Rainn Wilson

speaker

3,063 appearances 12 recordings 7 series first heard Jul 2024 last heard 7 Jul

Rainn Wilson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.

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Know Thyself · E131 - Rainn Wilson: Comedy, God & Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution · 21 Jan 2025 podcast

I wanted to fit in, you know, more than anything else. I didn't even want to be popular. I just so didn't fit in. I really felt like I was an alien plopped down in human form trying to understand kind of normal human interaction. And it took me a long time to get out of that.

But I remember my very first acting class, I was a junior in high school and I had just moved to this new high school and we did this exercise together. And I made everybody laugh. I was kind of the new kid at the school. And then I sat down afterwards, and all of these young, attractive high school girls that I hadn't met before came over and, like, patted me on the shoulder and punched me.

Like, that was so funny. Oh, my gosh, you're new here? Like, come sit at our lunch table. And, oh, my God, you made me laugh. Oh, he's funny. And... And when you're 16, I felt this glow and I was like, that's it, this is what I'm doing. I had been a colossal nerd before that point. I had a chess team and played the bassoon and- Yeah, you didn't tell me you were on the chess team.

Okay, all right, we'll get into it. But I was never very good on the chess team, and that was a long time ago. But yep, chess, Model United Nations, Computer Club, ceramics club, you name it, every nerdy pursuit you could do. But once I got that kind of validation for making people laugh, I was like, that's it. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm gone. I'm, you know, I'm a drama nerd now.

You know, come hell or high water. And my path was set at that point. So that's, that's how it works.

I... speak about this a little bit in Soul Boom and also in The Bassoon King. When I got out of acting school, I was 23, 24, 25 years old, trying to make it as an actor. You know, really broke, barely getting by. And I became very unmoored in a lot of ways. There were certainly a lot of hedonistic pursuits going on.

I grew up a member of the Baha'i faith, like you mentioned, which I'm incredibly grateful for. And I learned and was kind of educated in so many beautiful true, wise teachings that I think foundationally stayed with me and ultimately really helped me. But I needed to rebel. I needed to leave that world of my parents behind and go to New York City and make my own way.

I wanted to be an artist in New York City, and I didn't want anything to impede that. So what I encountered, when I look back at it now, was a real severe mental health crisis. And I was in my early mid-20s. And in the 90s, people were not talking about mental health crisis. There were no books on mental health crises.

The word anxiety was not in the lexicon other than, you know, it was something you felt if, you know, you were afraid you were going to be late for a movie. You know, there wasn't... It wasn't an idea kind of entrenched that, you know, there's an epidemic of loneliness and anxiety and depression and addiction. So I started facing those demons without any help, without any money.

There was no therapy available. You know, therapy was outrageously expensive. No one I knew was in therapy or had ever been in therapy. And so what do you do?

when you're desperately unhappy, unmoored, off track, having anxiety attacks, feeling depressed sometimes for weeks on end, questioning everything, like why am I alive, why am I here, dealing with addiction issues, drugs, alcohol, sex, porn, whatever, you name it, whatever's there. And, You know, what do you do?

So the only thing that I knew to do was to start exploring spirituality and a spiritual path. And Julia Cameron, in the artist's way, not in the artist's way, but in an interview, said, I come to spirituality not out of virtue, but out of necessity. And that's what forced me to turn toward a spiritual path was seeking a balm for the amount of anguish that I was in as a young man.

And I won't say that I was lost and now I can see. I won't say that I was like immediately saved. It wasn't immediately, it didn't bring immediate clarity and peace or serenity or anything like that for me. It has been a long process, a long unfolding process, but it has been the richest, most rewarding process I've ever experienced.

And I'm now, again, like The Office, looking back on it, I'm so grateful. And isn't that interesting? how oftentimes the times in our lives we go through the greatest anguish, you get out a few years, especially five, 10, 15, 20 years, look back on it and go, oh my gosh, I'm so grateful I went through that. I'm so grateful.

If I hadn't, I wouldn't have found kind of the rich, rewarding path of spiritual discovery.

Well, yeah, that's an interesting question. You know, I'm much more balanced right now, but it's a different set of challenges at 58. You know, it's kind of like What should I be doing? What is my life really about? Am I on the best possible path for myself? A bit more existential? It's a little more existential. You have a little bit more of a sense of the end zone is up here.

It's only 20 or 30 yards away. It's not way down there. and every year every clump of years certainly every decade really counts when you're hitting your late 50s and headed toward dear god my 60s so it's a different kind of spiritual crisis so maybe when i'm 87 i'll look back and be like Oh, remember when you went through that, what you went through in your late 50s and how rewarding that was.

And I'm sure there will be some of that. I'm sure there will.

Well, I still have a codependent relationship with show business, which is frustrating. Show business is just a giant popularity contest. I've gotten to play amazing roles since The Office. I've gotten to be in some incredible films and TV shows. And I did this travel show on happiness called Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss that came out last year. I saw that. Yeah, and it was...

really rewarding, one of the most rewarding things that I've done. But it's hard making it in Hollywood and it's hard, you know, getting new projects and exciting projects and having people see you differently than Dwight Schrute has always been a challenge. So I still have that kind of iron in the fire.

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