“The Office” star Angela Kinsey opened up in a recent podcast appearance about the few times her own faith caused her to speak out against certain jokes made on the popular sitcom.
Kinsey, who played Angela Martin on the long-running show, talked about her Christian faith and her years on “The Office” with former co-star Rainn Wilson on the April 23 episode of his podcast, “Soul Boom.”
Wilson, who played Dwight on the show, asked Kinsey what it was like playing an “uptight Christian” when she was raised having a “very warm, meaningful relationship” with her faith and the church.
Kinsey explained how there were a few times when a joke was written for her character that she felt pigeonholed Christians and didn’t really reflect their views.
In one episode during the show’s third season, she recalled her character being given a line she felt was “super judge-y” against Oscar, a gay character on the show.
Kinsey said she felt the line didn’t reflect something a true Christian would say, and talked to “Office” producer and showrunner Greg Daniels about it.
“Yeah, actually, there were one or two times in which there would be a joke written for her that I thought was just really stereotypical, maybe one note. I like to think of her as a full, well-rounded person. I do remember I remember there was a particular storyline between Angela and Oscar, where Angela was being super judge-y. I never went up to Greg about any joke, but there was a joke at Oscar’s expense, and I went up to Greg [Daniels] and I was like, ‘I can’t.’”
Kinsey said she recalled the character invoking Jesus in the line and felt bothered by it.
“I just was like, ‘I don’t feel good about it. I don’t feel good about that. I don’t feel like that’s what Jesus represented to me,’” she told Daniels.
“And he was like, ‘OK.’ And he heard me, and he took the joke out. And the episode, it was ‘Gay Witch Hunt,’ had so many already. But that’s the one pivotal moment I remember being like, OK, this is feeling like a stereotype and very one note. I feel like she has more depth than that,” Kinsey continued.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives of Daniels for comment.
After telling this story, Wilson and Kinsey discussed religion and the importance of prayer in their lives.
Kinsey shared memories of her mother reading the Bible and her father leading “grace” at dinnertime.
Remarkably, Wilson suggests they “say grace” right then in the podcast. He goes on to thank God for his podcast team and the opportunity to share in conversation with his former co-star.
Wilson recently published a book calling for a “spiritual revolution,” and is an adherent of the Baha’i faith, a deistic religion founded in 19th century Iraq.
The actor made headlines last May when he called out anti-Christian bias in Hollywood.
“I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. As soon as the David character in ‘The Last of Us’ started reading from the Bible I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain,” he tweeted. “Could there be a Bible-reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind?”
Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
