How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor Auditioned For The Office’s Jim. What Went Wrong

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Most people recognize Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby from the popular TV show How I Met Your Mother, which remains a hit on Hulu. But did you know he actually tried out for the part of Jim Halpert on The Office? John Krasinski ultimately got the role, leaving fans to wonder what might have been.

Both The Office and How I Met Your Mother first aired in 2005 and quickly became incredibly popular. Even now, years later, fans still love the shows and can’t picture anyone else in those iconic roles. But of course, many other actors auditioned for the parts. Josh Radnor, who later starred as Ted in How I Met Your Mother, actually tried out for the role of Jim in The Office. He shared the story on the podcast How We Made Your Mother, when Jenna Fisher from The Office asked him about it. He explained how the audition went and why it wasn’t quite a match.

I wasn’t sure if he thought I was intelligent or not. I felt confused about how he perceived me – whether he saw me as quick-witted or not. I remember feeling good about the audition itself, but I think my improvisations might have given him the impression I wasn’t very bright.

He explained that Alison Jones, the casting director, initially brought him in and he had a meeting with Greg Daniels, the creator of The Office. However, he didn’t get asked to do a screen test and wasn’t invited back for further auditions. He clarified it wasn’t a bad audition overall, but he just wasn’t able to capture the right feel for the character of Jim, as he put it:

I realize now I misinterpreted the way something was said, but ultimately, I think we all reached a good understanding.

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It’s fun to think about how different The Office and How I Met Your Mother might have been if Josh Radnor’s career had taken a different path. Ultimately, it really shows that John Krasinski was perfectly cast as Jim. And while Josh Radnor played the nice guy Ted on How I Met Your Mother almost flawlessly, some of his choices in the show’s final episode still seem a bit odd, even now.

It’s always fun to learn which roles actors auditioned for, because things could have turned out so differently if they’d been cast differently. The casts of shows like How I Met Your Mother and The Office were perfectly suited for their parts, and it feels like everyone ended up exactly where they should have. It’s hard to picture anyone else in those roles – for example, it’s tough to imagine anyone other than John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, or anyone besides Josh Radnor as Ted. They both just seemed perfectly cast.

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2025-12-09 20:40