Rainn Wilson has admitted his “ego” was hurt after failing to make it as a massive movie star following The Office.
Rainn Wilson has admitted not becoming a movie star after The Office hurt his “ego”.
The 60-year-old actor, who Dwight Schrute on the beloved comedy, has reflected on his career after the show, which included roles in the likes of The Rocker, The Meg and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
He told The Small Bow podcast: “I’ve been able to play a lot of really cool roles, mostly independent films, but I did not become a movie star.
“And it was very hard on my ego, and it hurt and stung for a long time. All I wanted was Hollywood’s approval, and here I was.
“I was the weird guy from The Office. That’s kind of how Hollywood works.”
Rainn appeared in the office from 2005 to 2013, and during that time he was hoping to emulate the careers of the likes of Will Ferrell and Jack Black.
The Rocker came out in 2008, but he described the project as “a big box office bomb” that “no one saw”.
He added: “It was brutal. And then there was the immediate Hollywood just kind of like, ‘All right, he’s not a movie star’.
“And that’s just how the business works. People that star in big movies that bomb, they don’t get other chances.”
However, Rainn admitted if the film had catapulted him to another level, he might not have “handled” the fame especially well.
He said: “But in a way, I’m grateful because what if it had been a big success?
“If The Rocker had made $50 million or $100 million, and then I was a movie star at that point in time, I could not have handled that.
“I probably would have lost my marriage. My family would have fallen apart.”
Rainn previously opened up about how he spent a long time unhappy on The Office despite being nominated for Emmy Awards and working alongside a stellar cast with “amazing writers and incredibly directors”.
He told Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast in 2023: “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?’
“When I was on The Office … I was 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.”
The Office star Rainn Wilson admits movie flops ‘stunt for a long time’
