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The Office's assistant to the regional manager Rainn Wilson is finally getting a promotion to big boss man as this year's host of Film Independent's Spirit Awards (airing Feb. 23 on AMC and IFC channels). In the, er, spirit of things, Wilson spoke with EW last week about the new gig, his role opposite Ellen Page in Juno, and what he and his Dunder Mifflinites are up to during the strike.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Have you been to the Spirits before?
RAINN WILSON: I haven't. I went to the party once and got some free food, which is always nice. I've been doing my homework and watching previous Spirit Awards.
Sarah Silverman hosted last year. Are you nervous about pushing the envelope enough?
Well, I could never compete with Sarah Silverman. I will never be able to say the word vagina as many times as she can. I am nervous about it. I'm not a stand-up comic, and I told them at the beginning that if they're just looking for jokes and for people to tell jokes, that's not really what I do. At first I was like, ''Oh, there's no way, I don't want to be a host,'' and then I thought, ''Well, it's going to be hard to make this thing work and an interesting fun challenge,'' so I decided to take it on. And we have a little strike going — I don't know if you heard about that — so I got some free time.
I'm guessing they approached you, but were you like, ''I'm a guy with a background in theater''?
I have no idea why they approached me. I imagine they couldn't afford Steve Carell, and were like, ''Well, let's just get his sidekick.'' I told them I'm not a stand-up and they were like, ''No, we want you because you do TV and indie films and [we] just wanted a different feel to the show.'' I kind of came up with some ideas — they wanted to preshoot some sketches and stuff like that — and that seemed like a lot of fun, so I just thought to give it a shot.
So Juno is nominated for four awards and you're hosting. Is that not a conflict of interest?
It is a conflict of interest. It is, absolutely, and I'm planning on fully rigging the awards ceremony so that Juno wins in every category, even ones that it's not listed in. Best Documentary. Best Supporting Actor Rainn Wilson as Rollo, the convenience-store clerk.
What's Ellen Page like?
She's a she-bitch. She's a wolverine on wheels. She's like a Canada farm girl with, like, weird hippie parents. I think she's just tremendous.
Do you feel slighted for not being nominated for an Indie Spirit? You are a very persuasive store clerk.
Um, thanks for noticing that, and yeah, I feel robbed.
But you and the Office cast did get some SAG noms, right?
Yeah, that's great. I'm very excited about that. But [we] kind of got douched over by the Golden Globes. They love their Pushing Daisies and their Californication over there, those foreign journalists.
So the IFC had to get a waiver from the Writers Guild of America so that you would get some writers during the strike. Did you know going in that you'd get them?
When they first approached me, I was like, ''Well, I'll do it if the WGA lets me do it, but I can't do it otherwise.'' And then I found out in late November, early December that they did get approval, so I actually get to hire some union writers to help me out. I'm going to hire the entire Office staff.
If the Academy doesn't get a waiver, do you think the Oscars are going to blow?
Are they going to blow?
Yeah, you know, if everybody has to ad-lib. Or do you think they blow already?
Yeah, that's good. I think the Oscars should be animated because animation writers don't fall under the Writers Guild, so I think it should be entirely animated from beginning to end. It kind of sucks — I mean, think about all the valet parkers and the caterers in the L.A. area that are going to be unemployed if the Oscars don't happen.
NEXT PAGE: ''Meredith is actually a prostitute now. Steve Carell is a pool shark. And John Krasinski has gone into international diplomacy.''
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