‘The Office’: John Krasinski Always Got Hurt When He Shot With 1 Person
No matter how many years pass, John Krasinski is never shy about expressing how grateful he is to have been in The Office cast. Prior to landing the role of Dunder Mifflin paper salesman, Jim Halpert, Krasinski was actually considering quitting acting. However, landing the role would change his life forever and secure a career for him in the entertainment industry.
While Krasinski adored the comedy of The Office and felt like he was working on something very special, professionally, he also loved his fellow castmates on a personal level. The A Quiet Place director developed close bonds with many of his fellow actors. In fact, Krasinski even had a special lunchtime ritual with Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on the show.
‘The Office’ bonded cast members John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson in a unique way
One person that Krasinski got particularly close to while filming The Office was Rainn Wilson. Fans of the show will recall that Wilson portrayed the infamous Dwight K. Schrute on the show. Since Dwight and Jim were frenemies and had a number of scenes together, the actors developed a kind of familial relationship with one another over the years. In an interview with NPR, Krasinski got candid about the unique friendship he shared with Wilson.
“I think the rivalry made us become kind of like brothers,” The Office actor revealed about his fellow co-star. “I mean, there’s that rivalry between brothers, obviously, and it’s not necessarily competitive, it’s just this free-spirited thing.” Like real-life brothers, Krasinski and Wilson would often have to roughhouse for the sake of the show. While the scenes were all in good fun, Krasinski confessed that they made him nervous because he would often wind up hurt.
Krasinski often got injured while filming scenes with Wilson
“One of the things that I got nervous about was play fighting with him, because he’s a very good actor, but I, for some reason, would always end up injured when we did any play fighting,” Krasinski shared about filming fight scenes for The Office. “So there were all these scenes where he would throw snowballs at me and it actually hurt, or he’d go to push me and he’d push me too hard, and I’d actually get hurt.”
And Krasinski wasn’t the only member of The Office cast to get a bit injured during one of Wilson’s infamous Dwight scenes. In an episode of Office Ladies, Angela Kinsey (who portrayed Angela Martin) once revealed that she was accidentally shoved while filming the cold open for “Dwight’s Speech” thanks to Wilson portraying the overzealous Dwight.
Wilson really got into character while shooting ‘The Office’
“Rainn runs at Leslie and like Heismans him, basically, really gives him the stiff-arm shove. Leslie was not expecting it. It wasn’t really in the script that he was going to shove Leslie,” Kinsey shared. “Let me tell you something, Leslie was not ready for that shove. Rainn came at him full throttle and shoved him. Leslie went flying, he lost his balance completely. He went almost butt-over-head, but there was someone directly behind him: a tiny blonde person.”
Clearly, Wilson was committed to portraying his character as truthfully as possible. We can totally understand why Krasinski was a bit nervous to shoot fake fight scenes with him. However, at least The Office star was a good sport about it because the show wouldn’t have been as funny without all the physical comedy that Jim and Dwight share.