Felicity Ward has just drained a large bottle of Berocca. And she needs a refill.
The Australian comedian lives in London, but she’s in Sydney on a whirlwind press tour for the Aussie spin-off of The Office, the phenomenal UK (and later, American) series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant that defined cringey, single-camera sitcoms for an entire generation. It’s been a hectic week for Ward, bouncing back and forth between Sydney and Melbourne, plus a three-day blitz in Auckland. Lots of flying, not much downtime and, presumably, a bucketload of Berocca. Ward is ecstatic about it.
“I love comedy so much,” she tells Broadsheet, refill in hand. “I’ve been doing stand-up for 16 years and I still can’t believe I get to do this for a job.”
In this particular job, Ward plays Hannah Howard, the blundering managing director of western Sydney box company Flinley Craddick. She scored the David Brent part, the Michael Scott part. In other words, the part that hardcore fans of the two major series have big feelings about. But it’s a part that’s been cast more than 15 times – The Office is now a global phenomenon, with local versions of the series in Chile, India, Saudi Arabia and beyond. The Aussie one is the latest to join the franchise.
Broadsheet sat down with Ward over a tall yellow fizzy to chat about Australia’s tall poppy syndrome and her approach to the role.
David Brent and Michael Scott are both such iconic characters, but they couldn’t be more distinct. How did you go about making the role your own?
It’s just written differently. It’s written as its own character. I don’t know if [head writer] Julie De Fina had seen my stand-up, but Hannah is so close to me. It’s so uncomfortable. I think I just put more song and dance breaks in. But I do have undiagnosed ADHD, so I didn’t know what part [of the role] was acting and what wasn’t.
It’s reported that Ricky Gervais initially had concerns about the gender flip – is that true?
Not that I know of. He approved it.
Did you have any interaction with him?
No, none at all. I mean, this is Office 13. I don’t want to cast aspersions because I really have no idea. But I imagine if you were Ricky and Stephen [Merchant] you’d probably go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, just go and make another one so we can go back to Ibiza.”
Did you feel the weight of expectation though? Or were you able to brush that aside?
Both. Yes, there was pressure. But I was just so happy that I got the part. I couldn’t believe it. I was so happy every single day on set. It was a dream job. But about five minutes after I got the part I was like, “I’m going to get fucking dragged by the entire world on the internet for this.”
It feels like there’s a lot more discussion around tall poppy syndrome and cultural cringe in Australia and how damaging they can be – not just to the industry, but to the health and longevity of our artists.
It’s really interesting, right? When people leave Australia, then it becomes “our Kylie”, for example. Tim Minchin went over to the UK to do Matilda and now he can just come back and do whatever he wants. Sometimes people have to be successful somewhere else to be accepted here. In London, where I live, everyone keeps talking about the Australian comedy boom and all our female-led comedies. Colin From Accounts is fucking crushing it in the UK. Deadloch was number two on Prime Video when it came out.
What I’ll say is this – I don’t read anything. I haven’t read a single article. I don’t read comments. It’s none of my business.
And why would you bother? It’s pretty toxic out there.
Look, I absolutely understand what it’s like to love something and feel angry that it’s being remade. What’s interesting is that I’m sure most of these people love the American series of The Office. The first season kind of followed the blueprint of the British scripts. But when they started writing original storylines, it turned into something that’s as beloved as the British show. It’s like, do they not see the irony? This exact thing happened 20 years ago.
What was it like working in Parramatta? Have you been there before?
Mate, I did my end-of-year performance at the Riverside Theatre. John Pinder, who started Melbourne Comedy Festival, also used to put shows on there. I know the Riverside well.
I don’t know if this speaks to growing up in a suburban or regional area, but I’m originally from the Central Coast and I love a Westfield. I feel very at home in a massive shopping centre. We were in Parramatta for 10 weeks and I can’t tell you how many hours I spent in that Westfield, just getting lost. It’s like a casino.
Any eating-out tips beyond the Westfield food court?
I ate a lot of Grill’d burgers in that food court. Because the filming hours were so long, it was honestly just a lot of Uber Eats to my apartment, if I wasn’t cooking. But I got a lot of Indian food delivered from the suburb near there.
Harris Park?
Yes! A lot of taxi drivers asked me if I wanted to try the best Indian in Sydney. And I’m like, of course I want to try the best Indian in Sydney.
What were the biggest takeaways from this experience?
I’m going to give you a really daggy answer. When I read Hannah, I thought she was so annoying, so irritating. Things like that. Then when I was filming, someone from make-up would say, “I love Hannah so much.” And I’d think, “oh, you must be mentally unwell”.
But it just went on and on with people from different departments. On the day we wrapped, I had this realisation – I thought people would hate those things about Hannah because I thought people hated those things about me. But actually, they were things I hated about myself, while others probably really liked them. I had a big cry, it was very emotional. What’s really annoying is that I’ve spent a lot of money on therapy. I was like, “Jesus-fucking-Christ, I wish I got the role a few years ago. Life would have been so much easier.”
The other takeaway is that [the experience] gave me a huge amount of gratitude. I’m so grateful this opportunity came along in my forties when I have nothing but appreciation for it. I was able to be present every single day and make the most of this incredible show and this incredible character. If I was in my twenties, I might’ve turned into a little shithead on set. I don’t know how I would’ve handled it. I’m glad I got it now.
The Office Australia is streaming on Prime Video from October 18. Fans can visit the Primeville Sweet Spot pop-up at SXSW x Sydney until October 20.