Ted Mosby from How I Met almost was Jim Halpert from The Office

Actor Josh Radnor admits to not having “really understood” the character…

These are two of the best sitcoms of the decade that came out within months of each other.

And today it’s difficult to imagine The Office without John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, absolute master of the blasé camera gaze and silent punchlines.

However, in another timeline, the role could have gone to… Josh Radnor, who would shortly after become Ted Mosby in How I Met Your Mother.

Guest of the podcast “How We Made Your Mother”, Radnor confirmed to Jenna Fischer (Pam in The Office) that he had indeed auditioned for Jim.

“Yeah, that’s true… But I auditioned for everything back then,” he laughs, citing “even Arrested Development.” He remembered a good feeling during the casting, but he admits not having understood the character very well, nor even the very particular “tone” of the series.

“I didn’t really understand Jim, whether he was intelligent or not… I was a little confused about whether he belonged to the ‘smart camp’ or the ‘not smart camp’…”

He also knows that his limited talents in improvisation, essential for this type of comedy, played a trick on him: his Jim seemed “too stupid” for what the producers imagined.

No regrets on arrival. In the podcast, Radnor adds that he and Krasinski ultimately “landed in the right place.”

Because if in March 2005, the world discovered John Krasinski as Jim Halpert in The Office, in September 2005, we got to know Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby from How I Met…