Nick Offerman talks celebrity reactions to his woodworking, his UK stand-up tour and his love of It’s A Sin (Picture: Getty)
He’s the actor, author, humourist and woodworker who has long been part of our TV-viewing lives, but most notably as Ron Swanson in US sitcom Parks And Recreation.
Now, after his performance in the most acclaimed episode of The Last Of Us, a new book and forthcoming UK stand-up tour Nick, 53, talks about dealing with online homophobia, the comedy legend that is his wife Megan Mullally and explains why he might leave her for Tom Cruise.
What are you up to today apart from talking to Metro?
I have a wonderful couple of weeks.
I’ve pulled my first canoe that I built down out of the rafters of my wood shop. It needed a couple of repairs to become seaworthy.
It’s a rare treat these days to get to just lose myself in the woodworking.
Queen was the soundtrack to Nick’s adolescence (Picture: Anwar Hussein/Getty)
What music do you listen to in your workshop?
Right now, I am just listening to some early Queen albums, specifically The Game, which was my first, age 10.
I’ve been powerfully nostalgic because that reminded me that they did the soundtrack to Flash Gordon and then, even more monumentally, to Highlander.
Queen was the formative soundtrack to my adolescence. Thank you, Freddie.
For your latest show you are asking us to “honestly countenance, amongst the chuckles, the aspects of humanity about which we laugh so that we don’t attack one another with shovels.” What tempts you to reach for a shovel?
It varies daily.
I recently did an episode of The Last Of Us. Thanks to (writer) Craig Mazin and Peter Hoar, the director, and everybody involved it was an exquisite episode of television to be a part of. It was very positively received.
Because there were some same-sex storylines in the show, it received a lot of homophobic hate and I received a lot pointed specifically at me on social media.
It is literally discriminating against people for wanting to love each other.
My first impulse is to shake my fist and say, ‘Hey, you’re an asshole’ but then my second impulse is, ‘Wait a second. Am I doing that also? And where? And to whom?’
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You mention Peter Hoar. Had you seen It’s A Sin before you filmed The Last of Us?
I was not familiar with Peter or It’s A Sin but something came up randomly.
The cast of It’s A Sin were on this talk show or game show.
I don’t know how we happened to come upon it but Megan, who is the curator of good things in our house, said, ‘I like these actors. We should see what this is.’
Because we’re old and stupid we couldn’t find the channel but we happened onto an interview with Russell T Davies and he was talking about I Hate Suzie written by Lucy Prebble.
We were going down this rabbit hole of Russell T Davies curated series. Finally we were able to find our way to It’s A Sin.
It was one of the most perfect series of television.
We were bowled over.
Russell is now back on Doctor Who, which surely both you and Megan would be joyous additions to as guest stars?
Nick and Megan would love to guest star in Doctor Who (Picture: BBC)
We would cartwheel all the way across the ocean to take part in Doctor Who.
Have you converted any of your fellow actors like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning or Eddie Murphy on Candy Cane to the joys of woodworking?
I’m just going to bask for a moment in the image of me taking Tom out back and running him through the rudiments of my framing kit.
I mean, he thinks he does stunts.
He should see what I can do with a circular saw standing three storeys up on a house being framed.
Eddie Murphy in the film I did with him, he even plays a character who has a wood shop.
To answer your question, no. If I’ve built a canoe or I’m playing a ukulele that I’ve made, they like that information a little more. ‘Oh, that’s neat. Anyway, let’s talk about the last episode of Succession.’
Eddie Murphy was more interested in talking TV than about Nick’s woodshop creations (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
What’s it like dipping in for guest roles in big-budget movies like that?
I’ve had the crazy fortune to stumble into little supporting roles with two of the greatest film icons of our lifetimes.
So even just getting to stand for a minute between takes and say like, ‘Hey, did you have any of that soup?’ or whatever, is quite delightful. Not only am I pretty bedazzled to work with them and watch them.
‘Oh my God, Eddie Murphy is smiling at me,’ or Tom Cruise is s***ing heroism out of his face so hard that I’m gonna lose my nerve and start crying in the middle of a scene.
Mother Nature put together the ingredients in that guy, that watching him do a monologue in a scene, you’re like, ‘I will take a bullet for you, man.’
His charisma is so hilariously like a firehose that you are like, ‘Should I leave my wife? What would you like me to do, Tom Cruise?’
Nick was bedazzled to work with movie icons like Tom Cruise(Picture: Christian Black)
Was playing Parks And Recreation episodes with Megan as one of Ron’s ex-wives as much fun as it looks?
Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally (Picture: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
The depravity that she got to tap into on Parks and Recreation is so luscious.
I can’t believe my good fortune that I would even get to befriend this person let alone marry her and spend our lives together. She’s my hero.
An Evening With Nick Offerman opens in London today, and tours the UK until July 4.
Buy tickets Here.
His new book, Where The Deer And The Antelope Play, is out now.
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‘I will take a bullet for you, man.’
