Paul Rudd is reported to have told Steve Carell not to audition for The Office.
The detail was revealed in new book Welcome To Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History Of The Office, written by the show’s star Briam Baumgartner alongside executive producer Ben Silverman.
Carell, who played Michael Scott in Greg Daniels’ US reboot of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s beloved sitcom, was apparently discouraged by Rudd from auditioning.
“Ugh, don’t do it,” Rudd said, according to the book. “Bad, bad move. I mean, it’s never going to be as good [as the British version].”
Rumours surrounding a reboot of The Ofifce have continued to grow, as NBC recently confirmed they are waiting on Daniels’ approval to bring the show back.
While NBC has previously stated they had “no plans” to reboot The Office, it seems they’re waiting for showrunner Greg Daniels to come to them.
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Speaking to Deadline about a revival, NBCU content chief, Susan Rovner said that “whenever Greg Daniels wants to do one, we’re standing by”.
Daniels previously ruled out a reboot because of cast availability, saying he believes they have all moved on to other projects.
“I think people were assuming that an Office reboot would [involve]… getting the entire cast back together and just continuing where we left off,” Daniels said. “We’re probably not going to get every single character back, they’re all doing all these cool things.”
He added: “I don’t think people’s expectations of getting back in the saddle and doing more episodes of the same show was going to be realistic.”