‘The Office’: Rainn Wilson Sent His Co-star to the Hospital While Filming This Iconic ‘Beach Games’ Scene
Things got a little bit dangerous during one iconic The Office scene, landing one of the cast members in the hospital as a result. Many fans of the series count the sumo wrestling scene in the season 3 episode “Beach Games” among their favorites, but few know that one actor got hurt during the filming.
‘The Office’ channels ‘Survivor’ in the ‘Beach Games’ episode
During the Nov. 4 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey explored the season 3 episode “Beach Games,” which finds Michael Scott looking to determine his successor with a series of challenges.
The whole office (except for Toby) travel to a nearby lake where Michael intends to put them through “games” that he’s devised to pick a worthy employee to fill his position when he believes he’ll be offered a job at the corporate office.
The episode was inspired by the reality show Survivor. Writer Jen Celotta explained why the setup was such a natural for Michael Scott.
“I think the inspiration for this episode was just Survivor,” she explained during the podcast. “I remember all of us talking about Survivor being a perfect way for Michael Scott to pick his successor. I mean, what other way would this man use to try to pick somebody who could run a branch? It just seemed like a no-brainer for Michael Scott to do it this way.”
The iconic sumo fight scene was hilarious but left one person injured
Fischer and Kinsey discussed the hilarity of those inflatable sumo suits, which visually guaranteed a great comedy moment. While the puffy suits seemed to add an extra level of safety, one cast member ended up in the hospital with a small injury.
During the podcast, the hosts answered the fan question: “Is it true that Rainn Wilson (Dwight) actually put Leslie David Baker (Stanley) in the hospital while shooting beach games?”
Fischer and Kinsey confirmed that, “yes,” this really happened. “What happened was that during all this sumo wrestling, Leslie got sand in his eyes and they tried to flush it out but they couldn’t and I remember he had to leave set and I don’t know if he went to the hospital or to an eye doctor but he had a scratched cornea,” Fischer explained.
Baker was able to return to filming, however, after he visited a local clinic.
How did the accident happen?
While Fischer was unclear how the accident happened, Kinsey pointed to a deleted scene from the episode and noted that Wilson kicked sand after knocking Baker to the ground. “Then Rainn felt really bad,” Kinsey recalled of the moment.
Wilson addressed the incident in his book The Bassoon King: Art, Idiocy, and Other Sordid Tales from the Band Room. The actor explained that he “accidentally kicked sand into Leslie David Baker’s eyes and he had to be rushed to the hospital and have his enormous eyeball washed out and treated for a scratched cornea.”
“This is my chance to apologize to the entire cast,” Wilson wrote. “I’m sorry. It’s a wonder that I was never sued,” he said about injuring various cast members.
