Parks and Recreation stars Chris Pratt and Jim O’Heir have recalled the former putting his foot down on various “mean-spirited” jokes made about O’Heir’s character Jerry Gergich.
The two co-starred together on all seven seasons of the hit mockumentary, which followed a group of government workers trying to make a difference in their community in a fictional Indiana town.
Pratt, 45, portrayed the idiotic but lovable Andy Dwyer, while O’Heir, 62, played the kind-hearted office klutz Jerry, who was often the butt of the joke.
In his new book, Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation, O’Heir includes an excerpt from a previous conversation he had with Pratt.
“I remember you, particularly more than some others, being worried about some of the Jerry bits being… mean,” O’Heir told Pratt. “I remember you saying, ‘Jimmy, you okay with these?’… Do you remember that feeling at all?”
“I do, I do,” Pratt replied. “I was concerned in some of those moments because I care about you and I love you, and I knew that there were some jokes that were, like, mean. But meaner than they were funny. If it’s a joke, it’s funny. But if it’s mean for the sake of being mean, well, I’m not a huge fan of mean-spirited humor, and I just wanted to check in on you.”
The Guardians of the Galaxy actor remembered putting his “foot down” during one scene.
“There was that time you use the printer and it says something like, ‘Jerry sucks’ on a piece of paper, and I just said, ‘I don’t think that’s funny. I don’t know about it,’” Pratt recounted. “For the most part, I rolled with it, but there were a couple times where I think it went too far and I was concerned for you.”
Going on to express his gratitude, O’Heir said: “Just so you know, that meant the world to me. You checked in on me, [Amy Poehler] checked in on me, and it’s not like I expected everyone to check in on me, but the fact that you did was so special.
“You have the biggest heart, and I don’t mean it from a medical perspective,” he added.
In celebration of the 15-year anniversary of the 2009 debut of Parks and Recreation, O’Heir spoke to The Independent, revealing that he had initially auditioned for the role of the mustachioed and straightfaced Ron Swanson, which ultimately went to Nick Offerman.
“I initially auditioned for Ron Swanson but two weeks later, I got a call saying they wanted me to consider auditioning for Jerry,” O’Heir explained.
“My agents didn’t know if I should do it because they’d been told that they didn’t know what was going to happen with this character and they didn’t want me to feel like an extra. I thought, these are the guys who did The Office and I knew what had happened to Kevin, Phyllis, Stanley, Angela. All of those side characters had become major players. For me it was a no-brainer. I said: ‘I’ll risk it.’”
Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation is out now.
