Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: The Paper

The Paper: Gregg & Young Discuss Chemistry, Nuñez, Season 2 Wishlist

The Paper stars Melvin Gregg and Ramona Young on finding their news voices, cast chemistry, "The Office" wishlist for Season 2, and more.

Twelve years after NBC's The Office shut the door on the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Peacock revisits that world with the same documentary crew in the spinoff The Paper. The series stars Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson, the new editor-in-chief of The Toledo Truth Teller, once a bastion of local journalism, currently struggling to retain relevancy under spendthrift ownership. Without a full experienced staff on hand and a managing editor in Esmerelda Grande (Sabrina Impacciatore) looking to undermine him at every turn, Ned is scrounging from untested staff who work in other departments within the same paper conglomerate that includes Nicole Lee (Ramona Young) and Detrick Moore (Melvin Gregg). Gregg and Young spoke to Bleeding Cool about finding their voice in the Greg Daniels and Michael Koman-created series, distinguishing themselves from the mothership series, who they leaned on creatively during the series, Oscar Nuñez's presence as a holdover from The Office, and who from the original series they hope could appear in season two.

The Paper Stars Melvin Gregg and Ramona Young on Finding Their Journalistic Voice as Detrick and Nicole

I read that you guys shadowed the staff at a real newspaper. How did you approach your roles otherwise? Did you study 'The Office' to get a sense of the world?'

Young: We've got to interview some real journalists and do some research that way. There were some books that Greg Daniels recommended, and the rest of it was our own. What do you think?

Gregg: When we got the script, aside from the audition, there was no character breakdown. It was on us to build who we thought the character was for the audition. That's how they approached casting based on our interpretation of their script, and they built around that. When we both went in to meet with the writers and Greg Daniels, they had like a bulletin board with different little bullet points of who the character is and the weird traits about this character that help make up who they are. We're building what they had and what they have on the page, and our own personal experiences. We were able to reverse engineer the information we had dissected and figure out what character traits led to those actions.

Did you guys lead as an ensemble, or did you lean on Greg or Domhnall as a cast?

Young: We leaned on each other, especially with the pilot, which Greg and Michael (Kamen) wrote. It was so detailed, meticulous, and you could tell that they thought everything through and built this whole world. As actors, we come in with very little information. I know I relied heavily on what was on the paper.

Can you speak on how you guys developed your characters' chemistry, playing Nicole and Detrick, and how that organically progressed throughout the season?

Gregg: Ramona and I spent a lot of time together since a lot of our scenes were together, so we would have breaks together and we would eat lunch together. We built our chemistry as Ramona and Melvin, and that just translated on camera between our characters, Nicole and Detrick, because we understood them, and we were still navigating who our characters were at the same time. As I'm trying to figure out who Dedrick is, she's trying to find out who Nicole is, and we're trying to figure out who one another is. It worked weirdly, and for myself, I stayed close to the character because I was trying to learn and figure out who he was throughout the process. I wouldn't really go back to Melvin. Melvin was on a back burner for a little bit, and I stayed close with Detrick, so that helped with chemistry with other characters, too, and for me to understand. The inner workings of someone like Detrick, how the world responded to him, and how that made him feel, to help service the story.

You got Oscar Nuñez returning there from the original cast as Oscar Martinez. Did you guys follow the original series? Was there any alum that you hope to see for possibly season two?

Young: I'll say, "Dwight" (Rainn Wilson) this time. What about you?

Gregg: First off, Oscar's great to have around. He's such a mentor in a sense. He's there from the original, so he has the know-how. He's very generous with his time and his insight. He's a leader by example, just seeing him working, how natural he is very important for us, being the new people stepping into such big shoes. Anybody else, I think we get the same benefit as we get from Oscar, but having him is more than enough. Anybody else is just a cherry on top.

The Paper, which has been renewed for season two, also stars Chelsei Frei, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Alex Edelman, Duane R. Shepard Sr, and Tim Key, and is available on Peacock.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!