NEED TO KNOW
- The Office star Phyllis Smith opened up about how she believes her character Phyllis Lapin started dating her eventual husband, Bob Vance
- Though The Office viewers saw her marry Bob, they never saw the characters’ courtship and how they got engaged
- Smith said she and the character both ‘evolved’ over the show’s nine seasons
When you think of love stories on The Office, you might think of Pam and Jim, but there was another one some fans loved even more: the romance between Phyllis Lapin and Bob Vance.
On the Sept. 3 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, actress Phyllis Smith answered questions about her character and her romance with Bob Vance (played by Robert Ray Shafer). One fan asked, “How does Phyllis think her character met Bob Vance? I would have loved to see the courtship.”
Smith revealed she had her own backstory for the couple. “In my own mind, I always thought it would be humorous if I helped Bob change the tire on his car,” she said. “Here is this really capable, strapping, strong man, and he needed help getting his flat tire changed in the parking lot at Dunder Mifflin. So I always thought it would be funny. In my own mind, I helped Bob change the flat tire on his car.”
She also had her own canon for the couple’s relationship and how they got engaged. “As far as our romance, I always imagine that when Bob asked me to marry him, he rented out the booze cruise just for us,” Smith said, referencing the iconic season 2 episode “Booze Cruise.”
“No one else was on it. He took me on the booze cruise, and it was just Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration and myself, and it was very romantic and really lovely,” Smith said.
She also revealed that Shafer, 67, had his own backstory for their romance. “I believe I read somewhere that he thought of Phyllis as the girl that he cared so much for in high school,” the Inside Out star said. “Evidently, there was someone in his life that he really cared for, and he treated me as if I was that person that he cared so much for in high school.” She also shared that in real life, Shafer’s parents were named Phyllis and Bob.
In the series, Phyllis, a sales representative at Dunder Mifflin, revealed in the season 2 episode “Christmas Party” that she and Bob, who runs Vance Refrigeration out of the same building, are dating. In the season 3 premiere, “Gay Witch Hunt,” she reveals they’re engaged. The couple gets married in an episode that season titled “Phyllis’ Wedding,” where Pam (Jenna Fischer) learns that Phyllis copied everything from her canceled wedding to Roy (David Denman).
Smith said on the podcast, “I really loved how my character, as Phyllis, evolved. I think that as I gained more confidence in my work and was watching and learning on the set, that my personal confidence grew stronger and therefore the character of Phyllis had more layers to her.”
Smith was cast in the series when she was working as a casting associate for the show’s casting director, Allison Jones. The character was written for her specifically, and she appeared in all nine seasons of the show, from 2005 to 2013.
Though Phyllis seemed shy in the beginning, she said that over time, the writers saw her personality in different ways. “Some saw me as shy, others saw me as frisky, others saw me as bitchy,” she said.
“I think Phyllis really evolved in the nine seasons,” she said. “I was very happy that when I looked back on it, it was pretty, pretty wonderful. I really enjoyed it.”
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