Jim Rash on Playing COMMUNITY’s Dean Pelton

NBC debuted a COMMUNITY-based web series this week featuring Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) conducting Greendale business in his own unique fashion. In the first three “Office Hours” webisodes released on NBC.com, we see the dean mediate a sexual harassment case involving the Human Being and a cheerleader, seek advice from Leonard about a toupee, and try to console a student who misunderstands their relationship.

Jim Rash has become a fan favorite on Community, playing the ambitious and mostly well-meaning but basically certifiable Dean Pelton. He has been a member of the Groundlings improv company for eleven years and had a starring role in NBC’s The Naked Truth along with recurring ones in shows like Reno 911 and That 70s Show.

Hot Celebrity Tv was there when Jim answered questions on the webisodes, how Dean Pelton has evolved, and his writing career.

On the “Office Hours” webisodes

About the web series, Jim said, “I’m honored to have the chance to expand Community outside the show,” explaining, “I do think it’s a great way to broaden your being seen and expand who watches your show.” He added that “for shows that are special and have a good solid following, [a web series] is a great place to nurture them.”

When asked how shooting the webisodes felt compared to a regular episode, Jim replied, “It was the same in the sense of having the same set and most of the same crew — we shot those during a hiatus week. That part of it felt the same. It was fun obviously because Leonard was in some of those and so is the Human Being. It did feel a little weird, but hopefully we’ll do more and get more of the regular cast involved.”

Jim said he hopes that there will be introductions and crossovers both ways between the show and the webisodes down the road.

On Dean Pelton’s evolution

Jim said he had no idea what to expect from Dean Pelton at first. “When we shot the pilot, I was cast, I think, pretty late–after they had already started shooting. At the time it was just a guest star on a pilot that you didn’t know if it was going to get picked up. And then they mentioned possible recurring, and once it got picked up I didn’t know how much they wanted to use the dean or where we were going.”

According to Jim, in the pilot the dean was wearing a wedding ring that had disappeared by his second episode, and he has no idea if the dean was actually married or if he only wore the ring to “attract people attracted to strong, stable types.”

Jim laughed that his first “inkling of Pelton’s craziness” was the Dalmatian video. He said that while he does sometimes have a “what?” reaction to things in the script, they’re “joyous whats.” Jim loves all the secrets in Pelton’s personal life, from the Dalmatian fetish to his “over-curiosity with Winger.” We’re also apparently going to be learning about a few new fetishes in upcoming episodes.

On how Jim views Dean Pelton

In describing Dean Pelton, Jim said “He is a guy who at his core really wants this school to be success — I think he fancies his community college to be, as he sarcastically put it, I think he wants this place to be as great as the four-year college everyone transfers to. Of course, he makes a lot of missteps along the way but his heart is in the right place. I remember when we first started, Dan Harmon felt like I probably went to some Ivy League school and felt like he didn’t get the college experience he wanted so he’s trying the make this the experience he wishes he could have.”

Jim also sees the dean as someone who is needy and infuses himself too much into the lives of Jeff and the study group.

According to Jim, we’ll see Dean Pelton have a huge meltdown a couple of episodes down the road and Jim said, “It was fun to find that reaction and play that.”

As for what Jim wants to see in the future, he said, “I love the fact that we’re not yet sure what’s going on in [Dean Pelton's] personal life. I’m looking forward to the eventual reveal, whether we really want to know or not.” Along with the dean’s personal life, Jim would also like the show to explore Greendale’s apparently massive social budget and would want to see an episode where someone cracks down on Pelton’s spending.

On the Community cast

Jim called the cast “great. It’s a really close group. I think they’ve really bonded and are very welcoming.” He said Joel is “very quick and it’s fun to watch him play with Ken Jeong and Donald Glover.”

When asked how it is working with Chevy Chase, Jim again called it great, saying “One of my first episodes back after the pilot was just with him, designing the Human Being. It was fun to have that one on one time.” He added that it was intimidating at first, but there was “no need because [Chevy] was very welcoming.

On favorite episodes
When asked if he had a favorite episode, Jim answered, “I think I’m partial to shooting the Apollo 13 space episode personally but I will say that one of my favorite times was only the second episode I was in. It was the football one where I got to come in and ask Troy if he wanted to play football. That was the first time back for me, and it was fun to start fleshing out who that guy was.”

On the Halloween costumes in “Epidemiology 206″

Jim said that while they were shooting “Basic Rocket Science,” Karey Dornetto, the “Epidemiology 206″ writer, talked to each cast member about possible costume ideas. When she mentioned the Lady Gaga idea, Jim countered with Cruella De Vil because of the dean’s Dalmatian fetish, but there were probably too many licensing issues for that to happen. Jim said he doesn’t know how many of the cast ideas were taken, but everyone was asked what they thought their characters should go as.

On The Groundlings

Jim began working with the Groundlings shortly after he arrived in Los Angeles, and he credits the company with helping him hone his comedic timing and become a better performer overall. “I started work at the Groundlings mostly to take improv classes,” Jim explained, “and that was beneficial, not just to my acting, but also to my writing.”

On The Descendants

Jim said the opportunity for him and his writing partner, fellow Groundlings member Nat Faxon, to write a screenplay adaptation for the Kaui Hart Hemmings novel “The Descendants” “fell into our laps.” Director Alexander Payne had optioned the filming rights to the book and since Jim and Nat had gotten some attention for a screenplay they had written, Payne approached them and asked them to do the adaptation. Payne, who also shares a writing credit on the project, directed the film last summer with George Clooney starring. The Descendants will be released next year.

On upcoming projects

Jim said he and Nat are very focused on their writing right now. They are currently in the early stages of working on an HBO pilot, have plans for another screenplay, and want to revisit their screenplay “The Way Back,” which garnered attention a few years ago when the economy was going south. Jim hopes that he and Nat can do something with it as things begin to pick back up.

Jim said he would love to write an episode of Community “if they would have me.”

Community airs on NBC Thursday nights at 8pm/7 central.

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