Well, if that don’t beet all.
Dwight Schrute was the endlessly quotable, scene-stealing, beet-farming weirdo in “The Office,” but it turns out that the character brought more enjoyment to audiences than to the actor who played him.
“When I was in ‘The Office,’ I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough,” Rainn Wilson, 57, said on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, according to an early transcript from the interview.
Wilson starred as Dwight for all nine seasons of the hit NBC workplace comedy, earning three Emmy nominations along the way (for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy) — no small feat considering the show was almost cancelled early on in its estimable run.
Despite the success, according to Wilson, he was left feeling unfulfilled.
“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 said.
“I’m on a hit show, Emmy nominated every year, making lots of money working with, like, Steve Carell and Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski and these amazing writers and incredible directors like Paul Feig,” he said.
“I’m on one of the great TV shows. People love it. I wasn’t enjoying it.”
His reasons for his unhappiness were because he still wasn’t a huge star, he said.
“I was thinking about, ‘Why am I not a movie star? Why am I not the next Jack Black or the next Will Ferrell?’ ” he added. ” ‘How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’ “
Wilson has had a steady career since “The Office” ended in 2013, appearing in shows such as “Mom,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” and in movies such as “The Meg,” starring Jason Statham.
But his star vehicles, such as the 2008 movie “The Rocker” (where he played a failed musician touring with his nephew’s band) and his 2010 superhero movie “Super” — helmed by James Gunn and co-starring Elliot Page and Liv Tyler, were not huge hits.
To deal with this feeling of disillusionment, he took a deep dive into “spirituality.” His latest book is “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.”
Wilson is currently a follower of the Bahá’í faith, a deistic religion founded in 19th-century Iraq that also counts Penn Badgley among its celeb adherents.
Wilson has previously stated that his interest in this topic “freaks people out.”
“I think that most of Hollywood, especially comedians in Hollywood, talking about God is the uncoolest thing you can ever possibly do,” he said on another podcast appearance.
Meanwhile, yet another “The Office” reboot is in the works in Australia, starring a woman in the Michael Scott role.
