Rainn Wilson is back on series TV playing the title role in Fox’s Backstrom premiering on January 22, 2015 at 9pm ET/PT. Created and executive produced by Hart Hanson (Bones), Backstrom‘s based on Swedish author/criminologist Leif G.W. Persson’s book series, although changes were made to the book’s main character to make him more accessible to American audiences.
“In the books, Backstrom has absolutely no redeeming values. He’s not even a very good detective. So he just takes credit for what other people do […]and he’s just awful. He’s just awful,” explained Hanson. “The change we made for network TV was to make him very good at his job and to make him empathetic [by taking] all those bad qualities that he has from the book and turning them into a tool for solving crimes.”
During the TCA winter press conference, Wilson talked about the bad qualities in the character, why he committed to another series, and what it is that he finds so fascinating about playing Backstrom.
Rainn Wilson Q&A
What made the timing right for you to sign on to another TV series?
Rainn Wilson: “I literally got a call from my agents as I was finishing the last three or four days of shooting on The Office, our 200th episode over nine or ten seasons. They said, ‘We really want you to read this TV script,’ and I almost fired them on the spot. I’m like, ‘Are you crazy?’ But they implored me, ‘Just read the script. This character is really special.’ I did and it really hooked me in. You know, really interesting, varied parts with lots of different facets and colors and textures don’t come along very much for weird-looking, 48 year old, pasty white dudes. So it was really exciting to read, and I knew I needed to do it. My wife and I talked about it at great length and we jumped in. And really fortunately, for a number of different reasons, it didn’t end up at CBS, and it ended up here at FOX. We got to take a much longer time to develop it. I got that nice year off to work on some other projects. And we’re really on the right network for this show.”
What do you like about him? Would you want him as a friend?
Rainn Wilson: “Good question. What do I like about this guy? You know, I can relate to someone whose life is falling apart and they’re doing their best to get by using humor to survive. I think we all have experienced that in small doses or we know people that live that way. Backstrom really wears his heart on his sleeve, and his life is unraveling. And watching a brilliant detective at work while things are just not working for him anymore and just falling apart, I think, is really interesting. I would much rather hang out with that person than, like, a slick procedural detective who’s got all the answers and effortlessly speaks in these kind of quips as their CSI team looks at every microfiber and everything resolves perfectly every single week. It’s human. It’s frail. And, it’s interesting.
Like the ad campaign says, he is a total d*ck. But there’s a beautiful arc that Hart has written over these 13 episodes where everyone in this ensemble gets to see some other sides of Backstrom and see what makes him tick and how he got that way. So we’re kind of asking this of the audience, to kind of take a little ride with us. Yes, this guy’s an a**hole; but get to know him a little bit and you’re going to start learning some really interesting things about him and his coping mechanisms, about his family. We get to meet his father, played by the great Robert Forster. We meet his ex-fiancee, played by the great Sarah Chalke. And it’s a nice throughline through the first season.”
In the books Backstrom is racist, sexist, and homophobic. How far will you go with that in the series?
Rainn Wilson: I think there’s a process of you watch the show and you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this guy’s a racist and a sexist.’ And then you kind of go, ‘Oh, wow, you know what? He kind of hates everybody.’ Then you kind of go, ‘Oh, wow, he hates himself worse than he hates anyone else. What’s going on with that?’ And, you know, it’s asking a good deal of an audience, but I think it’s a really interesting journey.”
The “I’m you” bit that your character does as he gets into the shoes of the person he’s investigating could get a bit tedious after a while. How do you make sure that device doesn’t wear thin with audiences and with you as an actor?
Rainn Wilson: “I love the device. I love the device that Hart has created, this because of his…’cynical’ is really the wrong word…it’s just a corrosively dark world view seeing the grotesque underbelly of the human condition. Because he lives in it, he’s able to just get in with the criminal element and just understand what’s driving them and motivating them. It’s not even like he’s getting into their heads. He’s getting into their hearts and into their souls and into their tissues of like this is what’s going on with them. And sometimes he’s just wrong and he’s just, ‘I’m you, and I bet that guy did it, and he did it because of that.’ Like, ‘That’s wrong. Okay.’ So he’s stabbing out in the darkness, and it’s really interesting. It’s not something we’ve really seen before because it’s a superhero quality – a superpower, excuse me – that is emotional and kind of spiritual. So it’s really interesting to play. It gives you a lot as an actor. There’s a lot of juicy, gooey, human fun stuff to play around with in that kind of empathetic connection to the dark criminal element.”
Is it fun to play someone who’s completely the opposite of you? He’s unhappy and you seem to be happy with your life.
Rainn Wilson: “Thank you for saying so. I think that we all have our demons, and I think part of the job as an actor is to find what your point of relation is for any character and to delve into that. Steve Carell, for instance, who I just saw in Foxcatcher, he’s as sweet and kind a person as you’d ever want to meet, but he has the ability as an actor to transform into some really interesting characters. It’s the actor’s job to create that transformation. So I definitely have my demons, and I definitely have my dark side, as we all do. To me, it was really interesting…’interesting’ is the wrong word…a fantastic opportunity and challenge to get to explore those colors after nine or 10 years of playing Dwight.”
