Name: How Rainn Wilson Created Dwight Schrute
Uploaded: 2025-09-18T14:30:15.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Rainn Wilson Created Dwight Schrute' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'How Rainn Wilson Created Dwight Schrute' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-18. Transcript available.

I want to ask you, see the annoying thing is this, every interview you get the
question
are you tired of being Dwight or something, right, or like, because it is an
iconic ubiquitous
like American comedy, like legendary character, right, and everyone asks you
about getting
like approached on the street, but they don't ask you about like how, what gave
birth to
what? So right down the street at NYU, you know, I was always really good at, I
was a theater
actor, and I was always really good at comedy theater, whether it was doing
sketches or a
farce or doing clowny kind of characters or Shakespeare clowns or something
like that,
but I did pretty wide-ranging theater training, but one of the things we did is
we took clowning
class, and this is like, who's the guy who plays Borat again, what's that guy's
name?
So he went to the guy in Paris. He went to go see. He's the guy, right? Yeah,
Lecoq, and that...
That's funny, that's funny.
His, but this woman, Gates McFadden, was our clown teacher just for a couple of
weeks or months,
and she was actually played Dr. Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. No!
The beautiful red-headed woman. No!
She teaches clowns? He is a clown teacher, a master clown teacher.
That was a childhood, like, crush. I didn't even have like, know what sex was,
but I was like,
I need her. Crusher was incredible. I think she's still available.
Is she? And she teaches clown? She doesn't regularly teach it, but she is
capable of teaching a mean
clown class. She could be your clown tutor, your private clown tutor.
My clown teacher? Yeah. Crusher? Yeah.
What did, did Worf, was he funny or no? He was hysterical.
Yeah. He was my voice and speech teacher.
Michael Dorn? No, he wasn't. Yeah.
Yeah. Michael Dorn was? Yeah. And Patrick Stewart, he taught...
He taught non-disclosure agreement, yeah. He taught...
So, but anyways, in this clown class, you did a lot about, you know, creating a
character kind of
out of nothing, and that when you put on the red nose, it amplifies whatever
you're doing. And the big
mistake with like, red nose clowning is like, you do something clowny, and it's,
and there was this
exercise we did called Circle of Fire, which is basically, you put on the red
nose, you go in
front of people, and you can only leave the stage once you've made everyone
laugh.
Really? And sometimes people would be up there for 45 minutes.
Yeah, because you had enemies in the class, people that like really didn't like
you.
No, good thinking, but because it's really hard to make people, maybe not for
you, and maybe not even for
me a little bit, but it's really hard to make people laugh with a red nose on
your face.
What if you fart really loud? You just get out of there...
It's gonna, it's not gonna be that funny.
Really? Yeah.
No, it's always funny.
No, what you think is gonna be funny doesn't work with a red nose, because it,
so what's really funny is being totally vulnerable.
Really?
And like, if you were to cry about like a dead relative, that would be hysterical.
Really?
If I'm not even kidding.
I cried on this show a couple weeks ago, I don't think it was about people are
laughing.
What did you cry about?
No, we don't have to get into it.
All right, so I'm just saying that the roots of creating a character like Dwight
come from these
ideas of clowns. Like, you go back from, you know, there have always been clowns
in human history,
and you can go back to the Greek comedies, and then the Roman comedies, and
then Commedia
dell'arte that were traveling clown troops in wooden wagons all across Europe,
and then Moliere and
Shakespeare took those tropes and those ideas, put them in all their plays, and
then those became
like British vaudeville, that became American vaudeville, that became like, you
know, Jack Benny,
and early television, and the Honeymooners, and sketch comedy, and that became,
you know,
Monty Python. You can, you can trace clowning and some basics about building
those
characters back to the classics, there were probably Hebrew clowns, yeah, back
in the,
in the Old Testament.
The slaves in Egypt, they were like, wait, I mean, I can't be out in the sun
this long.
The slaves sound like Woody Allen.
But it's, that's, it's ridiculous that they, my friend Michael, Mike Racine
used to have a joke,
he's like, imagine having a slave and it's a fucking Jew.
He's like, those would be the worst slaves ever.
Um, well, okay, so I, do you want me to, is there a universal comedy language?
Because it's very
interesting, you were saying that what, you have to go up on stage and make
someone laugh. I've been
thinking this, I've thought this for years, like, what, like, if you went to
like a, a tribe in the
Amazon, and like, and that's been like sealed up. What would be funny? What
would be funny? And I,
it's a very interesting thing to ponder, but I think there's only one thing I
could, I would consider.
