Sometimes emotions on a show can run pretty high and it’s easy to think that the actors might actually be feeling what they’re selling considering that their reactions look so realistic that one can easily think that they’re getting into character just a little TOO much. When it comes to The Office though there was a moment when every person on the cast, even the director Paul Feig was shedding a few considering what the 22nd episode was all about. If you were watching the show around that time then you already know what I’m talking about, as it was the exit of the one person that a lot of people didn’t feel that the show could do without, Steve Carell. When the cast went into their modified rendition of a Rent song however it was more than evident that the emotions were real since a lot of them looked as though they were about ready to cry for real. Feig had this to say, per A.J. Caulfield of Looper:
“I was prepping [for the next episode] and my assistant said, ‘You should come down here.’ The first time they started singing that song, everyone choked up in real life. It really started to land for people that the end is coming,”
It’s not too hard to understand why this happened since seven seasons Michael was a huge part of the show and a central character that people expected to see there from start to finish. The act of leaving the show was devastating to some people since Steve Carell was genuinely liked on set and was believed to be such a great character that losing him almost felt like it would tank the show after a while. That didn’t happen obviously but it was still a monumental moment that almost didn’t get filmed since the outpouring of emotion was almost too much. A lot of well-liked shows tend to have at least one or two characters like this that gain a following that is easy to see and hard to lose since they tend to drive the story forward in a big way and are therefore harder to let go of when the time finally comes. But Steve had a very good reason for wanting to leave the show, and it was because he wanted to get back into the movies where he’d really hit his stride before making his way to the small screen. From his time on movies like Bruce Almighty, Anchorman, and even Evan Almighty it was obvious that he had the acting chop to do comedy, but it was his ability to turn in roles in movies such as Foxcatcher and even The Way, Way Back that helped to develop his skill set and make it evident that he could do so much more. He’s a funny guy, he can crack a joke and make people laugh with very little effort. But throughout his career Steve has managed to change it up enough that he’s been seen as a very gifted and promising actor despite a few fumbles here and there.
The Office moved on without him of course, but it was never quite the same since Steve is such a hard guy to replace. The character of Michael was also one that was difficult to replace since he was a rather complex character that had a few different moods and was overall a good guy but could be kind of a jerk as well. In a sense Michael is the kind of boss that just can’t leave his personal life out of work no matter if he did actually try or if he said that he tried and didn’t really make an attempt. He’s a bit foolish to be sure, and kind of inept when it comes to certain aspects of life, and yet he rose to a managerial position all the same since he had some skill at his job. When it came to his ability to run the office it was at times kind of hard to accept that he knew what he was doing, especially when dealing with his people. But all the same he was the guy that a lot of people looked to when they needed a resolution to a problem. That’s what a manager is there for after all, but given another person to go to aside from Michael it’s kind of hard to say that some folks would have told him about anything.
Still, he was an important part of the show and Steve put in the kind of performance that captured the attention and made people laugh in a big way since he did it so well. His return to the big screen has been pretty impressive since he quit the show, but to say that people didn’t miss him would be a straight up lie.
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