Rainn Wilson, actor: ‘Even though I was making a lot of money on a great show, I wanted more than that’

For all eight years of the American version of The Office (2005-2013), Rainn Wilson, 58, played the ambitious and empathy-lacking paper salesman and beet farmer, Dwight Schrute. In fact, he’s the only member of the cast who appears and has dialogue in all of the 188 episodes.

Dwight is a flamboyant guy who doesn’t like to smile, because “showing your teeth is a sign of submission in primates.” He owns many exotic pets, including a piranha (although he flushes it down the toilet) frogs, a wolf ― this one escapes ― a raccoon… and snakes. Wilson, on the other hand, loves to smile, as he demonstrates throughout his entire interview with EL PAÍS. However, if there’s anything similar to the character with whom he earned a place in the hearts of tens of millions of viewers, it’s in his taste for unusual pets.

“We have two Vietnamese pigs, a female peacock, two rescued pitbulls, two guinea pigs, a donkey and a zonkey (or a zebroid, a hybrid animal, the result of crossing a zebra and a donkey).” The zebroid’s name is Derek. “And my wife has two horses,” he adds, in a video call from his ranch in California, where he lives with his wife and his son (and all their interesting fauna).

Wilson doesn’t like to use the word “happy” to refer to his mood. He prefers to say that he feels “eudaimonic.”

“The Greeks used the word eudemonia, which describes human flourishing. [I find this to be a] much better goal than happiness. I’m flourishing! I try to connect with nature, with my family, with God, with my sense of purpose, with art… in that sense, I’m thriving,” he says.

But it wasn’t always like this. Despite having success, a wonderful family, a nice house and people tattooing his face (Dwight’s) on their bodies, the actor has dealt with depression several times, as explained in the introduction to Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss, a documentary series produced by AMC Networks, which premiered on Peacock in May of 2023. In the show, he explores five countries ― Iceland, Bulgaria, Ghana, Thailand and the United States ― seeking to understand and become infected with the happiest societies on the planet. “Everywhere I went, there were families, groups, tribes and people coming together to love and connect… it was really illuminating [to see] how universal that is,” he recalls.

In the five episodes, Wilson dives naked into a magma caldera ― alongside his The Meg co-star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson who, like him, has a terrible fate in the film ― and fights a 12-year-old kickboxer in the ring of a Thai gym, among other feats. But he also opens up about an unhappy childhood and a difficult adolescence. He reveals, for example, that his mother abandoned him when he was just two years old, as well as the fact that he had many shortcomings as a child.

“I think everyone suffered some kind of childhood trauma and the important thing is to accept it, learn from it, heal it and not be a victim to it,” he emphasizes. He also comments that spending his weekends playing Dungeons and Dragons and practicing the bassoon (he wanted the saxophone, but was discouraged from pursuing it) made him feel like “a weirdo” in his youth. “It’s been a long road, spanning many decades, towards self-discovery,” he acknowledges.

However, it was precisely playing one of the strangest creatures in The Office that made him reach peak popularity a decade ago. And that wasn’t enough for him, either. “There were times [while filming] The Office when I felt miserable. I wish I had enjoyed it more. Even though I was making a lot of money on a great show, having lots of opportunities [and] great friends, I felt a lot of the time like I just wanted more… it’s that kind of eternal human hunger to never be satisfied with what you have,” Wilson confesses. Despite his struggles, he was nominated for an Emmy and won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for that role.

Wilson always wanted to make the leap to the big screen, to be a movie star. He has appeared in films such as Sahara (2005), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), or Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). But, for most viewers today, he’s still Dwight. “Not only did he (Dwight) make people laugh — which was our goal — but he brought healing, connection and deep meaning to many. And that’s what’s really surprised me: how important a role the show has played in people’s lives. I’m really grateful for that,” Wilson smiles.

This past January, he shared a photo on Instagram, of a message on a napkin that a stewardess left him during a flight. “The Office got me through some of the darkest days of my life. I can’t thank you enough for that,” the note read.

Beyond his predilection for exotic animals (when he was little he lived in Nicaragua and had a parrot and a sloth) Wilson feels that this iconic character — who still stars in some of the most famous memes on social media — has little to do with him. “I would say I’m pretty nerdy, like Dwight. I can be obsessive, like Dwight. And I can be socially awkward, like Dwight… but that’s where I would draw the line,” he laughs.

This coming April, Steve Carell — best-known for playing Michael Scott, Dwight’s boss in the series — will debut in a comedy on Broadway. Wilson doesn’t plan on missing it. “I’m going to go see his work in New York. I also talked to Jenna [Fischer, who plays Pam] the other day. I text everyone all the time. They’re dear family to me,” he says, referring to the colleagues he shared a fake office with for eight years. Still, he wouldn’t want to do another season. “I did it for a decade. Now, I’m trying to develop other projects.”

Among these new projects is his participation in the Apple TV+ series Lessons in Chemistry, starring Brie Larson; his role in the film Ezra, starring Robert De Niro (it premieres at the end of May); or his work on the film Code 3, an action comedy film which still doesn’t have a release date. Wilson has also just published a book: Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.

“Spirituality connects us with the mystery of being a human being. The mystery of nature, the search for the transcendent. It gives us community and a greater, higher love. And I think this is one of the things that humanity needs most right now,” Wilson argues, in response to the title of the book.

The actor was raised in the Baha’i faith, which believes in the equality of humanity and blessings through one God. This is demonstrated by the tattoo of a nine-pointed star that he sports on his left wrist, a symbol of the faith. As a young adult — after becoming “intimately familiar” with drugs and alcohol and struggling with big questions — he returned to the fold, as he explains in his autobiography The Bassoon King (2015).

Before turning to acting, Wilson was an insurance salesman, a dog walker and a cookie baker. He later became fiction’s most obnoxiously beloved paper salesman and beet farmer. And the fact is that, today, he’s happy… or, rather, eudaimonic. “I’ve found purpose and satisfaction in connection. That’s what I’ve found,” he reaffirms, smiling and calm.

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