On an April 2020 episode of the podcast "Office Ladies," Jenna Fischer (who played Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela) discussed "Michael's Birthday." "Steve Carell is a very, very good ice skater," said Fischer. "He played hockey growing up, and he played pickup hockey every week as an adult."
Indeed, Carell grew up in hockey-crazy Boston. According to Sportscasting.com, he was so thrilled by the Bruins' championship team in the 1970s that he started playing youth hockey and even considered trying out for the National Hockey League. Obviously, Carell chose a different path, and television comedy is all the richer for it.
Still, watching the episode, the gap between Carell's skill and everyone else's is jaw-dropping. Most other characters are functioning at the "I'm staying upright and moving slowly" level. The only exception is Oscar (Oscar Nuñez), who can be seen performing pirouettes in the background at one point while Michael gives his testimonial. According to Kinsey and Fischer, that was a stunt double; Nuñez can't skate that well.
Meanwhile, Mindy Kaling, whose Kelly Kapoor spends much of the episode trying to keep an enthusiastic Ryan (BJ Novak) upright, apparently took a fall and needed an on-site medic to provide her with an icepack. As for Fischer herself, she had, ironically, been training for her role in "Blades of Glory," which made her far more adept on the ice than Pam. "Every Saturday morning for a few months, I had to go and spend about three hours [training]," she said, "and the crazy thing is my character didn't even skate in the movie," per "Office Ladies."
