Rainn Wilson of "The Office"

Wilson has a hit TV show, his first leading role in a movie and a home near beautiful canyons. So why's he mad?

By Jeffrey Ressner

It's a sunny day in downtown Los Angeles, with Rainn on the horizon. That's no misprint. We're talking about Rainn Wilson, the character actor with the funny name (blame his "alterna-hippie" parents) who plays fascist numskull Dwight Schrute on NBC's hit series "The Office." Later this month, he stars in "The Rocker," a big-screen comedy that could do for him what "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" did for his overbearing TV boss, Steve Carell.

Beaming a broad smile, Wilson bounds into a posh restaurant tucked within the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The gleaming, postmodern structure that's home to the city's philharmonic orchestra is a stark contrast to the grungy nightclubs seen in "The Rocker." In the film, Wilson plays an ex-heavy metal drummer who gets another shot at living his dream when he joins his nephew's garage band. Think "Uncle Buck" meets "Spinal Tap."

Wilson, 42, is thrilled to discuss his first leading role, his own musical tastes (all rock: metal, punk, oldies), his rags-to-riches career (struggling in New York, succeeding big in L.A.), even his religion (he's Bahai, a little-known faith that began in 19th-century Persia and stresses unity, equality and tolerance). But at the moment, for some odd reason, he's preoccupied with smacking down a few pesky fruit flies swirling around the table. I shoo them away with my backhand; Wilson knocks them dead.

So, no peace or justice for God's tiniest creatures? Thou shalt not kill ...

"Except for flies hovering in front of my eyesight," he says, as he smites yet another insect.

Hmmm.

OK, so is Wilson really an oddball, or is it just an act? Before the interview, a journalist pal tells me that Wilson is "a happy quote machine" who sticks to his wry onscreen persona but who harbors well-buried rage about his not-so-distant crappy life auditioning on Broadway.

The subject pleads guilty as charged. "I'm very bitter, mostly because I wanted to be an actor and an artist," Wilson says. "I knew there'd be tough times along the way; that goes with the territory. There's an illusion that if you audition and you're the best person for the role, you'll get cast. But it doesn't work that way."

He says he lived a hand-to-mouth existence for a while, working lowly jobs at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and a marketing firm. He even drove a moving van so he could devote more time to auditions. For two years, he did bus-and-truck Shakespeare tours across the country. But he never broke through. "Bottom line: Actors who got good parts in New York theater came from TV and film," he says, building up a head of steam. "There was no way I was going to play Mercutio at the Public Theater unless I came off a sitcom or a movie."

In New York, he lived in squalor at an abandoned brewery, hopping a back-lot fence to gain entry. Things are better now, to put it mildly. Wilson's current home, about an hour outside L.A., is near some romantic horse-riding trails. And there's a second place in Oregon. When he's not working, Wilson hangs out with his wife, fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn, and their young son, deliberately given the simple but alliterative name Walter Wilson. As a "clean-living" Bahai member, the actor doesn't drink, smoke or use drugs. Nevertheless, he can go nuts with the best of Hollywood's hell-raisers. He fesses up to the occasional bouts of road rage and pounds away fiercely on his Xbox 360.

He almost didn't score "The Rocker" gig, either. The script had been floating around at Fox for months, with seemingly every boldface-named comic actor mentioned for the lead. But just when his casting seemed hopeless, producer Tom McNulty showed a top studio executive a wild clip of Wilson rocking out on "The Office" -- and the deal was sealed.

He may have endured some hard knocks, but now Wilson's dance card is full for the foreseeable future. There's a bit role in the "Transformers" sequel, a voice-over for DreamWorks' animated "Monsters vs. Aliens," along with a bunch of comedies he's creating, including one about a down-and-out ninja. Then, of course, there will be at least "a few more years" at "The Office." But what he really wants to do is head back to Broadway and command the stage in a gloomy Eugene O'Neill drama. That would show all those jerks who wouldn't give him a shot.

Now, if he could only rid the world of those horrible little fruit flies.

Jeffrey Ressner talks about his interview with Wilson at blogs.usaweekend.com.