{"id":691354,"date":"2026-03-30T01:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691354\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T01:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:19:17","slug":"steve-carell-on-paul-rudd-advising-him-not-to-audition-for-the-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/691354\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Carell On Paul Rudd Advising Him Not To Audition For The Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore The Office<\/a> became a rewatch staple and mockumentary classic, it was among the worst-testing pilots in network NBC<\/a>\u2018s history, Steve Carell<\/a> recently recalled.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an appearance on Good Hang with Amy Poehler<\/a>, the two comedy powerhouses reminisced on their respective series hits.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s really only two people that I\u2019ve been told I am a poor man\u2019s version of, and one of them is you, which I take that as high compliment,\u201d said Poehler, who portrayed the ever-optimistic Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would take that as a huge insult,\u201d Carell replied, both of them laughing.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe podcast host noted that the Greg Daniels and Michael Schur-created successor Parks and Recreation \u201chad the worst launch ever\u201d and that she \u201cdissociated\u201d amid the negative feedback.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarell recalled that he was in the same boat: \u201cOur pilot was the lowest-testing pilot in the history, I think, of NBC. People really hated it. They actively hated this show, and I don\u2019t quite know how it got legs after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it was announced The Office was getting a U.S. version based on Ricky Gervais\u2019 original, Poehler, then at Saturday Night Live, remembered that everyone was convinced it was a bad idea \u2014 until they heard Carell was cast in the lead role.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEveryone was like, \u2018This is a terrible idea, this is a terrible idea. No one can be as good as Ricky Gervais, no one can do that show,’\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd then we heard it was you, and we were like, \u2018Oh. Oh, whoever\u2019s making this show wants it to be funny.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs such, Carell was careful not to study Gervais\u2019 approach to the insufferable middle-manager, saying he watched \u201ca minute\u201d of the U.K. version before he turned it off as the comic was \u201cso good and so specific and so funny\u201d that he felt it would unduly affect his audition process.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI remember [Paul] Rudd pulled me aside and was like, \u2018Don\u2019t do it man, don\u2019t audition, don\u2019t audition. There\u2019s no way,’\u201d the Rooster actor said, laughing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the rocky start, The Office has since gone down as among the best comedies in recent history, earning 42 Emmy nominations and 5 wins, including for Outstanding Comedy Series. Running from 2005 through 2013 for a total of nine seasons, the sitcom just cracked 200 episodes, following the hapless and offbeat employees at a fictional paper company. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2025, creator Daniels and Michael Koman originated the spinoff The Paper, in which the same documentary crew follows the workers at a local Midwestern newspaper. Season 2 is currently in the works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before The Office became a rewatch staple and mockumentary classic, it was among the worst-testing pilots in network…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":691355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[1014,171,289623,1030,33099,101460,31108,173,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-691354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-amy-poehler","tag-entertainment","tag-good-hang-with-amy-poehler","tag-nbc","tag-paul-rudd","tag-steve-carell","tag-the-office","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116315499355542110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}