It now seems impossible, but the American version of The Office once seemed destined to fail. The original UK version from creator and star Ricky Gervais was wildly successful. How could anyone recreate something that good? Especially when British comedic sensibilities don’t always align with a broad American audience, which is exactly what a network sitcom would be trying to appeal to? Well, we know how that worked out. The U.S. show now stands as one of the most popular in TV history. That’s in large part to Steve Carell’s performance as the boss of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton location, Michael Scott. And if he had listened to Paul Rudd Carell never would have auditioned for the role.
When Carell appeared on the podcast Good Hang With Amy Poehler, the two comedy stars discussed their experiences playing bosses on an NBC sitcom. It’s hard to imagine The Office without Carell’s turn as Michael Scott, but the idea of filling that role on the show was not exactly appealing to everyone at the time. Carell himself said he watched roughly one minute of Ricky Gervais’ performance as David Brent on the original before realizing that was a bad idea, lest he be too influenced by the pitch perfect portrayal of Brent.
Paul Rudd thought even auditioning for Michael Scott was an even worst idea. Carell told Poehler, “I remember Rudd pulled me aside and was like, ‘Don’t do it man. Don’t audition, don’t audition. There’s no way.”
Obviously things worked out okay for Steve Carrell. But while it seems silly now, Rudd’s caution wasn’t really that wild. An American version of The Office was far from a guarantee. That was true even after they started making it. As Carell noted on the pod, the pilot was an historic bomb with test-audiences. Poehler also said that until people in the industry heard the show cast Carell, everyone thought the whole remake was a “terrible idea.”
And maybe it was! Right up until Steve Carrell ignored the good advice of Paul Rudd.