We all know what show Jennifer Aniston is best known for. Of course, she's taken part in other TV series and has had roles in numerous other projects. But very few of them have earned genuine cult status. But this isn't true for Office Space.
The 1999 film by King of the Hill creator Mike Judge has an absolute box-office flop. In fact, it was deemed 'wildly unsuccessful... that is until years later when it was seen as a 'cult classic'. This is because the hilarious movie found a fanbase. A fanbase who adored everything about this slightly strange movie, especially the cast. Here's the truth about how Mike Judge and his team brought together one of the stars of the most famous sitcom and a host of other talented individuals...
It Was Ron Livingston Or Matt Damon...
Since Office Space was a low-budget movie, there wasn't a lot of pressure from Fox Studios for Mike Judge to cast A-List talented. Instead, the studio told Mike to find the best actors for each role, regardless of who they were or if they had a following. However, this changed. Soon enough, Fox decided that Mike absolutely needed to hire some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
"Then Fox wanted us to pursue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. This was post-Good Will Hunting. They weren’t exactly unknown," Nancy Klopper, the film's casting director, said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
As Mike Judge said in the same interview, the crew of the film were suddenly put under a lot of pressure to hire big actors. In fact, they hated every single person that Mike was choosing to hire because they weren't famous enough. This caused Mike to have a conversation with his manager Michael Rotenberg, who also produced Office Space, about possibly leaving the project.
"I’d signed Mike as a client a week before Beavis and Butt-Head premiered on MTV," Michael Rotenberg said. "Characters are like real people to him, so Fox wanting Matt Damon was hard when Mike’s saying, 'But Peter [the character] doesn’t have star energy.'"
Given that it's really hard to actually attach big names to a project, Mike decided that he would fly from Los Angeles to New York to meet with Matt Damon, who was a fan of his work. At the same time, Ron Livingston's agent phone up and asked if he could audition for a role. At the time, he known for a few TV comedies but really wasn't a hot commodity or a proven movie star, to say the least. However, the fact that he was in Swingers with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, who both became successful after the movie, the studio wasn't completely opposed to him. More importantly, Ron blew his audition out of the water.
"Mike writes in a very specific cadence. When Ron read I was like 'Oh my God.' I was knocked out," Nancy said. "I FedEx’d Ron’s tape to Mike in New York and wrote, 'You’re not going to believe this guy.'"
Even though Mike did sit down with Matt Damon, he far preferred Ron for the role of Peter.
"My reps called on a Friday and said the studio wanted me to screen-test on Tuesday," Ron Livingston said to Entertainment Weekly. "'They’re wondering if you could fast until then?' I laughed. 'Good one.' It was silent. 'I think they’re serious.' I was like 'I can try?' I didn’t think I needed to be chiseled for this role. So I jumped rope all weekend. Actually, I think I only made it to Saturday."
Jennifer Aniston Opened The Door For Everyone Else
While the studio was 'okay' with the choice to hire Ron Livingston in the role of Peter, they made a demand for another character.
"The studio said, 'If you don’t have a big name for Peter, you have to have one for Joanna.'" Nancy explained.
Given the fact that Friends was just about the biggest thing in the world in the late 1990s, it made sense that the crew of Office Space approached Jennifer Aniston. Luckily for them, she absolutely adored the script. But many were concerned that she was too big of a name for such a small role.
"I don’t think I was the biggest anything at the time," Jennifer Aniston, who played Joanna, said to Entertainment Weekly. "I was excited about doing a comedy like Office Space; features like that weren’t flying my way at that point."
"Fox had said we needed to cram in more comedy," Mike Judge said. "The courtroom dream sequence was Sanford’s suggestion. The 'pieces of flair' stuff came from a consensus that Jennifer needed more scenes. Those were last-minute adds. Having her in the movie definitely added pressure. I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining her career."
Because of casting Jennifer Aniston, Office Space could get away with casting virtually unknown actors in the other roles as the studio could push Jennifer's inclusion in their marketing material. Of course, this didn't prove to be enough when the movie was actually released and didn't make money. But Mike's choice to skip out on big names ended up being one of the reasons why fans found the movie years after it's released.
"Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn both auditioned for Peter’s neighbor, Lawrence, but Diedrich Bader brought something special to it. Kate Hudson also read for Peter’s girlfriend. She was adorable," Nancy explained of the big actors who were passed on.
While names like Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson definitely sound appealing, Mike Judge had a vision to casting more ordinary actors. This added a degree of authenticity and was nothing more than a stroke of brilliance.