‘The Office’: Jan, from Ann Taylor suits to sweats

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Of all the characters on ‘The Office,’ none has undergone a more dramatic transformation than Jan Levenson, played by Melora Hardin. When the show started, Jan was the exasperated straight man not only to Michael (Steve Carell) but to the entire Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. It was clear that she’d rather be dealing with any other group of people. It wasn’t long, however, before Jan made a more regular, self-destructive presence, giving in to her inexplicable attraction to Michael, eventually allowing their relationship to jeopardize her career and, finally, to end it, explosively. Jan began the series as the epitome of rationality and control, but by the end of the third season she embodied complete surrender to impulse and emotion. So what’s going to happen now?

The fourth season didn’t start promisingly for Jan. After being fired (or quitting, depending on your perspective) from her corporate job at Dunder Mifflin in New York, she moved in with Michael, but so far all viewers have seen is an unflattering portrait of her snoring on Michael’s bed and her occasional visits to the Scranton office, in sweats, to visit and insult Ryan (B.J. Novak), who replaced her, and to make threats against Pam (Jenna Fischer), lest she consider making any moves on Jan’s man.

‘I think she’s feeling threatened by everybody right now,’ Hardin says about her character. ‘Jan’s used to being the boss. I think she’s still comfortable in that position and wants to keep a sense of that, her own sanity, but really has very little to hang on to in that regard.’

Thursday’s episode revealed a little more about Scranton Jan. She is restless, spending money wildly, and she clearly hasn’t found herself. ‘I envision she spends her days looking through catalogues, tagging pages, folding down the corners, not necessarily buying much, doing a little online shopping and watching soap operas and reorganizing and redecorating Michael’s apartment,’ Hardin says.

The redecorating of Michael’s condo highlighted a major tension in the couple’s relationship: cash flow. With the loss of Jan’s income and her impulse shopping, Michael finds himself broke, working two jobs and trying to pretend his situation isn’t that bad. This raises a larger question about the two: Can they maintain their affection (or whatever it is) with Jan no longer in the power position?

‘I think their personal dynamic is still similar in that Jan perceives herself as the one who’s completely in control and likes it that way,’ Hardin says. ‘They’re both also still kind of awkward with each other, even though they live with each other, but, you know, I think Michael thinks he’s in control, so that kind of comes out in funny ways.’

Even if Jan has found love, she seems to have lost everything else -- her career and, as she noted in Thursday’s episode, her family and friends. Does this mean we’re going to see her resent Michael for being the impetus of her breakdown? ‘I don’t think she does yet, but that might be something in the air,’ Hardin says. ‘I think she’s trying really hard to commit to this idea of cohabitational bliss, the white picket fence and all that stuff. I don’t think she’s bitter about Michael yet; I think she’s trying to give it her best shot right now.’

Viewers have seen one office couple take off: Pam and Jim (John Krasinski), but they already had a solid base as friends before they began their romance. But it’s unclear if Jan and Michael are friends. Hardin thinks so. ‘I think they are in a certain way. It’s sort of a functioning dysfunctional relationship, in some ways really good for each other. What I always loved about them is that they’re like oil and vinegar: When you mix it really hard and voraciously, you get a nice salad dressing, but if you let it sit there, they just separate. That’s how they are. They need the tension, that whisk. If they get that, they do well together, and if they don’t, they just kind of float into different worlds, which is why the idea of them living together is quite interesting in that they always need a problem to be successful together in a weird way. And now they have the problem of her being unemployed.’

Most of the time the relationship is visceral and physical, so it was charming to see Thursday’s episode end on an emotional note between them. As Michael tried to run away from his financial problems, Jan tracked him down and acknowledged that he’d been there for her during her roughest periods and, maybe more importantly, that he’d remained by her side despite how she had treated him.

What can audiences expect from Jan? ‘I think, ultimately, she’ll start coming apart a little more at the seams, and then probably she’ll have to put her pieces back together again.’

Hardin has had a blast playing Jan. ‘I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘You’re just like someone I worked with,’ or ‘Oh my God, I am Jan,’ or ‘I love Jan.’ She’s such a wonderfully complex character, and there are so many dimensions to her. It’s fun now to see her unraveling in front of your very eyes. She’s going to have to find her way back to being a corporate woman, but I think this is a really excellent and interesting chapter in her character’s life. I’m trying to find where her voice is and where she remains Jan. She’s very different from me, so I have to find the Jan-ism.’

As Jan struggles to find her identity, Hardin has had no such problem. The daughter of actors Jerry and Diane Hardin, she’s been performing since childhood, appearing in television shows such as ‘The Love Boat,’ ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ ‘Quantum Leap’ and ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ in addition to several films. Also an accomplished singer, Hardin has released two albums, ‘Meloradrama’ and ‘Purr,’ but will she show off her singing talent on ‘The Office’? ‘I just don’t know if it suits Jan’s character to be able to sing. It might be funny to see her sing a lullaby to Michael.’

Hardin’s long career in television has given her perspective on the changing format of sitcoms. ‘I guest-starred on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ when I was 12. It was one of those shows that was very structured: The rehearsal was in a rehearsal room, and you’re playing to certain cameras and the laugh track and the applause and all that stuff. Certainly, ‘The Office’ is really different from that and, I think, making new roads toward a whole different flavor of comedy. It’s much drier, more realistic, more cutting-edge. Both styles of shows are fun -- I can’t put the other kind down. It was very exciting when I did ‘Diff’rent Strokes’; it was kind of like doing a live show. You didn’t really stop and start over unless something went horribly wrong. It was a little bit like live TV, so there’s something really fun about that. You get excited and nervous and you’re going to do this show from top to bottom, ‘Five, four, three, two, one: You’re on.’ Here, you have a lot of time to play and make mistakes. You have complete freedom to take big risks that may fail, and if it does you can do it again and do it differently. That makes for a very different kind of experience as an actor.’

One thing Hardin and Jan have in common is that they both lost jobs in fairly high-profile ways. ‘I got cast in ‘Back to the Future,’ to play the girlfriend, which was a two-picture deal at the time, and Eric Stoltz was originally going to play Marty McFly. When Eric Stoltz got let go about a week into production, I was too tall for Michael J. Fox, so I got let go, and I was very sad and burst into tears. Bob Zemeckis and Bob Gale called me at home to tell me they’d work with me again, so I’m still waiting for that call,’ she said, laughing.

Considering that when Jan got fired from Dunder Mifflin she cursed at her former employers and had to be escorted out by security, it’s safe to say that Hardin handled her experience with more grace. Hardin turned out fine. Jan fans can hope for the same, although it may not happen for a while.

-- Claire Zulkey