Rainn Wilson '100%' blames Bryan Cranston for the catastrophic 'Death Bus' episode of 'The Office'
- Rainn Wilson weighed in on Bryan Cranston's involvement in the "Work Bus" episode of "The Office."
- Cranston, who directed the episode, revealed that an issue during filming almost caused the cast to inhale carbon monoxide.
Rainn Wilson weighed in on the "Work Bus" episode of "The Office" that episode director Bryan Cranston recently reflected on, jokingly saying that the beloved comedy's stars "100% blame" Cranston for the debacle.
Speaking to Insider at the red carpet premiere of his new film "Jerry & Marge Go Large" (which stars Cranston and Annette Bening in the title roles), Wilson reiterated the circumstances that almost led to a deadly accident.
"Bryan directed the 'Work Bus' episode. It was 110 degrees in the San Fernando Valley, and they hooked an air conditioner to the back of the bus to give us extra cooling," Wilson recalled. "But they didn't think about the fact that the exhaust would recycle and potentially poison us and knock us out."
While Cranston previously revealed that no one was injured while filming (thanks to the quick thinking of star Jenna Fischer), Wilson jokingly told Insider that Fischer "threw up" on his shoes, and Ellie Kemper "went into a coma" because of the incident.
"We completely 100% blame Bryan Cranston," Wilson quipped of the "Office" cast's reaction to the mishap.
In the episode, employees at the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company move onto a bus to work while fumigation is going on at the office.
Cranston recently spoke about the near-disaster on a June episode of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert."
"They didn't think that where the intake for the refrigeration system was was exactly lined up to where the tailpipe of the bus was," Cranston told Colbert. "So, the exhaust of the bus was going right to the intake, cooling it."
He said that Fischer alerted him to the situation: "She said, 'I smell exhaust, it's coming inside the bus.'"
Cranston admitted that he didn't believe Fischer until he investigated the situation himself. "I got a chair and I stood up on the thing and I stuck my nose up in there and sure enough it was billowing down," he said. "It was carbon monoxide."
"I wasn't quite sure so I got a second wind. I got some more, I got nice and dizzy and then realized 'Oh my God, we could've all been dead,'" Cranston continued.
In their book, "The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There," Fischer, who played Pam on the show, and Angela Kinsey, who played Angela, also recounted the memorable filming experience of what they dubbed the "Death Bus" episode. They recalled two near-death experiences during filming. First, chaotic stunt driving caused the cast — and all of their props — to fall on top of each other. Then, there was the air-conditioning issue.
"The portable air-conditioning unit's INTAKE hose was right next to the EXHAUST pipe on the bus," Fischer wrote, per Mashable. "So that hose was sucking in exhaust and blowing it straight into the sunroof of the bus. We were all being slowly poisoned. Or not so slowly, actually."