‘The Office’ Star Rainn Wilson Accuses Hollywood of ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ With Its Cannibal Pastor in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’
The actor says HBO’s wildly popular post-apocalyptic television series is the latest example of Hollywood’s antipathy toward members of the Christian faith.
“The Office” star Rainn Wilson said on Saturday that an episode of “The Last of Us” — HBO’s wildly popular post-apocalyptic television series — is the latest example of Hollywood’s antipathy toward members of the Christian faith.
The series centers around the characters Ellie and Joel — the former a teenage girl who is immune to a world-ending fungus, and the latter a bereaved father traveling West with her from Boston. In the episode in question, Ellie is taken captive by a Christian pastor named David, played by Scott Shepherd, who is secretly feeding human flesh to his followers and later tries to rape Ellie after she learns his secret.
“I do think there is an anti-Christian bias in Hollywood,” Mr. Wilson wrote on Twitter. “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?”
Mr. Wilson himself is not a practicing Christian. For years, he and his family have been members of the Baha’i Faith, which he described as “an overarching worldview” on the necessity of spirituality and belief in God, drawing on teaching from both eastern and western religions.
On Monday, he took to Twitter once again, but this time to criticize conservative outlets like Fox News for using his words to “create division solely for profit,” but added that his original statement still stands.
“Most Christians that I know are kind, accepting and loving and seeking to make the world a better place. They should also be honored in the media,” he wrote.
Conservatives have long criticized Hollywood for portraying Christians as “backwards” or “bigoted,” but it is notable that this comes from Mr. Wilson — a staunch supporter of universal healthcare, gay rights, and climate change mitigation.
Some Hollywood stars have been mocked for their faith in recent years. In 2022, Chris Pratt was criticized for being a member of the conservative Zoe Church because the senior pastor had previously criticized gay marriage.
