Rainn Wilson has been on TV shows like Backstrom, Star Trek: Discovery, Mom, Transparent, Utopia, and Dark Winds. Last year, he also hosted Peacock’s Rainn Wilson and the Geography Bliss. In this show, he traveled to different cities worldwide in search of happiness.
But he’s best known for for playing Dwight Schrute in The Office for nine seasons. During this time, he received three Emmy nominations for his performance.
Before he became famous as Dwight Schrute, the 58-year-old faced difficult times. These struggles pushed him to look into religion, where he eventually found solace.
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Rainn Wilson Opens Up About Pre-The Office Struggles, Leading to Religious Awakening
Rainn Wilson talked with Variety‘s Angelique Jackson about his recent projects. These include writing his book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution and SoulPancake—a digital media company he co-founded.
SoulPancake wants to spark conversations about spirituality. It’s been operating for fifteen years. Wilson looked back on how it’s grown and what he wants for its future. He said:
“My journey tiptoeing into the world of spirituality in media really came from some mental health crises that I had undergone as a youth and some issues that I’d had where I found great solace and peace and meaning through spirituality. I felt like culturally we weren’t exploring them, and SoulPancake was really the first of its kind. It was a positive, uplifting media company for young people that explored the human condition.”
Wilson reflected on times when he was unhappy in his career, even while working on The Office. He felt this way despite thinking he should be enjoying himself.
The star said, “The way that we’re wired, it’s never enough. It’s always searching for that next thing.” He added that he was stuck on a cycle of always chasing more success, which made him realize he needed to break out of it.
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Why Rainn Wilson Hated Being on The Office?
Rainn Wilson played Dwight Schrute on The Office—a salesman at Dunder Mifflin. He worked hard to impress his boss Michael Scott and eventually became the regional manager. While Schrute got promoted, Wilson struggled to find similar success in movies.
In an interview with Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random (via Variety), the Weird star admitted he wasn’t happy during his time on The Office because of this. He said:
“When I was in ‘The Office,’ I spent several years really mostly 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. 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?’”
But finally, he found solace in spirituality and wrote his book with the same motive. When asked by Variety’s Jackson about his inspirations for writing Soul Boom, the Seattle native said it was his Bahá’í faith and his realization that society did not have the spiritual tools to ‘move forward’ with.
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The Office is available to watch on Peacock.
