Rashida Jones was at peace when it was time to clock out of work for good.
On Tuesday’s episode of the “Good Hang” podcast, the actress, 49, got candid on briefly appearing on “The Office” as Karen Filippelli, who was an employee of Dunder Mifflin’s Stamford branch.
“I had done a year on ‘The Office’ and they let me go, which made sense. It made sense,” Jones told host Amy Poehler, who the actress co-starred with on “Parks and Recreation” for seven seasons.
“You had such a tough job there, because everybody wanted Jim and Pam, and then guess who shows up? A very likable, cool… and everyone was like, ‘Oh no, wait,” the host replied.
Karen went head to head with Jenna Fischer’s Pam for Jim’s affection.
“It did not feel that way,” Jones quickly stated. “People did not like me. Like, fans were not about it.”
Karen first appears in episode 1 of Season 3 in 2006, when Jim (John Krasinski) has just transferred from Scranton to the Stamford branch.
The two flirt back and forth until Jim dumps Karen in the season finale. In real life, Jones and Krasinski, 45, briefly dated.
Jones now realizes that her character’s purpose was to “create tension for the relationship” between Jim and Pam “to be earned later.”
“So I was the third point in the triangle. It’s fine. I accept it,” she told Poehler, 53.
Jones returned to the series as Karen for two episodes in Season 4, one episode in Season 5, and eventually for a final episode in Season 7.
When the last episode “Threat Level Midnight” aired in 2011, Jones was already in full swing as Ann Perkins on Season 3 of “Parks and Recreation.”
Jim O’Heir, who played Jerry Gergich on “Parks and Rec,” spoke about the connection between the two comedies in his 2024 memoir “Welcome to Pawnee.”
The actor, 63, wrote that “The Office” creator Greg Daniels initially created the seven-season series as a spinoff of “The Office” tentatively titled “The Stamford Branch.”
Jones would have acted as the link between the two series if it came to fruition.
Poehler revealed on her “Good Hang” podcast that she and Jones, who were longtime friends prior to the show, were both approached about a potential spinoff.
“We both were worried that we had taken each other’s part,” the “Mean Girls” actress said.
When Poehler landed the lead role as Leslie Knope, she asked Jones to lunch to break the news.
“‘I’m so sorry, they offered me the part,’” Poehler recalled saying. “Both of us thinking it was the same part I was on hold for, being created by a friend of ours.” But soon after, Jones was offered the part of Ann Perkins.
