Steve Carell and John Krasinski crashed “The Paper'”s set“ ”on the first day of filming to wish the cast good luck

Key Points

• Sabrina Impacciatore reveals Steve Carell and John Krasinski visited the set of The Office spin-off The Paper on the first day of filming.

• Carell and Krasinski just so happened to be shooting a commercial for an Italian coffee brand next door that same day.

• Impacciatore also recounts a spontaneous trip from Rome to New York to meet Carell, where she asked him to "bless" her for The Paper.

Michael Scott superfan Sabrina Impacciatore nearly fainted when The Office alums Steve Carell and John Krasinski stopped by set on the very first day of filming the sitcom’s offshoot, The Paper.

Allow Impacciatore  to set the stage: It's an early morning in the makeup trailer at Universal Studios Lot in Los Angeles, where she and fellow costars Domhnall Gleeson and Chelsea Frei are preparing to take on the big day. “No makeup yet. We are very anxious. Like, oh my God, we're so scared. And then we hear, knock, knock,” Impacciatore recalls to Entertainment Weekly for The Paper's cover story.

“Someone enters the trailer, and it's Steve Carell and John Krasinski!," the Italian actress continues. "We’re fainting. Like, what? Can you imagine? Isn’t it crazy? The first day of shooting!"

As fate would have it, Carell and Krasinski happened to be filming a commercial for the Italian coffee brand Lavazza right next door. Yes, Italian coffee! “I thought, this is a blessing. Italian coffee, which is the coffee that I've been drinking all my life,” adds Impacciatore. The supportive duo popped in simply to wish the cast good luck on their first day.

It's worth noting, however, that the encounter was not the first time Impacciatore met Carell.

Impacciatore, who had never seen The Office before boarding The Paper, binged episodes prior to the start of production, becoming "addicted" to the show. "Steve Carell became someone that I loved," she says, soon divulging that she booked an impromptu flight from her native Rome to New York the moment she learned Carell was headlining a Broadway production of Uncle Vanya.

Series creator Greg Daniels let it slip that Carell was in the city, after Impacciatore asked him to relay a message of adoration to the actor. "I said, ‘Greg, if you are still in contact with Steve, can you please tell him that I think he's one of the most incredible artists on this planet?'" she recalls.

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Welp. “I bought a f---ing flight," Impacciatore continues. "I went to see the show. I went to the green room. I waited for him. He came out. I was shaking. I said, ‘I'm Sabrina! Can you bless me?’ I needed his blessing [for The Paper]! He was the sweetest. He was so warm. He was encouraging me so much. He said, ‘These people are brilliant. You are going to have the best experience of your life. You're going to be great.’

“He was giving me confidence,” she says. “I will never forget that. Never. It was so right to do that.”

Consider Impacciatore's spontaneity Esmeralda-coded. On The Paper (out Sept. 4 on Peacock), the documentary crew that immortalized the dysfunctional Dunder Mifflin workplace find new subjects with the staff of The Truth Teller, a historic but failing newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. Esmeralda, the chaotic and larger-than-life managing editor, finds her newsroom turned upside down with the arrival of new editor-in-chief Ned Sampson (Domhnall Gleeson), who has an infectious passion for old-school journalism. Ned works to revive the paper back to its glory days, recruiting the wholly-unequipped staff — including one recognizable former Dunder Mifflin accountant — to become reporters.

Read more from EW's The Paper cover story here.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly