A new oral history on the workplace cult comedy revealed some startling what-might-have-beens.
Released twenty years ago this coming February, 'Office Space' is the quintessential movie for anyone's who worked a dead-end job in an office purely for the money.
Doesn't matter if it's a call-centre, data entry, whatever - 'Office Space' struck such a chord with anyone in that experience that twenty years on, it's still deeply necessary viewing. EW put together an extensive oral history on the movie, with interviews from Mike Judge, Jennifer Aniston and those involved in the production.
One interesting point that came up, aside from the fact that Jennifer Aniston went to school with David Herman (the guy who played Michael Bolton), was that the casting for the whole thing could have been way different. Originally, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were sought for the role that eventually went to Ron Livingston.
As casting director Nancy Klopper explained, "Fox wanted us to pursue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. This was post-'Good Will Hunting'. They weren’t exactly unknown." The story goes that Mike Judge, the movie's director, met with Matt Damon for the role, but it was Ron Livingston's audition that nailed it.
Interestingly, two other names also came up for the role of Lawrence, the neighbour character eventually played by Diedrich Bader. Owen Wilson and Ron Livingston's castmate from 'Swingers', Vince Vaughn, both auditioned for the role that eventually went to Bader.
You can read the full article here, and in the meantime, enjoy this little clip of Bill Lumbergh saying, "Um, yeah..."