Farting. Balls, like just getting hit, hurting your balls.
Hitting the balls, yeah.
Hitting the balls is funny.
That is universal. I think there's some universals.
What?
I think someone like, trying something and failing is, is, is universally funny.
Yeah.
I think, you know, I think if you went in the truck.
No, you know, if that happened in the, to the Amazon, they would be hysterical
right now.
Crusher taught you that?
Crusher taught you that?
Go to two. Go to two.
There's a real pro. We got a pro.
So, so those elements come into playing Dwight. Like, first of all, I saw Mackenzie
Crook on the
British office, who was brilliant. And there was a thing that he did that no
one had done as well
as him before, which was to say the most absurd, ludicrous things with an
absolutely straight face,
without any kind of hint at all that there was a joke there. And he was so
brilliant at that.
And Ricky really, I think, taught him that. And, and, and Steven Merchant.
Like a lack of self-awareness basically.
Yeah.
Yes. But, but without, you couldn't see the actor, because it was a documentary.
You couldn't see the actor kind of doing a weird line.
Like I drink my own urine and putting any kind of spin on it.
Just like I drink my own urine just completely. And so I loved that.
And then there were some other elements of like, I knew that Dwight needed, I
needed,
I have a huge weird head and I needed a haircut to showcase just how gargantuan
and melonic
my head is. And so I sculpted that and the self seriousness. And I knew he was
kind of like,
he was a nerd and kind of a bully at the same time.
Because blue lives matter. Yeah. He respects the police.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally blue lives matter.
But he wants to be a cop. Right. But like.
Yeah. Yeah. He was a Lackawanna County Sheriff's deputy.
Deputy. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so you put these elements together and you kind of create a clown
almost in the way that
you would have a red nose on. Is this, is your audience going to give a fuck
about this?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think so.
Okay. Okay. Wait.
And everybody likes Dwight?
Well, my son is a huge Adam Friedland fan. What's happening?
Does he have emotional problems? Sorry.
A little bit. I want to get my, um, sorry, my stupid thing.
Should we call him?
Yeah. Call him right now. This is very unprofessional.
I think he's in class.
He is? Tell him to get out of class. Send him a selfie.
Okay. Um, I'm just going to take one of these stupid things. I'm sorry.
The person you've dialed can't take your call now.
Oh my God. He blocked you.
Uh, they go by Kenzie.
They. Okay.
Mm-hmm.
And they're, they're a big fan?
Where do they go to school?
They're a big fan. Bard College.
Here. You can leave an audio note.
Oh yeah. No, they're, they're doing ketamine right now.
Hello, Kenzie.
Uh, I'm with your dad right now. This is Adam Friedland.
Oh, you sent him the Richie Torres interview? That's so embarrassing.
He sent it to me.
You said?
Please don't read my texts.
Okay. Well, you're, you, oh, should I pick up?
Yeah.
Hey, what's up? It's, it's Adam. I'm with, I'm with your dad right now. We're
chilling.
It's who?
It's Adam, uh, Friedland.
Oh, hi, Adam Friedland.
What's up? How's Bard going?
This is so surreal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's Bard?
Yeah.
You go to class?
Bard? Oh, it's, it's nice.
Are you wearing all black?
No, but I do sometimes.
You got to stay away from those NYC kids. They're, they're no good.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, I heard that you like the show. I just want to say hello real quick.
Oh, hi. Yeah, I like the show.
What'd you say?
I have a friend who's more of a fan of you than me, who likes you more than me.
Oh, well, I'm sorry, dude. I'm, okay. Tell your friend I say what up.
All right, we got to get back to this interview. We're doing a bad job so far.
Oh, am I on tape right now? I'm serious.
No, no, no, no. You're not on the show at all.
Okay, bye.
All right, bye.
He's busted.
Wait, okay. So they released the auditions for, for the office. And the amazing
thing is this,
and I don't like, not to freaking blow smoke up your, up your hole or whatever
they say.
Yeah.
But like, it's Seth Rogen, Judah Friedlander, Patton Oswald, and you. And you're
just white.
You're like, you're, you've, the character is fully fleshed out just in an
audition, like a self-tape.
Yeah.
And it's like, it's amazing to see that like, you know, these guys are like heralded
comedic actors,
right? And you just destroy, I mean, you're just Dwight. So in that sense, when
I watched that,
I was like, oh, he's crafted this. It's not a matter of like, that the writers
kind of have done it.
This is a guy that's auditioning for a role. And that's, to me, made it like
all the more impressive,
you know?
