It's hard to remember a time when Steve Carell wasn't famous, and it's pretty much impossible to imagine anyone else playing the role of Michael Scott in The Office. However, the president of NBC at the time, Kevin Reilly, had a different actor in mind for the role: Billions actor Paul Giamatti. However, the actor declined. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman was also offered the role, and he like Giamatti, he turned it down.
Even after Carell was taken into consideration, the role almost went to Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk due to scheduling conflicts. Carell had signed on to appear in the NBC sitcom Come to Papa around the same time The Office was finding its cast, and Odenkirk was even presented as a member of the cast when the series was pitched to NBC.
But then Come to Papa was cancelled after four episodes, and Carell jumped at the chance to join The Office near the very end of the casting process. "Bob has an edge to him," casting director Allison Jones later told Andy Greene, author of The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s. "His take on Michael was just as funny as Steve's, but it was darker . . . The worst thing I ever had to do is tell Bob Odenkirk's agent that he didn't get The Office."