‘The Office’ Creator Greg Daniels Had Some Hilarious Casting Choices for Michael Scott Before Steve Carell

Most fans of The Office (U.S.) know that Steve Carell wasn’t the only name that was in the mix for the role of regional manager Michael Scott, but not all of us knew just how Oscar-worthy the list of also-rans really was.

In the active online Office fandom, the mythology of the “what could have been” casts basically has its own fan-fiction community — an alternate reality where Bob Odenkirk plays Michael, Patton Oswalt is Dwight, Adam Scott is the office hunk Jim Halpert and Kathryn Hahn is an outrageous, hilarious Pam Beesly is the subject of numerous Dunder Mifflin die-hards’ daydreams. The lore about the other actors up for the roles on the most beloved and enduring sitcom of the 2000s is still popular in part because of the surviving screen tests from the casting process, but there’s an entire world of A-list actors whose names came up during the casting search but who never made it to their Office audition that sets our imaginations ablaze.

Allison Jones is a legendary sitcom casting director who served as the architect of the Office ensemble, and she spoke to her stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey on yesterday’s episode of The Office Ladies Podcast about the first picks for the most important roles on the show. During the talk, Jones revealed that The Office creator Greg Daniels originally wanted either Philip Seymour Hoffman or Paul Giamatti to play his lead.

That’s like if Michael tried to get Threat Level: Midnight to compete at Cannes.

“I remember vividly the first meeting we had with the network when Greg had a list of names, and they were like, ‘Let’s try Philip Seymour Hoffman,’” Jones recalled. “And then, you know, ‘Let’s go for Paul Giamatti,’ or whatever.”

Given that the TV industry of the early 2000s didn’t quite have the peak, prestige and impressive reputation among the A-list acting community that it would acquire a decade later, Jones recalled feeling “so jaded” about Daniels’ embarrassingly ambitious actor wish list. “Nobody did TV,” Jones said of the entertainment climate at the time, adding, “Comedy was the bottom of the barrel.”

Despite the series creators’ unrealistic expectations for star talent, Jones said the casting of The Office offered her unique opportunities for out-of-the-box casting that she doesn’t usually come across in her storied career. “This was the first time, other than Freaks and Geeks, that I had the opportunity to get real people who didn’t have to be vaudeville funny or sitcom funny, which is a very difficult thing to be,” Jones said of the realistic, unglamorous look and tone of The Office and its ensemble.

According to Jones, while Carell was a top candidate for the part of Michael during the early search, he didn’t have clearance to audition for the show due to his involvement in Tom Papa’s short-lived sitcom Come to Papa, so she had to keep her options open. “We brought in the best of the best,” Jones said of the other contenders for Carell’s eventual part. “Everybody was a different version of Michael Scott that could have worked. Patton Oswalt could have worked. Bob Odenkirk would have been amazing.”

Thankfully, Come to Papa flamed out after just four episodes, and Carell was free to accept what would become his career-defining role on The Office. But imagine if Capote was canceled instead and Hoffman was forced to pivot and play Michael. In that dimension, maybe the Emmys would have actually paid proper respect to the part.