Rainn Wilson, former son of Wilmette and security guard at the Baha’i House of Worship on Sheridan Road, New Trier High School graduate, best known as Dwight Schrute on “The Office,” can bet what you’re thinking. He can see the eye rolls from California. He begins his new book expecting some skepticism: Why, in the name of Scranton, should you read a book by Rainn Wilson on the importance of spirituality in contemporary life?
As celebrity left turns go, it’s not Bruce Willis playing harmonica, or Gal Gadot trying to raise the spirits of mankind by singing “Imagine” on YouTube. But it does stop one short.
As does this:
By the time you’ve finished reading “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution,” Wilson sheds all hesitations and proposes nothing less than the fundamentals of a new faith.
As far as I know, not even James Franco planted the roots of an entire religion.
That’s not to suggest Wilson is a dabbler on the topic of spirituality. “Soul Boom” is his second book on the subject, after “SoulPancake,” which is the name of his website created 15 years ago “to encourage open-hearted dialogue about what it means to be human.” Plus, he co-hosts “Metaphysical Milkshake,” a podcast with scholar Reza Aslan, on the meaning of life. As a teenager, he moved to Wilmette from Seattle because his parents took jobs at the Baha’i Temple. They lived in a small apartment across from the Linden “L” stop. At New Trier, Wilson got serious about acting, and left the Baha’i faith — which espouses global unity, goodness and equality of mankind — and began playing intense, caustic character parts, in “Almost Famous,” “Juno,” HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and James Gunn’s superhero parody “Super.”
But Wilson will be Dwight Schrute forever, Pennsylvania beet farmer, paper salesman, black belt, weapons nut, bear expert, workplace supervillain. This weekend, he appears at “The Reunion,” an “Office” fan convention on Navy Pier. But mainly, he’s in town to discuss spirituality at the Chicago Humanities Festival. We spoke from his home in Los Angeles. The following is a shorter version of a longer conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Q: Let’s start out light: Rainn Wilson, what is the best religion?
A: Well, uh … Actually, I have given a lot of thought to the very best religion! One of the chapters of this new book is called “Hey Kids, Let’s Build the Perfect Religion!” That would be Soul Boom, which is like a greatest hits of all the world’s faiths — all the stuff we like about religion while discarding what we don’t like. All in one brand-new 2023 faith. But look, I do have to keep it real and represent: I am a member of the Baha’i faith. To me, is it the very best religion? It is perhaps the most forward-looking religion.
Q: Do you think of Soul Boom as a real faith? Or just hypothetical?
A: One hundred percent hypothetical. I have zero followers. But after this article …
Q: I may be your John or Peter.
A: We will need apostles.
Q: That name, though, Soul Boom — and the name of your website SoulPancake — seems to suggest a dissatisfaction with how people regard spirituality.
A: Spirituality is a tricky word. It means different things to different people. For some, it means ghosts. For others, church on Sunday. Or yoga class. To me it is the nonmaterial stuff of what it means to be a human being: hearts, souls, feelings. Then there are the higher qualities of the divine we seek to emulate: kindness, love, compassion. These topics are crucial but we’re not talking about them. With reason: So many, especially young people, have rejected anything to do with religion. Which I get. To a large part, I even agree. But foundational ideas underlying many faiths are crucial to what it means to be a human. We need those meaningful conversations. This is not an airy, fairy, hippy-dippy thing. This is dealing with, for one, the mental health epidemic going on among young people. Or dealing with our many broken systems, which seem to be breaking now to even greater degrees — systems in need a spiritual reinvigoration.
Q: You grew up in the 1970s, as did I, when a lot of cultural touchstones were considered transcendent or spiritual — yoga, astrology, pyramids. How much of how you think about spirituality now is informed by having grown up back then?
A: You’ve hit on something important. When I was growing up, people did still go on spiritual journeys. The Beatles met with the Maharishi. Cat Stevens became a Muslim. People were creating and moving into communes and looking for truth. They were exploring new spiritual paths. There was an active sense of deep curiosity about faiths.
Q: An openness to them.
A: Exactly. But let’s not forget that people actually talked then about world peace as possible. Politicians and thinkers talked about it, and were not thought naive and idiotic. But if you want to have a conversation about world peace, you need a foundation upon which that is possible. Meaning, a spiritual transformation of the systems propelling us.
Q: For the religion constructed in the book, you suggest a firm set of principles. One of which is the necessity of building a mythology. Why is that necessary?
