Rainn Wilson inarguably crushed his role as Dwight Schrute in all nine seasons of the mockumentary glory that is The Office. But according to the actor himself, he felt the role "wasn't enough" and admitted he was "unhappy" for "several years."
While realizing now he was a huge success on the show, Wilson revealed to Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast that at the time it didn't feel that way.
Wilson explained to Maher he was and is a theater artist at heart and swore his goal was not to be on "a hit show," but he went after the "TV gigs" to help pay off his student loans.
Wilson admitted he did have a period on The Office when he wanted much more.
“I’m realizing now, like, I’m on a hit show, Emmy nominated every year, making lots of money, working with Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski and these amazing writers and incredible directors like Paul Feig."
"I’m on one of the great TV shows. People love it. I wasn’t enjoying it."
Much of the unhappiness, Wilson explained, stemmed from wondering why he wasn't a movie star.
“Why am I not the next Jack Black or the next Will Ferrell? How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’”
“I was a TV star, but I wanted to be a movie star. It was never enough."
“Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and ‘never enough’ has helped us as a species.”
You can watch the clip below.
While people on social media could understand where Wilson was coming from...
... they also noted his performance in The Office was legendary.
You can catch Wilson in his new documentary series Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss... or you could watch him in The Office for the nth time, both on Peacock.
You can also see the full Club Random episode below.
WARNING: NSFW language
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads