Actor Jim O’Heir takes a loving look back at ‘Parks and Recreation’

If you’re a fan of the hilarious sitcom, “Parks and Recreation,” you know Jim O’Heir as the lovable Jerry. But he’s also known as Garry/Larry/Terry/Barry. It depends on the episode.

O’Heir chronicles the show’s seven successful seasons in a very funny new book called, “Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation.”

When O’Heir recently spoke with WPR’s “BETA” host Doug Gordon, he marveled at the improv prowess of the tightly-knit cast, reflected on favorite scenes and talked about the serendipity of the casting process.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Jim O’Heir: My first audition was actually not for the role that I ended up becoming known for, Jerry Gergich. I auditioned for Ron Swanson, which is played by the brilliant, to say the very least, Nick Offerman.

Mike Schur and Greg Daniels had brought “The Office” from the U.K. So “The Office” blew up and it was the big show. And (NBC was) like, “Come on, give us more, give us more, give us more.” So they actually asked for a spin-off of “The Office,” but Mike and Greg got together and they were like, “Yeah, we want to do something set in the world of government rather than the private sector like Dunder Mifflin.”

And so, everybody wants in. So it was the talk. There was chatter amongst the actor folks, because at the time it was called the “Untitled Amy Poehler Project.” And that’s all I knew of it, other than it’s already got an order to go on the air.

So, yeah, I went in for Ron Swanson. For fans of the show, you know that Ron is very strict and stern. He’s this staunch libertarian and, you know, he’s that guy. And I would love to see what I did. I remember doing a stern take, but thankfully I did something that piqued their interest to bring me back when the role of Jerry was going to come down the pike. And that was weeks later.

After I did the initial audition, they called me for the role of Jerry, and that role had not even been created. They had to write material for the audition because it did not exist. But through whatever miracle of the acting gods, they put my a– in one of those seats.

Doug Gordon: So how did Nick Offerman get the job as Ron Swanson? How did he get that gig?

JO: Well, for the diehard fans, the thought of anyone other than Nick playing it makes no sense. I was so fortunate because the creators, Mike and Greg, both sat down with me and gave me all of their stories about the show, how it came together. And one of the amazing stories that I did not know: Nick Offerman is married to Megan Mullally, who plays Karen in “Will and Grace.” Now, as life is going on, Nick had auditioned for “The Office,” and there was a part that he was going to get. And he had to end up turning it down because he was offered a part on “Will and Grace,” and that’s his wife’s show, and of course he went and did it.

The crazy part is if he had done that guest spot, he would not have done “Parks and Recreation.” He would not be Ron Swanson because they had already had one cross-over character. Rashida Jones, who played Karen on “The Office,” was playing Ann, Leslie’s counterpart on “Parks and Rec.” And so other than that, they did not want characters crossing over. They did not want actors crossing over from one show to the other. So that always blows my mind. Nick did such a great job in that audition for “The Office,” he just stuck in Mike’s head. So Mike wrote down on a little post-it, the name Nick Offerman, and he put it on his computer.

And when the time came to cast Ron Swanson, he was at the top of the list. And Allison, the casting director, reminded me I had also auditioned for “The Office” and I didn’t get it. And I remember being so, like, “Damn.” Because auditions, you have to let them go. I think statistically they say if you book one out of 10 auditions, you’re doing well. Which means 90 percent of the time, you’re told no. It’s a very tough business. But Allison said, “Jim, had you gotten it, I would not have put you forward to ‘Parks and Recreation.’”

So, you know, life is crazy. Things that upset us, maybe there’s a reason. And I think there was definitely a reason for that.

DG: You played a man of many names on “Parks and Rec.” The loveable Jerry,  alias Garry, Larry, Terry, Barry. How did Jerry get so many aliases?

JO: Mike Schur would tell you his goal was that it would somehow turn into a “Jeopardy!” question. Like, “What television character had five names over the run of the series?” So that is what the plan was. And it was just a bit. And it was so confusing on set when they would change my name because now when characters call me by this new name, I’ve been this other name this whole time. So like, Amy would go, “OK, and then I tell Jerry…” And then, “Cut! Amy, he’s Larry now.”

Jerry is such a sweet person. He’s not a troublemaker. He started work and his boss called him, accidentally, Jerry instead of Garry. And he thought it would be impolite to correct him. And so he went through the rest of his career, until they kept changing his name, being called Jerry. Jerry Gergich is an overly sweet man.

DG: You were on “Parks and Rec” for all seven seasons and every single episode. How did the character of Garry Gergich evolve over that time?

