Creed Bratton From 'The Office' Reveals He Was Almost Fired in Season 2

Remember way back in Season 1 of The Office when Creed Bratton was basically a background character who didn’t speak? Many fans forget about this period, as he later became one of the most cherished members of Dunder Mifflin. But Mashable reports that Bratton was, at one point, basically a step above an extra, and it almost cost him his job.

The real Bratton (who plays the character Creed Bratton on the sitcom) joined his former co-stars, Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly) and Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin), on their podcast Office Ladies this week, and revealed that he almost got the ax during Season 2.

In the fifth episode of the season, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is asked to fire someone after the Corporate office makes budget cuts. He waits until the last second to do it, which also happens to be on Halloween, and is torn between Creed and Devon White (played by Devon Abner).

Fisher explains that the on-screen decision to fire someone was also happening behind the scenes. Creator Greg Daniels couldn’t fire the regular cast members because of their contracts, and didn’t want to fire the supporting cast because they were already established. This left only Bratton and Abner to be cut, a decision he was actually very split on.

Bratton explained on the podcast that when Daniels gave him the script for the episode (his first with actual dialogue), he knew he had to memorize it “forwards and backwards,” adding:

"I had set a timer on a little recorder and subliminally at two and three in the morning it would go off and play the lines while I was sleeping. No joke. I had it backwards and forwards. I knew this was the Rubicon. My intuition said, 'this is it.'"

It seems that the hard work paid off. Creed is truly one of the best parts of the show.