The departure of Michael Scott from “The Office” has created quite the shakeup at Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton, Penn., branch and things are about to get a little crazier on Thursday’s episode as Rainn Wilson’s Dwight K. Schrute character takes over as acting manager.
“Tonight, Dwight’s ultimate dream comes true — he takes the reigns of power at Dunder Mifflin and he goes in whole hog with disastrous results,” Rainn told AccessHollywood.com on Thursday.
“Pretty much the whole office is opposed to the idea of Dwight being manager,” Rainn explained. “He’s got to overcome enormous obstacles, but fortunately for Dwight, he’s got a samurai sword collection that he brings in; he’s got a pet piranha that he can unleash on people; [he has] a lot of weapons that he can tote around the office, and so he – uh… he’s sways some people, let’s put it that way.”
Dwight has made no secret of his desire to become the official manager, and as acting manager this week, Jim Halpert (John Krasinksi) could be in trouble.
“There’s a running joke in this show he pre-fires him, so Jim is pre-fired… meaning when Dwight gets made permanent manager, Jim will actually be fired,” Rainn said.
With “The Office” rapidly heading toward its May 19 season finale, Dwight’s dreams might just be dashed as a host of contenders including Jim Carrey, Ray Romano, Ricky Gervais, Will Arnett and billionaire Warren Buffett are expected to apply as contenders to Michael Scott’s paper crown.
“It was incredible. I didn’t get to work with a lot of them. I got to meet most of ‘em,” Rainn said of having the heavy hitters on set. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever had a billionaire guest star on their show — a multi-billionaire before — but it was a blast. I got to do some scenes with, really a hero of mine — James Spader — who is, I think, one of America’s greatest actors.”
Rainn explained that the two titans of television actually sparred on screen in the upcoming season finale.
“James Spader plays a guy called Robert California, who’s a really confident kind of savant business manger type and he just really rubs Dwight the wrong way, so they have these kind of power battles,” the actor explained.
Former “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Ray also made an impression on the set and fans might not be expecting the type of character he plays.
“He was such a sweet guy; he’s also done thousands of episodes of TV and he’s a brilliant comic and he was great,” Rainn said. “He’s a really good actor. He played a real character very different from himself and it was terrific.”
As for big screen star and “In Living Color” alumnus Jim Carrey, he brought his spontaneous spirit and a surprise on his head to the set.
“He did a thousand takes and just tried things and improvised and really brought it, trying to be the very, very best he could be, which was great,” Rainn said. “He also had recently shaved his head into a Mohawk… So he did his character in a hat so that he could hide his Mohawk.”
With the open manager position creating a lot of drama at Dunder-Mifflin it’s unlikely Dwight will rekindle his romance with Pam’s friend Isabel as the season draws to a close, but Rainn said he’s open to a little love action for his paper selling character.
“There [were] some fireworks there,” Rainn said of Dwight’s fling with Isabel. “I don’t know what the status is with her or if she’ll be back. Dwight has proven himself to be quite a Casanova with the ladies for some inexplicable reasons, so we’ll see what happens with that… There’s still Dwight and Angela, that’s gone away, but maybe that will come back.”
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