Paul Rudd tried to stop Steve Carell from becoming Michael Scott…Luckily for us, he didn’t listen.
Can you imagine a world where Steve Carrell never took the role of Michael Scott?
That’s the nightmare Paul Rudd tried to sell him.
On Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, Carell, 63, revealed that Rudd pulled him aside before his The Office audition, warning him heavily against the show.
“I remember Rudd was like, ‘Don’t do it, man. Don’t audition,” Carell recalled. Poehler backed him up: “Everyone was like, don’t even touch this.” Carell added for effect: “10-foot pole.”
Thankfully, he ignored them.
Carell went on to become awkward comedy royalty as the bumbling, cringe-inducing boss you can’t help but love.
Ironically, he had barely watched the U.K. original by Ricky Gervais, just enough to realise if he looked too closely, he’d never pactorull off his own version.
“I watched, like, a minute… and thought, ‘If I watch a second more, I’m done. I won’t be able to even imagine it a different way,'” he said.
Even crazier? The pilot tanked. NBC executives hated it. But Carell stuck with it, and history was made.
Against all odds, The Office legacy lives on. Spinoff The Paper, starring Domhnall Gleeson as a midwestern newspaper editor trying to revive the Toledo Truth Teller, premiered in 2025 and is already returning for season two.
So yes, Paul Rudd tried to stop one of TV’s greatest sitcom performances before it even began.
Carell ignored Rudd’s advice, and honestly, we’re all the better for it.
