HBO Paid James Gandolfini to Not Star in ‘The Office’

It’s hard to believe that The Office has been off NBC airwaves since 2013. There is talk of creator Greg Daniels bringing it back as some sort of reboot, but it won’t be the same. It’s also hard to believe that James Gandolfini has been gone since 2013 as well, passing away the same year that The Office ended. While The Sopranos never got rebooted, a 2021 prequel movie about a young Tony Soprano called The Many Saints of Newark was a good effort, and it was touching to see James’ real-life son, Michael Gandolfini, playing a young Tony Soprano.

The Office and The Sopranos were two of the most iconic TV shows of the 2000s. Though they were very different in tone, with one a workplace comedy and the other a serious mob drama, there were similarities. Both were led by great ensembles, and both had leads who drew us in and made us uncomfortable in the best ways possible. When Steve Carell left The Office in Season 7, the series was left without a boss. It was then that NBC turned to Gandolfini. The deal may have happened if it wasn’t for a desperate HBO intervening.

The Office

A mockumentary on a group of typical office workers, where the workday consists of ego clashes, inappropriate behavior, and tedium.

Release Date

March 24, 2005

Cast

Steve Carell , Rainn Wilson , John Krasinski , Jenna Fischer , Mindy Kaling , Craig Robinson , B.J. Novak , Creed Bratton , Angela Kinsey , Oscar Nunez , Ellie Kemper , Ed Helms

Main Genre

Sitcom

Seasons

9

Network

NBC

Steve Carell’s Michael Scott Is One of the Best Characters in Sitcom History

Before there was Michael Scott, there was David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais in the original British version of The Office. Though it only lasted two short seasons in the early 2000s, it became a big hit thanks to the originality of David Brent and the wacky characters surrounding him. Brent was a nightmare of a boss, but there was sadness in his awkwardness, as we were shown a lonely man who acted out to compensate for his insecurities.

When the American version of The Office was announced, nothing much was expected. It was seen by many as just another American ripoff that wouldn’t understand what made the original so magical. Still, there was the casting of The Daily Show‘s Steve Carell as the David Brent-like Michael Scott to give us hope. Despite that, the first season of The Office was a flop. The romance between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) may have been cute, and Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrutte was hilarious, but Michael Scott’s portrayal was off. With his slicked-back hair, he looked slimy, and he acted mean. There wasn’t much redeeming about him.

In the second season, that changed, and Michael found his voice. He was a self-centered idiot, sure, but he became redeemable through the sadness he showed and the way he saw his co-workers as his family. Then, at the height of the show’s popularity, Carell decided to leave, making Season 7 of The Office his last, while he sought more fame in feature films. Without Michael Scott, the series quickly became lost.

‘The Office’ Had a Tough Time Replacing Michael Scott

The last two seasons of The Office have their great moments, but it also began to lose what made it special. A lot of that came from the inability to replace Michael Scott as the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton. It was an impossible task. Instead of settling on one character to carry the weight, The Office turned to several. The series spent way too much time with the unlikable Jo (Kathy Bates) and Robert California (James Spader). Nellie (Catherine Tate) was the regional manager for a bit, and though her character lasted through the rest of the series, she never quite fit in with everyone else. We even got cameos from Ray Romano and Gervais reprising his role as David Brent.

The Office managed to land a huge name in Will Ferrell. His star was never bigger thanks to his string of huge hit films at the time like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers. In The Office, he played Deangelo Vickers, the new regional manager, and a man even more immature and awkward than Michael Scott. Instead of being funny, however, his character was cringeworthy. The Office desperately needed one person to lock in and keep as the new boss at Dunder Mifflin. NBC almost found him in perhaps the biggest TV star of the decade, The Sopranos‘ James Gandolfini.

James Gandolfini Nearly Became the New Boss on ‘The Office’

It’s impossible to describe just how big The Sopranos was to pop culture. The series might have aired on HBO, but that didn’t matter. The fact that it could get away with what a network series could only dream of doing only drew more attention to it. Sunday nights became all about The Sopranos. It led to several other huge HBO hits from Six Feet Under to True Blood and Game of Thrones. Every week we tuned in to see who was going to be the latest character to die, but it was more than just another run-of-the-mill mob series. That’s because of Tony Soprano. He could be the clichéd mob boss, but he was also emotionally insecure, just like another TV boss, a vulnerable man who turned to a therapist to help him. Over its six-season run, The Sopranos won 21 Emmy Awards, and its series finale is still one of the most discussed ever, whether you loved it or hated it.

After The Sopranos ended in 2007, James Gandolfini kept working, but nothing could match the show that had made him a household name. Then, another household name in Steve Carell left The Office. After that, NBC came calling for Gandolfini. Back in 2021, on the Talking Sopranos podcast, hosted by Gandolfini’s former co-stars Michael Imperioli and Steve Schrippa, an interview with Ricky Gervais turned into a twist about the American version of The Office. Imperioli talked about the fact that NBC tried to get James Gandolfini to replace Steve Carell. Schirripa added to it, saying:

“I think before James Spader and after Carell, they offered Jim — I want to say $4 million — to play him for the season, and HBO paid him $3 million not to do it. That’s a fact. Jim was going to do it because he hadn’t worked and it was a number of years removed from when the show ended.”

Would James Gandolfini Have Been a Good Fit on ‘The Office’?

This podcast wasn’t just speculation. In 2006, HBO signed Gandolfini to a new deal to create more projects after The Sopranos. They wanted to keep him. The news was also discussed in the 2020 book The Office (The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History) by Andy Green, where writer Daniel Chun gave his recollection about Gandolfini being approached, saying:

“I remember him being really, really complimentary, but he wasn’t super familiar with the show. He had watched a few episodes and was really unsure about comedy. He was like, ‘I don’t one hundred percent know how to play this.’”

Perhaps that unfamiliarity with The Office would have hindered his approach, but it actually probably would have been a plus. Gandolfini would have been able to come in not trying to replicate Michael Scott or recapture some lost magic. If his character was new to Dunder Mifflin, not knowing his new workmates, wouldn’t it have been more realistic for Gandolfini not to know his castmates?

Gandolfini could have been typecast in mob films for the rest of his life if he wanted to. He could have been great at it, and we would happily turn out to watch. But Gandolfini didn’t do that. He worked on documentaries, he acted on Broadway, he had a major voice role in Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild Things Are. His best role would be one of his last; in Enough Said, he acted alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a sweet romantic comedy. Gandolfini earned deserved critical acclaim for Enough Said, though he’d never get to see it, as he died before the film was released.

James Gandolfini is one of those actors who will always be remembered for one role over everything else. That can be a curse that gets you typecast or leads audiences unable to believe you as anyone else. Gandolfini didn’t have that problem. No one could have ever replaced Steve Carell on The Office or made us forget about Michael Scott, but Gandolfini could have created another regional manager who would have carried the series through to its end.

The Office is available to stream on Peacock.

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