John Krasinski has spoken out about a scene in The Office in which his character Jim cheats on his wife Pam that he refused to film.

From 2005 through 2013, Krasinski portrayed Jim Halpert on the successful drama, which ran for nine seasons.

Fans may recall that the fan-favorite marriage was endangered in Season 8 when Pam went on maternity leave and was replaced by Cathy, the office administrator (Lindsey Broad). Cathy had a crush on Jim throughout the season, and The Office producer Greg Daniels intended to take things a step further by having Jim and Cathy kiss on a business trip. Krasinski, on the other hand, declined to film the sequence.

In the new oral history book “Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of The Office,” Krasinski says, “That’s the only time I remember putting my foot down” (via Uproxx). “I remember saying things that I never thought I’d say before, like, ‘I’m not going to shoot it.’”

“My feeling is there is a threshold with which you can push our audience. They are so dedicated. We have shown such great respect to them. But there’s a moment where if you push them too far, they’ll never come back. And I think that if you show Jim cheating, they’ll never come back,” he stated.

“The kiss between Jim and Cathy would have happened while they were on a work trip in Florida, but creator Greg Daniels was convinced by Krasinski’s appeal and cut it,” according to Uproxx’s reporting on the recently published oral history book.

Greg Daniels, the show’s creator, agreed to delete the sequence at Krasinski’s request, but he still believes in the premise.

He stated, “I feel like that kind of worry was good in terms of fan engagement.”

“I needed to worry them that maybe I was going to give them a bad ending so they were happy when they got a good ending.”

Broad revealed in summer 2020 that she is still hounded by fans of The Office since she played the woman who jeopardized Jim and Pam’s romance. “If anyone is wondering what it was like to be on The Office, the best comedy of this century: I just posted something on Instagram about how my dog was a murdered and a bunch of people were like, ‘F*ck you, Cathy, she deserved it!’ So. There ya go!” she said on Instagram at the time.

Meanwhile, Paul Rudd is said to have encouraged Steve Carell not to audition for The Office.