The Office is one of those beloved modern sitcoms that many people turn to for “comfort viewing.” The irony is that the cast members were anything but comfortable while filming the series—for the first seven of its nine seasons, at least. You see, the set of The Office was unusually cold during production, and for a very understandable, yet embarrassing reason. As Steve Carell has openly talked about on numerous occasions, he’s struggled with hyperhidrosis (or excessive sweating) throughout his career, which, of course, creates an issue when you have to wear a suit all the time.
While speaking with Elle in 2007, Carell remembered making his first-ever talk show appearance a few years earlier on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and breaking out in a flop sweat. He grew nervous as the interview progressed, which only made him sweat even more. Midway through their conversation, Kimmel told Carell that he’d never seen anyone sweat as much as him.
Thankfully for Carell, Kimmel turned the awkward moment into a bit and allowed his guest to douse himself with water when they went to commercial.
‘The Office’ Set Was Kept at 64 Degrees Because Steve Carell Couldn’t Stop Sweating
For The Office, however, other arrangements had to be made. In his 2015 memoir The Bassoon King, Rainn Wilson revealed that, in order to keep Carell’s overactive sweat glands from erupting “like Vesuvius,” the temperature on-set was kept at just 64 degrees. “The temperature issue was a constant struggle and source of great pain in the cast,” Wilson recalled.
“Over the years, as the show got more and more luxurious, eventually the women of The Office got space heaters, which were surreptitiously placed under their desks to help with the arctic acting conditions.”
In 2021, Mindy Kaling told Andy Cohen that her number-one co-worker pet peeve was Carell’s temperature requirement on the set of The Office. “I remember not being able to do anything about that,” she explained. “It’s a little cold.” You can check out Kaling’s comments, courtesy of Watch What Happens Live, below.
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