We all know and love The Office U.S., and there’s no one who could be imagined playing Michael Scott other than Steve Carell, however, there was also a reality where it wasn’t him. In fact, he wasn’t even in the network’s top choices.
The Office first aired in 2005 and concluded years later in 2013 and for most of that run, Carell brought his talent to the show, propelling it to massive success and where it sits today as one of the most popular sitcoms ever made.
Casting director for the show Allison Jones sat down with The Office Ladies podcast and revealed that there were two contenders for the role of Michael Scott that NBC put forth before contacting Carell.
“I remember vividly the first meeting we had with the network when [creator Greg Daniels] had a list of names, and they were like, ‘Let’s try Philip Seymour Hoffman,’ and then, ‘Let’s go for Paul Giamatti or whatever,’” Jones said on the podcast, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter.
The fact that NBC was committed to putting an already-established star into the role shocked Jones, who hadn’t had too much experience casting major actors, aside from her work on Freaks and Geeks. Ultimately the network stuck to their typical approach by selecting a stand-up to lead the show rather than a superstar, and that’s when Steve Carell was chosen.
Jones explained that Carell was always a top choice for The Office, but due to his commitment to the series Tom Papa, it was important for them to audition other actors. Fortunately for their plans, Tom Papa was canceled shortly after it began, however, during the audition phase they tried out a ton of different Michael Scotts.
“We brought in the best of the best,” Jones said on the podcast. “Everybody was a different version of Michael Scott that could have worked. Patton Oswalt could have worked. Bob Odenkirk would have been amazing.”
At the end of the day, we believe the right choice was made. There’s no one that we can imagine fitting the role of Michael Scott better than Steve Carell, and if you’re after proof about how much he brought to the show, all you need to do is check how fans reacted to later seasons of the show when he was no longer around.
Still, you can’t help but wonder what could have been, should any of these other stars be called to the plate. Both Paul Giamatti and the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman would’ve been more than equipped with the skills to bring hilarious versions of the character to the series, but would it have been the same? I guess we’ll never know.
If you haven’t yet seen The Office, then we aren’t sure what you’ve been doing the last two decades, but you can remedy this issue by streaming it on Peacock now.