WEBVTT - Rainn Wilson - Pt. 1 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:09.120 My name's Rain Wilson, and I played Dwight Kurt Shrewd. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:20.880 Hello everybody, Welcome to the office Deep Dive. I am 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.400 your host Brian baum Gartner. Today you will be listening 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:29.680 to my conversation with Rain Wilson. Now, when we started 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.200 shooting the show, um, Rain, he was the only person 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:38.440 that I knew. I met Rain back in circa nineteen 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.720 all right. I was living in Minneapolis and I went 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.520 to see a production at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.480 Now you should know this. The Guthrie is a very, 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.000 very big deal. It is the largest regional theater in 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:59.440 the country. It puts on incredible shows, world renowned, etcetera, etcetera. Well, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:04.520 Rain was starring uh in a production of Philadelphia. Here 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.080 I come. And I went to the show. And I 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.800 have said this many times. Rain's performance in that show 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:19.360 it was the greatest performance that I ever saw on 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.080 the Guthrie stage. It was brilliant. And so the show 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.360 was over and I was like, I've got to meet 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:29.920 this guy, Rain. This guy is brilliant, and so we 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:35.000 got introduced, we met and we became friends. And when 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:36.959 I showed up to work on the first day of 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:40.399 the office. There was Rain, and I could not have 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:47.080 been more delighted to see him. He is He's a 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.640 special one, that's for sure. I am so excited for 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.920 you to hear this interview. You're going to hear Rain 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.400 in a way you have never heard him before. I 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.960 love talking to him. You are going to love. Let's 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.640 sending to him. So, without further ado, here is Rain Wilson. 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:14.320 Bubble and squeak. I love it. Bubble and squeak on, 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.080 Bubble and squeaker cookie every moment, lift over from the 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:39.160 nut before. Oh, there he is him. Buddy, Hey man, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.680 how are you? I'm good? God see you? Yeah? Yeah? 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:50.080 Are you? We? Um? That felt really inappropriate? Why? Um, 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.639 we have some salty nuts for you. I saw just 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.080 a giant, like five pounds of salty I was requested, 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.959 what salty nuts? Nothing is requested? What does that mean? 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.600 I don't know? Um, all right, let's do this. Let's 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:11.000 do it. I'm all yours for two hours. Really so exciting? 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:17.120 Are you excited? No? Why not? It's fun to see me. 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:23.200 I'm excited to see you. Yes, that's that's what. That's 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:26.600 that's where would Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna talk about a 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:30.520 lot of things. I also am excited about talking about 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.160 the office in terms of like some stuff that you 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.480 don't normally here. Yeah, like the the longer, more detailed 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.280 stories of some of the intricacies of how stuff was 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.920 arrived at and some of the choices that were made 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.080 along the way and stuff like. Well, that's what my 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.440 goal is with you, because you're a thoughtful person. I'm 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:50.160 gonna try to do that. You're not gonna get that 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.640 from Creed. No, I know. Well I think we've scheduled 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.920 him for twenty two minutes. Okay, so that's fine. Um No, 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.400 but yeah, I'm excited to talk to you. What. So 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.000 we're starting, we're rolling. Yeah, we're just we're just chatting. Good. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:11.360 What were you doing before the office? Um? Before the Office? Well, 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.720 going way way back before. So I did theater for 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.960 about ten years in New York before I did any 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.200 TV or film, so early was a theater actor. Some 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.400 A lot of people ask like, how were you an 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.640 improv or were you and stand up or something like that, 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.680 But I didn't do anything. I'm similar to you. Yeah, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.560 theater theater person that kind of found that we were 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.239 well suited to kind of comic character guys. Despite our 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.480 ravishingly good looks. So yeah, So I came out to 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.640 l A and and then started doing commercial auditions and 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.240 voiceover auditions and little guest spots on TV shows. I 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:54.159 was unlike Charmed and yeah and C S I and 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:56.159 I did c S I. You did see s I too? 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.000 Or you I was a furry you're a guy who 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:03.279 gets sexualification out of wearing a big furry suit. I 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.360 was creepy guy in Supermarket. I'm not getting creepy guy 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.680 in Supermarket. I think I was dog. I think literally 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.360 that perfect. I think that was my role that was perfect. Yes, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:15.560 so I did a lot of that stuff and some pilots, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.080 and I did some decent movie roles here and there, 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:22.760 and um, what happened for me that really led to 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.520 the office is a lot of people think I kind 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.280 of waltzt into Dwight. But the big role that put 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.560 me on the map was in six ft Under. So 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:37.440 after a lot of slogging around the casting people Libby Goldstein, um, 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.880 they brought me in multiple times to six ft Under, 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.440 and finally I got the