Nowadays, John Krasinski is taking over Hollywood one movie at a time – serving as an actor, director, and producer. But it wasn’t terribly long ago when he was just a young actor auditioning for the U.S. version of the beloved British comedy series The Office. Together with Jenna Fischer, his breakthrough role as the lovable Jim Halpert landed Jim and Pam a cemented spot as one of the greatest TV love stories of all time.

Now, Krasinski is opening up about his initial audition for the show and why he knew Fischer was meant for the role of Pam.

Image zoom NBC / giphy.com

In a new interview with Sam Jones for the DirecTV series Off Camera, the 36-year-old actor dished on how badly he wanted the part and exactly why he almost didn’t get it. The actor explained that when he walked in with six other actors to the audition space, the casting director promptly announced they were going to take a lunch break. He added that after about forty people went to leave, one person returned and sat near him, asking him if he was nervous.

“Not really,” Krasinski remembers responding, adding, “You either get these things or you don’t, but what I’m really nervous about is this show. I just love the British show so much and Americans have a tendency to just really screw these opportunities up and I just don’t know how I’ll live with myself if they screw this show up and ruin it for me.”

Then… the man introduced himself as Greg Daniels, the show’s executive producer, and Krasinski panicked, saying “I actually threw up in my mouth and was like, ‘I’ve gotta go outside.’” He went outside and called his manager to ask if he should just leave after massively sticking his foot in his mouth, but his manager (understandably displeased!) convinced him to audition anyway.

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He recalls, “I went into the room and everyone was laughing at me, because I was such a moron and everybody was like ‘is this the jackass that told you the show is going to be ruined? Go for it, kid!’ And weirdly, because they were already laughing, the room was really warm, really ready to go, and I just did it, and they called me out to L.A. and I tested there.”

Krasinski was living in New York at the time, and his next audition took place on a live set of the show, where he auditioned with Fischer. He says, “The moment I sat down with her I was like, ‘This girl’s gonna get it.’”

They both felt the other person was destined to get the part, and Krasinski says the first question he asked when he was offered the part was if Fischer had also gotten it. (Aww.) He reveals that it was like a “weird, metaphysical thing.”

Image zoom NBC / media.giphy.com

Seems like it was written in the stars for Jim and Pam.

Now, you can check out the entire interview here: