More than 12 years after bidding farewell to the prickly and pragmatic accountant he played on the acclaimed NBC mockumentary “The Office,” actor Oscar Nuñez is reprising his career-defining role as Oscar Martinez in a new spinoff from the same creative team.
But the Cuban American actor wants to make one thing abundantly clear to die-hard fans of the original Dunder Mifflin Paper Company: “The Paper,” which premieres Thursday on Peacock and has already been renewed for a second season, is more of a spiritual successor than a direct offshoot of “The Office.”
“We’re in a new location in that universe,” Nuñez told NBC News in a recent interview. “It’s a brand-new show with a whole new cast — other than myself being there, because I was part of the deal when they bought the paper company.”
Created by Greg Daniels, who developed the American version of “The Office,” and Michael Koman, “The Paper” finds the same unseen documentary crew, who captured the workplace antics at the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of Dunder Mifflin, heading to Toledo, Ohio, to capture a ragtag group of employees’ last-ditch attempt to turn around a struggling small-town newspaper.
In the early minutes of the pilot episode, the documentary crew reveals that Dunder Mifflin was purchased by Enervate, an Ohio-based conglomerate that sells products made out of paper, in 2019.
Oscar is one of the only Dunder Mifflin employees who decided to relocate himself to the company’s headquarters after the sale, but he is certainly not thrilled to come face-to-face with the same people who prowled around his old workplace. “God, not again! I’m not agreeing to any of this,” he says in the pilot. “You can’t use my voice, my likeness, my face, nothing!” (A title card suggests otherwise: “Yes we can. There’s no end date on the release Oscar signed in 2005.”)
In 2020, seven years after the show ended, “The Office” became the most-streamed show in America, racking up over 57.7 billion total minutes watched and reigniting talks of a reunion or a reboot. According to Daniels, who had openly said that a typical reboot of “The Office” was “not of interest” to him, he took Nuñez “out to lunch a bunch of years ago at a rooftop pool at a Beverly Hills hotel and told him the idea” of a new show centered around paper.
“It’s actually 20 years after the show debuted, which seemed like a good excuse for the doc crew to return and stumble onto a new topic to explore with new characters,” Daniels told NBC News. “I was always worried about a spinoff negatively affecting the original show, but in talking with the original cast in recent years, I realized I was the only one still anxious about that.”
From the outset, Daniels knew he wanted Oscar to be the connective tissue between the two shows. “The reason Oscar works for me, in addition to his great comedy talent, is that his character on ‘The Office’ was maybe the only one who didn’t evolve,” Daniels explained. “He didn’t leave to run a bar, he didn’t move to Austin and get into sports management, he didn’t get married, he didn’t reveal he got a Ph.D. He was pretty much the same person with his self-dignity intact at the end. There was no closure to reopen, and we are free to see what happens to him now without that anxiety that we’re changing the ending of the other show.”
Nuñez, for his part, recalled Daniels asking him “in a very roundabout, general fashion” whether he would be interested in returning to “The Office” universe. The two met multiple times as Daniels was fleshing out the concept, but it wasn’t until Daniels invited him to meet the writers of “The Paper” last year that Nuñez realized the show was actually happening.
Any trepidation that he felt about stepping back into his onscreen alter ego’s shoes was quickly assuaged on the first day of filming.
“It was very exciting. I think Paul Lieberstein might’ve been there [to visit],” Nuñez said, referring to “The Officer” showrunner and actor who played the role of Toby Flenderson. “It was fun to see Paul and Greg, and a lot of the crew was there too. It was a little strange, but I’m playing the same character, so that part was easy.”
The ‘know-it-all’ accountant lands in a newsroom
“I love that he’s a snob, that he’s a know-it-all or thinks he’s a know-it-all. I love people with delusions of grandeur. I think it’s a very funny trait,” the actor said about his character. “It’s kind of the same character, but in a different place with maybe less friends, maybe trying to feel out new people. He’s just trying to make friends, but he hasn’t had any major changes in his psyche; he hasn’t changed the way he thinks about people or anything like that.”
But that is not to say that Oscar is exactly the same person he was during “The Office.” In “The Paper,” Oscar is encouraged to take more risks by idealistic, new editor-in-chief Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), who is the antithesis of Oscar’s former boss, the self-absorbed manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell). Ned initially wants to hire more reporters to expand the paper’s coverage, but after running into budgetary constraints, he convinces the office staff to volunteer as amateur reporters alongside their paid jobs. While working as the head accountant, Oscar ultimately develops an enthusiasm for reporting about the arts.
Since the end of “The Office,” Nuñez has continued to embrace the role that transformed him from a little-known guest star into a fixture on one of the most popular shows of all time, appearing at fan conventions alongside former castmates. He has been particularly touched by the response he has received from younger fans, who are largely responsible for the show’s streaming renaissance.
“I forget my character’s gay because time goes by and years go by, and then I go to a convention and young people come up to me and go, ‘Hey, thank you, man. I came out because of you. You helped me come out.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh s—, that’s right. My character’s gay. You’re welcome. I’m glad I helped,’” Nuñez said. “I get all these thank-yous from these young people that it means so much to, and it’s very moving.”
Nuñez, who has been critical of President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back legal protections for LGBTQ people, said that he thinks “it’s more important now than ever” that his character is gay. “I like representing, defending and celebrating gay culture, especially when it’s under attack,” he said. “It shouldn’t be an issue at all — what color your skin is, or what religion you are, or your sexual orientation. It shouldn’t be anyone’s business. Don’t legislate against people and make their lives horrible, or pick on people or scapegoat people. That’s not right.”
Nuñez knows that nothing will ever be able to compare to “The Office,” which he believes was “just a funny show that holds up” because of “great writing” and a “great cast,” but he believes “The Paper” will appeal to newcomers and die-hards alike.
But as for whether any former Dunder Mifflin employees could pop up in future seasons of “The Paper,” Nuñez insisted those decisions are above his pay grade. “It’s out of my hands. It’s out of their hands. That’s not up to us,” he said. “It’s up to the writing room and whatever ideas they’ll come up with!”
