Steve Carell has revealed that Paul Rudd advised him not to audition for the US version of The Office, as most of the industry thought it would flop.

The comedy actor starred as eccentric boss Michael Scott for seven seasons of the hit sitcom, which became one of the most beloved shows in TV history. However, prior to it being made, few in Hollywood felt that the show could be as successful as Ricky Gervais’ original version. Carell appeared on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, where the host admitted she had her doubts.

“This is a terrible idea” she recalled thinking. “No one can be as good as Ricky Gervais, no one can do that show.” Carell then revealed that during the filming of Anchorman, Paul Rudd advised him not to go near it. “Rudd pulled me aside and was like, ‘Don’t do it, man. Don’t audition,’” he said. “It was like, ‘There is no way.’”

Luckily, the star ignored the advice and went on to make one of the defining hits of his career. However, the initial reception wasn’t positive. “Our pilot was the lowest testing pilot in the history of NBC,” he recalled. “People really hated it. They actively hated it. And I don’t quite know how it got legs after that.”

He also admitted avoiding the UK version so as to not imitate Gervais’ performance. “I watched a minute of one [episode] and he was so good and so specific and so funny, I thought, ‘If I watch a second more, I’m just gonna go on an audition with that,’” he said. “I won’t be able to even imagine it a different way.”

Despite the success of the show, Steve Carell will not be appearing in The Office spin-off, The Paper, which debuted last September. “I will be watching but I will not be showing up,” he said in 2024. “It’s just a new thing and there’s really no reason for my character to show up in something like that”.

However, he and The Office co-star John Krasinski did crash the set of the show on its first day of shooting to wish the cast and crew good luck.

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