‘The Office’ director Paul Feig remembers key scene where Steve Carell “turned the whole show around”
nme.comThe Office director Paul Feig has spoken about how Steve Carell managed to save the show from being axed.According to the director, the first season was struggling in the ratings because Carell’s character Michael Scott was “such a bore and so mean” which was an issue because, unlike the UK version of the show, if viewers don’t like the character, “they’ll tune it out” and “just won’t watch it”.“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, was brought in to direct the second series, told Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, Dinner’s On Me.He claimed that a scene in the episode Office Olympics changed the course of Scott’s development forever.“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,” Feig explained.He continued: “But we’re shooting it and Steve gets emotional.
Steve as the character, because he’s had this terrible day. And so 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.“He’s got a humanity about him and everybody figured out, ‘No, he’s not an asshole.
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