Rainn Wilson explained why he was filled with discontentment for many years during The Office.
Of course, Rainn played Dwight Schrute in the hit NBC show for eight years. Speaking to Bill Maher in a new podcast interview, Rainn said that he initially sought TV roles to pay off student loan debt and that he "didn't have aspirations for stardom."
While he signed up to do The Office largely looking to buy a house, his ethos changed for the worse during its success. “When I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough," he explained.
"This is what I’m looking at now, and I’m realizing now — 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. I’m on one of the great TV shows. People love it. And 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?" he said.
“When I was on The Office, I was clutching and grasping at [things like] making hundreds of thousands — I wanted millions. 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 [...] But [nowadays] this 'never enough' impulse is ripping us apart," Rainn continued, saying that working on his spirituality — especially taking lessons from Buddhism — ultimately helped him become more grateful for the present and let go of materialistic ambitions.
"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,” he also said, according to Outkick.