role of Arthur and I 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.479 did ended up doing thirteen episodes on that right when 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.960 HBO was heating up, and that was kind of revolutionizing 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.279 what we think of as television. You know, Sopranos the 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.680 Wire were on at the same time. It was Entourage 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.480 and a lot of really amazing shows, including six ft 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.800 Under and Uh. All of a sudden, I popped onto 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.360 people's radar. Um. It was really incredible how that happened, 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.919 because that was one of those shows that everyone in 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:14.960 l A watches. There are the shows that people watch 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.000 all across the country. They watch n c I, s 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.000 l A or something like that, and it's fifty million 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:23.159 people will watch it, but no one in l A 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.760 who are like taste makers watch it. So this six 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.560 ft Under was one of those kind of shows, and 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.480 that's what put me on the map. And all of 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.599 a sudden, I was in kind of pretty high demand 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:36.960 for movies and stuff. I know, you want a SAG 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:40.800 Award for that, the Ensemble Ensemble SAG Award. Yeah. I 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:43.120 might be the only person who has been part of 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.960 winning an Ensemble SAG Award for both drama and comedy 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.720 because I did it for six ft Under and then 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.200 twice we won I think twice we won UH for 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:57.520 the Office and now so so you're in high demand, yeah, 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.800 and were you aware of the British version of The Office? 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.920 I was. I was so my friend Sam Catlin, he 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.240 had heard about it, and he had seen a couple 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.440 episodes and somehow gotten some like British DVD or something 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.200 like that and had like even like an English DVD 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.320 player or something somehow had advanced copies, and like, you've 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.400 got to see it. Groundbreaking, amazing, And so we went 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:21.840 over like on a special occasional We've got to watch 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.840 The Office, and we were blown away. So I was 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.520 really truly one of the first people to see it 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:31.240 in the United States. It might have been one of 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.280 the first couple of thousand people to see it in 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.760 the United States, and just we loved it. And then 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:37.640 he would get his hands on a couple more episodes 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:39.360 and we'd go back and have dinner and watched like 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.000 two or three more episodes. So I loved it. And 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.040 what happened was I got cast in a pilot with 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.600 Janine Garoffalo for ABC. Mark Marrin was in it and 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.520 Bob oden Kirk was in it. And this was this 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.760 infamous pilot that we did the table read and they 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.960 pulled the plug after the table read. So they had 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.480 sets built, we had locations, we had cast, we had 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.560 plane tickets. We were flying out the next day, literally 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.640 the next morning after the table read, start shooting and 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.640 uh did the table read? It went terribly, but I 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:16.040 guess what, I still got paid. And that was the 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.200 same pilot season as The Office, kind of the Office 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:22.400 didn't really follow a pilot season when it was first casting, right, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:28.480 So what happened was Vernon Sanders, who's one of the 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.760 executives and executives right, And I ran into him in 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.080 the parking lot on the way to this infamous table read, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.360 and He's like, hey, we got good news and I 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:37.920 was like, what's that is? Like, we got the rights 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.640 to make the American version of the Office. And I 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.120 was like, outside, I was like, oh great, And inside 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.960 I was like, motherfucker, goddamn it, that's fucking sucked. Because 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.080 I love the British Office so much. I didn't have 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:54.280 an idea of like even what the American Office would be, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.920 or what role I would play or anything like that. 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.200 But I was just like inside, I was just kicking myself. 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.240 And then the plug gets pulled on that and then 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:05.400 I called my people and I'm like, hey, I hear 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.360 about this office, and they're like, yeah, well it was 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.319 a few months to go on that. So fortunately that 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.440 the space was opened and the door was opened. The 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.040 universe works in mysterious ways, Brian, That's right, it does, 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.840 and so you eventually get a call to go in 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.400 and meet correct. I was the first audition for the office. 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:31.040 I have in my office at home, framed the audition 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:35.240 sheet of Alison Jones the first day of the auditions 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.120 for the office, and I was number one on that list. