Bears. Beats. Battlestar Galactica. B-list roles. The Office star Rainn Wilson – who played bespectacled, mustard shirt-wearing Dwight K. Schrute on the Emmy-winning series – admits he grew dissatisfied with his career while filming the NBC show, saying he wanted more out of his career.
Speaking on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Rainn Wilson remembered, “When I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough…I’m 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.” “Enough” for Rainn Wilson would have been to step out of his role on The Office to headline his own major movie.
During his tenure as Dunder Mifflin’s assistant (to the) regional manager on The Office, which aired from 2005 before concluding in 2013, Rainn Wilson did have a number of movie roles, but most were supporting turns that played off of his offbeat demeanor, forcing him to say crap like, “This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, Homeskillet.” Still, he did get two lead roles in 2008’s The Rocker and 2010’s Super…although they were hardly the hits he would have hoped for, as The Rocker lost money and Super took in under $500,000 in its limited run. That’s OK, we still love you in House of 1000 Corpses, Rainn!
Such duds could only hurt Rainn Wilson and prove as answers to his The Office-era questions, “‘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?’” In a sort of twist of the knife, both Black and Ferrell would turn up on The Office and excel in their roles: Black in a one-off character-within-a-movie and Ferrell as temporary branch manager Deangelo Vickers.
Why do you think Rainn Wilson was never all that successful on the big screen during or after his time on The Office? What is your favorite movie role of his? Let us know!