'The Office' star Steve Carell avoided show's British version due to 'great' reason

Steve Carell recently got candid and revealed that he went into The Office unprepared.

While having a conversation with LAD Bible, the 63-year-old American actor and comedian admitted that he only caught a brief glimpse of The Office’s British version when he went to audition for the American version of the show.

Carell, who played the role of Michael Scott on the mockumentary comedy series from 2005 to 2011, said, "I will admit, this Office, I've only watched about less than a minute of that, of this Office because I had not seen it prior to auditioning for the American Office.”

Explaining why he did not watch the original show, he added, "I started to watch a tiny bit, and I knew instantly that if I watched any more, I would just do a copy of Ricky [Gervais], and I didn't want to do that because I figured if it had 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 Despicable Me star admitted.

It is pertinent to mention that Steve Carell also made an unexpected cameo in the series finale, which aired on May 16, 2013, on NBC after nine seasons.