How John Krasinski's Brutal Honesty Landed Him His Role on The Office

After watching (and rewatching)

The Office

for nine seasons, it's hard to imagine anyone other than

John Krasinski

in the role of office prankster Jim Halpert. But during the audition process, Kransinski almost blew his chances of landing the part—or at least he thought he did, according to

DailyActor

. Long before he got his big break as part of the

Dunder Mifflin

team, Krasinski was a devoted fan of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's original

UK version

of

The Office

. In an

interview

with NPR, Krasinski shared the story of his audition, including the moment when he shared his (probably

too

honest) feelings and fears about the series' American retelling with a guy who turned out to be the executive producer:

"One guy sat across from me and said, 'Are you nervous?' And I said, 'Oh no, you either get these things, or you don’t. What I’m really nervous about is them screwing up a perfect show. The Americans always have the ability to screw up these amazing British shows and I’m afraid this is going to be another one of them.' And he said, 'Oh great. I’m Greg Daniels, I’m the executive producer.' And I genuinely almost threw up right on his shoes."

Much to Krasinski's surprise, that little over-share turned out to be what landed him the gig. "Honesty is the best policy," Daniels later told Krasinski. "It's the reason you got the role." And the rest is binge-watch history.