Well, I love all those actors. They're all great. I think you're,
you come at a character from a different way when you've had theater training
versus when you come
from a standup or improv or sketch background and nothing against them. Like
Steve Carell comes from
a sketch and improv background. And he's one of the, I think, and truly one of
the greatest American
actors of all time, his dramatic work and his comedic work. So that's nothing
against them. I just think
when you, when you have theater training, you're, you're, you're trying to
create a character,
a three-dimensional character that can be funny, but taken seriously and could
walk down the street
and you, and you would believe it. There's not anything kind of like you want
to, you know,
theoretically make that character like fully living and breathing. And so I try
and do that kind of
work when I'm, you know, going in, especially on an audition. But this was one
of those rare auditions
where I'd seen the BBC office, loved it. It's the best. How good is it? It's so
good. And I took so
many things from my dear Mackenzie and just kind of put my own kind of American
kind of white trashy
spin on it. And Pennsylvania Dutch kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that whole thing
came out of an improv.
So, so you brought, did you bring that in that like you had, you're a farmer
and your cousin was like,
oh, so yeah. So that's another question I had. Like how much was that the
writers and how much was it
you creating this back story? Well, this is what's so great. This is how Greg
Daniels does that,
that no one else does. And, and it's, he's amazing in this way. Early on, I did
an improv.
We would just kind of improvise all the time to just kind of find the character
and find the tone.
And I did this improv. I don't even remember when it was. I think it was in the
first week. And I was
like, and I just improvised and I went, I really had not planned it at all. I
was like, my name is
Dwight Schrute. My father's name, Dwight Schrute. His father's name, Dwight
Schrute. Yeah. Amish.
And out of that, they're like, oh, we'll make him and his family Amish. And
then I did something
about, I brought in like family photos of like my farmer ancestors in Wisconsin
and
Minnesota and Greg's ancestors, Jewish, were actual beet farmers in Poland. Uh-huh.
And so like, we'll make it, we'll have this farm Amish backstory to Dwight.
That's perfect.
It's in Pennsylvania anyway. Yeah. So it came out of that. It came out of all
that. So,
you know, that's amazing writing that you can kind of like, just kind of go
with what you pick up.
Well, it is just a legendary. I mean, it's like Costanza level, just like comedic
character. I
mean, it's like, and it's just like, it's so impressive. Oh, no, no, no. It's
better than
Costanza. I mean, I don't know. Costanza's pretty good. Costanza's pretty good.
Yeah, yeah.
Yes. I mean, it's anti-Semitic for you to say, even though it's not Jewish.
Boom. Wait, wait. You were quoted as saying that one of the best parts about
the show was that
there were no Jewish characters. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah.

How Rainn Wilson Created Dwight Schrute

I want to ask you, see the annoying thing is this, every interview you get the
question
are you tired of being Dwight or something, right, or like, because it is an
iconic ubiquitous
like American comedy, like legendary character, right, and everyone asks you
about getting
like approached on the street, but they don't ask you about like how, what gave
birth to
what? So right down the street at NYU, you know, I was always really good at, I
was a theater
actor, and I was always really good at comedy theater, whether it was doing
sketches or a
farce or doing clowny kind of characters or Shakespeare clowns or something
like that,
but I did pretty wide-ranging theater training, but one of the things we did is
we took clowning
class, and this is like, who's the guy who plays Borat again, what's that guy's
name?
So he went to the guy in Paris. He went to go see. He's the guy, right? Yeah,
Lecoq, and that...
That's funny, that's funny.
His, but this woman, Gates McFadden, was our clown teacher just for a couple of
weeks or months,
and she was actually played Dr. Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. No!
The beautiful red-headed woman. No!
She teaches clowns? He is a clown teacher, a master clown teacher.
That was a childhood, like, crush. I didn't even have like, know what sex was,
but I was like,
I need her. Crusher was incredible. I think she's still available.
Is she? And she teaches clown? She doesn't regularly teach it, but she is
capable of teaching a mean
clown class. She could be your clown tutor, your private clown tutor.
My clown teacher? Yeah. Crusher? Yeah.
What did, did Worf, was he funny or no? He was hysterical.
Yeah. He was my voice and speech teacher.
Michael Dorn? No, he wasn't. Yeah.
Yeah. Michael Dorn was? Yeah. And Patrick Stewart, he taught...
He taught non-disclosure agreement, yeah. He taught...
