Office Space is celebrating its 25th anniversary following its delayed path to success, although hopefully no one would get their ass kicked for saying something like that.
Released Feb. 19, 1999, director Mike Judge‘s enduring and endlessly quotable workplace satire follows computer programmer Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston), who decides to stop caring about his day job and teams up with Initech co-workers Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) to defraud the company. The Fox comedy — featuring such on-the-rise performers as Jennifer Aniston, John C. McGinley, Gary Cole and Stephen Root — collected just $10 million at the time but became a cult favorite after finding a following through cable and home video.
Other standouts from the cast include Richard Riehle as engineer liaison Tom Smykowski, who defends his job (“I have people skills!”) to Paul Willson and McGinley as the two Bobs who are put in charge of layoffs. In separate conversations with The Hollywood Reporter, Herman (Bob’s Burgers, The Great North), Riehle (Free Willy, Grounded for Life) and Willson (Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show) discuss the iconic lines that were last-minute additions, tensions with studio brass, the film continuing to resonate and how its slow-burn trajectory impacted both residual paychecks and typecasting.
Jennifer Aniston, director Mike Judge and Ron Livingston on the Office Space set
Courtesy of Everett Collection
How does it feel to hit 25 years since Office Space?
Richard Riehle (engineer liaison Tom Smykowski): Hard to imagine it’s been that long. It seems like just yesterday, and people still talk about it. When I’m recognized, it’s one of the first things they ask about.
Is there a certain line that fans bring up?
Riehle: They like the “Jump to Conclusions” mat, of course. There’s lots of…
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