Steve Carell explains why he's only watched less than a minute of UK Office

Though many fans of the original UK version of The Office will disagree, the American spin-off starring Steve Carell is inarguably far bigger than the original ever was.

The US spin-off ran for nine seasons and has gotten its own spin-off The Paper, which featured a returning character in Oscar Martinez.

This led to it being the biggest show in the world in 2020 and it was streamed for an incredible 57 billion minutes, 17 billion clear of the second most popular show in the world.

Steve Carell was a core part of this, managing to perfectly emulate what the American equivalent to David Brent would be by helping to create Michael Scott.

Despite the clear inspiration from Brent to Scott however, the actor behind the iconic US boss watched less than a minute of the original UK show.

Speaking to LADbible’s show Swipe Stuff Carell made the admission when asked his thoughts on both the UK The Office and Mr Bean, both of whom he said he was a fan of.

He added however: “I will admit this I've only watched about less than a minute of The Office, because I had not seen it prior to auditioning for the American The Office,

“I started to watch a tiny bit, and I knew instantly that if I watched anymore, I would just do a copy of Ricky and I didn't wanna do that because I figured if it has any chance of success, it's not going to be the same show, it has to be different in some way and his depiction of that character was so specific and so great that I knew I could never, ever come close to that level.”

The actor said that both The Office and Mr Bean, and presumably Gervais and Rowan Atkinson, were ‘comedic geniuses’, adding: “I don’t say that about many people, but I believe both of these guys are.”

Paul Feig, a director on several episodes of The Office, cited a decision by Carell as a major influence for the success of the show in a major change he brought to Scott’s character.

Steve Carell has never seen the UK Office, but that didn't stop him having an iconic performance in the US version (YouTube/LADbible)

Speaking on the Dinner’s on Me podcast with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Feig cited the difference between British and American comedy, saying that Brits ‘love tearing down a bore’ whilst Americans want unlikable protagonists to be sympathetic in some way. If they don’t, Feig says ‘they’ll tune it out… they just won’t watch it’.

Whilst the first season of the show matches the original UK version quite closely, season two was where the series becomes its own thing, something that Feig attributes to Carell.

Discussing the episode Office Olympics, Feig said: “It was the scene we were shooting when everybody was supposed to be working and they're screwing off doing this thing. And in order to not get in trouble with Michael, they're going to give him a gold medal.”

"But we're shooting it and Steve gets emotional. Steve as the character, 'cause he's had this terrible day,” Feig explained.

Carell improvised Michael getting emotional, and it led to them changing his character moving forwards to be more sympathetic (NBC)

“He starts like kind of crying, like a tear goes down his eye and we're like, 'Oh my God.' And I'm going like, 'Oh, do that again. Do that again.

“This is a great. And I think that was this moment of like, that's him."

The director finished by saying: “He's got a humanity about him and everybody figured out, 'No, he's not an a**hole. He's a misguided idiot who is an a**hole because he's trying to be funny.' Right. So you go like, 'Okay, he means well.'”

All in all, whether it be his improv making Michael Scott into a likeable character or refusing to make him into a copy of David Brent, Carell can take a lot of credit for the success of the show.