‘The Office’: Steve Carell Made the Cast Suffer for an Incredibly Awkward and Unusual Reason
On The Office, Steve Carell portrayed the often inappropriate but caring Dunder Mifflin boss, Michael Scott. He was one of the funniest and most beloved actors on the show. But during his seven seasons on The Office, Carell made the rest of the cast suffer for one particularly unusual reason.
‘The Office’ was centered around Steve Carell’s character
The American adaptation of Ricky Gervais’s UK comedy of the same name, The Office is now considered one of TV’s most beloved sitcoms. The show is centered around Carell’s character Michael Scott, the blundering regional manager of a paper company branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Carell played Michael Scott for the first seven seasons of the series. For his brilliant comedic performance, the actor earned numerous accolades, including five Primetime Emmy nominations and one Golden Globe win. Carell left the series after Season 7 when NBC opted out of renewing his contract.
The cast and crew loved Carell
In a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Office showrunner Greg Daniels talked about Carell’s exit from the series. While talking about all of the actor’s contributions, Daniels noted how much the cast and crew loved him.
“When he left, I interviewed a lot of the crew for a toast, and they were always saying he would let them go ahead of him in line and he never abused anything about his position,” said Daniels. “He was the humblest and most friendly professional person.”
Daniels also noted that Carell was always a great team player, and he never tried to steal the spotlight from his co-stars. And despite his departure, Carell continued to encourage the rest of the cast to do well.
“He really wants the show to continue after he’s gone,” Daniels added. “He always encouraged the other members of the cast to have more lines and be in scenes. He was very generous as a performer. Whenever we were on stage for anything, he always stood in the back.”
But Carell made the cast suffer for one particularly strange reason
Carell was truly loved by his co-stars and crew. But there was one particular reason he ended up making the some of the cast suffer on set.
In his memoir, The Bassoon King, The Office star Rainn Wilson revealed that Carell had a condition that would make him sweat profusely. As a result, the set would be a lot cooler than the cast liked.
“Steve Carell has some very active sweat glands,” Wilson wrote in his book. “When the temperature would get hot or he would get nervous, he would erupt like Vesuvius and there would be a flash flood of sweat down his face — To counteract this absurd physiological abnormality, the temperature on the set was situated at a ridiculously cold 64 degrees.”
Wilson said that the cold temperatures on set were often an issue for co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who would often be in thin blouses and skirts. Eventually, they were able to get space heaters to stay comfortable.
“The temperature issue was a constant struggle and source of great pain in the cast,” Wilson explained. “Over the years, as the show got more and more luxurious, eventually the women of The Office got space heaters, which were surreptitiously placed under their desks to help with the arctic acting conditions.”
