Rainn Wilson opened up about his experience filming beloved sitcom “The Office” during an appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast that debuted on Sunday, revealing that he struggled with feeling his career was stalling despite being on a juggernaut hit TV show.
“When I was in ‘The Office,’ I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough,” Wilson told Maher. “I was making hundreds of thousands. I wanted millions, and I was a TV star, but I wanted to be a movie star. It was never enough.”
Wilson expressed that he’s now fully aware of how fortunate he was to work on “The Office”, but ultimately, at the time, the actor longed for bigger and better things.
“This is what I’m looking at now and realizing now: I’m on a hit show, Emmy nominated every year, making lots of money working with, like, Steve Carell and Jenna Fisher and John Krasinski and these amazing writers and incredible directors like Paul Feig,” he said. “I’m on one of the great TV shows. People love it. I wasn’t enjoying it.”
“I was thinking about, ‘Why am I not a movie star? Why am I not the next Jack Black or the next Will Ferrell?’” he continued. “How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’”
Maher commended his honesty and commiserated, adding “That’s so what everybody, to a degree, in show business is. Everybody who’s not at the absolute tippity-toppity-top of that tall ladder called stardom.”
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Wilson appeared on “Club Random” to discuss his new book “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution,” which landed on shelves in April.
The actor was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Dwight Schrute in “The Office,” appearing in 188 episodes over nine seasons. See what he had to say about his journey through the role (around the 38-minute mark), and the rest of their wide-ranging conversation, from getting high and seeing the face of god to debating the ending of “Succession,” in the video below.