Nick Offerman Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

sometimes I don't even watch the things I've been in I do watch it to be practical to see what I can do better or you know just to see if I if I'm having the right effect on the audience I don't ever watch myself like a fan and say yes you were awesome in that scene buddy bodyshop the character robbed an American body shop was my first leading role on a TV show it was a pretty inconsequential show on Comedy Central but it was an exciting big deal for me I had auditioned for so many series and and you know come very close to like getting them and never got them [Music] rob was easily the best part on the show it was sort of mockumentary was pretty broadly comic I just remember I had an unexplained bald spot but I was really excited about good news another under carriage road test we came up with it when we were like cooking up our looks all the other guys were did the like normal frat guy thing where they were like oh I should I should roll up my sleeves and have like cool hair like Danny Zuko and I was like I want to have a weird bald spot and always have some mad scientist glasses and like a weird handlebar mustache and be filthy Children's Hospital I did a movie with Rob Corddry in the early 2000s I guess and we had a blast he was the white mayor of this town and I was his sheriff and we had a lot of fun and we kind of hit it off and then shortly after that he wrote Children's Hospital and he sent it to me and I loved it and I thought it was so funny and he also said they had the idea to cast my wife Megan Mullally in the role of chief and we both just thought it was the funniest thing we had seen and were desperate to do it Megan got to do it I unfortunately got sidelined with this other show called Parks and Recreation which totally ruined my Children's Hospital career so I was supposed to be a regular on Children's Hospital in the role of chance Briggs but after some negotiation NBC agreed to let me do like one or two per season so I got to still do a handful of them the reason so many funny people were on that show is because it was so fun to work on it was completely filthy and irreverent there were no rules you were required to be as stupid as possible hey when's the last time you had your prostate checked I don't have time for that kind of thing um do you have time for cancer get in here no you get in here we loved working it was really fun it felt like we were getting away with something Parks and Recreation parks and recreation is that the one with star-lord I was a big fan of the office I originally auditioned for the role of Michael Scott Dave Koechner who played Todd Packer among other you know legendary comedy roles he and I auditioned the same day to play Michael Scott so I was a huge fan of the office and I had known Rainn Wilson for a long time and I would say to Meghan we'd watch the office and I would say you know what if I'm ever gonna get like a big break I think it's gonna be on a show like this in a part like Dwight root which is crazily exactly what happened but they were creating Parks and Rec and they had me in to read for a different part who was a romantic interest for a Rashida's character and it went great and and everybody was very happy and they sent the tape to NBC and they said literally he's a quote Nick Offerman you said someone like Aaron Eckhart and he sent us this hog believe that was the term they used so NBC said no to me as a love interest for rashida but then Mike Schur and Greg Daniels the creators said shoot we really like this guy and we want him on the show let's make him that part of Amy's boss that should be 20 years older than he is and they called me and said they wanted me to do that and NBC then made me audition for like five months they looked at every other person in the world who could speak English but Mike and Greg stuck to their guns and finally gave me the part it was a libertarian who hated the government and that was the impetus of the of the role and you know then together we added layers on to him they made him a woodworker because I like runs woodshop on the show is my actual shop in real life and his canoes like I made those canoes and stuff like that so you know I think with any character on a show that lasts it's a collaboration between the writers and the actor to continue fleshing it out coloring in between the lines as you go you have two choices one get rid of Tammy or two lobotomy and castration choose wisely but this is a waste of time the mustache was one of the looks that I had had on stage like I definitely favored a substantial mustache that was the first thing we agreed upon was that he would have a kick-ass mustache the hairdo was sort of developed over the first season but we called it the full douche we thought it was really funny and other than that the Mike Schur and Greg Daniels said to me to the whole cast we want you guys to feel real so if the show gets picked up please don't start doing Pilates and lose a bunch of weight and he specifically asked me to state beefy so I ate at least two cheeseburgers a day for seven years the rest as they say is history all good things people were crazy about the documentary of the jinx with good reason the man who made it Andrew Jarecki before he made the jinx made a narrative feature of the same God story starring Ryan Gosling as Robert Durst Kirsten Dunst as his wife and murder victim allegedly and I was cast as her brother these are all real-life people and it was really good I mean there's a really good movie Andrew Jarecki had put together an incredible packet of research so there was video there was interviews I believe they asked me if I wanted to go meet the guy and I didn't want to I was freaked out I think Christian Bale would be ashamed of me Kirsten and I saw screening of it in LA when it was done it was so good and then at the end Robert Durst is still living in like Galveston selling real estate the movie made you so furious because this guy clearly was a killer and he was walking free we walked out of the screening and we were like this movie sucks like I hate this movie because it doesn't end like that story we know that story like oh then he went to jail I was like no this guy's still you can go see him and we were really angry so I was really happy that Andrew I mean what tenacity he's stuck with the story and made the jinx won a bunch of trophies and got Robert Durst to confess I'm scream acts come a good friend of mine named Martin garner who was a guy who we've done some writing partnering we had