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.000 So other people on the list, or Jenna Fisher, you 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.520 can find. It's on my Instagram somewhere. It might even 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.160 be in my book in the in the photos included 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.600 in my books, you guys can find it. But uh, 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.320 I think Adam Scott audition. I think there were, um, 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.320 there was a lot of great talent that auditions. My 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.480 story about that I'll share with you really quick was 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.920 when Steve left, Alison Jones came to me. He had 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.559 a little party, a little reception. She came and she goes, 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.840 I was looking for stuff for Steve that I thought 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.920 it might be cool. She probably gave that to you, 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.800 Like when she was searching around and she hands me 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:17.200 a sheet and it says Kevin and it says Brian Baumgartner, 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.760 Eric stone Street and Jorge Garcia. No kidding. So that 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:27.680 was like the final three. But oh fantastic. So you 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.600 and Helo. Eric stone Street is way richer than you. 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:36.800 He is now he sorry shoot sorry. So yeah, So 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.319 on that first audition, I auditioned for both Michael and Dwight, 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.000 and my Michael was just terrible. It was just simply 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.600 a Ricky Gervais impersonation. And I knew that I had 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.120 more of an affinity for the Dwight role. Uh, And 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:52.160 I knew that I could really deliver on that. I 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.040 just felt it in my bones. I'm like, oh, this 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.520 is me, this is that is exactly my kind of weird. Yeah, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.080 well that I mean, you're but you were so different 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.200 also than Gareth in the British version. I mean he 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:11.000 was much yeah weasily and and Dwight way more authoritarian 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:16.680 and trying to derive power, whereas Gareth seemed more backstabby. Yeah, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.400 we're different in a lot of ways and similar in 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.640 a lot of ways. And it was this incredible luxury 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:28.520 to go, Okay, here's Mackenzie Crook, brilliant actor, really strange 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:33.520 looking dude, and he killed as Gareth and was so interesting, 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.840 and I get to steal all of his best stuff, 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.160 and then there's maybe stuff that I can add that's 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.679 more of my own, so it's win win all around. 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.920 So one of the things that Dwight is most known 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:52.280 for is saying absolutely ludicrous, preposterous stuff with a total 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:54.880 straight face and a dead pan, without any knowledge that 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.920 what he's saying is ridiculous. And really, Mackenzie did that 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.520 so be to flee, and I I really just frankly 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.760 stole that from him. Another thing I stole from him 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:07.640 was the haircut um. I read an interview with him 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.040 where he said he went to like just a local 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.240 barber shop out in like Slough or some you know, 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.440 suburb of London, and he kind of got the haircut 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.080 that would be the least flattering for his head and 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.080 the most ridiculous haircut. And I read that I was like, oh, 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.320 I want to do that. So I spent time in 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.440 the mirror figuring out what the haircut that is going 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.160 to make me look the most ridiculous. I have a 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.280 huge forehead and I was like, I'm going to frame 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.960 my forehead perfectly with these little draperies of hair that 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.040 will highlight the enormity of my carapace. Is that a word? 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.040 I think it is a word. I think these guys 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.000 aren't even listening. Um and then like really short on 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.679 the sides, and then intense, and then it evolved over time. 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.320 But interesting now, so we're not going to talk too 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.680 much more about the audition process. But at what point 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.440 did you meet John and Jenna and Steve in the 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:02.520 callback sessions? Yeah? So the callback sessions were months later, 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.760 mostly for for those listeners who don't know the way 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.520 pilot season used to work, at least less and less so. 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:12.320 But all the scripts would start getting released in December January, 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:14.680 and then all the auditions where this is called pilot 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.920 season January February. They'd shoot in like March, early April. 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.280 Decisions would be made in late April or May about 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:23.440 staffing up for the summer and if something was going 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:24.719 to be on the air in September. So it so 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.199 always a very narrow kind of window. It's like this, 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.200 this is how this nine month window worked. So the 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.840 office was outside of those bounds a little bit. I 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.760 think my first audition was like in September October, and 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.600 then the callback was like December, and then we shot 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.760 in like February or something like that. So I had 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.960 to wait months after that first audition, and they had 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:49.480 a callback situation where they brought everyone and their mother 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.240 and anyone they were considering for the role over a weekend, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:57.480 and Greg was incredibly thorough and I spent maybe I 0:13:57.520 --> 0:13:59.760 spent seven or eight hours on one of the first 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:04.199 day there, and I met Jenna, I met John um 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.400 Steve was shooting some other stuff, but he had a 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:08.480 little bit of time, and we improvised together and did 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:11.400 a couple of scenes together. We were given scene, oh here, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.640 tried this scene, tried this scene, not much time to prepare, 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.360 stuff we've never seen, and just like just just shoot it, 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.560 you know, and then we'd improvise, you know, like Jim 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.400 brings Dwight a glass of water, and it's like just 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.880 improvised Jim bringing you a glass of water, and Dwight 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.800 as immediately distrustful, like as he poisoned it or something 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.240 like that. And and that was not really my gig. 