Rainn Wilson showers audience with ‘Office’ cast gossip

Liz Whitmer, Senior Writer

Rainn Wilson, an actor best known for his role on the hit NBC show, “The Office,” fulfilled his commitment to the University via FaceTime following the cancellation of his original show. 

Students packed into the empty conference room scheduled for his visit, where he digitally delivered dirt the show’s guest stars who catapulted him into fame upon face recognition. Angela Kinsey, who served as Wilson’s on-screen wife, Angela Martin Schrute, joined him. 

Wilson fielded questions about actors like John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Ed Helms (Andy Bernard) and B. J. Novak (Ryan Howard), all of whom played characters opposite Wilson’s at one point or another in the series of the show. 

When asked about Krasinski (Halpert), the most frequent source of Wilson’s (Schrute’s) annoyance throughout the show, Wilson’s answer was disappointing to some. Justin Judgmental ’21, an avid fan of Wilson’s, said Wilson “is nothing like the character he portrays on TV.” When Wilson described his relationship with Krasinski as being very strong even years after the show had ended, Judgmental said he was “very disappointed that Dwight — err, Rainn — would lie about being close with someone he spent years fighting with. This is not what I came for.”

While Wilson’s relationship with Krasinski threw some for a loop, his relationship with Steve Carell (Michael Scott) seemed to come out of the left field. “All I have to say is: Carell is not the person you’d think he would be. Not only is he as problematic as his character, but he’s miserable, too,” Wilson said. 

Members of the audience during what could be thought of as an intimate meeting were shocked by the disparities between Wilson’s real and fictional lives. “I don’t even know how to process this information,” Nancy Naïve ’23 said. “Like, how are we supposed to believe anything that is happening in a show if all they’re doing is pretending to be someone they’re not?”

At the end, Wilson added, “Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer) is the nicest person you could ever meet, Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly) is a complete snake and Phyllis Smith (Phyllis Vance) has a drinking problem.”

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