Marching to the beat of a naked drummer
Rainn Wilson talks about the bare essentials of his comedy
The last few times Rainn Wilson has been on-screen, he has been in the buff. On the season finale of “The Office,” the last image viewers saw and were possibly scarred by was his shirtless back in the throes of making out with his ex, Angela. The night before we spoke to him, he had been harassing Megan Fox, wearing only a Build-A-Bear in front of his privates on the MTV Movie Awards. His role in the new film “The Rocker” certainly follows this trend: In the flick, he takes his band to stardom via a viral video that features his sweaty naked body behind the drums as the, ahem, butt of the joke — and a very successful joke at that.
So, is the nude Rainn Wilson the new Rainn Wilson?
Instead of a catch-phrase, it’s just going to be my signature thing to get naked.
You already have the patent on the serious delivery of ridiculous statements.
That’s actually the perfectly-phrased summary of my comedy.
Great. I’ve figured you all out. Well, almost. Tell me where that approach comes from. I could never pinpoint your influence with that.
I just think that what I really wanted to do with Dwight, the thing I really knew was important is when we were creating “The Office” was that I hate comedy where you can tell people think they’re being really funny. They think they’re funny and I think that the humor in Dwight is the self-seriousness … and then I think they just keep writing me more and more absurd things to say and do.
We see a little bit of the self-seriousness with Robert Fishman, your character in “The Rocker,” as well.
I think for the most part though, he says pretty absurd statements with a pretty absurd sense of humor about them.
In playing this role, did you draw from any of your own rock n roll experiences?
Yeah, I was in a band in high school called Collected Moss. Because a rolling stone does what, Pat?
Gathers no moss. Or, collects no moss, I suppose.
And we were the worst cover band in the world.
With such a specific name, did you specialize in Stones covers?
We did some Stones covers. We covered pretty much everything, mostly new wave punky stuff from the early ’80s and then the lead guitarist was a big Dead head, so we had to play “Fire on the Mountain” so that he could kind of noodle.
Were you the drummer?
I was the singer. One time a guy heard us, and he tried to be complimentary … and he was like, “Hey you’ve got a really good voice” and I was like, “Yeah?” And he was like, “Yeah, you sound like Lou Reed.”
Having your voice compared to the voice of a singer who got to where he is in spite of his voice, rather than because of it is kind of a backhanded compliment, huh?
Yeah, that took the wind out of my sails.
You were just a straight-up lead singer, huh?
That’s it.
That takes guts.
Yeah, man.
When did you let go of that dream?
That dream died after our second gig, when some kid stole all our patch cords. … After that, the whole band just fell apart and stopped happening.
In “The Rocker,” you’re the drummer. Did you have any drum experience?
No, no drum experience at all. As soon as I got cast, Fox bought me a drum set. It was set up in my garage and I had a drum coach and started working with the drum coach about two to three weeks before we started shooting and learned all the basics of drumming. I also got a lot of lessons in heavy metal drumming, which is a whole art form unto itself and watched a lot of YouTube heavy metal videos and that one-armed guy from Def Leppard…
But wouldn’t the Def Leppard guy confuse you if you were learning drums?
Yeah, but he still managed to rock more than most guys. More than guys with three arms!
Do you still have the set, and do you still play at all?
Yeah, I got the set from the movie in my garage and I still hammer away on it.
What kind of stuff are you playing along to?
I just play along with stuff in my head. What I want to do is get a big amp out there so I can plug my iPod into it and play along. That’s when it gets fun. The White Stripes is a great place to start. It’s really simple but really basic great rock drumming.
That could be another backhanded compliment if somebody says you remind somebody of Meg White as a drummer.
[Laughs.] True.
Were you a metalhead at all, growing up?
I grew up in suburban Seattle, so you kind of had to be a metalhead, but this was before hair metal, so we were into Iron Maiden and Blue Oyster Cult, Led Zep and AC/DC. That was the extent of my metal and then when I discovered punk and new wave I never looked back and then I got to gloriously miss all the late ’80s hair metal stuff.
You’ve done a lot of comedy with a lot of musicians, including Arcade Fire, Kanye West, even Rob Zombie.
Yes, my first movie, Rob Zombie discovered me. In “House of a 1,000 Corpses.” He’s awesome; a really low-key, smart, funny guy.
How about Kanye? Did you just meet him and do that bit on the Emmys, where you defeated him at “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” to his own song? Or did you know him before?
Yeah, I just met him for that. He’s a real nice guy. I’m a big music geek. … I meet movie stars all the time at award shows, and I could care less, but I get real excited meeting music people. At the MTV Music Awards, I was hoping to meet Coldplay, and my dressing room was right next door to them.
And you didn’t?
I didn’t get to.
How come?
I don’t know. There was too much security and craziness around.
Who have you been most psyched to meet, as far as musicians go?
Recently I went to the Sasquatch Music Festival, and I got to introduce The National, and that was really cool because I’ve just been recently turned on to them.
Do you think playing a musician will open a line of dialog between you and the music community?
Yeah, I hope so. I hope it does. I want to meet all my idols.
Who would be your top choice?
Well, I’d love to meet Dave Grohl, because I’m a big fan of his from way back. I got to see Nirvana right before Kurt died, and I’d just like to hear his stories. I’m a big Nirvana fan, but I’m wondering if it’s possible to meet Bob Dylan somehow or other, can you set that up?
I’ll see what I can do.
Good. I think that’s what America wants to see is Rainn Wilson and Bob Dylan getting together.
Well America has seen Rainn Wilson as Bob Dylan in that Independent Spirit send-up. That was funny.
Thanks. I wonder if Bob Dylan saw that. Can you forward him the link to it on YouTube?
Yeah, I will. I’ll actually just IM him right now. It looks like he’s online.
[laughs] Perfect.