Let It Rainn

Even during this much feted Golden Age of American television, the small screen continues to be the place where movie stars go to slum it or prolong careers that have long since gone nova. George Clooney, a shining beacon for Emmy winners everywhere, is, of course, the exception that proves the rule.

Lately, however, one particular crop of sitcom stars seem to have avoided the generally stony road once travelled by the alumni of Cheers, Friends and Will & Grace, to name just a few. Placed beside the many blighted resumes associated with, say, Courtney Cox or Ted Danson, the character actors made famous through The Office U.S. are making out like bandits. Despite heading up such misfires as Evan Almighty, Steve Carell is now a genuine leading man. John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer, meanwhile, have proved solid box office draws with prominent roles in Leatherheads and Blades of Glory.
Not to be outdone, their co-star Rainn Wilson is the latest Office worker to strike out on his own.
“It’s a tricky one,” nods Wilson. “There are practical difficulties that never go away. If you’re tied to a TV show, you might have a two or three month window to make a movie. It’s difficult for a studio to greenlight a movie and get it turned around in that time frame. Also, you’re asking people to pay to see someone who’s giving it away free on TV.”
Happily, the logistics can sometimes pan out. Hence, the man most likely to be recognised on the street as Dwight Schrute,the Office’s egomaniacal sycophant, can currently be found behind the skins in the musical comedy, The Rocker.
“I had never drummed in my life,” admits the actor. “A drum coach showed up the day after I the movie came together. But mainly I was mentored by this guy called Stuart Johnson. He had been in this Heavy Metal band – in Louisville, Kentucky of all places – called Spanky Lee. So he knew of what he spoke. There’s a whole other level to drumming with hair metal drumming. You have your stick twirling, your tongue flicks, your animal outbursts, flashing heavy metal horns. These guys are the Las Vegas magicians of the drum world.”
In the film, Wilson plays Fish, a sad sack insurance company drone who, for a brief time in the eighties, was the flamboyant stickman with a group called Vesuvius. But while his band mates have gone on to prosper as monsters of rock, Fish is stuck in his sister’s basement or on a bus shelter bench with Pete Best, who pops up in classic rock cameo. Fish’s nephew’s band, however, might just be enough to get this embittered also-ran back on the road and back at his treacherous former colleagues.
“I’ve always been a comedy geek,” Wilson tells me. “You ask me to drum naked with an unfortunate funnelling effect as the sweat goes down certain cracks, I’ll totally do it. I’ve just always liked laughter. As a kid I learned all the Marx Brothers and Jerry Lewis bits. By 11, I would tape record Monty Python from the TV and memorise every episode. And I’ve always loved the crazy characters you find in sitcoms like Newhart and Taxi. But that kind of physical comedy is brutal. There’s a shot near the beginning of our film and you can see I’m covered with bruises. I don’t know how those guys did it every night.”
Observant readers may well spot similarities between The Rocker’s contrivances and those of Jack Black’s School of Rock. Like that film, The Rocker is very much an all-ages show, in keeping with Wilson’s adherence to he Bahá’í Faith, a hippie trail, yoga grooving religion, adopted from nineteenth century Persia.
“I can do whatever I want,” explains Wilson. “It’s not like we have rules saying ‘Thou Shalt Not Do a Porno’. But I definitely want to do movies that, in keeping with my beliefs, kind of make the world a better place. It’s fine for me to show my ass crack and get brutally slaughtered in a House Of 1000 Corpses because it’s all in good fun. But there are definitely films I’s say no to because they’re not entertaining and they’re not going to help anyone.”
With this in mind, Mr. Wilson has still managed to clock up credits in projects as diverse as Juno, Six Feet Under, Transformers and the mighty Adult Swim classic, Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show.
“You see,” he says. “If I was part of a stricter faith system, I couldn’t do all that stuff. And there’s no way I could have been discovered by Rob Zombie.”

The Rocker is released on October 17