Jim O’Heir interview: Jerry, Larry, Garry Gergich told us all about the magic of Pawnee and ‘Parks and Recreation’
Parks and Recreation is my favorite show of all time so given the change to speak with anyone from the cast means the world. Doing so to talk about the show itself? Even better. And that’s what happened when I spoke with Jim O’Heir!
Known for his role as Jerry Gergich (or Larry or Garry depending), O’Heir is now releasing a book about his time on the show. Titled Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation, the book details the show and some of O’Heir’s favorite memories from filming.
In speaking with O’Heir, I shared my own love of the series. Told him my cat was named after Ben Wyatt and shared just how much joy Parks and Recreation has brought me throughout the years. Which is something that he has experienced a lot of during the book tour.
“It just warms my heart. The fan base is really amazing for this show. And, you know, a lot of shows come and go. I’ve been on many shows that have come and gone. You never hear from them again. But this book, the timing was on purpose,” O’Heir said when I asked what hearing from fans have been like. “We were wrapping up 10 years since we’ve been off the air. And the people still get emotional when they talk to me. And like you just mentioned, you have a cat named Ben Wyatt. The show has a special place in people’s hearts, so I could hear about it all day long. I had people, I was in a charity event recently, and this man came up to me and he said, I’ve been trying to come up to you all night, but I keep getting emotional.”
O’Heir went on to talk about how this man shared with him that Parks was there for him when he needed it. “Then he did start to get worked up and he said, ‘You guys got me through one of the toughest times of my life.’ How do you even react to that other than wow? And I’m just blessed that I got to be part of that experience through the miracle of getting cast on the show. But the fans are so lovely and I’m lucky because I played Jerry and people generally like Jerry, he’s a sweet man, so I don’t get any of the internet craziness. Nobody says terrible things to me. They just say, ‘Damnit, Jerry.’ Or, you know, thanks for ruining the Harvest Festival, Jerry, stuff like that. But nothing too terrible. So I’ve been loving it on this book tour. This has been more overwhelming than I ever anticipated. The love for the show, the people coming out, it’s been something, it’s really been something and I’m just incredibly grateful.”
Bonding over the infamous kiss
As a Parks and Recreation super fan, I went to the special Late Night With Seth Meyers episode that the cast did. It was for the finale and was emotional for me. But one thing that happened that night was Aubrey Plaza making out with O’Heir. He explains the situation in the book but as someone who was there, I had to bring up watching it unfold.
“Wait, you were in the audience?!” O’Heir said and then he went on to explain what went down. “Well that was, I mean, what a night. And you know, she leaned over and she’s like, ‘You wanna make out during the song? Because all we knew was that we were gonna sing a song at the end and Pratt was gonna be on guitar. And she asked me, I go, ‘Yes, what the hell? Yes, you wanna make out, I’ll make out.’ And it was epic. But my favorite part is people can go on YouTube and look, it’s not, I mean, the making it out of course was fun and crazy, but watching the other cast members realize what’s happening is the best. Because they had no idea. And I mean, Aziz is putting his hands up, like, make this go away. Amy can’t watch. It’s really, it’s wonderful.”
The longevity of Parks and Recreation
O’Heir and I talked a lot about things that kept living after the show wrapped. Group chats, memes, and everything that fans love. We even talked about how the clip of Chris Pratt making a joke about a great comeback story featuring Kim Kardashian.
He shared stories of Poehler crying with him when talking about this book and it really made it obvious why a book like this was necessary. O’Heir talked about balancing the memoir between behind the scenes moments from filming as well as stories about his own life.
“I did it based on what I like and I love a behind the scenes book. I have my favorite and I love hearing what was going on. So I wanted to do that. But I also, as Jim O’Heir, when I read people’s books, I like to hear what was their life? How did that happen? How did they get there? And so to me, when this book deal came together, I said, because they said, ‘Well, what do you want it to be?’ And we talked about it and I said, obviously, this is my, oh God. And I do hate this term, but it is appropriate. But as a 62-year-old man, it sounds crazy, but it’s my love letter. It’s absolutely my love letter to the show. But that just sounds like so weird coming from an old dude. But anyway, it is what it is and it is my love letter.”
And what a love letter it is. Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation is available for purchase.
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