The Director Of 'The Office US' Opened Up About The One Huge Difference From The Original British Sitcom
We can all agree that The Office US is a heavyweight in the sitcom landscape.
Well, Paul Feig, who directed many of the US episodes, has opened up about one of the major differences from the original. Speaking to BuzzFeed UK, Paul shared that he and the team transformed the protagonist for American audiences, due to differences in humour across the pond.
BuzzFeed UK
In the British version, Ricky Gervais plays Wernham Hogg manager David Brent, while Steve Carell led the US adaptation as Michael Scott.
'British audiences really like taking the piss out of a out of a boar, but American audiences can't make that their lead person – they have to have some kind of emotional investment in that person. If they don't, they're just kind of like, 'why am I following this terrible person around?''
If you've seen the original, you'll be well aware that David Brent has very few redeeming qualities – while he's hilarious, Paul accurately described him as a 'pretty despicable character.'
So how did The Office US win our hearts? 'The key to the show was humanising Michael,' Paul shared.
He revealed that the turning point was in the iconic office Olympics episode in season two, which was where we saw a softer side to Michael for the first time, courtesy of an artistic decision from Steve Carell.
NBC
In the episode, Michael had just bought a condo, and while he was initially the butt of the joke, when it came to him receiving his award, Steve started getting emotional.
'It was just this moment of, 'like wow, that's brilliant,' Paul said, 'We were all like, 'Steve, keep doing that.'
So that was the show's turning point, giving audiences an insight into the character's more vulnerable side – something that became a key part of Michael's growth throughout the series.
NBC
While Michael's foot-in-mouth moments are hilarious, it's safe to say his emotional side played a huge part in why Michael remains one of the most lovable sitcom characters.
NBC
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In sports psychology, motivation driven by outside factors like a new gadget or some office competition often gets "pooh-poohed," he adds, but all motivation is useful. It's just that extrinsic motivation fades fast. He points to the example of fitness trackers — when people get them, they use them and may even increase their activity, but over time that use declines. The fitness graveyard is filled with fads of the past. Who among us hasn't bought a treadmill or a bike or an ab roller, thinking, "This will finally be the thing that gets me to work out," only for it to sit in the corner and collect dust? People's starting points matter, too. Take the devices that let you pedal your legs while watching TV. "On a scale of fitness, it's a 1 out of 10 or a 2 out of 10," Zizzi says. "If you did that and you are diabetic and you don't get any other physical activity, that's probably better than telling somebody, 'Hey, you need to walk, walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week to meet guidelines, or it doesn't count.'" Of course, this isn't all just harmless. Some of these products may hurt people — the supermodel Linda Evangelista said she experienced rare but severe side effects after undergoing CoolSculpting, which is supposed to freeze away fat. Basically, all fitness-related contraptions come with some sort of disclosure or require you to sign something saying that if you get injured or die, it's on you. Jay, from NYU, says she's never recommended one of these treatment hacks to patients. "Maybe if they're trying to decide between a tummy tuck or one of these, I don't know. A tummy tuck is probably more effective, but of course, the risks and the downtime might be higher," she says. But that's not really the point. "The bigger point is that it doesn't give you the same benefits as exercise or losing weight and maintaining weight loss." If I decided I absolutely could not live without the EMS suit, it would probably be an OK addition to my normal workout routine. But I shouldn't try to get by on less than half an hour of exercise once a week. As Verebes said, these sorts of workouts might be better suited to particular applications. Bryant notes that EMS could be helpful for people recovering from an injury because "it helps to restore the connection between the nervous systems and the muscles." For a healthy person, however, the benefit is "going to be much less dramatic." Even the experts and their loved ones aren't immune to this stuff. Jay bought a vibrating platform, but she got really dizzy on it, so she gave it away. Mehlman Petrzela's son bought an ab belt he saw on TikTok. The modern narrative around fitness is that it's not just about being thin — it's about being strong, healthy, and fit at any weight. But underneath all that is an enduring truth: People want to look conventionally attractive. Those attitudes feed the tricks that have long plagued the fitness industry. People get duped by supplements that supposedly burn fat while they sleep and vests that claim to sculpt abs while they sit on the couch, not because they're actually trying to improve their fitness levels, but because they're looking for a shortcut to an aesthetic goal that's often unattainable. "There can be a lot of misinformation, a lot of gimmicks or gadgets or supplements where they make some promises and there is no evidence, no data, to support them," Bartfield says. Social media doesn't help the situation. It places unrealistic aesthetic expectations in front of us all the time — and lets companies sell us endless ways to attempt to achieve them in 10- or 15-second video bites. My Instagram knows that I'm fitness-curious and weight-conscious; it's filled with ads for weight-loss drugs and quick-fix fitness gear. I regularly exchange various hacky fitness ads with friends. The (very skinny) elephant in the room here is the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Exercise can be arduous and hard. Going to the gym often isn't an instantly gratifying activity. Beyond the overarching purpose that is long-term health, you don't really noticeably accomplish anything with a single run on the treadmill or one set of squats. It's natural that people would rather skip to the fun part of nailing that summer body without sweating it out in a spin class on a frigid day in March. "People are wired for these fast, easy solutions, and your brain naturally goes toward the area of least resistance," Verebes says. The (very skinny) elephant in the room here is the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy (which is the same as Ozempic) and Zepbound (Mounjaro) that really do seem to deliver miracles. They help people with obesity lose weight and, as long as they keep taking the drugs, keep it off. For many people, these drugs can make a real change to their lives. These pretty miraculous drugs may have people looking for miracles elsewhere, which obesity doctors and fitness trainers warn against. GLP-1s need to be accompanied by healthier diets and exercise routines, especially since they can lead to muscle loss. Being thin is not synonymous with being in great shape. "We certainly do not want people to think that you can lose weight, and that equals health," Bartfield says. "There's the idea of nutritional quality, the idea of body composition, right? Maintaining muscle mass." In what would be shocking news to my younger self, I genuinely enjoy exercise. As a person who also likes to eat and drink a fair amount (a fact that would not be a surprise to younger me), I work out most days of the week as part of a perpetual balancing act. But I'm also not immune to the appeal of shortcuts. In my 20s, I tried to work while sitting on an exercise ball, but I had to stop because I couldn't stop myself from slightly bouncing up and down as I typed and making myself nauseous. A few years ago, at the advice of my mother, I spent a couple of thousand dollars on CoolSculpt, which, as far as I could tell, had little effect. I've gone farther down the GLP-1 "microdosing" research rabbit hole than I'd like to admit, though the price tag always scares me off. I don't want to work out with no work, but I'd like to work out with less work. Fitness isn't as easy as diet and exercise. It's also not something that people can hack their way into. To reap the benefits of exercise, you kind of have to exercise. That doesn't mean running a marathon, but it doesn't mean vibrating the fat cells away, either. The good news is that the simplest stuff is cheap or free — go for a walk, lift a weight, find an activity you like. The bad news is that it requires time and effort that a quick-fix mentality doesn't allow for. In the days after my little EMS suit adventure, I was a little sore, indicating the device probably did something. But I won't be going back. The price point was not within my budget — membership at the studio I went to was $225 a month, and you can do it only once a week, which means more than $50 a class. Plus, as mentioned, the intermittent shocking really was not for me. I'll be doing things the old-fashioned way, one weight and stride at a time, until an ad inevitably gets me once again, and I'm testing out the 2026 version of the vibrating belt. Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy. Read the original article on Business Insider
