A Breaking Bad Actor Almost Played The Office’s Michael Scott

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There are some actors who are just born to play certain roles, and Steve Carell as Michael Scott is the perfect example. The actor made Michael into the best character on “The Office,” but another performer came remarkably close to playing the Dunder Mifflin regional manager — one who would just miss out on “The Office” only to find stardom shortly afterwards: The great Bob Odenkirk was one of the finalists to play Michael Scott.

Odenkirk, who shot to stardom after playing fast-talking lawyer Jimmy McGill aka Saul Goodman on “Breaking Bad” and its spinoff, “Better Call Saul,” appeared on a 2024 episode of the “Office Ladies” podcast, where he discussed losing out on the role of Michael. “I am, in a strange way, a very earnest person for a person in comedy,” he said. “I am oddly earnest, and … it’s one of the reasons I think Steve Carell is a better, you know — is the one who got the role [on ‘The Office’].” 

During his time on the rewatch podcast, which is hosted by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (who respectively played Pam Beesly and Angela Martin on “The Office”), Odenkirk also revealed that he’d lost other parts to Carell, and that he thought it came down to the actor being “better at being genuinely fun.” He continued, “I think I bring with me a little bit too much earnest seriousness, and it’s just kinda there. And there’s nothing I can do about it except play other roles where it’s helpful to have that.”

On the official “The Office” YouTube account, which released a compilation of auditions for the show, you can see some of the “earnest seriousness” to which Bob Odenkirk refers. The montage includes his audition for Michael alongside tapes from numerous other actors, including Seth Rogen (“The Studio”) trying out for Dwight and Adam Scott (“Severance”) reading for Jim. Though we only see a few seconds of Odenkirk’s Michael Scott, it’s clear his version was going to be less charmingly dopey than Steve Carell’s take on the character. As the “Better Call Saul” star went on to say during his “Office Ladies” appearance, “You just don’t believe me as a purely light character. You just are looking for the darkness, and that’s actually great in drama. That’s a plus, you know? But in comedy, it’s not a plus.”

Just four years after “The Office” debuted, Odenkirk would find himself on a breakout hit with “Breaking Bad,” the AMC drama he joined in 2009. The role of Saul Goodman, which allowed Odenkirk to display that dark comedy he spoke about, ultimately took him from a respected alt-comedian to a household name when his character received a spinoff, “Better Call Saul,” in 2015.

In the book “Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office,” former Kevin Malone actor Brian Baumgartner and executive producer Ben Silverman delve into the show’s history and touch on the audition process for Michael. It seems the final shortlist actually came down to just Steve Carell and Bob Odenkirk, with Silverman recalling (via Esquire), “We still had Bob as somebody we were in love with as a comedic performer.” Ultimately, however, the producers preferred Carell’s “Midwestern-accessible, lovable comedic energy,” which Silverman likened to “the great primetime sitcom stars of the fifties and sixties.”

According to the former EP, Odenkirk had “hard edges” and an “angularity” that ultimately didn’t quite fit with the character’s easygoing dimwittedness. As casting director Allison Jones put it, Carell’s Michael Scott was “sweet and simple,” while Odenkirk had a more cerebral approach.

Years later, Odenkirk actually did show up on “The Office,” appearing in the ninth and final season as a manager of a real estate company. In the 2013 episode “Moving On,” Odenkirk plays Mark, who’s basically a Philadelphia variant of Michael Scott; he interviews Pam for a job at his company. During Odenkirk’s “Office Ladies” appearance, the actor recalled how his Season 9 appearance gave him a chance to “show people what I would have done [as Michael Scott]. Although I do think that what I was doing was more [of] a tribute to Steve, because that’s what I was supposed to be doing.”