Wendi McLendon-Covey, a series regular onThe Goldbergs and Reno 911! and the current NBC comedy St. Denis Medical, and also seen in movies like Bridesmaids, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, and the criminally underdiscussed jazz-world melodrama Sylvie’s Love is — and we need to state this loud and clear — awesome and hilarious and gorgeous. But some schmuck producer somewhere out there in Hollywood doesn’t agree, and hopefully some internet sleuths will figure out who the person is and shame them.
McLendon-Covey made a recent appearance on the Office Ladies podcast hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. If you recall, Wendi played Marie, a Winnepegian hotel concierge that hooks up with Steve Carell on The Office‘s season 5 episode “Business Trip.” Though she shot her (very memorable) scenes rather quickly, her time on The Office set was sandwiched between two slaps in the face.
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“I had just been fired off a movie,” McLendon-Covey recalled. “I had auditioned. I had done all these things. They flew me out to Michigan. I was there one night, got in the passenger van to go to set, and the money guy decided I was not pretty enough to do the role. So I was put on a plane crying to go right back to L.A.”
After gasps, forehead smacking and a “Holy crap!” from Fischer, McLendon-Covey decided to rise above the incident and not mention the name of the film or the “money guy” who fired her. She even framed the story in a positive way.
“It was pretty brutal and yet a blessing because that movie went nowhere,” she added. “And I would have had to be in Michigan for seven weeks waiting to film for only five days, on intermittent days.”
She theorized that “sometimes you’re in the wrong place, and something horrible has to happen to get you in the right place.” And that right place was with Michael Scott.
“When I land in L.A.,” she explained, “I look at my phone, and my phone’s blowing up because I had gotten an offer to do The Office. The next day. So thank god I got fired, right? Because nobody saw that movie, but everybody saw this.” Mic drop!
NBC
McLendon-Covey then talked about how much fun it was to work with (and kiss) Steve Carell, but added that there were other troubles happening in her career at the time.
“[We began on] a Friday. The weekend goes on. Monday, I come back, and during lunch, I’m in my trailer eating. I get a call that I’m not gonna be on Reno anymore,” she said.
“So, I am sobbing in my trailer. I was like, ugh. I mean, I was like, ‘Well, now I’m gonna get fired from this job because I can’t collect myself. It was terrible.”
Comedy Central
Rough week! Who can’t relate?
McLendon-Covey, whose career has more than bounced back ever since, concluded, “But the experience was so [much] fun, and Steve Carell is a doll. I love the way the episode turned out.”
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For more of Wendi McLendon-Covey’s stories on Office Ladies, which are not all tales of woe, you can check out the link below.