So, but anyways, in this clown class, you did a lot about, you know, creating a
character kind of
out of nothing, and that when you put on the red nose, it amplifies whatever
you're doing. And the big
mistake with like, red nose clowning is like, you do something clowny, and it's,
and there was this
exercise we did called Circle of Fire, which is basically, you put on the red
nose, you go in
front of people, and you can only leave the stage once you've made everyone
laugh.
Really? And sometimes people would be up there for 45 minutes.
Yeah, because you had enemies in the class, people that like really didn't like
you.
No, good thinking, but because it's really hard to make people, maybe not for
you, and maybe not even for
me a little bit, but it's really hard to make people laugh with a red nose on
your face.
What if you fart really loud? You just get out of there...
It's gonna, it's not gonna be that funny.
Really? Yeah.
No, it's always funny.
No, what you think is gonna be funny doesn't work with a red nose, because it,
so what's really funny is being totally vulnerable.
Really?
And like, if you were to cry about like a dead relative, that would be hysterical.
Really?
If I'm not even kidding.
I cried on this show a couple weeks ago, I don't think it was about people are
laughing.
What did you cry about?
No, we don't have to get into it.
All right, so I'm just saying that the roots of creating a character like Dwight
come from these
ideas of clowns. Like, you go back from, you know, there have always been clowns
in human history,
and you can go back to the Greek comedies, and then the Roman comedies, and
then Commedia
dell'arte that were traveling clown troops in wooden wagons all across Europe,
and then Moliere and
Shakespeare took those tropes and those ideas, put them in all their plays, and
then those became
like British vaudeville, that became American vaudeville, that became like, you
know, Jack Benny,
and early television, and the Honeymooners, and sketch comedy, and that became,
you know,
Monty Python. You can, you can trace clowning and some basics about building
those
characters back to the classics, there were probably Hebrew clowns, yeah, back
in the,
in the Old Testament.
The slaves in Egypt, they were like, wait, I mean, I can't be out in the sun
this long.
The slaves sound like Woody Allen.
But it's, that's, it's ridiculous that they, my friend Michael, Mike Racine
used to have a joke,
he's like, imagine having a slave and it's a fucking Jew.
He's like, those would be the worst slaves ever.
Um, well, okay, so I, do you want me to, is there a universal comedy language?
Because it's very
interesting, you were saying that what, you have to go up on stage and make
someone laugh. I've been
thinking this, I've thought this for years, like, what, like, if you went to
like a, a tribe in the
Amazon, and like, and that's been like sealed up. What would be funny? What
would be funny? And I,
it's a very interesting thing to ponder, but I think there's only one thing I
could, I would consider.
Farting. Balls, like just getting hit, hurting your balls.
Hitting the balls, yeah.
Hitting the balls is funny.
That is universal. I think there's some universals.
What?
I think someone like, trying something and failing is, is, is universally funny.
Yeah.
I think, you know, I think if you went in the truck.
No, you know, if that happened in the, to the Amazon, they would be hysterical
right now.
Crusher taught you that?
Crusher taught you that?
Go to two. Go to two.
There's a real pro. We got a pro.
So, so those elements come into playing Dwight. Like, first of all, I saw Mackenzie
Crook on the
British office, who was brilliant. And there was a thing that he did that no
one had done as well
as him before, which was to say the most absurd, ludicrous things with an
absolutely straight face,
without any kind of hint at all that there was a joke there. And he was so
brilliant at that.
And Ricky really, I think, taught him that. And, and, and Steven Merchant.
Like a lack of self-awareness basically.
Yeah.
Yes. But, but without, you couldn't see the actor, because it was a documentary.
You couldn't see the actor kind of doing a weird line.
Like I drink my own urine and putting any kind of spin on it.
Just like I drink my own urine just completely. And so I loved that.
And then there were some other elements of like, I knew that Dwight needed, I
needed,
I have a huge weird head and I needed a haircut to showcase just how gargantuan
and melonic
my head is. And so I sculpted that and the self seriousness. And I knew he was
kind of like,
he was a nerd and kind of a bully at the same time.
Because blue lives matter. Yeah. He respects the police.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally blue lives matter.
But he wants to be a cop. Right. But like.
Yeah. Yeah. He was a Lackawanna County Sheriff's deputy.
Deputy. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so you put these elements together and you kind of create a clown
almost in the way that
you would have a red nose on. Is this, is your audience going to give a fuck
about this?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think so.
Okay. Okay. Wait.
And everybody likes Dwight?
Well, my son is a huge Adam Friedland fan. What's happening?
Does he have emotional problems? Sorry.
