‘The Office’ Star Reveals He Was ‘Mostly Unhappy’ While Making the Show

The Office may still be making people laugh a decade after the hit series concluded, but at least one of the series’ stars was “mostly unhappy” throughout filming. Rainn Wilson, who received three consecutive Emmy nominations for his portrayal of Dwight Schrute, revealed in a recent interview that despite the show’s wild success, he was left feeling unfulfilled.

Wilson made the confession in an interview with Bill Maher on Maher’s Club Random podcast. Reflecting on his time on The Office, the U.S. remake of the British sitcom created by Ricky Gervais, the actor revealed, “when I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough.” Wilson, 57, explained now he is “realizing 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.” However, despite all of that, Wilson said at the time of filing, he wasn’t “enjoying it,” as he was focused on the things he didn’t have at the time rather than the success of the show.

“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 recalled. “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 has since changed his perspective on The Office, telling Maher, who described the show as being “therapeutic,” that he “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.”

The Office aired 201 episodes between 2005 and 2013 and helped make trademark names out of many of the show’s stars. Wilson was nominated for three consecutive Emmys in 2007, 2008, and 2009 for his performance of Dwight. He has since gone on to appear in several movies, including Peep World, Cooties, The Boy, Smurfs: The Lost Village, The Meg, Blackbird, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. His TV credits include Backstrom, Star Trek: Discovery, Mom, Transparent, Utopia, and Dark Winds. He currently hosts Peacock’s Rain Wilson and the Geography Bliss. The Office can be streamed in full on Peacock.