Steve Carell played Michael Scott on The Office from 2005 until 2011, returning for a cameo in the finale in 2013. However, while speaking with LAD Bible , he revealed that he had never really seen the original British version of the sitcom, which inspired the American version. "I will admit, this Office , I've only watched about less than a minute of that, of this Office because I had not seen it prior to auditioning for the American Office ,” he said. He explained that he stayed away from the show because he didn’t want it to impact his own performance as Michael Scott. "I started to watch a tiny bit, and I knew instantly that if I watched any more, I would just do a copy of Ricky [Gervais],“ he said. “I didn't want to do that because I figured if it had any chance of success, it's not going to be the same show.…