Last Word: B.J. Novak - Modern Farmer

Modern Farmer: What appeals to you about farming?
B.J. Novak: I would like some open space. My dream is that I have a farm and somehow there’s never anything to do on the farm and there’s no one else working there. The farm in my head doesn’t really make much sense. Maybe what I want is a really big backyard.

MF: You would be a gentleman farmer.
BJ: With a few chickens, yeah.

MF: Why was Dwight’s character a farmer?
BJ: We liked that he was different from the other people, that he was rural. It’s sort of like he grew up in a different time in a different place. Everybody else is living in the city and he’s from the farmland of rural Pennsylvania. It felt like a fun way to make him both an outsider and seem very confident. You come in with a sort of Amish philosophy in a paper company in a city – the contrast is what’s funny.

The farm in my head doesn’t really make much sense. Maybe what I want is a really big backyard.

MF: Were you able to carry a lot of things from TV writing into writing your children’s book?
BJ: It’s exactly like a script and that was’ the premise of it for me, seeing a little kid come up to me waving a book at me, it’s basically like a producer waving a script. This kid has all the power. He says, ‘Here’s what you’ll be reading. Here are your lines.’ And it’s funny that a kid can force an adult to say ridiculous things. So that really is the premise: that the writer, or the person with the lines, has all the power. It’s a script that any parent can read and be funny; I had to figure out how to make the timing naturally work for anyone reading it.

MF: Final thoughts on food and farming?
BJ: A friend of mine has a theory that those who live closer to where food is grown are more religious. Because when you see how food is actually created, instead of just seeing it in a package in a store in a city, it gives you a real sense of awe. And I love that and would like to be closer to that.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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