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Most of the time, Rainn Wilson is nothing like his character Dwight Schrute on the NBC comedy “The Office.” Except when he’s playing “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” on Xbox.
“I’m talking to the guys on [the little headset] that I’m shooting. I’m going like, ‘Hey, there’s a sniper up on that roof. Look out, you guys!’” Wilson says. “If you just took a photo of me or a little film of me right then, you’d be like, ‘Oh my god, he’s exactly like Dwight.’”
Wilson’s primed to step out of Dwight’s shadow with his first big-screen starring role in “The Rocker,” opening Aug. 20. He plays drummer Robert “Fish” Fishman, who was fired from his band Vesuvius in the mid-‘80s just before they hit it big. Twenty years later he becomes a nationwide phenomenon after footage of him practicing naked lands on YouTube.
The part’s heartfelt ridiculousness is just right for Wilson, who also had a memorable cameo in “Juno” (admit it: you've used “homeskillet” in conversation). The actor talked to Metromix about the rock and roll lifestyle, doing anything for a laugh and why his body is “a gorgeous piece of white man meat.”
If you really did go on a rock tour, how would you behave? Trashing hotel rooms, perhaps?
Well, these days I’m a suburban dad, so I would probably go back to my hotel room and read a book about Genghis Khan and catch up on CNN. But back in the day I might have trashed some hotel rooms and shot heroin into my eye and thrown groupies out the window and set fire to my foot.
You’d send groupies straight from the front door to the window?
Yeah, sure. It’s like survival of the fittest. Like whichever one I can catch and successfully throw out the window does not deserve to be a groupie. That’s what Dwight Schrute would say.
What are the chances you would, say, bite the head off a bat?
Chances are high. I don’t know [if it would be] a bat. I think something larger, like a goat.
How is naked drumming different from clothed drumming?
Well, the first and most important thing about naked drumming is that you actually have to take your clothes off. Naked drumming is fun. It’s very liberating. You feel like an ancient human caveman of some kind. It’s very visceral. What’s not fun … in this movie I was continually doused down. I wish they had behind the scenes footage of me getting spritzed, sprayed, lubed up, my clothes being saturated in liquid. It’s a 90-some minute movie and 87 of those minutes I have to be dripping with sweat.
You’re not naturally that sweaty?
I sweat a little bit. Not like Steve Carell. He’s a sweater. That guy sweats like a horse.
You seem to spend a lot of time topless or in your underwear, on screen and in real life. Have you always been so proud of your body?
It’s a gorgeous piece of white man meat. It’s like going into Whole Foods and finding that perfect chicken breast. That big piece of perfectly marinated white hunk of love ... Anything for comedic effect for me. It’s always been that way, ever since high school. I’m willing to do ridiculous, absurd things to get a laugh, and if that means taking my shirt off, or my pants off, or my underwear off, so be it.
What’s the most absurd thing you did in high school to get a laugh?
Well, I ran for senior class treasurer, and my entire campaign consisted of me handing out Q-tips. And I wore a giant sombrero, huge sombrero, covered in Q-tips. There were like a thousand Q-tips hanging from it. And I went around the hallways handing out Q-tips saying, “Vote for Rainn Wilson for treasurer.”
What do Q-tips and sombreros have to do with being treasurer?
Absolutely nothing.
If you started a band tomorrow, what would you title the group and your debut album?
I would call it The Rainn Wilson Band and my first album would be called, “The Rainn Wilson Experience.” And the first single would be called, “It’s All About Me.”
But it’s not a solo project.
Oh, no, no. It would be a band. It’s all about the band.
You’ve been named to People’s “Sexiest Men Alive” list, yet Dwight Schrute isn’t what most people would consider sexy. How does that work?
Just to quote Justin Timberlake: “I am bringing sexy back.” I think I aim to help make nerds cool again, and I think people identify with nerds and dorks and losers and can see a sexiness in people that don’t necessarily look like Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
You’ve got a small role in “Transformers 2.” How would Dwight react on the set of that movie?
I think he would have so many orgasms in a row that he would expire.
Dwight has martial arts training on his resume. Do you?
Yeah, on the wall of my office I have my [karate] certificate that I’ve achieved the status of yellow belt. It’s not on my resume; it’s on my wall.
Why not?
I don’t need a resume; I’m a huge superstar. Also, for years on my resume under special skills I put “Brain harp.”
What’s that?
It doesn’t exist. I was just hoping someone someday would ask me about the brain harp. No one ever did.
Is that something you play? Something you are?
I have no idea what a brain harp is.
Let’s pretend you’re in a job interview: “I see brain harp here. Tell me about that.”
Yes, I play a psychic musical instrument. You can’t actually hear it, but you can sense it. Would you like me to play it for you?
I would.
(Silence.) Do you want to hear some more?
Now that you know all about the rock lifestyle, what are some things you’ve learned about the rock and roll life that newbies should watch out for?
I don’t have any words of advice for newbies in the rock and roll experience, I’m afraid. I say do it now. Quit your day jobs, America. Get out there and start to rock. This is a call to arms.
Anyone and everyone, whether or not they have musical talent?
Right now. Just do it. Throw away your briefcases. Just walk out the door, go to the local pawnshop, buy an electric guitar and just start to tour.
Will you follow your own advice?
Oh, no, no. Not me. I gotta get back to the TV show. But everyone else.
Find out what Rainn really thinks about Michael Scott and Jim Halpert...
