The noodge rocks out

Rainn Wilson trades his 'Office' job for a wholesome, innocent - heavy metal gig

Rainn Wilson's oddball alter-egos - mortuary apprentice Arthur Martin from "Six Feet Under" and Dwight Schrute from "The Office" - have made the actor the consummate creepy geek.

Wilson doesn't mind at all.

During a recent stop in Boston to promote his first big-screen leading role in the comedy "The Rocker," which opens Wednesday, Wilson admits that growing up in Seattle, "I was every kind of geek known to man. Dungeons & Dragons, debate club, Model UN. . . ."

Wilson was also a band geek. He played the bassoon.

It didn't win him points with women, he says, but it did come in handy when he accepted the starring role in "The Rocker," which has Wilson playing Robert "Fish" Fishman, a drummer who gets kicked out of the fictional 1980s hair-band Vesuvius just as it lands a big record deal. The film, directed by Peter Cattaneo ("The Full Monty"), follows Fish in the present as he tries to relive his rock past by joining his teen nephew's band, an angsty group called A.D.D. In the movie, the band performs original songs, which are sung by Wilson's co-star and real-life pop singer Teddy Geiger.

Thanks to Wilson's woodwind experience, he was already able to read music when he showed up to the set. And with the help of a drum coach, Wilson says he delivers a pretty good Tommy Lee routine on the big screen.

"I wanted everything to feel completely real," says Wilson, who says he preferred the Clash to hair metal bands back in the day. "I also learned the tricks of heavy metal drummers - how to flash the heavy metal horns on the off-beat as you're drumming, or point to the hot girl in the crowd on the off-beat with your drum stick . . ."

But don't be fooled. Wilson's role as a drum-stick-twirling rocker doesn't mean he has left his geek routine behind. Despite promotions for "The Rocker," which paint the film as another "Superbad," Wilson says that the film is nothing like the Judd Apatow-Seth Rogen comedies that audiences have grown accustomed to. No themes of virginity loss or the procuring of marijuana.

"No one's rubbing their [private parts] on anyone else," Wilson says candidly.

His drummer character is a loveable hair-band geek living in the wrong decade.

"[It's] 'Uncle Buck' with a heavy-metal drummer," Wilson says, referring to the 1989 family film starring John Candy, adding that "The Rocker" may surprise audiences with its innocence. "I do think there's this tendency that these R-rated comedies are trying to outdo one another with increased swearing and sexual double entendres. I think ours is a little bit of a throwback."

Rounding out "The Rocker" cast are Emma Stone ("Superbad"), Will Arnett (as a member of Vesuvius), Jeff Garlin, Christina Applegate, and Stone's real-life boyfriend, Geiger, who tries his hand at big-screen acting as A.D.D.'s frontman Curtis, a sensitive singer-songwriter in need of a father figure.

The rating on "Rocker" is PG-13 because of a few mature jokes, a slapstick scene featuring Wilson drumming nude, and the occasional bad word. But, as Wilson says, it's tame compared to its comedy competition.

Tom McNulty, one of the producers of "The Rocker," who used to be a vice president at Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, agrees that this movie bucks the trend with its moderate cleanliness. Like Wilson, McNulty says he appreciates the Apatow genre, but he's more inspired by the films he grew up with, classics like "Sixteen Candles" and "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles."

"The expletives are few and far between and the situations are mature but not gratuitous," he says of his favorites.

McNulty credits the tone of the film to the loveable Wilson, and "Rocker" writers Maya Forbes, of "The Larry Sanders Show," and Wallace Wolodarsky, of "The Simpsons."

"They weren't afraid of writing something heartfelt and honest without being edgy for the sake of being edgy," he says.

For Wilson, the movie was the chance to live a band geek's dream. Not only did he learn to drum, he got to meet Pete Best, the original drummer for the Beatles, who has a cameo in the film.

"Such a nice guy. What an incredible story," Wilson says. "Certainly our movie's not based on him, but the spark of the idea maybe. What happens if you're kicked out of a famous band right before they make it big?"

And for Wilson, playing Fish - the loud, reckless, washed-up rocker who's about 20 years older than his teen bandmates - has been his chance to try his hand in a starring role, a challenge that required more energy than playing Schrute, he says. Wilson was in the family sci-fi film "The Last Mimzy" and was a scene-stealer in "Juno," but in "The Rocker," he's in all but two scenes.

"Honestly, it was a big adjustment. All of a sudden I need just way more energy," he says. "I've always been in reaction to other people. I needed to be the guy who was driving the movie. Fish's story is the story of the movie."

Geiger, who was also recently in Boston to promote the film (and to play a gig at the Paradise Rock Club), says he learned plenty from Wilson, who shares most of his "Rocker" scenes. Geiger says he didn't know what to expect of Wilson after watching "The Office." The actor turned out to be less over-the-top than Dwight, Geiger says, but still a riot. "He's really funny. He's his own character."

Wilson says he hopes the film doesn't scare people with its family-friendly modesty or geekdom. Despite the fact that the top-earning PG-13 films of the year so far haven't been comedies - they've been action films like "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight" - he believes audiences want movies that are more adult than "Camp Rock" but less profane than a "Superbad" or "Pineapple Express."

"I really think 'The Rocker' is for everyone - music [fans], metal fans . . . 10-year-olds are going to like it, college kids . . .," he says, adding that PG and PG-13 comedies are, too often, "silly, light, cotton-candy movies for kids that, you know, have Amanda Bynes in them and no one in their right mind over 14 would want to see [them]."

Wilson adds in jest, referring to his nude scene, "They tried to get Amanda Bynes to play Fish, but she passed. It was the butt-crack thing that threw her."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.