A little bit. I want to get my, um, sorry, my stupid thing.
Should we call him?
Yeah. Call him right now. This is very unprofessional.
I think he's in class.
He is? Tell him to get out of class. Send him a selfie.
Okay. Um, I'm just going to take one of these stupid things. I'm sorry.
The person you've dialed can't take your call now.
Oh my God. He blocked you.
Uh, they go by Kenzie.
They. Okay.
Mm-hmm.
And they're, they're a big fan?
Where do they go to school?
They're a big fan. Bard College.
Here. You can leave an audio note.
Oh yeah. No, they're, they're doing ketamine right now.
Hello, Kenzie.
Uh, I'm with your dad right now. This is Adam Friedland.
Oh, you sent him the Richie Torres interview? That's so embarrassing.
He sent it to me.
You said?
Please don't read my texts.
Okay. Well, you're, you, oh, should I pick up?
Yeah.
Hey, what's up? It's, it's Adam. I'm with, I'm with your dad right now. We're
chilling.
It's who?
It's Adam, uh, Friedland.
Oh, hi, Adam Friedland.
What's up? How's Bard going?
This is so surreal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How's Bard?
Yeah.
You go to class?
Bard? Oh, it's, it's nice.
Are you wearing all black?
No, but I do sometimes.
You got to stay away from those NYC kids. They're, they're no good.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, I heard that you like the show. I just want to say hello real quick.
Oh, hi. Yeah, I like the show.
What'd you say?
I have a friend who's more of a fan of you than me, who likes you more than me.
Oh, well, I'm sorry, dude. I'm, okay. Tell your friend I say what up.
All right, we got to get back to this interview. We're doing a bad job so far.
Oh, am I on tape right now? I'm serious.
No, no, no, no. You're not on the show at all.
Okay, bye.
All right, bye.
He's busted.
Wait, okay. So they released the auditions for, for the office. And the amazing
thing is this,
and I don't like, not to freaking blow smoke up your, up your hole or whatever
they say.
Yeah.
But like, it's Seth Rogen, Judah Friedlander, Patton Oswald, and you. And you're
just white.
You're like, you're, you've, the character is fully fleshed out just in an
audition, like a self-tape.
Yeah.
And it's like, it's amazing to see that like, you know, these guys are like heralded
comedic actors,
right? And you just destroy, I mean, you're just Dwight. So in that sense, when
I watched that,
I was like, oh, he's crafted this. It's not a matter of like, that the writers
kind of have done it.
This is a guy that's auditioning for a role. And that's, to me, made it like
all the more impressive,
you know?
Well, I love all those actors. They're all great. I think you're,
you come at a character from a different way when you've had theater training
versus when you come
from a standup or improv or sketch background and nothing against them. Like
Steve Carell comes from
a sketch and improv background. And he's one of the, I think, and truly one of
the greatest American
actors of all time, his dramatic work and his comedic work. So that's nothing
against them. I just think
when you, when you have theater training, you're, you're, you're trying to
create a character,
a three-dimensional character that can be funny, but taken seriously and could
walk down the street
and you, and you would believe it. There's not anything kind of like you want
to, you know,
theoretically make that character like fully living and breathing. And so I try
and do that kind of
work when I'm, you know, going in, especially on an audition. But this was one
of those rare auditions
where I'd seen the BBC office, loved it. It's the best. How good is it? It's so
good. And I took so
many things from my dear Mackenzie and just kind of put my own kind of American
kind of white trashy
spin on it. And Pennsylvania Dutch kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that whole thing
came out of an improv.
So, so you brought, did you bring that in that like you had, you're a farmer
and your cousin was like,
oh, so yeah. So that's another question I had. Like how much was that the
writers and how much was it
you creating this back story? Well, this is what's so great. This is how Greg
Daniels does that,
that no one else does. And, and it's, he's amazing in this way. Early on, I did
an improv.
We would just kind of improvise all the time to just kind of find the character
and find the tone.
And I did this improv. I don't even remember when it was. I think it was in the
first week. And I was
like, and I just improvised and I went, I really had not planned it at all. I
was like, my name is
Dwight Schrute. My father's name, Dwight Schrute. His father's name, Dwight
Schrute. Yeah. Amish.
And out of that, they're like, oh, we'll make him and his family Amish. And
then I did something
about, I brought in like family photos of like my farmer ancestors in Wisconsin
and
Minnesota and Greg's ancestors, Jewish, were actual beet farmers in Poland. Uh-huh.
And so like, we'll make it, we'll have this farm Amish backs