Stephen RootPhoto: Jesse Grant (Getty Images)
Stephen Root has had a long and distinguished career, whether you prefer NewsRadio or King Of The Hill or Dodgeball or his memorable performance as a disheveled shopkeeper in The Book Of Boba Fett, complaining about the stupid moped teenagers, but before his Returning In the third season of HBO’s Barry, Stephen Root revealed on an episode of The Rich Eisen Show (via ) that the people he works with still only care about his character in Office Space.
Root said that “there’s not a set where I don’t have a box of staplers to sign for the crew,” adding, “It doesn’t matter what I’ve done in my career; Anytime someone stops me on the street, it’s Office Space.” (We’d bet that’s because people don’t necessarily know he played William Fontaine de la Tour Dauterive, aka The Bill-Dozer has because King Of The Hill must have more fans than Office Space at this point, but that’s neither here nor there.)
In Office Space, Root’s character Milton was a mild-mannered, often fake clerk at a software company whose prized red Swingline stapler was eventually stolen by his boss, prompting Milton to burn down the building at the end of the film. It’s funny and relatable, and apparently every crew member on every film or TV show worked on since has taken a signed binder with them. To this we say: Give the man a break! Have him autograph something else, like a dodgeball, a news radio, or a moped teenager!
But here’s something interesting (and we’re definitely serious this time, we’re not just looking for some sort of transition): A search for “stephen root stapler” on a popular online auction site returned exactly zero relevant results, meaning that he it is you keep signing staplers and no one turns them over to resell? In that case maybe they all go to real fans and root should just sign stapler forever.