The duo starred together in ‘Anchorman’ just ahead of Carell beginning his iconic role as Michael Scott.

Steve Carell recalls Paul Rudd trying to talk him out of The Office audition: ‘Don’t do it’

The duo starred together in 'Anchorman' just ahead of Carell beginning his iconic role as Michael Scott.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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March 24, 2026 5:58 p.m. ET

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Paul Rudd; Steve Carell on 'The Office'. Credit:

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic;  Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

Before Steve Carell auditioned for the life-changing role of Michael Scott, Paul Rudd told him not to. Yes, that's what he said!

Carell appeared on the latest episode of Amy Poehler's *Good Hang* podcast, and they discussed how negatively everyone reacted to the initial news of NBC doing an American remake of Ricky Gervais' iconic British comedy *The Office*. "This is a terrible idea," Poehler recalled thinking. "No one can be as good as Ricky Gervais, no one can do that show."

And Rudd felt the same way. As Carell was mulling over the chance to go out for the role of Dunder Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott, he was shooting *Anchorman* with Rudd, who gave him what might be the worst career advice of all time.

“Rudd pulled me aside and was like, ‘Don't do it, man. Don't audition,'" Carell told Poehler. "It was like, 'There is no way.'"

Carell added that he was essentially told to not touch the show with a "10-foot pole."

Paul Rudd and Steve Carell in 'Anchorman'.

Poehler admitted that she changed her tune about the American *Office* the minute that she heard Carell had been cast. But the negative reaction wouldn't go away yet.

"Our pilot was the lowest testing pilot in the history of NBC," Carell recalled. "People really hated it. They actively hated it. And I don't quite know how it got legs after that."

Carell and *The Office* scored the last laugh. The series barely escaped cancellation after season 1, but then it became a major hit for NBC, running for nine seasons and earning Carell six Emmy nominations. And *The Office*'s legacy has only grown over the last decade-plus through streaming, and the spinoff *The Paper* is slated to return this year to Peacock for a second season.

And still, Carell calls himself a "poor man's Ricky Gervais," admitting that he has watched all of Gervais' shows other than *The Office*. (Scott and Gervais' David Brent did cross paths in a season 7 episode of the NBC version.)

“I watched a minute of one 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 shared of his brief U.K. *Office *viewing experience. "I won't be able to even imagine it a different way.”

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