Actor Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on The Office, said “fuck you” to actor-comedian Ricky Gervais for telling actors to shut up about politics.
Wilson delivered his thoughts about Gervais during an appearance on the Soul Boom podcast.
“One of the things that pisses me off to no end is Ricky Gervais saying, ‘Just take your actor award. No one wants to hear what you have to say.’ It’s like, Fuck you. Bullshit,” he said.
Wilson defended actors exercising their free speech.
“Everyone gets to say what they want to say about anything. Gaza, climate change, politics. You get to say it if you’re a truck driver or a school teacher. We have free speech,” he said. “Why would you try to shame and silence someone from speaking their truth?”
Despite his criticism of Gervais, Wilson could hardly be described as woke. In fact, just last month, he said that cancel culture would have likely kept The Office off the air.
I do feel like you couldn’t make The Office today,” Wilson told Fox News. “I think that would be too hard to be as politically incorrect as the show was. And I do, I do kind of miss that.”
While Wilson appreciated how the show poked fun at both his character and Steve Carell’s, he felt that would not be enough to assuage audiences on the more “inappropriate stuff.”
“We milked that for a lot of great, really inappropriate stuff,” Wilson said. “But even with the fact that painting that character as just an idiot, I don’t think you could get away with it today.”
The actor then pontificated on America’s political divisions, blaming it on a refusal by both Democrats and Republicans to regulate craziness on their own side. He called for a spiritual renewal for people to find commonalities.
“There’s not any topic that has more commonality and mutuality than spiritual ideas,” Wilson said. “The ideas around spirituality have kind of been weaponized in terms of the national discussion, but actually the two sides have more in common than you would think.”
“The partisan divide and toxic partisanship, and corruption in partisanship, is something that the American people are very passionate about,” Wilson later added. “The people want this fixed. There is an outcry from people. They want it fixed.”