Director Paul Feig Explains How Making Steve Carell's Character a 'Misguided Idiot' Saved The Office

Paul Feig is looking back on what he thinks finally made The Office click with American viewers back in 2005.

The Bridesmaids director joined Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the most recent episode of his podcast Dinner’s on Me to discuss his career, which has included creating the beloved one-season wonder Freaks and Geeks and directing 14 episodes of The Office.  

“My history with The Office was long because, actually, it was offered to me to develop after Freaks and Geeks,” Feig, who ultimately earned two Emmy nominations and a Directors Guild of America Award for his work on The Office, explained.

The American version of the show, which premiered on NBC in March 2005, was an adaptation of a hit British series of the same name, created by and starring comedian Ricky Gervais as David Brent, the branch manager at a small paper company.

“But they were offering it to everybody,” Feig admitted. “I mean, literally every showrunner in town, they were like, ‘You wanna take this on?’ And I was just like, ‘I'm not taking that on. That's like an iconic show.’ Even back then, it was kind of this juggernaut for comedy people.”

NBC’s version of The Office famously took a while to click with American viewers, and Feig chalks that up the six-episode first season hewing so closely to the British original — particularly when it came to Steve Carell’s take on Gervais’ boorish, unlikable character.

“It's British humor. British humor is very different,” Feig explained. “The Brits love tearing down a boor. So, they love when the lead character is an unlikable character because they love poking holes in those guys, seeing those characters have a downfall.”

“American audiences don't like that,” he continued. “They go, like, ‘This my this is my hero? Because I don't like this person,’ and it drives them crazy, and so they'll tune it out.”

But by the time Feig directed his first episode of the series, that was beginning to change.

“I came on in the beginning of the second season when The 40-Year-Old Virgin had just come out,” he explained of Carell's blockbuster 2005 film. “So, Steve was this huge star all of a sudden, and they had this huge star in the show that they thought wasn't working, and it wasn't working in the ratings.”

Feig pointed to a specific scene in the first episode he directed, “Office Olympics,” as the point when things really started to turn around for Carell’s Michael Scott.

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“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 gonna give him a gold medal,” Feig recalled. “We're shooting it, and Steve gets emotional — Steve as the character — because he's had this terrible day. And so, he starts, like, kinda crying. Like, a tear goes down his eye. And we're like, ‘Oh my God.’ And I'm going, like, ‘Oh, do that again.’ ”

“I think that was this moment of, like, ‘That's him. He's got a humanity about him,’ ” Feig explained. “And everybody figured out, no, he not an a--hole. He's a misguided idiot who is an a--hole because he's trying to be funny. So, you go, like, ‘Okay, he means well.’ And once the audience goes, like, ‘He means well,’ then you're, like, ‘We'll follow him.’ And the whole show turned around and obviously became the giant hit that it is.”