Here’s Why Bob Odenkirk Says Steve Carell Beat Him Out for ‘The Office’

Bob Odenkirk has a healthy outlook on being runner-up for a once-in-a-lifetime gig as the regional manager at a small paper supply company on The Office, as well he should — if Odenkirk spent a decade at Dunder Mifflin, he probably wouldn’t have ever gotten that law degree.

More than most sitcoms, The Office (U.S.) has a whole hypothetical culture surrounding the “What if?” casting decisions that led to a collection of mostly unknown actors making their big breaks on the lauded NBC sitcom, thanks, in large part, to the many surviving audition tapes of the also-rans. The online and active Office fandom is constantly theorizing what the show would have looked like if Seth Rogen landed the role of Dwight instead of Rainn Wilson, or if Kathryn Hahn beat out Jenna Fischer for Pam, possibly to play out the famed will-they-or-won’t-they romance plot line with Adam Scott’s Jim. 

However, the one character that’s nearly impossible to separate from their cast member is Michael Scott, who is forever tied to Steve Carell and his magnum-opus performance.

As many Office fans well know, the man who would later become Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul was one of the finalists in the Michael Scott sweepstakes before Carell won the role. And as Odenkirk told Fischer and her Office Ladies co-host Angela Kinsey on a recent episode of the podcast, that wasn’t the only time Carell beat him out in callbacks either. 

According to Odenkirk, his approach to comic acting is too rooted in seriousness to play a lighthearted part like Michael Scott — it’s like he never even watched Threat Level: Midnight.

“There were other parts that I think I was up for that Steve got, and it’s because he’s better at being genuinely fun,” Odenkirk told Carell’s co-stars, though he wouldn’t specify which of Carell’s roles besides Michael almost made it to his IMDb page. “I think I bring with me a little bit too much earnest seriousness, and it’s just kinda there. And there’s nothing I can do about it except play other roles where it’s helpful to have that. And, you know, you just don’t believe me as a purely light character.”

Though Michael certainly wasn’t “pure” by any definition, Odenkirk is right that the whimsy required to play the part is more natural to Carell than himself. “You just are looking for the darkness, and that’s actually great in drama,” Odenkirk said of his approach to acting. “That’s a plus, you know? But in comedy, it’s not a plus.”

Odenkirk did, eventually, get the opportunity to play a Michael-ish character on The Office and “show people what I would have done” in the episode “Moving On” from the final season, in which Pam applies for a position at a Philadelphia company that’s very similar to Dunder Mifflin with a familiar personality in charge. “Although, I do think that what I was doing was more a tribute to Steve because that’s what I was supposed to be doing,” Odenkirk admitted. “My character was meant to be very much a version of what Steve had invented when he played the character.”

I guess neither of them ever watched Ricky Gervais do it first.