He Almost Counted Himself Out — The Office Didn’t
When Hidetoshi Imura walked into his audition for The Office, he was already preparing for disappointment. He had moved to the United States from Japan at 35 years old and spoke very limited English. Sitting in the waiting room, one detail hit him hard: he was the only non-native English speaker there. Everyone else spoke fluently. Confidently.
It was intimidating.
And, in his own words, discouraging.
“I can’t speak English very well,” Imura later said. “I felt very negative about it.” He assumed the gap was too wide, the odds too slim. The kind of quiet self-doubt that tells you not to hope too much.
Two days later, his phone rang.
He got the part.
Imura was stunned. The character in the warehouse even used his real name — a small but meaningful sign of trust. “I was like, Oh my God… they trust me!” he recalled. Not just with a role, but with being himself.
It’s one of those perfectly understated Office stories. A show built around ordinary people taking small risks, feeling out of place, and showing up anyway — doing the very same thing behind the scenes. No grand speeches. No dramatic turning point. Just someone who almost counted himself out… and a door that quietly opened anyway.
Sometimes opportunity doesn’t ask for perfection.
It asks for presence.
And the courage to walk into the room, even when you think you don’t belong.
