Before James Spader was cast as The Blacklist’s Raymond “Red” Reddington, he perfected the character’s quiet menace and slippery demeanor through his brief but brilliant role in an entirely different show. Back in 2011, The Office had a very large Steve Carell-shaped hole to fill, and their initial choice of Will Ferrell to play the new manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch went down like a lead balloon. Spader’s character, Robert California, was initially supposed to be Ferrell’s replacement, but he quickly became so much more.
If Raymond Reddington has a certain threatening quality that’s hard to pin down, then he inherited it from the Office character who convinced Dunder Mifflin’s CEO to give him her own job. While Reddington is a master criminal and informer posing as someone he’s not, it’s not entirely clear who or what Robert California is. Yet the part served as the perfect preparation for surely the most iconic role of James Spader’s career.
James Spader’s Character In The Blacklist Uses A Fake Identity Throughout The Show
The Character Is Really An Imposter Who Stole The Real Raymond Reddington’s Identity
In season 6 of The Blacklist, it’s revealed that Raymond Reddington is not who he says he is. James Spader’s character is, in fact, an impostor who assumed the identity of the real Raymond Reddington after his death. This duplicitous act is in keeping with the enigmatic nature of the person Spader is playing throughout the show, his criminal past, and his previous work as an undercover informant for the Soviet Union within the US military.
Fan theories point towards Katarina Rostova, the Russian spy who was a lover of the real Raymond Reddington, being the true identity of Spader’s character in The Blacklist.
Although The Blacklist ended without us ever really knowing the true identity of Spader’s character, fan theories point towards Katarina Rostova, the Russian spy who was a lover of the real Raymond Reddington. According to this theory, Rostova had gender reassignment surgery to assume the identity Spader’s character adopts throughout the show. This is far from the only theory about Red’s true identity, and all the speculations point to what an engima he truly is.
James Spader’s Prior TV Show Prepared Him To Play A Character With A Fake Identity
Robert California Is The Office’s Version Of Raymond Reddington
Meanwhile, James Spader conveyed a similar sense of ambiguity when he played Robert California in The Office, immediately before taking on the role of Red in The Blacklist. Robert California’s past – and, indeed, his credentials to run a paper company – remain shrouded in mystery throughout his stint in the show, before his final appearance in The Office reveals that he’s been masquerading as someone he’s not.
In the final episode of The Office’s eighth season, “Free Family Portrait Studio”, Spader’s character introduces himself to former Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace using a completely different name, to the complete shock of the entire Scranton branch. It’s never clarified whether Bob Kazamakis or Robert California is his real name. It’s easy to imagine the character having a whole host of other identities, and being a serial con-man. Either way, James Spader couldn’t have asked for a better role to prepare him for becoming Raymond Reddington.
The Blacklist’s Raymond Reddington Has More In Common With Robert California Than You’d Expect
It’s As Though James Spader Was Preparing To Play Red Through His Role In The Office
It seems that James Spader himself had a big hand in shaping both Robert California’s and Raymond Reddington’s personal characteristics, and the actor must have had a lot to do with the unexpected similarities between the two characters. Despite one being the self-appointed boss of a fictional paper company in a workplace sitcom, and the other being a masterful double-agent, longtime fugitive from the FBI, and skilled informer in a crime thriller series, California and Reddington surprisingly share plenty in common.
Both characters manage to instill fear into the people they’re working with despite never raising their voices. There’s an indefinable sense of authority, and even violence, implicit in the cold, indifferent tone with which Raymond Reddington and Robert California speak. They also share the same mannerisms, employing affirmative body language and often pausing mid-sentence to ensure those listening are hanging on their every word.
Most bizarrely of all, Robert California even expresses a specific interest in Eastern European women during his final scene in The Office. Depending on which theory you believe, The Blacklist’s Raymond Reddington either was an Eastern European woman, or at the very least had a romantic relationship with one. There are simply too many parallels for the likenesses between the two characters to be coincidental. It feels as though James Spader was consciously preparing to play a role like Raymond Reddington by trying out a similar character in The Office.