written some stuff together and he found the graphic novel of axe cop and brought it to my attention and a couple other friends did too like I guess because he had a mustache and he had sort of a deadpan delivery I knew people at Fox animation and I brought it to them and so we ended up making a cartoon of it I just thought it was so wickedly hilarious despite my involvement I was surprised it wasn't a hit it never really like took off as a huge animated hit but the people who loved it really loved it I mean I think for some reason people just didn't discover cuz it's really funny I loved doing voiceover stuff it's a way to get to work out really funny writing that you know doesn't have the limits of the physical world so you can be stupid in so many more ways in a cartoon I always seemed to be cast as people who scream or somehow enter battle and so I always end up just destroying my voice because you're not limited you know if you're fighting a dragon in real life you can only do so many takes because of the budget but an animated work you can kill the dragon all day long so I always tend to lose my voice so I've had to learn to be very careful so that I can go home and still speak to my wife we're the Millers we're the Millers I played on Fitzgerald and when that came to me I just thought it was really funny Jennifer Aniston is amazing and Jason Sudeikis is really funny and to be a comic duo with Kathryn Hahn who's just like a comedy tornado was absolutely delightful I choose things because I think the writing is good and I thought that was a really funny script and seemed like a blast which it turned out to be that was that was upsetting I that required a lot of therapy on my part afterwards I still get weird around people's ears so I guess we're swam that was just something I did the director may have suggested it you know you get in those situations and just start playing around I believe ear intercourse was just one of those lucky inspirations probably the toughest thing was trying not to laugh at Jason Sudeikis like especially in that tense scene he really made me crack up I pride myself on not breaking easily but when I do I go for it the lego movie our business wants everybody to be a specialist you know if your big break is playing a tennis champion then nobody wants to see you in a movie about basketball so we've talked about you know in my acting roles I've tried not to get pigeonholed and Ron Swanson ESCA roles but when people cast you in an animated work they're casting your voice and what you sound like which I'm kind of fine with but then that I sort of reached a limit where I was like I can't if I was an actor I wouldn't do the this exact same thing for every job and so it's really grateful when Phil Lord and Chris Miller cast me his metal beard and in our first session we played around with what what does this guy sound like this weird sounding like you know like Irish payrate robot and I was so happy that I could do a funny voice and I would love to do all kinds of funny voices and I know it's going to be really hard wiping you bum with a hook for a hand is really hard I think we're gonna do more lego movie stuff I suppose it all depends on how it's doing business-wise but the last I heard I thought there was more to come so I'll be happy to do metal beard until they run out of ideas me Earl and the dying girl that film was great it was a wonderful book it was a wonderful script adapted by the by the book writer just across the board it was a work of art it was a beautiful thing to be a part of the cast was great we shot it in Pittsburgh which is where it was set and the young actors were astonishingly good frankly they were annoying because the competence that they displayed at age you know 19 to like 23 I have not yet achieved and I'll be 50 this year so I despised them and still do you have not even wrapped her college drama don't go through my stuff we discussed it and she gets to go through your stuff I've worked with I mean the occasional horse or donkey I had not worked with a cat on film and I would not recommend anyone work with a cat on film generally on a film set you end up having to shut off the air conditioner because it makes a noise so rooms get uncomfortably warm cats don't like that and then if you hold them and they're very hairy and warm in general and you're creating like furnace ball they don't like that either and they let you know that with their claws I was amazed that they were able to edit together a usable footage I felt terrible because you know that you're being told like hold that cat against its will so that we can photograph you together the founder the producers have put together an incredible Bible of articles and interviews and there's tons of like video interviews with with these guys I think you have to ask the question from the get-go am I gonna go for like Charlize as megyn kelly in bombshell like I'm like am I gonna go for like total impersonation or not and so far for me it's been not because people don't know what the guy looks like you know it's not Teddy Roosevelt or something and so what we did was glean everything we needed to about these characters to then fuel the story as we wanted to tell it hey did you come up with this well I did we did Dick MacDonald my brother working on that film with Michael Keaton at first that was I think the scariest circumstance I'd been in my final scene in the movie is is a very dramatic sort of faceoff with him in a men's room we shouted around at Atlanta and I'd gotten there like a week early to get acclimated and do costume fittings and the director said hey we're shooting at this Country Club it's a scene with Michael and Laura Dern and a couple other actors come on by and say hi and whatever and right when I got there they said the director said oh the men's room here is amazing if you don't mind I'd like to shoot your biggest scene in the movie that you're not at all prepared for this afternoon is that cool and I was like yes of course Oh well I wouldn't cool barf and so I had to like whip it together and that's the circumstances in which I met Michael Keaton we showed you everything the whole system all our secrets we were an open book so why didn't you just steal it just have your ideas and run out start my own business using all those ideas yours what a fail here's all business not very nice you know like don't meet your heroes and all that and we rehearse the scene a couple times they're like okay let us but the crew have the set we'll get it all set up so we have time to we go sit in two chairs like