Whatever Happened To Milton From Office Space?

While for 13 seasons, Stephen Root provided the voice for luckless Bill Dauterive in Mike Judge's animated television series King of the Hill, it was as another Judge creation — nerdy, stapler-coveting cubicle dweller Milton Waddams in the 1999 cult classic Office Space — that gave Root his first truly iconic character. In fact, it's a role that still resonates with movie fans and corporate denizens today. "When I did a [theater] show in New York," Root told the New York Times, "I would have Milton people outside for a least a couple days a week. I've gone on to sets before, and there's a tray of staplers waiting for me. I'm so happy that it's a little movie that resonates with people. There are always going to be cubicles. The computers will change, but it's the same mentality."

One of our finest character actors, Root has a face most recognize, but a name few keep on the tips of their tongues. He doesn't win awards or get starring roles — he simply holds scenes together, stealing them on occasion. He's been a Klingon, a vampire, various law enforcement officials, a fish, J. Edgar Hoover, and even Santa Claus. With a list of roles a mile long and a career of over three decades, he's done just about everything, moving from film to television to the stage with ease. But it's Milton that people remember best. What has Stephen Root been up to since that pivotal role?

A year after NewsRadio was cancelled and Office Space was in theaters, Root once again played a character involved in radio, as Mr. Lund, the blind radio station manager in a pivotal sequence in Joel and Ethan Cohen's O Brother, Where Art Thou? In Root's first scene, George Clooney's Ulysses Everett McGill, his fellow chain gang escapees (played by John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson), and a guitarist they've picked up on their adventures, travel to radio station WEZY — literally a radio tower in the middle of a field — where Root's Mr. Lund serves as "honcho." McGill says he's heard Lund will "pay good money to sing into a can."

That sets up the recording session that results in McGill and his cronies — dubbed The Soggy Bottom Boys — record the traditional folk song "Man of Constant Sorrow." As they perform, the camera moves between the quartet playing and Mr. Lund in the production booth, in obvious thrall of the harmonies, swaying and mouthing the words. Sometime after the session, after the song has become a hit, Mr. Lund is visited by a record promoter looking for The Soggy Bottom Boys, to sign them to a contract "before the competition does." In the small but memorable role, Root makes a definite impression.

Root's versatility as a character actor helps him score roles in dramatic films and television series, and also makes him an in-demand actor for comedic roles. For example, his King of the Hill and Office Space connection to Mike Judge doubtless helped him score the role of Judge Hector "The Hangman" in Judge's dystopian farce Idiocracy (2016). Certainly, the courtroom scene over which Judge Hector presides has to be one of the most chaotic ever committed to film. In the Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller vehicle Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Root plays Gordon Pibb, hapless but good-hearted patron of Vaughn's second-rate gym. In Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), he's the father of the two title characters, who advertise their need for dates to their sister's Hawaiian wedding.

In interviews, Root has given behind-the-scenes glimpses of working on these comedies. For example, his role in Dodgeball required real preparation ... playing dodgeball. "We'd all get in a line," he told one interviewer, "and someone would throw balls at us, and we'd learn specific ways to dodge [them]." Mike and Dave's production shot on location in Hawaii, which was just fine with Root. "My favorite experience working here is that you feel like you're on vacation part of the time," he told another interviewer. "When you're off for a weekend, you can go paddle boarding; you can go watching the sharks. You can delude yourself for a couple days and then go, 'Oh! Gotta go to work again tomorrow!'"

Root has lent his voice to dozens of animated television, film, and video game projects, starting with his role on King of the Hill. "I was lucky enough to break into [voice acting] with Mike Judge's stuff," he told the Voice Coaches podcast. "That really opened the door to other films. Once you've done three or four and you're known as an actor in the business anyway, that breaks down the door and you can start getting offers for smaller things, like Saturday afternoon cartoon stuff."

Root notes that acting for the camera and just for the microphone are remarkably similar. "It's not really that different," he told Voice Coaches. "You're not separating your head from your body when you act; you're still doing the character with your whole body. [The audience is] just not seeing it. It's essentially the same process — figuring out what you would do with this guy and having a director direct you." He also notes that his approach to a role is still character-centered, even if he's not acting with an audience or camera in front of him. "You're still doing the character; you just have to be seated and have less motion — or whatever, however you do it," he told Backstage. "I stand up and do mine. I feel like you have to commit to being that character, no matter what it is. And you can't just limit that to your head and your throat."

While King of the Hill was not exactly the kind of animation parents would put their kids in front of during TV time, it did expose Root to a whole new avenue for his talent, as he noted to the Voice Coaches podcast. One of the roles he landed as a result was that of Bubbles, an excitable yellow fish, in the Pixar classic Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel, Finding Dory (2016). Together, the films earned nearly $2 billion in worldwide gross (around $850 million in the U.S. alone), without question the biggest hits with which Root has been associated.

Bubbles is noted for his energy and for giving his full attention to ... well, bubbles, as well as anything else that strikes his fancy. "Bubbles is very excited about everything," Root explained at Finding Nemo's premiere. As part of the extensive commercial offshoots from the films, Root's character was featured in toys, on lunch boxes, and even a Finding Nemo video game, to which Root contributed his voice as the friendly, excitable fish.

The Amazon series The Man in the High Castle is the film version of Philip K. Dick's alternative history of post-World War II America that answers the question, "What if the Axis had won?" In the series, Root plays Hawthorne Abendsen — the actual Man in the High Castle — the collector and possible creator of a series of films containing alternate versions of historical events, films that are forbidden by the Nazi government. Root's involvement in the series is due in part to his satisfaction with the story and the personnel involved. "What makes me happy these days is to do good scripts and work with good people on a cool project," he noted at the series' Season 2 premiere. "I don't have to make gold out of straw, because it's already gold."

His interest also stemmed from a long-time love of the genre. "I'm a big sci-fi guy from way back," Root told Entertainment Weekly. "Back in the '70s, I was getting out of high school and going into college, I was well into [Robert A.] Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, and A. E. Van Vogt, and of course [Philip K. Dick]." Of his character in The Man in the High Castle, Root says, "He's an enigma. I felt like, although this character could be either a madman, or somebody not from this dimension, or many different possibilities, I think the basic fundamentals of the man had to be loyalty and groundedness. Some core of the man is truthful."