Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: Bill Maher, Club Random, nbc, peacock, rainn wilson, the office

The Office: Rainn Wilson Spent Years "Mostly Unhappy;" Revival Pitch

Rainn Wilson wonders what could have been had he exited The Office sooner to pursue a movie career and shares his series revival pitch.

It's hard to imagine NBC's The Office without an anchor like Rainn Wilson's Dwight Schrute, a salesman and the assistant to the regional manager at the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, creating some of the best comedy with Steve Carell, who plays his boss Michael Scott, and John Krasinski, who played his rival Jim Halpert. While Wilson and Krasinki, along with co-stars Jenna Fischer (Pam), Leslie David Baker (Stanley), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin), and Angela Kinsey (Angela), stayed through all 188 episodes (that doesn't include the webisodes) on NBC, Carell left near the end of season seven to pursue bigger opportunities, namely a film career. It's the kind of move Wilson admittedly wanted for himself, revealing to Bill Maher in Maher's podcast Club Random that he was unhappy on the hit series for several years.

"When I was in 'The Office,' I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn't enough," Wilson said. "I'm realizing now, like, 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. 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?'"

Wilson reprised his role in a webisode of The Office: Accountants in 2006. "When I was on 'The Office,' I was clutching and grasping at, okay, I was making hundreds of thousands," he continued. "I wanted millions, and 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." Since revivals are a thing, the actor pitched a golden opportunity to revisit the series post-pandemic. "I think it would be: [Dwight] gets the call from corporate to get everyone back in the office, and everyone is resistant," Wilson said on The Drew Barrymore Show. "So, one at a time, Dwight has to kidnap every 'Office' cast member and bring them into Dunder Mifflin in some kind of obscure and somewhat inappropriate way." Prior to The Office, which premiered in 2005, Wilson made regular appearances in films like Galaxy Quest (1999), Almost Famous (2000), and Sahara (2005), with TV appearances like Charmed, CSI, and Dark Angel. For more, you can check out the interview below. The series is currently available to stream on Peacock.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!