The Office's Steve Carell shares show habit he couldn't break

After being on the US version of The Office for seven seasons, Steve Carell has admitted he picked up one particular habit.

Reuniting with co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey for their podcast Office Ladies, the actor shared his struggle to stop breaking the fourth wall in his later jobs.

"I have never had a job where I didn't look into the camera at some point," he said.

Related: The Office star Ed Helms joins Jennifer Garner in Netflix comedy

Fischer, who played Pam on the show, responded: "Same! I can't not make the camera a character now. It's such a habit."

Carell, who played Michael Scott, continued: "I'm sure on Foxcatcher, I like looked into the camera and [then told myself], 'Nope. You cannot comment on what you just did'."

Kinsey said it's something she's also struggled with, sharing: "I actually had a director say 'Uh, Angela, you just looked right down the barrel'."

Carell added that he opted not to watch the British version of the sitcom, where Ricky Gervais played David Brent.

"I didn't want that to influence whatever this version was going to be," he said. "[Gervais] was clearly so great at it. He was such a distinctive character, I didn't want to do an impression of him."

Related: The Office US's John Krasinski reveals Jim and Pam plot he refused

The Office US's writer and producer Michael Schur recently spoke about the American adaptation, admitting he thought it was a "terrible idea" at first.

"I met Greg Daniels in the spring when he was just about to adapt The Office," he said. "I was a huge fan of the British Office. I, like most people, thought that adapting it for American television was a terrible idea, right?

"And I went into the meeting with a great deal of skepticism and I left the meeting thinking 'I will follow that man to the end of the Earth'.

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