Dakota Johnson recalls her cameo from The Office finale, and she’s not happy about it. Aired in 2013, the series finale bid farewell to the beloved mockumentary sitcom that ran on NBC for nine seasons. The two-part episode was tasked with saying goodbye to The Office cast and characters, including Steve Carell who returned as Michael Scott, along with introducing a new generation of Dunder Mifflin employees to replace them, one of which included Dakota Johnson as a character named Dakota.
During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, who also appeared in The Office finale, Johnson recalled filming her cameo, calling it “the worst time of my life.”
Johnson says she loved the show and was excited to be part of the series finale. Although she only expected to “show up for like half a day,” she ended up filming for two weeks but still had minimal screen time. Read her full comments below:
That was honestly the worst time of my life. I loved that show so much. They were like, “Do you want to be in the series finale?” And I was like, “Of course,” thinking that I’d show up for like half a day. I was there for two weeks. And I’m barely in the f—king show. They were sad. There were weird dynamics that had been going on for the last 10 years. Some people didn’t speak to each other. And I’m coming in like “So excited to be here!” No one wanted to talk to me. No one gave a f–k.
It’s their fault. And I was like in the background of all of these scenes, faxing things.
The Office’s Alternate Ending Scene Explained (& Why It Didn’t Happen)
The Office’s creator Greg Daniels had another idea for the final scene of the series. Here’s a breakdown of the other ending involving Dunder Mifflin.
The Full Story Behind Dakota Johnson’s Cameo In The Office Finale
At the time The Office finale aired, Dakota Johnson wasn’t as big of a name as she is today. It was before her breakout role as Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey film trilogy, which was released from 2015 to 2018. Before that, she was known for her smaller roles in The Social Network, 21 Jump Street, and The Five-Year Engagement. As such, Johnson’s appearance in The Office finale was always intended to be a small role, and not a celebrity cameo similar to then-Saturday Night Live stars Bill Hader and Seth Meyers appearing as themselves.
Instead, Johnson’s small role was intended to set up a spinoff of The Office. The planned spinoff, which never panned out, would have followed Pete (Jake Lacy), Clark (Clark Duke), and the new generation of Dunder Mifflin employees introduced during the series finale, including Dakota and Malcolm Barrett’s self-named character. However, it became one of the many planned spinoffs of The Office that failed, which in Johnson’s case, is probably for the best considering her negative experience, and it would have significantly altered the course of her career.
The Office
The Office is the U.S. remake of the British comedy mockumentary series of the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a Dunder Mifflin Paper Company branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania, led by their unconventional and clueless boss, Michael Scott. The series covers nine years of footage as they find themselves recorded through their work days and off times.
- Release Date
- March 24, 2005
- Cast
- Mindy Kaling , Jenna Fischer , Kate Flannery , Ed Helms , Craig Robinson , Paul Lieberstein , Ellie Kemper , B.J. Novak , Angela Kinsey , Oscar Nunez , Rainn Wilson , Brian Baumgartner , Phyllis Smith , Leslie David Baker , Creed Bratton , Steve Carell , John Krasinski
- Seasons
- 9
- Writers
- Mindy Kaling , Paul Lieberstein , Michael Schur , Ricky Gervais , Greg Daniels , B.J. Novak
- Network
- NBC
- Franchise(s)
- The Office
- Directors
- Greg Daniels , Paul Lieberstein , Paul Feig , Randall Einhorn , Ken Kwapis
- Showrunner
- Greg Daniels
