LATimes.com:

Fans who tune in for a weekly dose of Steve Carell’s portrayal as Dunder Mifflin’s loveable boob of a boss Michael Scott have Paul Rudd to thank? Well, kind of.

During a break between scenes earlier this week on the set of their new movie, “Dinner For Schmucks” — a remake the 1998 French film “Le Diner de cons” about a group of men who have a weekly dinner party and invite the most pathetic guests they can find — the two talked “The Office.”

While the funnymen filmed 2004’s laughfest “Anchorman,” Carell was about to audition for the American adaptation of the popular BBC mockumentary-style show.

“Paul’s the one who told me about the original,” Carell recalled. “I had never seen the original. He actually put the fear of God in me. He said, ‘It is one of the best television shows I have ever seen, you have to see it,’ which gave me the impetus not to watch it because I thought if it’s that good, I can’t see it. I didn’t want to measure myself against it because I’ll never measure up. I didn’t want to copy. I wanted to make it my own.”

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