Steve Carell Shares Bad Habit Learned on 'The Office'

Steve Carell has shared a bad acting habit he picked up during his time filming "The Office."

For seven seasons, the actor played the role of the paper company boss Michael Scott in the American version of the sitcom before finally departing in 2011.

"The Office," which ended in 2013, presented a unique framing in which characters would often interact with the cameras, looking directly at them in moments of incredulity. This was to create an authentic feel while being filmed for a fictional documentary. To this day however, Carell admits he catches himself "breaking the fourth wall" and looking at the camera when he isn't supposed to.

"I have never had a job where I didn't look into the camera at some point," Carell told his former castmates Angela Kinsey (Angela) and Jenna Fischer (Pam) on their podcast about the show, "Office Ladies," according to the Independent.

Kinsey said she also picked up the habit while working on "The Office."

"Same for me," she replied. "I actually had a director say 'Um, Angela. You just looked right down the barrel.'"

During his appearance on "Office Ladies," Carell also revealed that he did not watch more than five minutes of the original U.K. series because he did not want to take inspiration from Ricky Gervais, who played the equivalent office manager character, David Brent.

"I chose not to watch the British version because I didn't want that to influence whatever this version was going to be," Carell explained. "Gervais was clearly so great at it, he was such a distinctive character. I didn't want to do an impression of him."

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