Lee Eisenberg: Thespian, Writer, Alum

Photo by Cecilia Brown

Lee Eisenberg ’99 was never “a big deal.” He lived in Freeman, KB, Hamilton, and JA. He studied abroad in Paris. He vaguely remembers writer Sloane Crosley, another notable alum, who graduated a year after him. There was no film department here when he was a student. He wrote maybe one article for the student newspaper, despite being an English major and growing into a TV and film writer, and had a radio show about sports. There were also no cell phones and he remembers marveling at sending out an email to multiple people at once.

Yes, he’s a notably successful Conn alum and was, at one time, the head writer for the hit television show The Office, but why should we care about what he has to say? He has Justin Timberlake’s phone number.

Less than a week into the 2011 spring semester, Conn kicked off the beginning of SGA’s Centennial Speaker Series with a visit from the alum. For scores of English and Film Studies students, Eisenberg’s visit brought more than just college pride and festive excitement – it brought hope that they, too, could make it in Hollywood.

Eisenberg took multiple classes with English professor Blanche Boyd, who introduced the event, and describes her as “very outspoken, really smart, really funny,” commenting that he used to write down quotes of hers in his notebook – in other words, Blanche hasn’t changed. “I took [her] narrative nonfiction class and I remember becoming super aware of dialogue in that class because I was interviewing real people. As a writer, you develop an ear for dialogue. As you start going through it, you ask, what’s the ‘nugget’ from it? What’s the phrase? And you hear how people talk and you write it down and you think, ‘Oh, this is really interesting, I could use this.’”

From his freshman year, Eisenberg knew his future was waiting for him in Los Angeles. He was a production assistant for many years – including working on the aforementioned Brendan Fraser film Bedazzled – before hitting his first writing gig on the hit drama JAG. Eisenberg could feel from the beginning that he was probably going to be fired. “I didn’t know anything about law or military or military law.”

After leaving JAG, he reconnected with his writing partner Gene Stupnitsky.

Several students chosen through a lottery system were able to dine with Eisenberg, where he told the oddly romantic story of his partnership with Stupnitsky. He described a night in which they were “down at the docks,” discussing potential writing ideas, when Eisenberg grew cold and Stupnitsky gave him his sweatshirt. Ever since, the two have been in a strong—and mildly codependent, as Eisenberg described—writing companionship.

As it turns out, the two initially collaborated on an original pilot about two codependent roommates. Although it was based on their own experiences as each other’s roommates, “writing is not a visual medium,” so the career detail was swapped for something more thematically interesting—the characters were magicians. Although the pilot was not picked up, it was on the strength of this project that the two men were hired to join The Office for its second season. You can thank him for Conn’s namedrop in the fourth season episode “Night Out,” when Dwight wishes a women’s basketball team that he meets in a bar “good luck against Conn College!”

Stupnitsky and Eisenberg have an upcoming summer feature, called Bad Teacher. The film, which stars Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake and Phyllis Smith (Phyllis from The Office), features women in lead roles in a raunchy comedy, a venture generally untouched by Hollywood.

Although the documentary style of The Office might suggest that the show is easy to put together, the writers’ room was almost always a tangle of emotions and nerves. “You never knew what time you were leaving,” Eisenberg said. “You would get in at ten—which is nice—and the earliest we would get out would be seven. The latest would be like four in the morning.”

Despite the erratic hours, the writers are fed very well. “People in Hollywood are obsessed with food,” Eisenberg explained. Long hours often mean that employees don’t leave the building for meals, and Eisenberg and his fellow writers would turn to boss Paul Lieberstein, who plays Toby Flenderson on the show, to ask whether they were eating in or out.

The writers developed protective attitudes towards their respective work. “The worst thing you can ask in the writer’s room is, ‘Whose joke is that?’” he said in a private interview with the Voice. “The person who sat at the computer typing it always thinks it’s their joke because they typed it in. The person who pitched the beginning part of the joke believes it’s theirs, the person who added to the pitch to make it more of a joke… it always get tense and awkward when you ask for credit on stuff.”

However, Eisenberg is fairly confident about his responsibility over one story arc in particular: the love triangle between Dwight, Angela and Andy. “I believe it was mine alone.” Eisenberg is also responsible for moving Darryl from the warehouse and into the office, as well as, only one week before leaving the show, making Dwight the owner of the Dunder Mifflin building.

Table readings, according to Eisenberg, were often the most stressful and, at times, liberating, moments of writing for The Office. Sometimes people would laugh and other times jokes would be met with silence. “It’s not an aggressive silence. Silence means ‘Let’s go onto the next thing.’ Sometimes it lasts for five seconds, sometimes it lasts for ten.” However, “when you can get Steve Carrell to laugh, it’s fucking awesome. The best feeling in the world is getting Steve, on set, to break. Sometimes he would just lose it and you would be like, ‘Yes, yes, I got him!’”

When first asked why he no longer works for The Office, Eisenberg deadpanned, “I got fired so hard.” Then, more seriously, he explained the grueling life of a television writer. “[Gene and I] were tired because we were writing movies on the weekends. We were basically writing seven days a week for five years straight.” Along with The Office, Stupnitsky and Eisenberg also wrote the Michael Cera-Jack Black comedy Year One. Up next is the Cameron Diaz comedy Bad Teacher, as well as their perpetual attachment to Ghostbusters III.

Rumors for Friday night’s Q&A, held in Evans Hall, circulated in the week preceding the event. At first, students were under the impression that it would be a straightforward lecture. Then, rumors began to swirl that Eisenberg wasn’t in the mood for talking and would instead show an episode of The Office. By the time of the event, the Facebook page posted attendees parallel to Floralia. (When asked about his favorite Floralia, Eisenberg responded, “Are you supposed to remember your Floralias?”)

The event took place between two luxurious-looking white armchairs, separated by a bouquet of flowers on a small table. “This is an exact replica of my living room,” joked Eisenberg about the set.

Eisenberg claimed that his original career plan was to go into acting, and he brought a DVD of his acting jobs to prove his talent—but don’t forget, Eisenberg is no big deal. The dramatically edited and scored reel, entitled “Lee Eisenberg: Thespian,” featured his biggest roles: the “marijuana” selling Vance Refrigeration worker from The Office, a guard of Sodom in Year One and a blacksmith in Bad Teacher.

When asked if there was an idea that he never got to write for the show, Eisenberg mentioned that he always wanted Michael to swallow a paperclip. One idea that he did successfully pitch was Andy Bernard’s Cornell-induced superiority complex, an idea which may have been nixed if their boss had realized that one of the heads of NBC also went to Cornell. “The history of comedy could have been rewritten right there,” laughed Eisenberg.

Eisenberg’s mentor, Professor Boyd, introduced him at that night’s Q&A. “You can do anything with an English degree,” said Boyd, referring to Eisenberg’s major. “You could be the producer and writer on The Office, maybe write a few movies. That would be one outcome.” Despite the fact that, according to Boyd, he only earned one A in her class (he insists he never earned an A from her), Eisenberg has gone to fantastic lengths in his post-Conn career. With the look of someone honored to be introducing the night’s event, Boyd said with a smile, “I am so proud of him.” •