Rainn Wilson was “mostly unhappy” while making ‘The Office’

The Office star Rainn Wilson has revealed that he was “mostly unhappy” while filming for the iconic sitcom.

Wilson played Dwight in the US remake of Ricky Gervais‘ workplace comedy, appearing in all nine seasons of the show from 2005-2013.

In a new interview on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Wilson revealed that he was worried about his career prospects during his time on the show, despite its overwhelming popularity.

“When I was in The Office, I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough,” Wilson told Maher.

“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 added: “This is what I’m looking at now and realising now: I’m on a hit show, Emmy nominated every year, making lots of money working with, like, Steve Carell and Jenna Fisher 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?’” he continued. “How come I can’t have a movie career? Why don’t I have this development deal?’”

In an interview from 2022, Wilson said he wanted to be remembered for a different role from his career aside from playing Dwight.

“Listen, obviously most people know me from The Office, and they always will, and that’ll be on my tombstone,” Wilson told Collider. “My epitaph will be, ‘The guy who played Dwight.’ But I did dozens and dozens of roles before I played Dwight. I’ve played dozens of roles after Dwight.”

He added: “I would say my favourite role, or one I would love to be remembered for, is the movie Super by James Gunn. It was, again, super low budget. We shot that super quick in Shreveport, scenic Shreveport, Louisiana. But I think the combination of humour, darkness, tragedy, insane imagination, my brain gets touched by the finger of God. I think it’s an extraordinary work, and I’m really proud to have been a part of it.”