Rashida Jones opens up about her exit from The Workplace after taking part in Karen for a yr: ‘Folks didn’t like me’

Mar 27, 2025 04:46 PM IST
Rashida Jones’ time on The Workplace was transient, and in accordance with her, not notably nice.
American actor Rashida Jones was a part of the favored American sitcom The Workplace for a short interval, and it might not have been essentially the most gratifying expertise for her. Throughout Tuesday’s episode of the Good Cling podcast, the 49-year-old actor mirrored on her short-lived function as Karen Filippelli, an worker on the rival Dunder Mifflin Stamford department and a romantic competitor to Jenna Fischer’s Pam for the eye of John Krasinski’s Jim.
“I had performed a yr on The Workplace they usually let me go, which made sense. It made sense,” Jones instructed host Amy Poehler. Amy, who later starred alongside Jones in Parks and Recreation for seven years, tried to reassure her. “You had such a tricky job there, as a result of all people needed Jim and Pam, after which guess who exhibits up? A really likable, cool… and everybody was like, ‘Oh no, wait.'”
Rashida, nevertheless, was fast to push again towards this sentiment. “It didn’t really feel that means,” she responded. “Folks didn’t like me. Like, followers weren’t about it.”
Karen was first launched within the opening episode of the present’s third season when Jim transferred from Scranton to Stamford. Seeking to modify to his new office, he was pleasantly shocked when Karen jokingly teased him about his tendency to look straight on the digicam. Their connection grew right into a relationship that had the potential to final—till Jim abruptly broke up with Karen within the season finale.
Now, Rashida acknowledges the aim her character served throughout the bigger narrative. “I perceive now that my function was to create stress for the connection. So I used to be the third level within the triangle. It is fantastic. I settle for it,” she defined.
Though her major run on the sequence ended after season three, Rashida returned as Karen for 2 episodes within the fourth season, one episode within the fifth, and made a closing cameo within the season seven episode titled Risk Degree Midnight.
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