Steve Carell Looks Back on 'Very Emotional' Exit from 'The Office' : 'The Timing Was Right'

Saying goodbye to The Office wasn't easy for Steve Carell.

In PEOPLE's exclusive first listen from Wednesday's new episode of Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's Office Ladies podcast, the actor reveals that filming his send-off episode of the NBC series was "very emotional."

"It was time for other characters to step to the forefront and other storylines to be pursued," Carell, 60, tells his former costars. "I think it was the right .... The timing was right, I think for everybody but simultaneously there's just a sense of joy for me that we had experienced all of this and we were getting... I was getting a chance to take a lap with everybody."

Carell — who played Dunder Mifflin branch manager Michael Scott for seven seasons — continues: "And the way those last two episodes were structured, it felt very rich to me to simultaneously be saying goodbye as Michael and us as friends in this moment of work together. But, yeah, it was a lot, it was a very emotional thing."

"It was," agrees Fischer, 49, who played Pam Beesly.

"It was just hitting us in waves I remember," adds Kinsey, 51, who played Angela Martin. "We would laugh one minute and then be tearing up the next. But like you said, it was because we'd had such a good run, we'd had such a good time."

"Incredible," summed up Carell. "Just incredible."

After Carell left his leading role in the series after seven seasons, Ed Helms was eventually positioned as the new lead until he had to exit the show as a regular to film the third Hangover film. However, Carell did reprise his role in season nine series finale in May 2013 titled "Finale," where he appeared as the best man at Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela's wedding.

John Krasinski, who played Pam's husband Jim Halpert, previously told PEOPLE about keeping Carell's last hurrah under wraps.

"It was so thrilling. We all just flat-out lied, the actor, 43, told PEOPLE. "I lied to Letterman! I have to apologize to him for that at some point. It was just one of those things that we all vowed and had to protect. Look what happened — it was the best. The 'that's what she said' [throwback] was the perfect use of Steve."

Carell uttered his character's famous line after surprising Dwight and taking over best man duties from Jim. Dwight told Michael, "I can't believe you came," to which Michael replied emotionally, "That's what she said."

Back in 2020, Carell and Krasinski had a virtual reunion and reflected on the show's 15th anniversary in a segment on Krasinski's YouTube show Some Good News.

"I was a waiter when I got that job, I was 23 years old," Krasinki told Carell. "After the pilot, I went back to waiting tables because I was sure nothing was going to happen with it. We all kind of came into it with that vibe. I remember none of us had done anything huge," he continued as Carell laughed on.

Carell added, "It's such a happy surprise that after all these years people are still tuning in and finding it today, it's pretty cool.

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The Office can be streamed in full on Peacock, and Earwolf's Office Ladies drops every Wednesdays on major podcast platforms.