It used to be shocking to see actor Steve Carell in a purely dramatic role. But now, with one Oscar nomination and three Golden Globe nominations for the comedic actor’s recent serious work, it’s almost a change of pace for a Carell role to have a joke or two in it. But that being said, perhaps two of the actors most iconic roles were in the film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and the TV series “The Office.” And in a new profile in Esquire, Carell reminisces about those roles and why he thinks there’s not going to be a full ‘Office’ reunion in the future.
But before we talk about Michael Scott and the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Carell revealed something incredible about “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Namely, the fact that Universal shut down production after a week because of some serious concerns the studio had with the lead actor.
After buying the film from Judd Apatow and Carell after only hearing the pitch a week earlier, Universal went into production on the film fairly quickly. However, after watching the first round of dailies, executives were concerned. Carell explains that those higher-ups thought “the dailies of my character just looked too creepy. They said I looked like a serial killer.”
However, as we know now, the executives had nothing to worry about and the film went on to become a massive hit. That being said, Carell tells a story about how he attended an event before the film’s release and experienced some serious nervousness when he realized that the film might be a horrible idea.
“I had a high school reunion just before the movie came out,” Carell said. “I hadn’t seen these people in several years. And they’d start talking about what they’d been involved in, and I would mention that I just did this movie called ‘40-Year-Old Virgin,’ and as I reflect back, I realize how dumb it must have sounded to all of these people. It sounded like it might be the worst movie ever, just based on the title. I could feel my classmates feeling sorry for me. I could see the pity in their eyes.”
Another role that had the potential of crashing and burning was Carell’s performance as Michael Scott in “The Office.” The NBC series is the American remake of the critically-acclaimed and popular British show of the same name. The series went on to find an audience of its own and became incredibly popular and critically acclaimed, in its own right. Carell even earned six Emmy nominations for his work. Even still, don’t expect a reunion anytime soon.
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“Because ‘The Office’ is on Netflix and replaying, a lot more people have seen it recently,” he said. “And I think because of that there’s been a resurgence in interest in the show, and talk about bringing it back.”
With the new interest in the long-running sitcom, Carell is right to say that fans have been begging for a revival or reunion. Some of the cast members have even endorsed the idea. But Carell, he doesn’t see the point, for a couple of major reasons.
He explains:
“But apart from the fact that I just don’t think that’s a good idea, it might be impossible to do that show today and have people accept it the way it was accepted ten years ago. The climate’s different. I mean, the whole idea of that character, Michael Scott, so much of it was predicated on inappropriate behavior. I mean, he’s certainly not a model boss. A lot of what is depicted on that show is completely wrong-minded. That’s the point, you know? But I just don’t know how that would fly now. There’s a very high awareness of offensive things today—which is good, for sure. But at the same time, when you take a character like that too literally, it doesn’t really work.”
READ MORE: NBC Eyes ‘The Office’ Revival, Will Try Remaking ‘The IT Crowd’ Again
The actor has a point. Watching old episodes of “The Office” (which I may or may not do on a regular basis, don’t judge me!), there are some things that are joked about that are purposefully offensive. It’s all ingrained in the character of Michael Scott.
We’ll just have to see how long it takes for NBC to dump a boatload of money on Carell’s doorstep to see if there’s any hope of a revival in the future. Until then, the actor can next be seen in “Beautiful Boy,” which is his latest Oscar-caliber film, now in theaters.