Who does Felicity Ward play in ‘The Office’ Australia? Actress addresses negative feedback from viewers

The Office Australia actress Felicity Ward hit back at criticism aimed at her latest show. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published on Thursday, October 17, the Australian comedian addressed the negative reactions to her character Hannah Howard, a gender-swapped version of The Office US' Michael Scott. The actress told the publication:

"Of course, this is gonna happen. There’s some angry people out there. And so of course they’re gonna come for me because it’s a double whammy because it’s The Office and because I’m a woman and I don’t say that as a victim."

The actress stated that the Prime Video show was simply doing the same thing the American version of The Office did 20 years ago. She also recalled how much people criticized the US version when it was first released.

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"It’s a different show"- Felicity Ward on The Office Australia

The official trailer for Prime Video's Australian version of The Office dropped this September and faced heavy criticism. Apart from the look and feel of the show, a slew of criticism was also aimed at comedian Felicity Ward, who is set to play the show's central character Hannah Howard.

The show follows Hannah, the managing director of the packaging company Flinley Craddick, and her eccentric band of employees as they struggle to keep their branch open. Similar to the US version of the show, Hannah Howard is a boss trying her hardest to keep her 'work family' together despite her questionable strategies and obsessive leadership.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Felicity Ward was asked how she felt about "the whole gender swap thing" and the negative reactions of some of The Office fandom towards it. She replied by noting how many times in the past week people have been asking her if she felt "the pressure".

According to her, it was the journalists who were piling on the pressure that she was not getting from anywhere else. The actress revealed that her family told her that they were "so proud" of her.

The actress said that she knew she was going to be on the receiving end of heavy criticism as they were remaking The Office and moreover because she was a woman. Being a standup comedian for 16 years, Felicity Ward revealed that she has faced "this s**t" before.

She further conceded that she knew what it was like to love something and have it be remade. Sometimes she even felt "furious". She explained her frustration with the example of the 1991 Keanu Reeves and Patric Swayze-starrer Point Break, which was remade in 2015. Ward said:

"Point Break is my favorite film of all time, love Point Break. Why would you touch Point Break if it’s a perfect film? And then they remade it, and I was angry. What I didn’t do is get on the Internet and hunt down the lead actors to try to make them understand how awful they are. That’s the madness. I get the anger, but call a friend, you know what I’m saying?"

Felicity Ward added that the "exact same thing" happened 20 years ago with the American version of the show when it first came out and people were "mad" due to it being a remake of a "British legacy comedy". She noted how the show transitioned from using British scripts to making their own stories and eventually turning into the "most beloved comedy of all time". Felicity Ward stated:

"It’s a different show. It’s just not the same thing. We’ve got all original scripts, all original characters, all original story lines. We’re just having the same thing that the American Office had 20 years ago."

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The first season of the Australian version of The Office, spanning eight episodes, is currently available to stream on Prime Video.