Rainn Wilson Reveals He “Spent Several Years” on ‘The Office’ Feeling “Mostly Unhappy” in Candid New Interview 

The Office star Rainn Wilson was a fan favorite as the quirky Dwight Schrute, but the actor revealed that he wasn’t so happy playing the beet farmer and paper salesman.

While joining Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast yesterday (July 9), Wilson admitted that starring as one of the lead actors on an Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom never felt like “enough” for him.

“When I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough,” he said. “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 Fisher and John Krasinski and these amazing writers and incredible directors like Paul Feig.”

He continued, “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? How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’”

Wilson certainly tried his hand at film while starring on the show, appearing in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Juno and My Super Ex-Girlfriend. As he starred in films and his hit TV show, Wilson earned three Emmy Award nominations for his Office role, one of the most recognizable television characters in recent decades.

“When I was on The Office, I was clutching and grasping at, okay, 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,” he explained. “Humans have lived for hundreds of thousands of years, and ‘never enough’ has helped us as a species.”

The actor starred on all nine seasons of The Office as the power-hungry Dwight. He also directed a number of episodes.

Since the show ended in 2013, Wilson has continued his career in television acting, appearing in series such as Mom, Dark Winds and Solar Opposites. He also appeared in the Weird Al Yankovic biopic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.

Wilson also recently published a book, titled Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.