"The Office" Talks: Rainn Wilson and Greg Daniels

NBC's beloved and insane single-camera sitcom "The Office" returns with new episodes on Thursday, April 10. The other day, executive producer Greg Daniels sat down for a conference call with reporters, along with Rainn Wilson, who plays the especially nuts Dwight Schrute (right). An edited transcript follows...

Question: I’m wondering, you know, with the sitcom sort of becoming a lost art, what is the key to making a good one like you've done with The Office?
Greg Daniels: Rainn, what do you think?
Rainn Wilson: Go ahead, Greg. It’s all you.
Greg Daniels: Well, there’s the flip answer and the real answer, I guess. But, you know, I think it’s a lot about trying to be original and trying to be funny, and not being scared of also, you know, having some emotion in it or being real and taking the characters seriously. (Beat.) And developing a hit that was a hit in another country already.
Rainn Wilson:  I can’t top that, but I will say that I think the multi-camera sitcom format, as it kind of petered out over the last couple of years, (was) sticking to a kind of tried and true formula. And then the shows became more about the formula than about what the show was trying to say or trying to do. So it was more about a group of characters sitting in a common area. Kind of - we’ve set up some punchlines and kind of making fun of each other. And it just got tired and worn out. And it just is - it’s the genre right now that needs some reinvention.

Question: Yeah, Greg, if you could just continue on that for a minute because you were talking about how you want to be unique and different, and yet you also want to be funny? I mean, if you had just done it with - as the British version with the very slow, dry humor, that wouldn’t have worked, right? You found an American version which is a little sharper in the humor, a little quicker with the humor. Could you kind of talk about how you find that line?
Greg Daniels: Yeah, sure. Well I think the British version is really, really great and I actually love the British version. And they intentionally - when you look at the scripts for the British version, it’s - you know, they - I think they resemble the scripts for the American version.  But they made some decisions to really go very bleak with the production of it and it matched what they were trying to do which was to be very satiric and, you know, paint a very bleak picture of what this world was like.
And, you know, we had an aim to be more of a character comedy that was less satiric and more about the, you know, the ups and downs of the characters. And knowing that we were going to be on for a lot longer, you know, we wanted to see positive sides to the characters, too. And I don’t think we really got it 100% right until the second season in terms of the mix and the tone, although I really like our first season. I think it’s really funny.

Question: Rainn, I’m sure you’ve been asked this before, but have you ever worked in an office - even if only as a temp when the acting work got thin? And if so, what kind of office worker were you? Were you a Dwight or a Jim, or a Ryan, or what?
Rainn Wilson: Well I was kind of - I’ve worked in many offices before in my New York days of being a starving actor. I worked in a major New York charity as Assistant Office Manager and Special Events Coordinator. And I was also…
Greg Daniels: Assistant to the Officer Manager and Special Events Coordinator or Assistant Office Manager?
Rainn Wilson: I was Assistant to the Office Manager and Assistant Special Events Coordinator. Thank you. You got it?
Question: Keep going.
Rainn Wilson: And then - thanks, Greg. That was a good setup. The…
Greg Daniels:  Just trying to throw you off.
Rainn Wilson:  And then I was also a Receptionist from the Pam Beesly mold at Kirshenbaum, Bond & Partners, an advertising agency in New York.
Question: So you were the office Pam?
Rainn Wilson: I was Pam.
Question: Wow.
Rainn Wilson:  So I’ve done a lot of those things. I would - I guess, who was I closest to? I guess I was most like a Jim because my heart really wasn’t into it. So - but I was also very capable which is a lot like Jim, too. I think Jim is very capable. So - but I don’t think they missed me. And then…
Question: You’re probably past needing to sell your capability in an office receptionist job.
Rainn Wilson:  Well I guess I am, but I’m - I guess I’m kind of…
Question:   I like that you’re worrying about it.
Rainn Wilson:    No, I’m not really worried about it. But I guess I’m proud of the fact that in my past I was actually a really good waiter. I was an excellent waiter. Like I could have really gone somewhere as a waiter. And I was pretty decent in my office work, too. I was not very good at Marine Supply delivery which I did for about eight months at (Ballard Marine Supply & Hardware). I got in a couple car accidents and kept losing stuff.

Question: Is there going to be any love interest for Dwight that will be introduced right now because right now? You know, Angela has kind of moved on and - or she’s trying to move on, and it looks like it’s just breaking Dwight’s heart. Do you think that he’ll have a love interest come in and try to make Angela jealous?
Rainn Wilson: I don’t know, Greg. That gets into some dangerous territory there. What do you think we can say about that?
Greg Daniels: Well, do you remember in your audition when you improv’d some of (Dwight's) ex-girlfriends?
Rainn Wilson: Yes. Dwight - I improvised in the audition for the pilot which Greg -- by the way -- thanks for casting me.
Greg Daniels: Oh, just wanted to bring that up again, yeah.
Rainn Wilson: Thanks for casting me because…
Greg Daniels: No problem.
Rainn Wilson: …I have a career now. So thanks for that. And yeah, I had a - we had an improvisation of me and Jenna, and I told her that I had an ex-girlfriend who was stationed in Kuwait City, you know, as a Reservist. So I don’t know if that is coming into play, but ex-girlfriends - yeah. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more sides - a lot more facets of Dwight when it comes to dating and women.
I want to say that this is something that I love about this show is that, you know, every season, every - even every episode - every couple of episodes, there’s always some new aspect of Dwight that Greg and the writers want to explore. And that’s such a rare thing, you know. So many shows have their comic sidekick character and this is - they do XY and Z. But I get emotional stories and comedic stories, and family stories - and lots of different textures. And I really appreciate getting to do that as an actor.

Question: (Rainn said) Dwight is not just kind of the standard foil that you - you know, the wacky neighbor that you see on a lot of sitcoms. (But) the natural tendency where shows have breakout characters, a lot of shows tend to like gravitate towards where that sort of attention is going. The public reaction sort of shapes how the stories get played out....
Greg Daniels: Well the problem is that we started off, you know, with Phyllis just being one of the salespeople and we’ve kind of peaked too early by marrying her off to Bob Vance. And so it’s hard to capitalize on the breakout. (Beat.) But who are you talking about? Which character?
Question: No, I meant you seem to be very - actually very generous with all of those characters. I was going to say that you hadn’t really fallen into that trap.
Greg Daniels: Oh yeah. No, I understand what you’re saying. Yeah, no. Well that’s part of trying to, you know, kind of keep people off balance. You know what I mean? It’s like you, you know, obviously it’s - Dwight is super funny and people love Dwight. And they buy Dwight dolls and stuff like that. But if it just became the Dwight Show, you know…
Rainn Wilson: There would be nothing wrong with that.
Greg Daniels: I think that’s a complete quote there.
Question: Yeah.
Greg Daniels: As long as you know that the speaker shifted in the middle of the sentence.

(On upcoming storylines:)
Greg Daniels:    We're going to play with time a lot, I think - like Lost. In the next six episodes.
Question:  Flash forward?
Greg Daniels: It’s going to get suddenly weirdly sci-fi.
Question:  Awesome.
Rainn Wilson: There’ll be a hatch under Dwight’s desk.