The 5 pieces of advice Rainn Wilson from ‘The Office’ gave during his Utah graduation speech

In a commencement speech full of humor, heart and plenty of “that’s what she said” jokes, actor Rainn Wilson shared with graduates on Friday his secrets for happiness — or what he referred to as advice for “not ending up like a grumpy old jerk face.”

Wilson walked to the podium at Weber State University’s ceremony to roaring cheers and shouts of “We love you, Dwight.” The celebrity, best known for his role as the uptight assistant to the regional manager Dwight Schrute in the TV show “The Office,” returned that fervor in full.

“Blood alone moves the wheels of history,” he yelled, throwing his fist in the air. The audience screamed in excitement at the reference, from an episode where the character Dwight gives a speech upon winning paper salesman of the year and ends up being tricked into quoting a dictator.

“Wait. No, no, no, stop,” Wilson joked from the stage at the Ogden school. “What am I thinking? That’s terrible, quoting from a long canceled television show. Dwight Schrute quoting Jim Halpert quoting Benito Mussolini of all people.”

He clarified for the crowd of students in purple gowns filling the rows of seats of arena and snapping photos of him with their phones: “This isn’t Dwight’s speech. This is Rainn’s speech.”

Setting aside concerns about identify theft, it was a romping combination of both the actor and the role that’s come to define him, alongside his work as an author and advocate.

“I have something much bigger and better in store for you,” he said, laughing before the punchline. “That’s what she said.”

It was announced last month that Wilson was selected to speak at the Utah graduation — landing as one of the biggest names and most expensive to ever be contracted for a commencement ceremony at a public college or university in the state.

Weber State said students wanted someone memorable and agreed to pay $125,000 for a 20-minute speech from Wilson. Initially, 70% of that was covered by an anonymous donor, and the school shuffled funds to cover the rest. But after the details of the contract were published by The Salt Lake Tribune, another donor stepped forward to pay for the remainder of the cost, according to a spokesperson for the college.

The actor was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the university. Wilson, dressed in a black graduation gown, looked out over the crowd and mouthed, “I’m a doctor now!” Then he patted the Weber State trustee on the head who handed him the framed diploma.

In his address, Wilson spoke about the challenges he’s faced in his career, his own mental health struggles and how he’s learned to “overcome and navigate” it all. For every show like “The Office,” he said, he’s done a dozen other pilots or projects that never got off the ground. At times, he battled depression, loneliness, addiction and “the granddaddy of them all: anxiety.”

To power through, he said, he relied on love, altruism, community and hope.

He quoted Martin Luther King Jr. and Rumi and E.M. Forster, alongside references to hippies and SpongeBob.

It was the actor’s first-ever graduation speech, he noted. He’s given best man speeches and award show speeches and locker room speeches. “That was a little bit awkward because I wasn’t on the team,” he joked. “I didn’t even play lacrosse. I just happened to walk into the locker room with my shirt off.”

He said he was initially unsure what to impart “to 4,000 brilliant graduating Wildcats, and a couple hundred other idiot Wildcats who really shouldn’t be able to graduate at this ceremony. You know who you are.” Weber State President Brad Mortensen chuckled from his seat behind the actor.

Wilson distilled his thoughts into five pieces of advice. And he ended up speaking for more time than his contract required. It lasted seven minutes longer than expected. That’s what she said.

Here are Wilson’s takeaways for living a happy and meaningful life.

1. “Gather a bouquet of virtues.”

Wilson joked that there are two types of senior citizens: those who are sweet and wise and those who are mean and grumpy. He told students to live in a way that would shape them into the former.

To do that, he said, the graduates should embrace kindness, humility, honesty, wisdom — what he referred to as “spiritual virtues.”

“Picture each virtue as a flower in a bouquet,” Wilson said. “Compassion is a rose. Love is a lily.”

Life, he said, should be focused on each person acquiring those qualities and flexing them like muscles in the gym. “Instead of leg day, have one day be compassion day,” he said.

When you get old, he told students, those bouquets of qualities will be all that’s left. “When we die, we don’t take with us our Teslas or our Xboxes.”

2. Become “other-centered.”

Wilson said the devil is “not a creature with a pitchfork,” but rather the human ego. It pushes you to put yourself first, pushes you to compare yourself to others, pushes you to doubt yourself.

“Rainn, your speech sucks. Utah hates you,” he joked, imitating the voice in his head. “This hat looks stupid. And your head looks like a giant melon. But at least I’m a better speaker than John Krasinski. What an idiot.”

He referred to the psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman who did a study with his students. He started by having them take a survey to measure their happiness. Then, he instructed them to spend a weekend having the most fun they could think of. The students went shopping, partied and played video games. When they came back to class and took the same survey, their happiness scores had gone down.

The next weekend, Seligman instructed the students to be of service to someone else — visit a sick relative or “watch ‘The Office’ with a depressed friend,” Wilson suggested. They took the survey once again. Their scores increased and stayed higher longer.

“Selfishness doesn’t work,” Wilson concluded. He told graduates to walk out the doors of the arena after the ceremony and find a way to serve others.

3. “Live like it’s Dungeons and Dragons.”

Young people today, Wilson said, are battling heightened levels of mental health issues. And much of it, he attributes to social media and phones. “They separate us from each other,” he continued. “… They give the illusion of connection, but in reality they disconnect us.”

He said one solution is clear to him: Dungeons and Dragons, the role-playing fantasy game where players craft their own storylines.

“It’s a group of people on a mission, working together, elbow to elbow, without any devices or screens,” Wilson said. “They’re playing, laughing and most importantly slaying orcs and gathering treasure.”

The actor joked that it didn’t actually have to be that game — though it helped him as a teenager — but could be anything where you are present, connect with people and “put your d--- phones away.”

He quoted George Vaillant, an American psychiatrist, who said: “The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.” Wilson told the graduates to lean on the friendships and connections they made at Weber State.

4. “Devote yourself to love.”

“What keeps you from living in maximum love all time, like Jesus, like the Dalai Lama, like SpongeBob?” Wilson asked the crowd. “… Fear is one reason. Fear is the opposite of love.”

He encouraged those in the audience to drop their guards, turn toward each other and “express warmth” to those around them — through eye contact, handshakes, hugs and high fives.

One member of Weber State’s board of trustees jumped up from his seat on the stage to share warmth with Wilson — by smooching him on the cheek.

“What a Wildcat,” Wilson said, appearing surprised and laughing.

He then mentioned that the graduates should show love whenever they can — to anyone and everyone, regardless of their differences in race and gender and religion.

The actor referred to the Pando aspen grove in central Utah. It looks like multiple trees, but it is all one organism.

“It’s right here in your backyard,” he said. “I’m not joking. It’s in Fish Lake, Utah. Google it if you don’t believe me.”

Wilson said that should be an example that we’re the same, as humans, and should love each other. “We might look like a few thousand graduates and one incredibly handsome commencement speaker,” he said, “but we’re all one.”

5. “Keep hope alive.”

Wilson recalled a story where he was talking to his acting teacher about being depressed and sad about the world. The teacher grabbed Wilson by the arm and said, “Don’t. Don’t do it. You can’t be cynical. You can’t be pessimistic. If you do, then they win.”

Without hope, Wilson said, “you’ll just sit on your couch and not do anything.”

Hope is what changes the world, he believes. Hope and love and community and giving and virtue, and yes, some humor, too. And that’s what he said.