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.280 I didn't do, you know, upright citizens Brigade or Groundlings. 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.400 I wasn't really an improv guy. But I'm good at 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.800 improving kind of in character. In fact, later after I 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.200 was cast, Greg came to me and we had a 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.800 coffee and he gave me kind of a little bit 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:51.440 of a warning talk, and it kind of scared me. Essentially, 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.360 he said, in a very diplomatic way, you improvised better 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.480 than you act when you're on the script. And I 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.200 was like why, He's like, yeah, more, it's more natural. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.000 It's more when you're doing scripted stuff, it feels a 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.880 little heavy and a little forced. And I was like, oh, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.280 and this was before we were going to shoot the pilot. 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:16.280 So I begged my manager. I was like, I want 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.320 to see the audition tapes. I want to see my 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:22.720 audition tapes. And sure enough, he was right, because somehow, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.080 when I improvised, it was just a little looser. It's 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.080 a little more off the cough. It was a little weirder. 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.840 When I was doing scripted stuff. It's I don't want 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:32.640 to say it sounded like a theater actor or something 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:34.960 like that, but it sounded a little more scripted. It 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:40.400 didn't have that kind of documentary feel that the office 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.560 had to have. And it was a really great learning experience, like, oh, 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.920 I need to just kind of let the script, let 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.640 the script go, improvise around the script, let it be 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:52.120 much lighter. That is fascinating. I did not know that story, 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:53.800 but it kept me up at night. I was like, 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:56.280 oh shit, what does that mean? I improvised a good 0:15:56.280 --> 0:16:19.720 improviser and a terrible, terrible regular actor. So I want 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:24.160 to talk about, Um, you creating the character of Dwight, 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.880 how you went about that? Like what elements you chose 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.800 that that you brought into Dwight? How did you approach that? 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.280 So um, I always say that in terms of like 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:38.600 when people ask me about playing Dwight, I always say 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.360 that I think my goal was to make Dwight very specific, 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:46.080 you know, having you know, Dwight have a pager, stand 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.560 a certain way, like drive a certain way, sitting in 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.640 his chair a certain way, have certain attitudes about certain 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.720 things that are very specified because no one had done 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.040 like combination muscle car nerd. You know, when you think 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.400 about it, there's a lot of disparate elements that go 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.520 into the creation of Dwight, like heavy metal muscle car 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.159 rarely equals Battlestar Galactica fan, And I do think this 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.200 is true. As an actor, the more specific you make 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.560 your character. That made him more human and then more relatable. 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:23.639 Um so muscle car nerd um heavy metal, you know, amish. 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.520 Of course, Greg Daniels always said that the beat farmer 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.920 thing was his grandparents. I think we're beat literally beat 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.960 farmers in Poland and they grew beats. Um, I think 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:38.000 like before the Holocaust, and uh so he put that 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.399 in from that. I did not know that. So the 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:45.080 beat farm was from yes. And then the glasses, which, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:47.320 by the way, I really do think that Dwight has 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.600 influenced popular culture because now all the hipsters were the 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.639 Dwight classes. You were the first hipster. Yeah, I really was. 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.320 I was like the hipster nerd who took those glasses. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.720 And and now everyone who goes to Intelligencia Coffee and 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:04.360 silver Lake or Brooklyn or wearing those same glasses. Um. 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.399 Free commercial for Intelligencia Coffee. Thank you, I'll take my 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:13.000 gift card please. Um. Was there anything for you as 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.920 a theater actor like myself, It's a loaded question. Was 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:21.680 there anything physically, any physical manifestation of Dwight within Rain. 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.440 That's a great question, and yes there was. And I've 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.359 never really talked about this before, but I went to 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.440 theater school. I was an n y U grad program, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.560 did a lot of like clowning, and did a lot 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.960 of a lot of physical work and physical theater. You 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:41.800 were involved in physical theater in Minneapolis, And I'm not 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:44.480 trying to sound pretentious at all, like mr Theater, but 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:46.480 when you get that kind of training, a lot of 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.399 it is physical, Like how do you find a character 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.320 in your body? You know, that's part of clown work 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.240 as well. But there were certain elements of Dwight that 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.959 if I needed to kind of get into character, I 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.000 could just put my attention, put my focus in certain 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.240 parts of my body, and I would immediately be Dwight, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.960 like a really like a straight neck, you know, and 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.119 uh kind of hips forward and kind of thinking about 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.520 like like big hips Like I don't know if you 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.159 noticed that Dwight always stands too close to people. If 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.159 someone's sitting down and he's standing next to him, like 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:21.720 his hips are like really like big next to their 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.640 face kind of and there's kind of a ramrod neck, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.800 a little bit of a swagger and the shoulders thrown back. 