How ‘The Office’ Star Rainn Wilson Used to Spend His Saturday Nights as a Teenager Would Make Dwight Proud

Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute perfectly on The Office. So perfectly, that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. While Dwight is certainly more severe and lacking in social skills than Wilson, the two do actually share some similarities.

When Wilson was interviewed on Good Morning America in 2018, he was asked about how he was as a teenager. Immediately, he admitted to being “deep into nerd culture.”

Rainn Wilson played a lot of ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ in high school

“What was a typical Saturday night like?” he was asked.

For a teenage Wilson, his Saturdays nights were much like the rest of his evenings.

“I’m not making this up, I’m not exaggerating in the slightest, a Dungeons & Dragons extravaganza. I’m not kidding, school’s out on a Friday at 3:00 p.m. By 4:00 p.m., we’re at Sean Higgins’ house with a vat of Fritos and Dr. Pepper. And we’d play through the night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday until about 3:00,” he said.

We know somebody else who’s “deep into nerd culture.” It sounds like Wilson’s Saturday nights of the past would have proved to be a good time for Dwight.

Rainn Wilson played the bassoon in high school

“And when I wasn’t playing Dungeons & Dragons, I was playing the bassoon,” said the actor, which he called “the nerdiest, worst instrument in life.”

According to Wilson, he was “suckered” into playing this particular instrument.

“My band teacher, he suckered me into it. I wanted to play the saxophone because the saxophone players were cool. And in my school, they got to wear sunglasses sometimes and kind of do a funky [dance]. I wanted to do that,” he said. “But he said, ‘You know, there’s this other instrument that’s way cooler than the saxophone and that is the bassoon.’ And I was like, ‘Sign me up.’ I had visions of, like, girls lining up around the block to date the bassoon player. But it didn’t happen.”

Like Wilson, Dwight is also musically gifted. But the beet farmer’s instrument of choice is a green recorder.

We wonder if Wilson ever played his bassoon slumped next to a trashcan after he had his heart broken.