JO: The first day when we started shooting, Greg Daniels directed the episode and he said to Amy, “Why don’t you do an improv set and just walk around the room and talk to all the different characters?” And so she did that, which was a little terrifying because Amy is the queen of improv. So she came by. It turns out props had put an empty jar on my desk. And she goes, “Oh, what’s this for?” And Jerry said, “Oh, that’s my swear jar.” And she said, “But it’s empty.” I go, “Well, I don’t swear.” So it got a bit of a laugh.

But what changed it all was in season two. There’s an episode where the cast members are trying to get dirt on each other. And Jerry’s very uncomfortable with this game. He doesn’t like it because he thinks it can hurt people’s feelings. But he finally goes along. And at the time, there’s a character named Mark Brendanawicz, played by Paul Schneider. And Mark comes walking in and Jerry had found out that Mark had two unpaid parking tickets. And he thought he had something big. So he’s like, “You know, Mark, I hear that you have two unpaid parking tickets.” And Mark looks at me and he goes, “Oh, really, Jerry? A little birdy told me your adoptive mother was arrested for marijuana possession.” And then they cut to Jerry, and I’m just downtrodden. Like, “What? I didn’t know I was adopted.” And that’s when they said, “That’s who Jerry is! Jerry is going to be the guy who’s kind of a step behind.”

Once that bit worked big time, they started writing to that. And then they got to know me, so they’re writing to my voice, they’re writing to who Jerry is. And Mike will tell you, it got to the point where he was like, “OK, we have to stop writing mean things to do to Jerry because there’s other stuff to write.” And it’s so easy to do. Writers love writing stuff like that. But that was the turning point for Jerry Gergich.

DG: As you mentioned about Amy Poehler, alias Leslie Knope, she’s the queen of improv. Who do you think could give her a run for her money?

JO: Well, I will tell you, there’s a man out there named Ben Schwartz. He played Jean-Ralphio on the show. And I think he’s brilliant. He’s absolutely brilliant. There were times in the script it would just say, “Let Ben do his thing.” When I think of improvisation, I think he is the gold standard.

DG: Wow. “Parks and Rec” has produced some pretty epic bloopers and outtakes. Can you think of a scene that was notoriously hard to get through without someone breaking?

JO: First of all, every day there were scenes that were hard to get through because we just made each other laugh. But there’s, you know, scenes that have broken the Internet, like Chris Pratt with the Kardashians. You can look it up.

The scene where Jerry had to bend over, his pants split and I farted. We took forever to get through that. And that one was even tougher because the wardrobe department had pre-split the pants. So there’s more at stake. They only have so many pair of pants. And so when we would ruin a take by laughing, I know the producers probably weren’t as thrilled. I loved all that stuff because if we were laughing, that meant we were having a great day.

And not just with this cast, who was amazing. But the crew. The crew are my buddies, these are my pals. The camera department, we still go out looking for barbecue. It’s these amazing people who you spend 12 to 14 hours a day with. I mean, it was also work. We got good work done. But I never dreaded going into work.

DG: Which episode and or season of “Parks and Rec” are you most proud of?

JO: Wow. Here’s what I’ll say about the seasons. You know, the gift and the curse of getting a season order instead of just a a pilot is that you just start shooting and you can’t figure some things out. Where if you do a pilot, you can go, “Well, this worked, this didn’t work. Let’s tweak this.” So when we started, people thought that Leslie Knope, Amy Poehler, was too much like Michael Scott. Steve Carell has already nailed that. So it turned some people off. So season two is when they figured out who Leslie Knope is. So I love that.

But I feel, Jim O’Heir, as a biased actor on the show, the seasons got stronger and stronger. I have some favorite scenes just because as an actor, it’s fun to play. The Jerry farting and splitting his pants scene? I’m sorry, I was born for that.

DG: Did you learn anything new about yourself or your cast mates while writing “Welcome to Pawnee“?

JO: I learned so much that I did not know. I learned the Nick story about how he would not have been cast. I learned the story I wouldn’t have been cast. I learned that Amy Poehler wasn’t the first one cast on the show, it was Aziz. They didn’t even have a script yet, and they cast Aziz.

I’m so grateful and have to thank the cast and the producers who opened up their schedules to sit with me and tell me these stories. Chris Pratt, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but he’s a busy boy. He found hours to sit down with me and talk about this. Pratt was in a tight spot when “Parks” happened. Agents wouldn’t return phone calls. I laugh now. Imagine him not getting a return phone call from an agent.

And that’s my favorite thing for the fans. I’m always saying, “You guys, if I didn’t know it and I was there for every single episode, I know you didn’t know it.” We’re at the 10-year anniversary of being off the air, and it’s still one of the most important shows, emotionally, and career-wise, that all of us have ever done. It was the game changer for all of us.

Amy Poehler did a live event with me. Retta did a live event with me. Aubrey Plaza did a thing in New York. They gave me their time. They get nothing out of it other than they’re my friends and they want to help me out. And that’s who these people are.