Steve Carell ‘Hated’ For Lying About ‘The Office’

Actor Steve Carell said that people “hated” him for lying about appearing in the series finale ofThe Office.

When The Office decided to call it quits after nine seasons on the air, fans began to speculate whether Carell would return for a cameo despite leaving at the end of Season 7 for an unknown future with HR rep Holly Flax.

Writers, producers, and even Carell’s co-stars played coy with the rumors, but Carell came out and plainly said “no,” he won’t be appearing in the finale of The Office.

And apparently, people really didn’t like that.

“People hated me,” Carell told Jay Leno on Wednesday night.

But the thing is, the success of keeping his cameo a surprise required a lot of lying, and not just from Carell.

“We thought it would be fun, but everybody was complicit in it,” he told Jay. “We were all accomplices and there was a lot — a lot — of lying.”

He’s really good at it, too. He demonstrated his skills on Leno:

“You know something, if you drink your own urine, you will become more intelligent,” a poker-faced Carell confided in Leno. “Swear to God.”

Of course, Carell did return as Michael Scott, and revealed that he and Holly got married and had kids, something that Michael always said he wanted in the show.

Were you surprised by Steve Carell’s cameo in The Office finale? You can watch the actor talk about lying with Jay Leno below: