The Truth About Billie Eilish's Obsession With The Office
Billie Eilish is famous for many reasons, including her impressive singing ability, her distinctive style, and her historic Grammys sweep. One thing you may not know about the 18-year-old singer is that she's absolutely obsessed with The Office. Stars: They're just like us!
As of May 2019, Eilish had seen the show 12 times (though we're sure that number has increased since then). By this point, she knows the show so well that she has all the scenes memorized (via Variety). She's even featured The Office in her music.
Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on The Office, once quizzed Eilish on her knowledge of the show for Billboard. Before diving into the trivia, he asked her: "In all seriousness, how have you watched the show 12 times and you have an album and you're headlining arenas?" Honestly, that's a great question. Let's dive into just how Billie Eilish manages to feed obsession with The Office in the midst of her busy music career.
Billie Eilish pretty much watches 'The Office' constantly
In an interview with Variety, Billie Eilish explained that she watches TV on her phone — A LOT. "I'm actually almost always watching something on my phone, all the time. Like day in and day out, I'm watching something," she told the outlet. "And it's normally The Office."
Eilish talked to Rainn Wilson about just how faithfully she watches the show, explaining that she's tuned in "As soon as I wake up and when I brush my teeth and when I go to the bathroom, when I take baths and s**t (via Billboard). Based on that information, it's a bit easier to understand how Eilish has managed to watch the show so many times. Considering the fact that Eilish has seen all nine seasons of The Office at least a dozen times, it's not surprising that she can now identify which scene is playing simply by listening to the audio — which she does, sometimes, for fun.
"If I hear the audio, I'm picturing what the scene is," she told Variety. "Yesterday, I had my phone lying face down on my bed and I was drawing, and it was just the audio from The Office. I was listening to the audio!"
Billie Eilish sampled 'The Office' in one of her songs
Given the fact that Billie Eilish is an award-winning songwriter who watches (and listens to) The Office on a very consistent basis, it's only natural that she would eventually be inspired to include The Office in her music.
Eilish's song "my strange addiction" from the 2019 album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? features multiple samples of audio from The Office. The samples come from the episode "Threat Level Midnight," according to Rolling Stone. Eilish used dialogue from the episode at the beginning of the song and throughout the track. Fellow diehard Office fans will recognize the voices of Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) and Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling).
"When we made the beat for 'my strange addiction,' it reminded me of the song they play when they do the Scarn dance," Eilish explained to MTV, referencing a dance that the characters do in the episode. "I thought that was really funny, so we literally just ripped the audio from Netflix and put it in the song, not at all thinking that they would say yes to it and we'd be able to put it out. Also, it's about strange addictions, and The Office is mine, so..."
Billie Eilish has met multiple alums from 'The Office'
Former cast members of The Office love that Billie Eilish used their show in her music. Steve Carell, who played Michael Scott, told Ellen DeGeneres that he "got a lot of cred, especially with my daughter" because of the sample. Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin, also felt like Eilish's nod to the show made the cast seem cooler (if that's even possible). "I love that she sampled The Office," Kinsey said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. "Maybe it gives us street cred, I don't know. We're not very hip."
The singer has met some alumni from the cast, including Kinsey, and, like any Office fan, she took a photo with Kinsey and posted it to her Instagram. In the shot, the singer was visibly excited, flashing a somewhat rare smile. When she met Rainn Wilson in 2019, the actor quizzed Eilish on her Office knowledge. Questions included the name of Jan's candle company and the full name of the charity 5K fun run. Eilish did a great job, earning a special handmade reward that looked like the one from the show's "Office Olympics" episode — yogurt lid and all. For an ultimate fan like Eilish, it was surely the perfect prize.