“The Office” star reveals the expensive prop she accidentally ruined during infamous 'Threat Level Midnight' episode
- - “The Office” star reveals the expensive prop she accidentally ruined during infamous 'Threat Level Midnight' episode
Ryan ColemanDecember 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM
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Paul Drinkwater/NBCU
Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson and Steve Carell as Michael Scott on 'The Office' episode 'Threat Level Midnight'Key Points -
Melora Hardin is recalling how she accidentally damaged an expensive prop during the making of one of The Office's most infamous episodes.
Hardin tells EW that while shooting the nightclub scene for the season 7 episode "Threat Level Midnight," production "had me laying on a Steinway, a beautiful baby grand piano," upon which she was "moving around, singing" in a beaded gown.
"As soon as I got up, I saw that the beads on my dress had terribly scratched the piano. It was not the kind of thing that you could rub out," she remembers.
Melora Hardin swears: the beaded dress wasn't her idea.
In a new, career-spanning interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actress reflects on her memorable roles on some of the most beloved series in TV history, from Monk to Transparent to, of course, The Office. Across 46 episodes spanning the full series run, Hardin made the exacting and intimidating sales executive Jan Levinson into one of the series' most beloved, if not the most beloved recurring characters.
While Jan is most often seen storming in and out of the series' titular offices at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, commanding underlings and trying to resist the inexplicable charms of Steve Carell's inept Michael Scott, one season 7 episode allowed Hardin to access the full range of her diverse talents as a performer.
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU
Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson on 'The Office' episode 'Threat Level Midnight'
"Threat Level Midnight" takes viewers and the Dunder Mifflin staff alike on a hallucinogenic odyssey through Michael's long-rumored, finally realized attempt at filmmaking. The bizarro creation, which takes the name of the episode's title, casts Michael as a 007-style secret agent, John Krasinski's genial Jim Halpert as his nemesis Goldenface, and Jan as a "sexy, sultry seductress," per Hardin, who serenades Michael under the guise "Jasmine Windsong." When the actress thinks back on the episode, one thing comes to mind — "that very sparkly blue dress I was wearing" — and not for a great reason.
"They had me laying on a Steinway, a beautiful baby grand piano, maybe even a grand piano," Hardin recalls. "It was a rented thing. So I'm up there and I'm doing my thing, moving around, singing. As soon as I got up, I saw that the beads on my dress had terribly scratched the piano. It was not the kind of thing that you could rub out."
Laughing and cringing in equal measure, Hardin remembers she "said to the prop guy, 'Oh my God, it's totally scratching the piano.' And he's like, 'Oh, well.' I don't know, I'm sure they just had to buy it. I felt really bad about that. But listen, it wasn't totally my fault. They asked me to give my all and put me in a beaded dress!"
"Threat Level Midnight" was an episode six years in the making. On the season 2 episode "The Client," Michael dispatches secretary Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) to retreive a book of jokes in his desk, but she finds in one of its drawers an incomplete screenplay called "Threat Level: Midnight." The whole office staff proceeds to read through Michael's bizarre espionage script, howling with laughter.
Flash forward to 2011, and B.J. Novak, who starred as temp Ryan Howard but also wrote for the series, decided to bring Michael's vision to life. The series released the full 25-minute film that the episode only contains segments of on YouTube in 2019. It's there where fans can revisit Hardin's hilarious performance as the kooky, breathy Jasmine Windsong, who delivers "cryptic" messages to Michael about the whereabouts of hostages via song atop a piano.
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU
Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson and Steve Carell as Michael Scott on 'The Office'
"That was super fun," Hardin says. "I can't remember whether it was Mindy Kaling or Greg Daniels that had seen me do Les Miserables at the Hollywood Bowl. I played Fantine, with Lea Michele and all these great performers, Brian Stokes Mitchell. It was this star-studded cast of big Broadway people. I think that they had seen me in that and were like, 'We've got to use Melora's voice, because she can really sing.'"
Discovering Hardin's vocal abilities is also "how the 'Baby Shower' episode came about, where I sang 'Son of a Preacher Man' to my daughter. That was Mindy Kaling's idea."
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter."Threat Level Midnight" was something of a big reunion for the Office's extended cast family, as it marked the return of other beloved recurring characters, like Rashida Jones' Karen Filippelli and David Denman's Roy Anderson.
Novak recounted the making of the beloved episode in 2011, just a week after the episode first aired on NBC. "It was incredible to bring back Rashida Jones (who said it felt like a time warp when she got the phone call asking for her availability on The Office); it was incredible to have David Denman back, sitting next to Pam in her season 2 hair, and Melora Hardin back in Jan-as-diva mode."
"Imagine if at a high school reunion, they not only brought everyone back together, but also made you wear the exact same clothes again, cut your hair the same way, sit in the same seats, and act out the same relationships and study for the same exams again," Novak joked. "And imagine that you really loved high school."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
