‘The Office’: Rainn Wilson Injured His Neck Filming Dwight’s Puking Scene
Some of the funniest moments on The Office weren’t planned. That’s because multiple stars are great at improvising.
One thing that was changed was how Dwight (Rainn Wilson) got sick in the episode, “The Injury.” Find out how the changed scene was going to play out and how it led to an injury.
Rainn Wilson puked during the episode ‘The Injury’ on ‘The Office’
The episode “The Injury” started with Michael (Steve Carell) calling into the office to say he accidentally grilled his foot. He wanted someone to get him and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) jumped at the chance.
The problem is Dwight gets in his car then hits a pole. When he gets out he pukes on his car. He later has to go the hospital because he has a concussion.
The filming of the episode was covered on the podcast Office Ladies. Co-hosts Jenna Fischer, who played Pam Beelsey, and Angela Kinsey, who played Angela Martin, revealed the actor hurt himself from filming the scene.
They said Wilson was injured filming the puking scene
Fischer answered a fan question about the filming of Dwight’s car crash asking if he was in the car while it hit the pole. The actress said she reached out to Wilson for the answer.
“He said ‘If you notice you never actually see the car crash. You just hear it. So they just put the car there,'” explained Fischer. “And he just staggered out of it. Later when he’s driving away that was a stunt driver. Rainn never actually drove the car.”
Another fan asked what was used to make the throw up. Apparently it was cream of potato soup. “Rainn told me it was actually his idea to throw up across the back windshield. In the script and on the day he was directed to throw up on the pavement outside of the car. But he thought it would be funnier if he threw up across the back windshield.”
It turns out this stunt led to an injury. “They only did about two takes but he said he really hurt his neck,” said Fischer. She added, “He had to like propel his neck forward so the vomit would really splatter and he said it was sore for like two weeks afterward.”
There is another unscripted moment in the episode
How Dwight got sick isn’t the only change from the script that happened in this episode. One of the other funny moments that was unexpected involved other characters.
“Michael calls Pam into his office to ask for messages,” said Fischer. “Dwight is fanning Michael’s foot with a tiny fan and then it buzzes his foot and that was not in the script. We came up with that on the day.”
The actress admitted she laughed through the entire scene. She talked about the fan prop. “They gave him that as an option to fan Michael’s foot and then he just ran with it,” she said. It sounds like some of the funniest moments of the episode were thanks to Wilson trying something different.
