Television January 21, 2015
Rainn Wilson Says Goodbye to Dwight and Hello to Backstrom!
He played paper salesman Dwight Schrute on “The Office” for 10 years, but it's time for all of us, including Rainn Wilson, to say goodbye to the beloved beet farmer and make room for his new role in “Backstrom.”
Rainn plays Det. Everett Backstrom in the FOX comedy about a misanthropic cop and his quirky team of misfits.
ExtraTV.com was invited to a press day on the Vancouver set of “Backstrom” to learn more about the show, which premieres at 9 PM on Thursday, Jan. 22.
Here is what we learned:
He's not your typical cop: “I realized I don't need to be a convincing cop, I can be a shlubby, weird dufus cop like myself.”
Backstrom doesn't care what anyone thinks: “He just says the wrong things, he is completely politically incorrect. He is not afraid to step on toes. He is racist, sexist. It is across the board, he hates everyone.”
[Credit: FOX]
He will “crawl through broken glass” to get his perp: “Backstrom will do anything to solve a case or to get a suspect, so he is not above lying, cheating, breaking the law, fudging the rules, faking paperwork. He doesn't care about any of that stuff. If he knows someone is guilty he will crawl through broken glass to get them and get them behind bars.”
The source of Backstrom's dysfunction is childhood trauma: “His mother died at a young age, he can't stand his father. He was bullied and abused in a lot of ways that really shut him down, and so, sort of everything he does is a motive to get ahead and pull something over on someone. He can't stand that there is a murderer out there who thinks he's smarter than he is. That's his motivation to catch the bad guy. It comes from his twisted inner child.”
[Credit: FOX]
He has an unlikely roommate named Valentine: “They are just kindred spirits, as different as they are. A young gay thief and this old misanthropic self-hating addict cop, they are just cut from the same cloth and that's what is so fun about it.”
Backstrom isn't Dwight, but not everyone will accept that: “I know that most people are going to be like, 'It's Dwight as a cop!' or 'That guy's always going to be Dwight, he can't play a cop,' but I'm excited for the challenge.”