Trivia / Office Space

• Acclaimed Flop: The film's original release only made $12 million on a $10 million budget, just barely breaking even. Part of this was because of how hard it was to advertise a film like this, with the head of Fox at the time, Tom Rothman, saying this being one of the hardest films he ever had to market in his 35 years of working in the movie industry.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Stephen Root literally begged Mike Judge to let him include a line where Milton describes two squirrels having sex as being "married."
  • Diedrich Bader came up with the gag of Lawrence carrying around his own bottle opener and the line about his cousin who's "broke and don't do shit" during rehearsal.
  • When they were told that the studio was trying to get the film a PG-13 rating, David Herman and several of the other actors agreed to drop as many f-bombs as possible to avoid it.
• Billing Displacement: Promo material and DVD covers present it as if it were a Jennifer Aniston vehicle, but while she does play the Love Interest her role is actually fairly minor. Word of God is the studio insisted Judge hire Aniston specifically so they'd have someone (anyone) famous for the ad campaign. He agreed because he thought she was right for the part and did a good job playing it but the studio wouldn't have cared either way.
• The Cast Show Off: That really is Ajay Naidu break dancing during the party in Peter's apartment.
• Creator Backlash: Mike Judge said making the movie was a very unpleasant experience for him, as the studio "didn’t like the music, they didn’t like the cast, or much of anything", and also disliked the marketing, including the poster with the man covered in Post-Its. He had trouble watching it again without those memories popping up. After the film's success on video and becoming a Cult Classic, he was invited to do a sequel and declined. He said that he never watched the whole movie again for many years until his daughter asked to watch it. Judge has since felt a bit more positive about the film.
• Creator In-Joke: Lumbergh's "Mmmm.... yeah" (i.e., a "yeah" that means "no") was something Mike Judge used to say to musicians asking for help carrying their instruments when he was in a band.
• The Danza: Double Subverted in Joanna's case. The character was originally named Jennifer, but when Jennifer Aniston was cast, they changed the character's name to Joanna to avoid this trope. Except Joanna is Aniston's middle name.
• Defictionalization: ACCO never made a Swingline stapler in red before the film's release but Mike Judge wanted Milton's stapler to be bright red so it would stand out amidst the dull grey office setting, so the exact stapler was painted red by the props department. Afterwards, ACCO reintroduced the model and offered it in red.
• Deleted Scene: A scene was cut from the film which showed Lumbergh reacting angrily to his Porsche getting towed. Gary Cole said he was glad the scene was taken out because he felt the Lumbergh character needed to remain at the same emotional state at all times.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Stephen Root could barely see out of Milton's thick glasses and had to wear contacts just to be able to see at all while wearing them. Even then, he had zero depth perception.
• Executive Meddling: The studio insisted on changing pretty much everything Mike Judge wanted to do with this film, making it a miserable experience for him. The one bit of meddling he didn't mind was the casting of Jennifer Aniston. She was hired because the studio wanted a recognizable face that could be capitalized on, but Judge thought she was a good fit and enjoyed working with her.
• Fake Nationality: Ajay Naidu was born and raised in Illinois and affected an accent to play Samir.
• Prop Recycling: If it were possible to see his ring more closely, you'd find that Bill Lumbergh graduated from Earthforce Academy.
• The Red Stapler: Trope Namer. ACCO had stopped making Milton's stapler years before the movie came out, but after they suddenly had a high demand for a Swingline 747 model stapler in Rio Red, they changed their minds. They haven't looked back.
• Referenced by...:
  • Bill Lumbergh appears in a gag in Family Guy, reprised by Gary Cole (who is also the voice of Principal Shepherd).
  • In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "The Song of Mystery", Mayor Jones (also voiced by Gary Cole) mentions using the Monster of the Week for tourism, t-shirts, concerts, and tchotchkes. The usage of "tchotchkes" was likely a deliberate reference to Chotskie's.
  • Regular Show has an episode where a Bill Lumbergh expy becomes the new park manager.
  • Homestar Runner: Marzipan dresses up as Joanna in the 2017 Halloween cartoon "Haunted Photo Booth", and she even recreates Joanna's Flipping the Bird scene (even though she doesn't have arms). Bubs also dresses up as the man covered in post-it notes from the film's poster in the 2022 Halloween toon "2022 Costume Pack Now Available".
• Spared by the Cut: In a Deleted Scene, Peter and Lawrence discuss Lumbergh's death in the office fire set by Milton. This scene was left out of the final theatrical version, so Lumbergh presumably lives.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Milton was the character who made people take notice of Stephen Root.
  • Lumbergh was the role that brought Gary Cole to notice as a comedic actor.
• Technology Marches On:
  • The floppy disk that Peter and Co. use to load the virus.
  • The printer that the main characters destroy, plus the computers they use in the office (and the OS).
• Throw It In!
  • David Herman ad libbed calling Michael Bolton the singer an "ass-clown" (something he'd heard his girlfriend say the night before) as a last-minute replacement for a much crueler line the filmmakers were told they couldn't use.
  • According to behind the scene featurettes, Mike Judge added the coffee mug to the Lumbergh dream sequence at the last second.
  • "PC Load Letter?? The fuck does that mean?!" was a genuine moment of confusion on David Herman's part when the printer flashed the error message at him during the take, distracting him from his actual line and prompting the one that ended up in the movie.
• Vindicated by Cable: One of the premier examples. The movie pulled in mediocre box office numbers, despite relatively good reviews from critics, but found a second life on premium cable and on home video. Comedy Central's frequent airings brought the movie to an even wider audience, quickly granting it Cult Classic status.
• What Could Have Been:
  • This early script contains a lots of differences, from Initech being named Nycor, Peter losing his temper a lot, Anne disliking Lawrence, and working at Unitrode (in the final film it's called Initrode and referred to a couple times), Joanna being named Jennifer (likely they had to change it to avoid a case of The Danza), and more.
  • Ben Affleck was offered the role of Peter Gibbons.
  • Both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn auditioned for the role of Lawrence, but were ultimately turned down in favor of Diedrich Bader.
  • Kate Hudson read for the part of Joanna.
  • Artie Lange auditioned for Milton.
  • Head of Fox Tom Rothman didn't like the rap music and wanted to cut it out, but Mike Judge asked that they see what test audiences thought first. Sure enough, one of the first notes they got back from the test screenings was how much everyone liked the rap music, so it stayed in.
  • Mike Judge had said that he'd considered doing a sequel to this movie at one point if the offer came up, but he felt like the amount of office-themed comedies that had come up since (such as The Office) filled in the void for it enough.
• Write What You Know: Both the film and the animated shorts which inspired it were based on Mike Judge's time as an engineer at a company similar to Intech.
• Write Who You Know:
  • Milton was actually based on a former co-worker that Mike Judge had worked with during his days as an engineer. One day, Judge went to the co-worker and asked him how he was doing. The co-worker began talking about how he was going to quit his job because he had been forced to move his desk around too many times. "You don't want to know what he does at home after work", Judge replied.
  • During his jobs in Silicon Valley, where he barely made enough to afford his rent, he had a neighbor who was an auto mechanic. Not only did the man make more money, he had flexible work hours and seemed to Judge to be much more content with his life and work than he himself was. The neighbor inspired Lawrence, Peter's neighbor in the film.

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