Actor Rainn Wilson, best known for his role in the hit NBC comedy show “The Office” has claimed that talking about God as a Hollywood star “freaks people out.”
“I’ve been talking about [faith] in bite-sized pieces for a good 12 years,” the actor said. “Frankly, I think it freaks people out.”
“I think that most of Hollywood, especially comedic Hollywood, [think] talking about God is the un-coolest thing you could ever possibly do,” he continued, adding that “comedians will call themselves nerds … but it’s Hollywood, and it’s about who’s sitting at the cool kids’ lunch table.”
Touching on how his religious views may have impacted his career, Wilson noted that he hasn’t necessarily lost work owing to his Baha'i faith but that there is a “collective eye roll about it.”
“It certainly doesn’t help my career. I’m not doing any of this for any self-promotion or career,” he said.
“I do it out of passion, but I may have taken a hit for it, but that’s OK. Fortunately, I was on a great TV show. I got a lot of money in the bank. I’m doing just fine. It might be different if I was still struggling. I might have really re-thought it,” he continued. “If I’m a middle-class actor talking about God and trying to do comedy, it’s not going to help me.”
Journey to God
Wilson previously told the ”Today“ show with Jenna Bush Hager that he grew up as a member of the Baha’i faith but put religion aside in his 20s before returning to it again later on in life following a mental health crisis.The Baha'i faith is a religion founded in the 19th century and has become the second-most widespread religion in the world after Christianity.
Followers of Baha'i generally believe in the oneness of God and that all human beings are created equally, regardless of their race, gender, or nationality, and they strive to eliminate prejudice and racism.
“I grew up in a family that read the Buddha at the dinner table and when born-again Christians would knock on the door on Sunday, we’d invite them in and cook them pancakes and talk about the Book of Revelation with them,” he said.
Wilson shot to fame as the character Dwight Schrute in The Office, which aired on NBC from 2005 to 2013. He has also appeared in the TV shows “The Rookie” and “Utopia.”
Back in March, the actor called for better representation of Christianity in Hollywood shows, pointing to a character called David in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
The character, played by Scott Shepherd, was the leader of a group of cannibalistic survivors.
Chris Pratt on Christian Faith
“I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood. As soon as the David character in ‘The Last of Us’ started reading from the Bible I knew that he was going to be a horrific villain. Could there be a Bible-reading preacher on a show who is actually loving and kind?” Wilson wrote on Twitter at the time.Wilson is not the only actor to discuss how his religious beliefs have been viewed in Hollywood.
The actor previously faced calls from Marvel fans to be replaced as Star-Lord in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies when fellow Hollywood star and transgender person Ellen Page, now called Elliot Page, claimed that Pratt’s church, Hillsong Church, was “infamously anti-LGBTQ.”
He came under scrutiny again in 2020 when he did not attend a virtual Q&A held by several “Avengers” stars to raise money for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s campaign, which led some fans to believe he may be a supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Pratt has never spoken about his political beliefs but has reportedly donated to both Democratic and Republican parties in the past.
Quoting a biblical scripture, Pratt told Page Six of the backlash: “If I was of this world, they would love me just like that, but as it is, I’ve chosen out of this world. That’s John 15:18 through 20.”
“That’s the way it is, nothing new; 2,000 years ago, they hated him, too,” he said.
