ONTD

On rhyming her name with vagina: “The problem was I was registered in school under the name Regina Fischer, so in the first homeroom every year they would call out ‘Regina Fischer’ and I’d be like, ‘It’s Jenna.’ But one day in fifth grade we had a substitute teacher. She was going down the roster, and she said, ‘Reg-eye-na.’ So all the kids on the school bus that day called me Reg-eye-na Vagina. But that was the only time. No permanent scarring.”

On losing an Emmy: “Rainn Wilson and I refer to ourselves as Emmy-losing actors. We’ll be on set in a scene, and I’ll be like, ‘Seriously everyone, be quiet — Emmy-losing actor about to work.’ Maybe everyone should have something like that. Did you win the fifth-grade spelling bee? You can go with whatever your highest achievement is. That should precede your name at all times.”

On sharing a personal secret that is past its expiration date: “One night when I was young I came home wearing a pair of boxers, and I claimed I was at my friend Ellen’s house. I was at a boy’s house, and they were his boxers. So there. My parents can read that and ground me.”


On keeping her The Office character Pam “authentic”: “To keep Pam authentic, I’ve held back from doing some things. I haven’t had my teeth whitened. I haven’t gotten porcelain veneers. And you’ll notice other things if you look carefully. I don’t get Mystic Tan treatments, for example, or any of that stuff. I need to keep it real so Pam can always look like a believable girl, not suddenly all plasticky like a movie star.”

On making People magazine’s 100 most beautiful celebrities in 2006: “I was so tickled by that because I loved the ‘Most Beautiful’ issue when I was a little girl. I got it every year. I still have one with Julia Roberts on the cover, because I was just oh so excited. Now I think I’m going to put it in my movie contract that they have to call me ‘37th Most Beautiful Person 2006, Emmy-losing actress Jenna Fischer.’”

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