this and then Michael Keaton is like hey man it's like completely so friendly and nice and what I realize is every day he shows up and he's all business until he gets it figured out and then he's like alright let's talk about baseball or fishing or whatever we became great buddies but man working with somebody like him you see immediately why he's a huge movie star he's great he's talented he's really hard-working but he he has this met he like shoots lightning bolts out of his eyeballs so when you're doing a scene with him and he turns his focus on you at least for me I was like I have to talk here pretty soon so I had to keep it together hearts beat loud the role of Frank Fisher and hearts beat loud was just a dream come true of which I now seem to have several which makes me feel so lucky that it keeps me minding my manners so that maybe I'll even get another one I worked on a movie called the hero which is a beautiful film this guy named Brett Halley made I'll see you in my dreams starring Blythe Danner and then the hero starring Sam Elliot and I was cast as his pot dealing friend and I just this guy's movies are wonderful he's such a great filmmaker and he wrote his next movie for me called hearts beat loud and I was over the moon I mean it's the first time I got to be a leading man that was just like a normal guy like like there were shots of me walking down the street because the audience cares about how my day is going I was like what so I just walk and like feet emote all right roll camera I'm sure that means anything meanings meaning I want it that way they want what what way because it doesn't matter it's me I'm sorry are you bringing up the Backstreet Boys in reference to my lyrics all due respect it's actually a pretty good song oh come on how did you get to be such a music snob blythe danner plays my mom Ted Danson Toni Collette I mean it's crazy but Kiersey Clemons as my daughter is such a knockout talent like when she started singing well took a knee and said our movie is going to be good it was so gratifying to get to do that the first day we met was in New York and it was I don't know a week or two before we started shooting we met to rehearse our band to rehearse our music because neither of us are like pro musicians I wasn't even trying to like establish a rapport it's just one like when your co-star when you're a fellow actor arrives whoever that may be you're like hey hi and so you already know that you're about to make this art project together in which you love each other and you go through like a journey together you have some laughs you have some tears then you meet her and you're like hi like we're about to get to dance together we're gonna play some amazing football together or whatever it is so there's already a sort of a fondness a camaraderie and then I just start teasing her like messing with her like one foundation of our relation ship was me making fun of like my age where I started texting her emojis I started trying like way too hard with my emoji game things like that where I was like curiously I don't know if you're up on what's fresh or fire with the kids these days and you know and that would really annoy her so we just immediately had like a dad daughter rapport like dad trying to be cool be like hey what's up you do you do you like house music because I'm down with that devs I got a call that Alex Garland wanted to meet with me for a TV series and I was a very big fan of his I mean I started crying a little bit when I got that call because it was like Stanley Kubrick or something where I was like it was not in the realm of someone that might call so that was it I was like yeah whatever count me in but then I got the scripts and read them it was like said to my wife honey I have a very good part in a very exquisite 8 episode program and you know everything just piled on from there he turned out to be an absolute dreamboat to work with and when someone is a smart and talented as him and they're dreamy then everybody else is dreamy cuz everybody wants to work with that and be around it so all the crew and the heads of the departments all the collaborators the producers the cast are just one after the other they're absolute astonishing thespian heroes and so I I'm very grateful to be among them when I get a job one of my one of the things I relish the most is like okay you got the job sometimes before even before the deal closes I call the app wherever the alex is and say okay what whiskers can I have what weird hairdo can I have can I shave my head in some sort of way that will make my wife upset I love to look strange and unrecognizable so we talked back and forth and ultimately Alex found a picture of a guy and the incredibly talented Nadia Stacy who did our hair and makeup she won a BAFTA for the favorite not a big deal she then took the picture of this guy and like created it on me it was my beard but trimmed so she took my crazy beard and made it different crazy and made me look like a ginger and then I had a shaved head so that was a wig with like baldness on top what am I actually doing here I'm not going to tell you don't worry you're gonna figure it out I come from Chicago theater and and sometimes people hear that and they mistake it for Chicago comedy and it's two very separate things so I'm a street theatre actor I'm not a trained comedy performer I'm trained and like elocution and sword fighting but when you do theater you do whatever is on the season and in any given theater season you usually have a Shakespeare a Tracy Letts drama a comedy so you sort of learn all the tools I didn't aspire to work in comedy or drama or any genre per se I just hope to work on as good of writing as possible and so I'm kind of having my dream come true by getting to have a variety of things I would I would would not want to be known as a comedy star or or you know only a tragedian I'd rather be known as somewhat versatile who can get the job done

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Keywords: celebrity, iconic characters, iconic, nick offerman, nick offerman 2020, nick offerman interview, nick offerman gq, nick offerman movie, nick offerman movies, nick offerman show, nick offerman shows, offerman, nick offerman iconic characters, nick offerman character, nick offerman characters, nick offerman ron swanson, nick offerman parks and rec, nick offerman devs, parks and rec, ron swanson, devs, devs nick offerman, nick offerman funny, devs show, gq, gq magazine

Id: a1VOp1N7AX0

Length: 24min 29sec (1469 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020