Actress and singer Melora Hardin is known for portraying Jan Levinson on the mockumentary sitcom The Office, Trudy Monk on the drama-mystery TV series Monk and Tammy Cashman on Amazon’s Transparent. She also stars as Jacqueline Carlyle in the Freeform comedy-drama The Bold Type that aired from June 2017 until June 2021. She has numerous other television and film credits and has released three albums, The Meloradrama (1995), Purr (2000) and All the Way to Mars (2010).

In Love, Classified, Hardin plays romance novelist Emilia, and is described as a whirlwind who blows back into the lives of her adult children, Taylor (Katherine McNamara) and Zach (Max Lloyd-Jones) under the pretense of a book signing arranged by her hometown’s local book shop. The movie also stars Arienne Mandi (The L Word: Generation Q) and is set to premiere on April 16, 2022, on the Hallmark Channel.

In a brand new interview with Smashing Interviews Magazine, Hardin details the development of her Office character, Jan Levinson.

The following is an excerpt from that interview:

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Were you asked for input into the character of Jan Levinson and storyline ideas?

Melora Hardin: Oh, yeah. For sure. I think that the whole love affair that happened between Michael and Jan really was spun when Greg Daniels, Steve Carell and I were having lunch during the pilot, and we felt there was this very inappropriate, weird spark between Michael and Jan. We were all like, “You know what? If we get to go to series and actually do this, they should just hook up.” I think we were at a conference or whatever, and it just turned into what it turned into.

I think a lot of those things came from real life. For instance, I think Greg Daniels would tell you that a lot of the ideas that he came up with for my character came from me (laughs). I had Greg and his wife, Susanne, and Paul Lieberstein and his wife over for dinner one night. At that time, I had a big painting in my living room that is the cover of my record Purr. If you’ve seen the cover of that record, it’s basically a painting that is inspired by Gil Elvgren’s pinups. So I’m kind of the woman in this beautiful white dress with a whole bunch of kittens around me, and it’s this big painting. It was a beautiful painting that a friend of mine had painted. I loved it. It was funny and great.

I think I even said to Greg at dinner, “I hope people get that I get the comedy of that. I get the comedy of having a giant painting of myself in my living room. I don’t take that seriously." (laughs). I think there also was a boob job conversation that I had with Greg about something at some point, and we were laughing about that. Then he gave Jan the boob job. There were a lot of collaborations that happened that flowed naturally, you know.

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About the authors:

Marc Parker is an American journalist, author, artist, a photographer and a computer scientist. He is the founder/publisher/editor-in-chief of Smashing Interviews Magazine. Marc Parker's social media: Twitter Facebook

Melissa Benefield Parker is an American journalist and author. She is the founder/publisher of Smashing Interviews Magazine. Melissa Benefield Parker's social media: Twitter Facebook