Hard as it may be to believe, nearly a decade has passed since Steve Carell uttered his
churlish last words and walked away from his role as Michael Scott, a small-screen character
that made him a household name. But why did Steve Carell leave The Office after season
7?
In April 2010, Steve Carell made the first public mention that his days in the fictional
Dunder Mifflin office were possibly numbered. He told the BBC that because his contract
for The Office only ran through season 7, the then-forthcoming season would, quote "probably
be [his] last year" on the series. According to interviews published in Andy Greene's book
The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, a lack of internal response
to Carell's comment about season 7 potentially being his last actually made the actor feel
like it was time to leave.
Brian Wittle, who worked as a boom operator and sound mixer on The Office, explained the
sequence of events in the book:
"[Carell] was doing a radio interview and he haphazardly mentioned, almost unconsciously,
that it might be his last season. [...] He was kind of thinking out loud, but he did
it in an interview in public and it created news. Then what he said was the people connected
to the show had no reaction to it.
Wittle continued:
"When he realized he didn't get any kind of response from them, he thought, 'Oh, maybe
they don't really care if I leave. Maybe I should go do other things.'"
Elsewhere in the same book, hairstylist Kim Ferry corroborated Wittle's story, further
noting that Carell had told NBC brass that he planned on signing a new Office contract
that would be good, quote, "for another couple of years." According to Ferry, however, network
executives simply didn't reach out to him about negotiating a new deal:
"He planned on staying on the show. He told his manager and his manager contacted [NBC]
and said he's willing to sign another contract for a couple years. So all of that was willing
and ready and, on their side, honest. And the deadline came for when [NBC executives]
were supposed to give him an offer and it passed and they didn't make him an offer."
She continued, noting that Carell didn't want to leave The Office behind he simply had no
other choice:
"[Carell] was like, 'Look, I told them I want to do it. I don't want to leave. I don't understand.'
It just is mind-boggling how that happened [...] And I feel bad because I think a lot
of people think he did leave the show on his own merit and it's absolutely not true. I'm
telling you. [...] He really wanted to stay. And it devastated all of us because he was
the heart of our show."
Casting director Allison Jone called the whole situation, quote "absolutely asinine" since
Carell wanted to stay on the show. She stated:
"As I recall, he was going to do another season and then NBC, for whatever reason, wouldn't
make a deal with him."
The Office producer Randy Cordray offered another element that contributed to Carell's
departure: the arrival of Bob Greenblatt, who became the chairman of NBC Entertainment
in 2011. Allegedly, Greenblatt, quote "was not as big a fan of The Office as we wished
he would've been." Cordray noted his belief that Carell likely would have stayed on the
show if there was more respect coming from NBC.
For what it's worth, Greenblatt maintained that he, quote, "couldn't do anything about"
Carell leaving the series, since he believed it was already happening before his promotion.
"Why are you the way that you are? Honestly?”
Like so many television breakouts before him, once Carell left the small screen, he sought
to achieve big-screen glory. Carell's movie cred has taken a few hits of late but he's
still managed to carve out an impressive slate of comedic and dramatic projects since making
the switch to movies. All the while, he's been boasting a blockbuster animated franchise
with the Despicable Me film series, lending his voice to the villain-turned-hero Gru.
Heck, Carell even claimed an Oscar nomination for his wildly unsettling turn as John du
Pont in 2014's Foxcatcher.
It's hardly surprising that Carell would find such career success on both big and small
screens. The actor didn't officially break through to the mainstream until The Office
hit the airwaves in 2005, but he had been plugging away in Hollywood for years with
supporting and creative roles on TV fare like The Dana Carvey Show and Jon Stewart's The
Daily Show. As for Carell's film roles, he'd already stolen scenes from the likes of Jim
Carrey in Bruce Almighty and Will Ferrell in Anchorman before claiming the role of Michael
Scott in 2005. Not to mention his breakout starring role in the same year with The 40-Year-Old
Virgin.
“I was walking down the street and a race car pulls up and a guy says, 'You're funny.
You're the funniest guy I've ever seen or my name's not Dale Earnhardt.'"
As many roles as he's played in the years since leaving The Office behind, Carell's
work as Michael Scott is iconic. So much so that fans and reporters alike continue to
hound Carell about his time on the series and the possibility of reprising his role
in a potential reboot of the show.
However, Carell continues to shoot down the idea at every turn, albeit with loving insight.
He told Collider:
"I don't think we can recapture that same magic [...] I just wouldn't want to make the
mistake of making a less good version of it."
"Dunder-Mifflin."
"Any jobs going right now?"
"No, not right now."
"Just let me know."
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