A: Actually, what I write is the need to create a new mythology for humanity. The old mythology is that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, us-versus-them — that we’re warlike. Power dynamics underline our dominant mythology. We need to envision a new mythology to move forward. Because we have also had diverse groups come together to build beautiful societies. We have lived in harmony with nature. We have those capabilities and if we only believe humanity is a bunch of apes seeking power and beating each other down, then we’ll never move forward. We need to tell this other story of humanity.
Q: You also note the necessity of judgment — a sense of right and wrong.
A: One of my universal tenants of all religions is morality, a higher sense of right and wrong. It is something to consider. Right now, morality has turned into contemporary ethics, yet there are universal spiritual laws underlining every person on this planet.
Q: But do we need organized religion for that? What’s wrong with just holding a set of personal beliefs and living up to them?
A: You don’t need organized religion. But you do need to understand certain spiritual pillars, I think. Ancient faiths, wisdoms, traditions are often very relevant to all this. They hold universal elements that apply to atheists, agnostics, Christians, Buddhists, Baha’i.
Q: You came to Wilmette in the first place because of the Baha’i Temple there. Did your fellow students at New Trier know you were Baha’i? What did they think?
A: Some knew, and they would often be like, Cool! I’ve driven by that temple! Which is a funny thing about Chicago. I couldn’t guess the number of Chicagoans who have driven by that building and said it’s so beautiful and yet they have never stopped and looked inside or found out what Baha’i is about. People either have inherited the faith of their family or maybe they are just not searching. Not to say people should be Baha’i — that’s not what I mean. But we should explore the incredible wisdom heritage that humanity has created from the earliest written works. There are Vedas and Upanishads (ancient Sanskrit texts originating in India) that predate Hinduism and could benefit us even now.
Q: When you worked there as a security guard, people never wandered in?
A: A handful. But I would rarely meet people who said they had been there and explored what the place was about. I was more likely to find people who have lived their entire lives in the North Shore without ever once stopping to find out about that building.
Q: Were you a spiritually-minded teenager?
A: I struggled as a teenager. I didn’t want morality in my life. I wanted to have sex with my girlfriend and not feel any guilt about it. I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. All religions have some form of morality baked in. I did love the faith and the message of peace and unity and the beautiful poetry and mythology of it. But I left the faith hardcore in my 20s, when I moved to New York City, and I think my life process has been about coming back into the faith and exploring these questions ever since.
Q: Baha’i thinks of the arts as a part of worship. Is that how you see acting?
A: Well, I do believe there is no difference between the creating of art and the creating of prayer. Art and devotion are synonymous. Both are transcendent acts that seek to serve others and bring people together. They both contain the same inherent motive.
Q: Are there many Baha’i actors and performers?
A: We have a mini Baha’i mafia. Off the top of my head: Justin Baldoni (“Jane the Virgin”). Penn Badgley (“Gossip Girl”). Historically: Dizzy Gillespie, also Seals & Crofts.
Q: Did you think about the role of spirituality in “The Office?”
A: It was not in my mind while I was on the show. But I would reference occasionally the Grant Study, from Harvard. It was an 80-year study about happiness (using 268 male sophomores as subjects, who were then tracked over the course of their lives). The eventual lesson was that life is all about connection and the people we connect with. It’s what brings us well-being. E.M. Forster has a famous quote: “Only connect … Live in fragments no longer.” That’s ultimately why I think “The Office” has been so lasting and meaningful. It’s about connection, which we long for. We need to see people failing to connect and trying to connect and finally connecting. That was the heart of the show. So, yes, it was spiritual.
Q: Do you distance yourself now from Dwight?
A: Not at all. It was the greatest character I will ever play.
Q: You have range: You played Dr. Demento in the Weird Al biopic, you’ve acted at Steppenwolf. Yet Mark Hamill is always Luke Skywalker. You’re always Dwight.
A: Right. One of my heroes, and a good friend, is Bryan Cranston, and he will always be Walter White. But he played dozens of amazing roles before and after Walter White. It’s OK. That’s how this works, baby. If you hit the jackpot and play a memorable roles that connects culturally, you are the luckiest actor. I will continue to play different roles, and I will continue to ask questions and write about spiritual transformation. But on my gravestone, at the end of the day, it will say: Rainn Wilson, that guy who played Dwight.
Q: I mean, as Dwight, you come up constantly in my social media feeds.
A: I hear this often.
Q: Don’t you ever get sick of seeing yourself playing Dwight?
A: Well, it’s not a very pleasant face! For that, I blame my parents.
