Steve Carell made a deliberate decision not to watch the UK version of the office before embarking on the American remake, and it turned out to be one of the smartest decisions of his career.
talking to LAD BibleThe 63-year-old actor explained that he had not seen the original Ricky Gervais series before auditioning for the American version.
When he tried to look a little, he stopped almost immediately.
“I started watching a little bit and I knew instantly that if I watched more I would just make a copy of Ricky, and I didn’t want to do that because I thought if it had any chance of success, it wouldn’t be the same show. It has to be different somehow and his description of that character was so specific and so great that I knew I could never, ever get close to that level.”
In total, he says he has watched less than a minute of the British series to date.
The decision to audition in the first place was not universally supported at the time.
In Amy Poehler’s Good Time On the podcast earlier this year, Carell recalled that his friend Paul Rudd had actively warned him against it.
“I remember Rudd taking me aside and saying, ‘Don’t do it, man. Don’t audition.’ He was like, ‘There’s no way.'” Poehler confirmed that the sentiment was widespread.
“Everyone was like, don’t even touch this,” he said. “A 10-foot pole,” Carell agreed.
Carell played regional manager Michael Scott from 2005 to 2011, making a surprise cameo 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 a little chaotic trying to figure out the tone of the show and who the lead was,” Wilson said on the show. good guys podcastdescribing Carell as “one of the greatest comedic actors in American history.”
The show lasted two more seasons after Carell left, before concluding in 2013.
