The Office's Brian Baumgartner Explains How He Developed Kevin's Voice

[TMC]

https://www.looper.com/1150747/the-o...-kevins-voice/

It's started with the writers, then Baumgartner took over

There was a clear transformation in the character of Kevin on NBC's "The Office," something Brian Baumgartner was well aware of. Not that long ago, he was asked by u/samorgan193 on a Reddit AMA about how Kevin's voice change came about, and who decided to make that alteration. Baumgartner said that the character's transformation began with the writer, but he later took over. "It was a progression," he explained. "Based on HOW the writers started writing Kevin. It came from me... and my nerdy/ actory justification has always been... Kevin was shy with the cameras around in the beginning, and as he became more comfortable- more of his true self came out."

As mentioned earlier, almost all the characters seemed to experience a significant progression, when comparing the pilot episode to the show's later seasons. One example was the character of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), who Baumgartner believed was one of the greatest TV characters of all time. When he spoke to the Podcrushed podcast, he expressed why he's so much enjoyed Dwight's progression from a stuck-up "assistant to the general manager," to the eccentric/enjoyable character he eventually became. "Well, he is a Trans Am driving beet farmer who likes anime and is a volunteer Sheriff's Deputy who likes hard, heavy metal rock music, but is kind of a nerd," he said. And just like Kevin Malone's transformation, that was a description change that fans couldn't have predicted.