Photo by Danny Peterson.
We’ve all probably met someone who reminds us Rain Wilson‘s dwight schrute From The OfficeBut was he based on a real person?
Wilson recently addressed this question in a panel he hosted Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon. To help jog his memory, Wilson enlisted the help of a high school friend, Steve, who happened upon an audience of fans in the packed ballroom at the Oregon Convention Center.
“Steve, […] When you saw Dwight, how much did you miss our endless years of Dungeons & Dragons games and the personalities around that table?” Wilson asked his longtime friend, who was stationed in front of a microphone in the audience.
“I would say, as an amalgamation, it’s a very good place,” replied Steve. Wilson went on to say that one person in the friend group in particular inspired Dwight and was a huge fan of the same. battlestar galactica,
“I think Chris Cole, in particular, who was very aggressive, and he really … people don’t believe me and they can’t wrap their heads around it. But it’s like 1979-1980 Yes, he had glasses which had written on the side… battlestar galactica, For some reason it was one of the first, like, cross-pollination between a TV show and a merchandise kind. and so he battlestar [glasses] And we’ll ruthlessly make fun of him and say ‘Pew, pew, and they shoot lasers? Pew pew’ and he’d be like, ‘Shut up, f**k you. Anyway, it’s my role, I want the barbarian to attack the orc.”
wilson battlestar galactica—loving D&D friends eventually joined the Marines and played the cornet in their marching band, the actor said. When Wilson asks Steve if there are any people who remind him of Dwight, Steve attributes his being “unintentionally cruel” to his dungeon master, Tim Higgins.
“I’m a little worried that Tim is here,” said Steve.
“If Tim’s here, you’re dead. That was scary,” replied Wilson.
During the same panel, Wilson revealed other little-known facts about Dwight, such as the fact that he imbued the character with a poor sense of spatial awareness. This resulted in scenes becoming too awkward for other actors, most notably Jenna Fischer, whom he regularly stood too close to for comfort. While Wilson was almost the star of his own spinoff show The Officecalled FarmThe Backdoor pilot wasn’t successful enough to launch its own show, which the actor partly blamed on the episode for cramming in everything needed to set up such a series. was too small for