“Why am I not the next Jack Black or Will Ferrell?” The Office Star Wanted Millions, Regrets Not Making it Big as a Movie Star
The Office, an NBC sitcom that ran from 2005 to 2013, continues to be considered one of the most well-liked and lucrative sitcoms in sitcom history. A mockumentary sitcom series based on the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s employees, the show was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
It is astonishing to learn that the show’s initial reception from critics and viewers was mixed, but as the seasons went on, Steve Carell’s performance gained recognition, and the cast soon followed. But recently, one of the show’s actors revealed how difficult it was for him to perform while filming.
Rainn Wilson opens up about being ‘unhappy’ while filming The Office
Actor Rainn Wilson, famously known for his character of Dwight Schrute from NBC’s sitcom The Office, recently spoke to Bill Maher while appearing on his podcast Club Random about his time on the show.
Wilson said “When I was in ‘The Office,’ I spent several years mostly really unhappy because it wasn’t enough. 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.”
The actor continued to share that he knows that people love it but he 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? How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’”, he noted.
The Emmy-nominated actor pointed out that when he was on the show, he was clutching and grasping at the fact that he was making hundreds of thousands but he wanted millions, adding that he was a TV star who wanted to be a movie star. Wilson lastly added, “It was never enough. Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and ‘never enough’ has helped us as a species.”
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Rainn Wilson had ideas for The Office if filmed during the pandemic
Earlier this year, the actor appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show where he expressed his desire to witness The Office during the pandemic, as he mentioned that he had ideas for how the successful sitcom could have mirrored real-world events.
Wilson shared with Barrymore,
“It would’ve been so much fun to film ‘The Office’ during the pandemic. If we had pandemic episodes, that would’ve been amazing. ‘The Office’ writers were so great — they would’ve been able to spin that in some beautiful ways.”
He continued,
“I think it would be: [Dwight] gets the call from corporate to get everyone back in the office and everyone is resistant. So, one at a time, Dwight has to kidnap every ‘Office’ cast member and bring them into Dunder Mifflin in some kind of obscure and somewhat inappropriate way.”
During the podcast with Bill Maher, Wilson acknowledged that he only signed up for the show because he wanted to buy a house, but now when he looks back at his journey and what the show has been, he feels very proud. “I wasn’t thinking about giving laughter as a therapeutic remedy and a balm and a salve to a hurting populace. What an honor it was to be a part of something like that.”
Read this: Marvel Star John Krasinski Reveals His “Favorite Part” in Final Season of Jack Ryan
Rainn Wilson on encouraging people to be honest and vulnerable
The actor who is currently promoting his book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution which debuted in April, shared during a conversation with Jenna Bush Hager at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado that he is open about his struggles and journey and now encourages people to do the same.
He said,
“As I’ve been on this book tour, people are like, ‘Wow, you’re just so open talking about your dysfunction and everything. I can’t believe how honest you are.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, yeah, isn’t that what we should do? Isn’t that what we can do as human beings? Can we just talk about our vulnerability and our struggle and stop pretending so much?”
Wilson asked a very interesting question during the discussion. If the younger generation won’t see the raw honesty of the older generation, how are they going to learn and heal? He noted that he is on a constant mission to both make himself a better person and to try and make the world a better place.
Source: TODAY
