Rainn Wilson on His Early Career and How He Still Has to Audition

“I’m pretty well known, but I still have to audition. I still audition and not get roles, stuff like that. People have this conception that since I played Dwight I’m getting offered endless roles, but it’s a little tougher than that.” – Rainn Wilson

One of the many fun things about cult films is that they often include actors who later become much bigger names. One example is The Office star Rainn Wilson, who made his big-screen debut in the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest. In celebration of the film’s twentieth anniversary, Wilson spoke to Screen Rant about how Galaxy Quest affected his career and how, in some ways, he still has to work to get cast.

Though Galaxy Quest was a minor hit at the box office, Wilson confesses that the film didn’t initially led to much success for him. He says:

“I don’t think it opened any doors for me, but I do think that, after struggling a long time in New York City, I came out to L.A., and I almost immediately booked a small part in Galaxy Quest, which was actually originally supposed to be larger. It was supposed to be through the entirety of the shoot, but I also had booked a pilot on NBC called The Expendables (no relation to the Sylvester Stallone film series), and I also booked a small part in Almost Famous, which was another DreamWorks film shooting that same summer. I was in both Galaxy Quest and Almost Famous, both DreamWorks films, shooting in the summer of ’99. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got it made! I’m gonna work non-stop! I just did a pilot and these two movies, this is amazing!’ And I promptly didn’t work again for a year. The next film I did was House of 1000 Corpses, and then I got a guest star on Charmed, playing a demon alchemist. So it wasn’t a sky rocket to the top after doing these two movies.”

With that said, Wilson reveals that even after starring on a popular comedy series, he still faces challenges as an actor. He explains, “I never really had to say ‘no’ to that many roles. There are a couple of roles I said ‘no’ to that I found too, kind of like, gross, that I just didn’t want to participate in, or the writing was just too bad. I haven’t really had to deal with that. Even now, I’m pretty well known, but I still have to audition. I still audition and not get roles, stuff like that. People have this conception that since I played Dwight I’m getting offered endless roles, but it’s a little tougher than that.”