeah, yeah.

I wrote on another US show.

I was in the writer's room for another US show called League of Their Own.

And he was like, Oh, great.

And I said, I'd love to, you know, be in the room if that's an option.

He was like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's look at that.

And the next thing I knew, I was in the room and in the cast.

So it kind of, yeah, it happened really quickly, you know, yeah.

So you're one of our crossovers.

You are both a writer and an actor on the show.

I am one of the crossovers.

I am both a writer and an actor on the show.

Yeah.

So

is that something?

I'm sorry.

You go, you go.

Is that something you've ever done before where you've done both on the same project?

Yeah.

So with League of Their Own, I did, it was the same thing.

I'd auditioned as an actor.

And when they were put in the room together, I just went, hi, I'm also a writer.

And I would love to be considered.

And

they considered me, and it was such an amazing experience.

And that was sort of in the height of

COVID, and everyone was so it was very remote.

It was the first sort of remote writer's room thing that I'd done.

That was for Liga Their Own.

And it was kind of as there was a similar vibe with this because I, for the first 40% of the room, I was in the UK zooming in.

And then in the summer, I flew out and joined the room in person.

So,

yeah.

Okay.

Well, I'm very curious, where do they have you seated in the world of the show?

Are you, you're right in the middle of the bullpen, right?

They don't have you tucked away somewhere so you can sneak off to the writer's room.

God, I actually, in hindsight, I'm like, yeah, we should have tucked me away somewhere.

I'm, yeah, I'm there all the time.

There are days I'm just like, oh, I just, I just, I just sit here and then the shot and just type away.

Cool, got it, got it.

But yeah, so there's no sneaky there's no sneaky offy i'm right there but not in the middle it's a very it's a very much a bigger kind of office than the office and so there's sort of lots of there's a very few staff for the space that it is you know which is i think an interesting commentary on where we are with journalism you know uh so yeah so we're in the encountered's corner of the room but yeah we are definitely in that the middle of that space right you're not back in the annex that's where they put Paul and Mindy.

They were way back there.

How much input did you get to have into your character's look, into your hair, makeup, wardrobe?

Sabrina talked a little bit about how maybe she had some ideas about how her character dressed.

And I'm just curious.

We had a lot of input on the office.

So how has that been here?

Actually, really great.

It was actually really interesting because she went on a very interesting journey,

the character.

And I think Greg was, and Comen were really

great at sort of letting me figure her out and kind of

go in a little bit of a different direction.

And I sort of woke up one day and I said, I think she, I wanted to feel more a bit weirdo, burnout vibes.

Just I wanted to feel a little bit less professional, like she sometimes hasn't figured out what she's going to wear and she's running late for work and she just, you know, effortlessly picks out the most clashy clothes, but she's not doing it on purpose.

She's just like, like,

these will do.

And I'd sort of put a character Bible together as well.

So I'd sort of nerd it out a bit.

And because I really was trying to,

it was a little bit, it's a bit of a challenge when you've got other characters in your head as a writer that you're pitching for and, you know, to actually spend time with just Adelola and figuring out who she is.

So I had to go away and just go, who is she for me?

And so I did this.

big old document and with images of what she looked like and what you know where she where she studied where she was born and so when i gave that reference to greg he was like yeah that look let's do that and to the wardrobe department's like credit they turned that whole new look around in like a 24-hour period and the next day you came in and she was just it was just color it was vibrant septum rings and you know and things like that so um so no i was really so i did get some input in there but the team turned that around in such a and elevated what was in my head in a you know really different way this is our favorite thing this is our we love investing in getting to know your character and what's their backstory and the fact that you did a character like bible that's we just love it we love going back and looking at the characters from the office and reading their their show bible um it's just so cool i love that you did that i don't always do that for characters as an actor but for this one it was just like

And, you know, I think there's, you know, there are some characters that are that kind of, you know, will grow as a story gets along.

So, and especially in the office as well, it's just characters that suddenly, you know, they were, they had smaller parts and then they became fan favorites and they sort of grew and they, you know, became sort of really iconic.

And some characters are just like, it'd be a look that they do that would, um, that the audiences loved.

And so with, with Adelola, I don't think she's right.

You know, she doesn't always say much.

It's always that sort of look and it's always the sort of

her interpretation of what's going visually what's going on in the space around her but uh so for that i felt like i needed to know what her inner life was even more than i would normally because actually maybe she it's a lot of what's going on in her head rather than what she says so that was yeah it felt really necessary for me what she's not saying says more yeah

how she's not saying it and and how she's not saying it with like a roll of the eyes and you know and and

an inhale of breath and you know what that is And yeah, so it was really good for me to know what her inner life was and what she's going back home to and where she's come from and what the expectations of her are.

So I can, yeah.

So in your backstory, she lives with her brother.

She lives with her brother.

She lives with her brother and

his fiancée, who both have the same first name.

And she finds it really annoying.

This is what you've created.

I love it.

Has Greg signed on to that?

I mean, this is, I mean, mean, it's there.

It's there for the taking.

Who knows if that'll, you know, if that'll happen down the line, but

yeah, that's,

yeah.

I love that, you know, my husband on his side of the family, his cousin's name is Corey.

Girl, Corey, married a man named Corey.

So they're Corey and Corey.

