Angela Kinsey Reveals How She Really Felt Kissing Dwight And Andy On The Office

Kissing your coworkers definitely isn't recommended in run-of-the-mill office jobs. However, when you're playing a part on a top-rated show like "The Office," sometimes you're required to create exactly those kinds of relationships on-screen. As we all know, actors are often called upon to form believable fictional relationships with other stars on set, and when a kiss is written into the script, it must be delivered, received, and shared.

Of course, how actors feel about this from gig to gig has to depend at least a little on who they're meant to kiss. In Angela Kinsey's case on "The Office," her character's romantic partners happened to be Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), two of the show's most awkward and eccentric male characters. Now, a little over eight years after "The Office" came to an end, Kinsey is finally opening up a bit about what it was like filming some of her character's more intimate moments with Wilson's Dwight and Helms' Andy.

Dwight and Angela ended up being one of the main couples on "The Office," and as a result, the two characters kissed several times throughout the series. The characters' romantic connection did not, however, influence Angela Kinsey and Rainn Wilson's behind-the-scenes relationship. Instead, the two "Office" actors shared a bond that actually leaned much more toward friendship than it did anything romantic. That said, an on-set kiss is always going to be awkward, and having a close friendship with the actor you're kissing, unfortunately, doesn't do much to alleviate the cringe factor. At least, it didn't help when Kinsey had to kiss Wilson, who was apparently something of a special case.

"He was usually eating something disgusting right beforehand. And I'd be like, 'Rainn, dang it. Do you have to eat a tuna fish sandwich right before we're supposed to kiss? Come on!'" Kinsey said on an episode of "Office Ladies," the podcast she current co-hosts with her former "Office" co-star, Jenna Fischer.

"I remember," Fischer recalled. "He would always be, like, downing a cup of coffee and an everything bagel... and he'd be like, 'I'm ready for my kissing scene!'"

While the pair agreed a mint might have helped, the "Office" co-stars did also confirm that the kisses were of the closed-mouth, fake variety. Nonetheless, "Office" fans everywhere will probably agree that Wilson could have worked a little harder to make those kisses slightly more tolerable.

In Season 5, Episode 10, "The Surplus," Angela and Andy are set to be married, with the ceremony taking place on Dwight's beet farm. As the story progresses, it leads to a kiss between the two characters that was hardly better than Angela Kinsey's kisses with Rainn Wilson. In fact, it sounds like Angela and Andy's kiss may have even been inspired by some real — and unfortunate — events.

The scene in question sees Angela approach and kiss Andy just after he's bitten into a tuna fish sandwich. The joke, which developed thanks to Andy's "Big Tuna" nickname for Jim, put Kinsey in a very similar situation to those she'd experienced with Wilson. However, Kinsey actually gives Ed Helms a lot more credit for the way he filmed the scene.

"Ed was so sweet. He said, 'Angela, I am going to hold my lips together. I'm going to take a deep breath. I'm going to take a bite of the tuna fish sandwich, and then I am going to purse my lips together and not open them at all, because I don't want you to get any of this tuna fish,'" Kinsey said on "Office Ladies." "I was like, 'Oh Ed, that is so sweet.' And so we literally did, you know, what we call like grandparent kissing."

According to Kinsey, Helms went the extra mile to ensure she was entirely driving the moment. For her part, Kinsey made sure the kiss lasted as long as the episode's director wanted, and when she pulled away, her co-star apparently started gasping. A true gentleman, Helms had been holding his breath the whole time.