The cast of Office Space reunited Saturday at SXSW in Austin, Texas to celebrate 25 years of “the cult of Office Space.” Well, not everyone.

Friends‘ Jennifer Aniston has become an A-list star, and her absence was understandable. Gary Cole, who portrayed middle manager Bill Lumbergh, had a family obligation and likewise was absent. But Ron Livingston (Peter), David Herman (Michael Bolton), Ajay Naidu (Samir), and Steven Root (Milton) joined writer-director Mike Judge to discuss the lowkey life-changing movie in a panel presented by the Hollywood Reporter.

The film flopped upon its release in 1999, but by 2001, it was a top 10 video rental in America, Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Silicon Valley) told his hometown fans. (Judge lives in Austin and the R-rated comedy was filmed here.)

The panel remarked about just how effective the film was at capturing the malaise of the beige and grey, static workplace; an omnipresent state of being that slowly sucked our life forces well before work from home debates and Zoom layoffs. Office Space was to the inflated and draining office era what Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times was to the industrial era: A dissenting commentary on the systems we allow to take charge.

And people responded, Judge said, saying that many have come to him and told him that the movie inspired them to quit their jobs.

The panel remarked that Peter, the protagonist who dares to break out of the hamster wheel, became the 21st century’s first quiet quitter. Here are five other things we learned about Office Space at SXSW.

1) That Michael Bolton diss was a rewrite because of legal concerns.

The studio told Judge that calling Michael Bolton, the pop singer, a “no-singing [expletive]-hole” was a slander concern because it implied that he was not actually singing on his recordings. So, in a pinch, he and Herman came up with a nonsense line that remains quoted to this day: Bolton is a “no-talent [expletive] clown.”

2) Matt Damon was almost the lead.

Judge said that Livingston’s performance, a relative unknown before he later became an infamous bad boyfriend on Sex and the City, was almost a studio-mandated re-shoot. Executives found him too dry. And Damon was tapped as a name for the lead role.

3) The studio really hated all the rap music.

Judge said that he’d mostly seen hip-hop and rap music in films about Black communities, but never to express general, American anger and resentment. He said he listened to Houston’s Geto Boys in an old Saab a lot when he had office jobs and realized he must look ridiculous.

But the studio thought the music was distracting and pushed him to change it until the last minute.

@dailydot Mike Judge explains how the studio tried to cut the rap music from “Office Space” at 25th anniversary reunion during the #SXSW ♬ original sound – The Daily Dot

4) Samir’s accent was actually super specific.

Naidu based the character on Indian friends of his who were IT guys by day and DJs by night. But he worked with a speech coach to fine-tune the accent because he didn’t want to play into stereotypes. And so now we know: Samir is Jordanian and speaks with a Jordanian accent.

5) Madonna loved the movie.

Doors opened to Judge after the film was released. He turned down the chance at helming the American Office reboot. And Madonna insisted on meeting him to discuss Judge directing a project of hers. It didn’t work out, but she said that she had a crush on Michael Bolton and thought his “anger” was “sexy,” Judge added.

6) The infamous printer scene drew praise from the mob.

In it, Naidu takes a baseball bat and destroys the office’s nagging printer. (As if you didn’t know.)

Naidu said he was in New York City, and a seedy man insisted he come into the back of a store where a whole group of apparent mob members awaited him.

“We just want to tell you we loved the scene and thought you were very accurate,” Naidu told SXSW.