Yeah, I kind of, yeah, in my mind, I'm not sure if I should say if it ends up getting used, but in my mind, they're Bola and Bola.

And one Bola is spelled with a GB and one is with a B.

And

those are their names.

Is your character British or is she

American?

Can we hear your American accent?

Oh, God, don't make me talk in an American accent, please.

But like, literally,

I have to just talk like this the whole time on set.

Otherwise, like, people start making me feel British.

So I like every time I open my mouth, Melvin will be like, oh, my God, clump it, clump it.

And it's like, dude, I can't.

Top of the morning to you, Gabby.

It's all that nonsense.

It's more than that.

It's like, scones, what in it, blood?

So I've,

I sort of, and I don't know that I'm doing it anymore, that I'm sort of slipping in and out of the accent.

I'll just suddenly start talking like that.

And then I'm like, oh, God, I'm here.

I didn't realize.

So, yeah,

that's so wild.

I worked on a show over in London.

I did a show called You, Me, and the Apocalypse.

It ran for one season.

The three Americans in the the show were Megan Malally, me, and Rob Lowe, and then otherwise a fully British cast.

And

one of the things that I remember when I would get to work,

I asked for a cup of coffee, and it was like 15 minutes later, a single cup of like French press coffee in a mug.

And it was so civilized.

And I coveted this cup of coffee.

And then around four o'clock,

the craft services would bring in tea and biscuits, like a whole tea setup and little biscuit cookies.

And I thought, oh my gosh, it's real.

They really, they really stop for tea and biscuits at 4 p.m.

This is wonderful.

What are some of the quirks?

coming the other way as you've come to America to work.

What are you?

Tell us our quirks.

Oh no.

Your crafty is like, is like on steroids.

It's like you talk about little quaint cups and then cut and then little biscuits.

You guys have donuts on doughnuts and then there's and then there's like hot crafty.

They're like hot crafty.

I'm like, aren't we about to have dinner?

No, but there's also hot crafty.

There's like kimchi bowls and pasta.

We had ramen noodles like an hour before lunch.

And then there's like hot dogs and and and and and bagels and juice and and and then little like pasta salad things in the fridge it's endless and then obviously then the just the the popcorn and the nuts and the this and the that so it is like going into a corner shop like a or um uh

call it like a a a um

oh the uh bodega

a bodega yeah going into like a bodega and not having to pay for any of the stuff in there and just and you'll see me often just taking shopping for the

like at the end of the week i'll just be like well i'll just take that for the week home or for my trailer also you have the best caterer because you have sergio who we also had and if you haven't tried his homemade salsa yet it's his mother-in-law's recipe it is the best salsa i've ever had I have years have said, you need to sell this salsa.

And he goes, no, it takes too long to make it.

We couldn't turn a profit.

So you have the best of the best on this set.

Food is amazing.

The first day I did a sort of video of it when it was just steak.

And everyone was like, how would you like your steak?

I was like, how would I like my steak?

They were making steak to order.

I was, this, this, it was,

it was insane.

The food is amazing.

Like on, like, yeah, it's crazy.

It's just crazy.

And I, every time I come to America and film here, it's, it's the same thing.

It's just so much food.

And it's a beautiful thing.

But for someone like me who never says no to food, like it's the African in me, it's like it's rude.

And I can't waste food.

So I become like a human dumpster, even when I'm full.

I'm just like, oh my God, I'll keep eating.

And so it's not good.

You just slipped into American.

It's not good.

I don't even know that I'm doing it anymore.

Well, thank you so much for talking with us.

This was amazing.

We are wishing you much success on the show.

Can't wait to see it.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

It's so lovely.

And I'm bummed that we didn't get to interview Melvin during our visit because he is so great.

He is one of my favorite supporting characters.

Yeah, we did get to meet him on the set, but we didn't get an actual interview with him.

And now that I'm four episodes in, I want to see more of his character.

He's so good and he really makes me laugh.

Yeah.

I love his character's take on things as they happen.

Also, I can't believe how many times Ramona and I have almost shared the the screen together.

I feel like, fingers crossed, Ramona, the odds are in our favor here.

Well, maybe in season two of the paper.

Don't put it out there.

That's going to, someone's going to ride it up that we're in season two.

Well, I also love how much input Bimissola had in her character's wardrobe because it reminded me a little bit of Mindy.

how the first instinct for the character of Kelly was for her to be this buttoned up, like high neckline, conservative character that Mindy slowly transformed her.

I just kind of like it that like Bimasola was like, no, from the beginning.

I'm unbuttoning her immediately and from the beginning.

Oh, and also her backstory for her character, that her character lives with her brother and her brother's fiancé and they have the same names.

It was so, so detailed.

I know.

I feel like that is something that would totally make it into an episode someday.

I hope it does.

I thought it was hilarious.

I really loved her story of how she usually stays in her American accent while she's on set.

It must be so wild for her castmates when she is suddenly very British.

I wondered if Donald Gleason stays in his American accent too.

Yeah.

I don't know.

A question for next time.

Yeah.

Okay, everyone.

Thank you for joining us these past few Fridays.

This has been a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Thanks again to Greg for inviting us to the set for that visit.

We will be back next Wednesday with all about Phyllis Lappen and then on September 10th with our breakdown of the pilot of the paper.

See you then.

See you then.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico.

Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Rhys Dennis.

Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.