Rainn Wilson was "mostly unhappy" for "several years" while filming 'The Office'.
Rainn Wilson was 'mostly unhappy' for 'several years' while filming The Office
The 57-year-old actor is best known for portraying Dwight Schrute in the NBC sitcom, but admitted he was constantly thinking he should be a movie star during his time on the programme.
Speaking to Bill Maher on his podcast 'Club Random', Rainn said: "When I was in 'The Office', I spent several years really mostly unhappy because it wasn’t enough.
"I’m realising 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?' "
Rainn - who played Dwight from 2005 to 2013 - felt he was "never enough", but admits feeling like that has "helped us as a species".
He added: "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."
In November, Rainn told how he was "changing his name" to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson on social media as part of his role as an Arctic Basecamp board member, in a bid to raise awareness about the risks of the melting Arctic.
He said: "With the help of my scientist friends at Arctic Basecamp, I've changed my name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson.
"This is not a joke, I'm as serious as the melting Arctic, which amplifies global risks including extreme weather events around the globe.
"I'm hoping this name change brings attention to this growing... er, melting issue. We need world leaders at COP27 to take notice and take action.
"The Arctic is melting at millions of litres per second, yet this problem can't seem to make a name for itself, so it's up to us to make a name for it."
Urging his fans to follow his example, he asked people to use their generator to "create a name that will bring attention to this problem".
He continued: "Then - and this is the important part - change your social media profile or display name to match your new ArcticRisk name.
"And if enough of us do this, then maybe COP27 will be where our world leaders sit up and notice Arctic risks and introduce a solution."
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