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.560 Those were some of the elements of Dwight that if 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:33.760 I was ever feeling like do I really have him 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:36.639 early on. You know, after you do two seasons, you 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:38.760 can just do the character in your sleep. But but 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.119 early on, there were some of those physical choices that 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:45.920 really were like clown kind of choices that I could 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.080 go to to just help me get into the world. 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:50.560 What about you for Kevin? Did you have something for 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.680 Kevin too? I mean too that I can articulate. I'm 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:55.720 sure there were more. For me, it was my jaw. 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.120 I knew there was a specific place that I could 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.920 put my jaw that was him. And also I imagined 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:05.080 him for the jaw thing. You had a weird mouth. 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.600 You would make like a little mouth like this, so 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.800 it's like a little jutting it for your lips should 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.800 be a little a little like pursed, Yeah, exactly. And 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.840 also I had the ideas as he moved through the space. 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.680 There were two things. One is he wasn't aware of 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.760 his size within the space right, which to me was 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.880 always hilarious when I would come against Angela right because 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.879 I just wouldn't see her there and knock her around. 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.199 And the other was that there was something about my 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.160 torso that it doesn't move agilely from side to side. 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:41.639 It's all sort of just all connected down at my 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.400 hips and that there's yeah, yeah, yeah, so the whole 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:49.520 body turns at the same whole and maybe even shuffle 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:54.919 my feet to turn to one. Um, hold on one second, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.000 that is not your ine, that is water speak for yourself. 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:06.240 Of Um, why do people love Dwight? Well, we talked 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.240 earlier about the specificity of Dwight, and I think that 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.959 how his glasses are and how his beeper is, and 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.640 that the certain colors that he wears in the car 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.800 he drives, and how he sees the world. Um. But 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:24.080 you know, the thing I hate the most about comedy, 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.000 and I have been known to tiptoe into this land, 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:28.720 but the thing I hate them most about it is 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:33.080 that when someone knows that they're being funny. And that's 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:35.040 one of the I think keys to the comedy the 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.840 Office is that none of the characters thought of themselves 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:42.280 as being funny. I think the documentary element helped with 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:48.280 that tremendously, And I tried to play Dwight as outrageously 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:51.359 as possible and as grounded and realistic as possible at 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.560 the same time. So look at any scene and what's happening, 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:58.240 as matter how ridiculous it is you can always tell 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.440 there's a child, there's a big hid in there. Yeah, 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.880 he could do just preposterous things, but I always tried 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.120 to motivate them internally with some internal drive, like this 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:11.879 is how Dwight saw the world, This is how you 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.480 always knew how Dwight felt. I guess that would be 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.320 my number one answer is like you can always tell 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:20.320 what Dwight is feeling and what he's going through on 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:24.480 the inside. And he thinks he's hiding, you know, people think, oh, 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.040 is he you know, is he is he on the spectrum? 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:29.439 Does he have autism or something like that? But his 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:31.359 heart is on his sleeve. You can always see what 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:33.919 he's feeling, you know, is even if he's being haughty 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.840 or even if he's being arrogant, like, you always see 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:38.640 what's going on in the inside. And I think that 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.400 that allowed people to relate to him. So in those 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:45.000 moments when Dwight was sad or hurt, or or put 0:22:45.040 --> 0:23:07.199 off or disappointed, like, people really felt for him. What 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:09.600 were your initial thoughts of the Pilot when you first 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:13.520 saw it? Um? Are you proud of it? I thought 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:15.960 the pilot. I think if you look at all of 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.560 our episodes, the pilots one of the weakest. I think 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:23.880 it feels a little labored. It's not as funny as 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:26.320 when we find our own voice in a few episodes, 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:31.359 the healthcare and basketball episodes a few ones later on. Um, 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:34.080 I liked it a lot, but because I knew the 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:37.160 British Office so well, I just felt like, oh, this 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.880 is this is feeling a little bit like a Paler 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:44.680 imitation of the British Office. So I wasn't the hugest fan, 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.600 But at the same time, I really knew the potential 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:52.760