Steve Carell made a conscious decision not to watch the UK version The office before tackling the American remake, and it turned out to be one of the smartest calls of his career.
speaks to LET the Biblethe 63-year-old actor explained that he hadn’t seen the original Ricky Gervais series before auditioning for the American version.
When he tried to see a small amount, he stopped almost immediately.
“I started watching a little bit, and I knew right away that if I watched more, I was just going to make a copy of Ricky, and I didn’t want to do that because I figured if it had any chance of success, it wouldn’t be the same show. It has to be different in some way, and his portrayal of that character was so specific and so amazing that I knew I could never get to that level.”
In total, he says he has watched less than a minute of the British series to this day.
The decision to audition in the first place was not universally supported at the time.
On Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast earlier this year, Carell recalled that his friend Paul Rudd had actively warned him against it.
“I remember Rudd pulling me aside and saying, ‘Don’t do that, man. Don’t audition.” It was like, ‘There’s no way.'” Poehler confirmed that sentiment was widespread.
“Everybody said you don’t even touch this,” she said. “10-foot pole,” Carell agreed.
Carell played regional manager Michael Scott from 2005 to 2011, returning in the 2013 finale.
His co-star Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute, recently reflected on how the show struggled after his departure.
“When Steve left, it was kind of chaotic trying to figure out the tone of the show and who’s the lead,” Wilson said on The Good Guys Podcastdescribing Carell as “one of the greatest comic actors in American history.”
The show ran for two more seasons after Carell left before ending in 2013.
