Rainn Wilson at Fan Expo Chicago 2025

As afternoon was turning into evening on Saturday, actor Rainn Wilson took the stage in the main hall at Fan Expo Chicago. The questions were less about his most famous role as Dwight in The Office and instead more meandering and a little all over the place. For some, that might have been a bummer, but Wilson is a quick-witted, FUNNY person, and the panel was an absolute joy to watch.

Photo by Aaron Cynic

Wilson opened by affirming that the Fan Expo crowd is indeed “his tribe,” joking about how long he’s been playing Dungeons and Dragons.

“I guarantee you I was playing D&D before any of y’all. Was there anyone here playing before 1977?” After one person in the crowd raised their hand, Wilson remarked “that’s bullshit. No way you were you playing before '77 – they didn’t even have a monster manual.” but after the moderator pointed the fan out, Wilson quipped “he looks ancient.”

Wilson added that he spent a birthday watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy in its entirety.

“Here’s what I did for a birthday,” he said. “I got the DVDs of the extended versions of all three Lord of the Rings movies. For the day I watched them all. It was a 10-hour birthday celebration for me…I’m just proving my street cred here, folks.”

Wilson said one of the challenges in acting is making pages of dialogue come alive for viewers.

“The things that actors complain about are mostly bullshit. ‘Oh we had to be there at 5am.’ Boo hoo, so did my stepdad, he was a clam digger. That was a lot harder than being in your trailer and deciding what kind of omelet you want at dawn. What’s hard is…a lot of times what’s hard in TV…I had to memorize 7-9 pages of dialogue a day. Not only memorizing it but…it was hard stuff. It was funny, it was dark, it was complicated dialogue. Day in and day out, not just to memorize them, but make them come alive. Make them sing. Figure out your take on the scene while you’re in at 4 or 5 in the morning trying to get your bearings. It can be really challenging creatively.”

Some of the curated fan questions did hit on the beloved character of Dwight Schrute. Wilson said one common misconception people have about him is that they’re surprised to see he’s “not exactly like Dwight,” which he takes as a complement.

Photo by Aaron Cynic

“There’s not very much of me that's like Dwight. Although obviously some mannerisms because I played him for 200 episodes over 9 years,” said Wilson. “One of the things that’s great, and maybe you’ve noticed this, Dwight is a little bit of a dick. And Rainn is a little bit of a dick. It allows me – having played Dwight – allows me to kind of be a dick to people like the guy in the pink shirt who played D&D before me and people laugh. I can be kind of an asshole and people are like ‘oh isn’t that charming.’ But I talk to Jenna (Fischer). And Jenna plays Pam, who’s so sweet, and she can’t tell any edgy jokes because people are like ‘Pam would never say that. Pam is so sweet.’ So Jenna has to keep her dark, raunchy sense of humor in check, because people recoil.”

Wilson also talked about his environmental activism and balancing that with his career.

“I always have felt from the beginning as I got well known as an actor that I have an obligation and responsibility to use my platform for some kind of social good,” he said. Wilson said that a few years ago he realized that though he felt very passionate about climate change, he needed to become more involved.

“All I was doing was sending out angry tweets at climate change deniers. I realized I needed to do more than be a keyboard warrior. I started getting involved with some organizations, shooting some stuff, making some videos and installations and applications, speaking about climate in various ways. I think that everyone…some people are like ‘actors should just shut up and stick to acting.’ I don’t think anyone should stick to their profession. I think everyone should speak up about what they’re passionate about. I don’t pretend to be a climate scientist, but I know how to read science and communicate findings to people as a storyteller and actor. There are things we’re passionate about, it’s time to get from behind the keyboard, get involved. That’s all of our responsibility.”

Photo by Aaron Cynic

While there are 40 rules for the Schrute boys to follow, Wilson said the most important rule was to “be kind.”

“Be like 20 percent nicer than you think you need to be,” he said. “Going out into the world, I’m a pretty decent, reasonable pretty nice person. Give that extra 20 percent. How’s that? And if you don’t you get eaten in your sleep.”