The Office Actress Says She Got a Lot of Hate from Fans After Her Character Cathy Became a ‘Wedge’ Between Jim and Pam

• Lindsey Broad opened up about her tenure as Cathy Simms in season 8 of The Office during the April 30 episode of The Office Ladies podcast
• Broad said that she had no idea at first that her character, who was a temp worker filling in for Jenna Fischer’s Pam, was going to put a “wedge” between Jim and Pam on the series
• Broad said that though fans in real life are always happy to meet her, online fans have been more cruel, including after her dog died

When Lindsey Broad got hired to appear in one episode of The Office as Cathy Simms, she was excited. But she didn’t know what would come next. 

Broad, 41, appeared on the April 30 episode of The Office Ladies podcast and spoke to hosts Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer (who played Angela and Pam, respectively, on the series) about joining the show and how things changed when she realized her character would try to come between the series’ golden couple, Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam.

Broad shared that she found out just the night before that she had been cast as Cathy, a temp worker who fills in during season 8 in 2011 when Pam is on maternity leave. She was a big fan of the show, telling the podcast hosts, “I had watched all it from the beginning and it was the first time I had ever had a job on a show that I had watched. It was very surreal.”

But she had no idea that Cathy was going to become a “wedge” between the show’s central couple. “I knew I was hired for one episode. I knew it had the potential to recur. And I had absolutely no information other than the fact that the character was described as ‘Scranton hot,’ ” she said, referencing the Pennsylvania town where the series was set. 

Broad said she would find out at the “last possible second” if she was coming back for another episode, and she said that the writers had a hard time figuring out what they ultimately wanted the character to be. “I think the word they were looking for Cathy was basic, but that wasn’t a word in the vernacular at the time,” she said. She ultimately appeared on 12 episodes.

In her very first episode, her character and Krasinski’s Jim joke about their love of Zoolander together, and Broad remembered thinking her character was “kind of a cool girl.” When she realized later that the writers were including a flirtation with Jim, she said, “I was just like, ‘Oh no. Oh no.’ I was excited because I was like, ‘Oh, well, this will be fun. I’ll have stuff to do.’ But I just remember being like, ‘Oh, no.’ ”

Broad said “nobody really came for” her the first time the episode aired. It was when the episode re-aired in syndication and found new fans on streaming that “all of a sudden, that’s when I started feeling a lot of attention.”

Fischer, 51, said that Broad, Rashida Jones, Rich Sommer and Chris Diamantopoulos — who all played characters who tried to become involved with either Pam or Jim — “should all start a support group.”

Broad said that the reaction “doesn’t really affect” her in “real life.” “Occasionally, if I meet somebody and they just like really don’t like me despite the fact that I’m being very friendly, I’m always like in the back of my head, like, ‘Is that what it is?’ ” she said.

But online is a different story. “The Internet is just a really crazy place,” she said. She remembered that in 2020, she posted on Instagram about her dog dying. “And there were a bunch of comments underneath being like, ‘F— you, Cathy, you deserve it,’ ” she said. She’s even “gotten used” to people online just calling her Cathy. 

Still, she said when she meets fans in real life, they’re “so excited.”

“I’m sort of an unassuming looking person. I’m not like very flashy looking,” she said. “So if they recognize me, they’re a big fan. People are so excited to see somebody from this show that they are just incredibly nice. The Internet is a different story.”

At the end of Cathy’s time on the series, she goes on a business trip to Florida with Jim and other Dunder Mifflin employees and tries to make a move on him in his hotel room. Fischer said there was “never any draft” in which Cathy and Jim actually kissed. Broad also remembered Krasinski rewriting the script to make it less “ambiguous” that Cathy was hitting on him and that he was turning her down. 

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There’s also a phone call scene, in which Jim talks to Pam to tell her what’s happening and that he’s unhappy, and in a talking head, Jim tells the camera that Cathy is “crazy.”

Broad said she remembered thinking while filming The Office, “This is something that will probably be in my obituary, which is a very crazy thing to have associated with something that you did for a period of like five months. And it’s sort of immortal in like a really cool way.” She has since appeared in 21 Jump Street, American Crime Story, In the Dark and Ghosts, among other projects.

“People love this show in such an intense way,” she said. “It’s really cool to be involved in something that people have such an intimacy with.”