When Leaving The Office, Steve Carell Was Just As Emotional As Michael Scott

If you're a fan of "The Office" and have checked out any of the podcasts about the show that have arrived in recent years, you'll know the cast basically consider each other family. Whether it's Brian Baumgartner's "An Oral History of The Office" or "The Office Deep Dive," or the Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey-hosted "Office Ladies," the overriding impression you get listening to these former cast members talk about the show is that, for them, it was a truly unique and unforgettable experience.

Part of what made it so remarkable is that the cast seemingly became as close, if not closer, than their characters on the show. Baumgartner, Fischer, Kinsey, and many of their guests have commented on how going from "The Office" to other projects was jarring, simply due to the fact that other shows' casts just didn't share anything like the bond the "Office" crew had developed. And just as Steve Carell's Michael Scott was at the center of the Dunder Mifflin team, so too was Carell at the center of this acting family.

Which meant that when Steve Carell left "The Office" in season 7, things very quickly went downhill, both in terms of quality and ratings. But rather than focus on the oft-maligned later seasons and the ways in which the show suffered after Carell's departure, allow us to draw your attention to the "Evan Almighty" star's comments about just how difficult it was to leave his show business family behind.

Steve Carell left "The Office" in 2011, seemingly to focus on film projects. After all, he'd basically become a mega-star due in large part to the show's success, and had already proven he was more than capable of inhabiting characters other than Michael Scott, having fronted such hits as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Get Smart." However, according to interviews with crew members in Andy Greene's book "The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s," there was a frankly unbelievable sequence of events whereby Carell was ready and willing to resign for at least a couple more years but was met with silence from NBC.

Whatever the reasons for his departure, Michael Scott leaving "The Office" was always going to be an emotional affair. The 22nd episode of the show's seventh season, entitled "Goodbye, Michael," saw the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton preparing for his relocation to Colorado with his fiancé, Amy Ryan's Holly Flax. He ultimately sneaks out a day early, so as to not make a big deal out of the whole thing, but not before John Krasinski's Jim Halpert figures out his plan and shares a heartfelt farewell with his boss. Then there's the touching moment when Jenna Fischer's Pam catches up with Michael at the airport, sharing an inaudible goodbye with him which Fischer later revealed was a genuine, tear-filled profession of how much she was going to miss Carell himself.

It's unsurprising that after seven seasons together, shooting the episode was a genuinely emotional experience for everyone involved — not least Carell himself.

In a March 2023 episode of "Office Ladies", Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey hosted Steve Carell, who reflected on Michael Scott's departure as being a somewhat bittersweet experience, saying:

"It was a really difficult episode to do, but I also loved it at the same time because it was sort of that end game for Michael. It was the culmination, the sort of showing the growth that he didn't need the big sendoff. He didn't need the big party. He could say goodbye to all of his friends on his own terms without any of the fanfare."

For Carell, Michael Scott's obvious evolution seemingly made his leaving a more fulfilling experience and one of the most redeeming Michael Scott moments. But that didn't mean it was easy to shoot. The now 60-year-old actor went on to explain how "difficult" and "emotional" the whole thing was, especially because the cast had become "such good friends" and that the in-scene goodbyes were essentially real. He added:

"The way those last few episodes were structured, it felt very rich to me to kind of simultaneously be saying goodbye as Michael and, you know, us as friends, you know, in this moment of work together."

Still, Carell maintains that Michael's departure came at the right time, as "it was time for other characters to kind of step to the forefront and other storylines to be pursued." Considering the show would never be as good as it had been before the star's leaving, I'm not so sure the timing was as good as Carell says. But if it's true that NBC didn't bother offering him another contract at the time, then in a purely personal sense, he was absolutely right to go.