It’s been 10 whole years since Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) first kissed on The Office and started down the path toward becoming one of the most beloved TV couples of all time.
To pay tribute to this momentous date, Ken Kwapis — the director of the NBC sitcom’s “Casino Night” episode — recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about what went into creating that game-changing moment in the Dunder Mifflin office. “It was very low-lit, very moody,” he said. “And John, I think, didn’t even want to come onto the stage until it was time to do the scene. John and Jenna wanted to stay separated from one another until the actual moment they were doing the scene.”
Read More: This Picture of Jim and Pam From The Office Reuniting Will Make You Feel All the Feelings
Kwapis went on to explain that a big part of why the scene was so believable was due to the way in which it was filmed. “One of the things that makes the kiss so unique is the fact that it feels like something we caught, that the documentary crew happened to be there at the right moment,” he said. “Even when Jim enters the room, the camera operator sort of suddenly has a startled moment and then zooms in, again creating the illusion that we weren’t prepared for the moment. Of course we were prepared. Part of our job was to create the illusion that things were happening and we were just able to capture it at the right moment.”
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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com