Everything ‘The Office’ fans ever wanted to know about Dwight’s famous box scene
Nearly 15 years after "The Alliance" episode of The Office aired, all the burning questions fans had about Dwight K. Schrute hiding in that box have been answered.
Was Rainn Wilson (Dwight) even in the box? How many times did they shoot the scene? How many boxes did the crew go through? We now know all the details.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey chatted about the fourth episode of the series, "The Alliance," which follows several plot lines, perhaps the funniest of which is the newly formed alliance between Jim and Dwight.
You May Also Like
As downsizing rumors continue to circulate at Dunder Mifflin, Dwight asks Jim to form an alliance, and Jim uses the opportunity to prank Dwight. Eventually, Jim convinces Dwight to hide in a sealed box in the warehouse to spy on a "secret meeting," and things get a bit out of hand.
Turns out, the memorable scene was pretty tough to organize — and no, Rainn Wilson was unfortunately not in the box the whole time. Phil Shea, Prop Master on The Office for all nine seasons, was the heroic box man.
"Here’s a big confession about the box, this is going to blow your mind," Fischer said on the podcast. "Rainn wasn’t in the box most of the time. Most of the box acting was done by Phil Shea, except for the end when Dwight busts out."
"In that scene where I’m cracking up, it’s Phil in the box," Fischer explained, before calling Shea on the phone to learn additional details.
"Rainn only got in after all the shooting, and the scooching, and the sliding, and the tumbling was done," Shea said. "Apparently our producer didn’t think we had enough money to hire a stunt guy, so he assigned me to be in the box, and I remember I had to go out and buy my own elbow and knee pads."
"I had a loose walkie-talkie in there with me," Shea said; the directors used it to shout out commands to him. And because Shea was in charge of props, it was also his job to find the box used in the scene. That turned out to be quite a challenge.
"I tracked Rainn down and asked him to get on his hands and knees so I could measure him for this box," Shea said. Then, he unsuccessfully scoured box stores around Southern California before going online and finding a company in San Diego that would make a custom-sized box for the scene.
"[I] asked to speak to the manager to get 100 custom boxes made," Shea recalled, noting that he wanted extra to allow for reshoots and to place some extra boxes on the shelves of the warehouse.
In every scene aside from Dwight crouching down in the box and punching his fist through it to escape, Shea was the one in that box poking holes and moving around.
Shea recalled what felt like 50 takes filmed of him in the box, and said that during the last one, when he cut himself out and emerged from the cardboard, the director had played a joke on him and instructed everybody to hide.
"We did! We left you in the box and made it look like we were still filming and you were in there for so long," Fischer said laughing. A real-life office prank, how meta.
You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Topics The Office Celebrities
Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.
