Nick Offerman on What He’d Be Like as President, Getting Arrested By Accident & New Movie Civil War

our first guest tonight is one of uh very few Emmy award-winning actors who can carve a canoe out of a tree he plays a dystopian president in a dystopian America in the number one dystopian movie in the country Civil War is in theaters now please welcome Nick Offerman [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well may I begin by saying that was one of the finest portrayals of Arizona territorial lawyer uh somebody T howl I've ever seen yes thank you very much blessing with us I'm classically trained at the University of Illinois so I hope I did them proud you did you certainly did and I know that you come from a family of politicians which is something I learned today I do I mean they would argue it's a bit of a stretch but my my grandfather was the mayor of our small Illinois town Manuka uh back when I was a kid and then my dad is now the mayor and so people always say to me and so uh I say my sister uh who's a very powerful librarian I think is she she will probably be next in line hopefully is your sister really a librarian a very powerful lady and does she work in the library she's there with the Dewey Decimal System and the whole deal she well she controls she worked away up so now she's she's sort of like a a mafia Don um she oversees a region of Illinois libraries The Three Rivers Public Library System I hope I hope I can say that I hope so too she's very intimidating when you write a book does she see to it that it gets preferential placement or does she see to it that the book is not available in the library so you can sell more that's a very astute question um most of my books have pride of placement but the one uh that talks about my siblings I haven't seen yet on the show oh all right well maybe maybe you put in a word with your sister so your dad I have a photo of your dad I think this was from when he was Village president of uh the town is uh Manuka Manuka the way he's standing here it looks like Muka I mean makes it a village by the way what is the do you know that's a great question uh a village versus a town I mean it must be a population thing yeah growing up there were just a couple thousand people but now the the commuters of Chicago have found us so now we got a stoplight uh you you can get you can get bread you can get meat bread and condiments all in town you don't no longer have to go to when you were growing up you had to actually travel to get those things we had to make our own mustard that's not a euphemism this is you so when your dad your grandfather Etc are involved in the you know Town Council or whatever do you have to behave yourself as like they're extra pressure on you as as a young man you would think I mean um this is America and so what I've learned from the example of others is that if your if your family is in power you maybe get away with a little more oh the opposite yeah s Saudi Arabia might send you a couple billion dollars um if you play your cards right I I was the black sheep I have this wonderful family there are 40 of us around Manuka and Megan and I are the only two that don't live there is that true yeah it's it's this incredible half of them are farmers on Mom's side and then we have the mayor we have school teachers Librarians paramedics they're exemplary citizens and and then there's one douchebag and what about me and um and so I I experimented with uh misdemeanor when I was young what please detail us uh uh what what did you do and and you're remember you're among friends um I mean it these were great Lessons Learned when I was in college my friend and I had a game and and talk talk about the privilege of the Bourgeois uh we had a game where we'd go into a store and steal the dumbest thing we could to make each other laugh so it was shoplifting as as a diversion and I got caught in a Kmart which is is the the place where they're watching for shoplifters the the closest sure uh shoving eight Ronnie Milsap cassettes down the front of my jeans and and walk walking out just couldn't wait to see see the look on Joe F's face when I was like check this out um Ronnie mils were they all the Same album or they eight different records oh eight different records you oh you got his whole catalog down there it it was the Perfect Crime um until it wasn't it was and it was scary I I went to jail um and I was terrified you went to jail for stealing r map yeah and I was like come on you guys clearly this is a bit like but they wanted to teach me a lesson and they did it was the opening night it was opening night of the first time I got cast in a play at the University of Illinois and I was in this production of picnic and so if I hadn't made it to the play I probably would have been kicked out of school but a friend of mine his name was Rob T came and bailed me out and my other friend was the assistant director and nobody knew nobody told anybody 12 minutes before curtain I got to the theater and like put on my stuff and went out and gave the most tearful performance of was that the that's a pretty good crime my mom and dad don't know about this so was that the end of it or did Joe keep going or well no there was one other time uh in the Urbana uh jail station um some friends and I we can say this now in California we were smoking marijuana um out behind a community theater late one night and some flashlights came along the creek where we were hanging out and we realized it was police and so we we began to tiptoe away uh and they gave Chase and we wisely ran uh and and they tackled us in a a an incred tough uh diminutive woman who I think may have been Holly Hunter I couldn't tell because she had her boot on my head and her she had her gun on me oh boy so so they tackled us in a parking lot and it suddenly got incredibly real um and we said I don't think we did whatever you think we did this is uh suddenly got out gotten out of hand it turned out that a restaurant had been robbed of a bunch of cash up the creek um and so they naturally they saw these kids running and we spent the whole night in jail and oh saying and and and the thing is we were just these innocent dumb theater kids and we were saying no we were just out there smoking and talking officer um and uh I'm I'm I'm too to drunk uh is usually gets you off you know they love that joke uhhuh yeah sure and and and thankfully we we put up enough of uh Collective front that they decided we weren't the thieves they let us go in the morning so they kept us all night uh and as the sun was coming up we walked out and on the front lawn of this sheriff station my friend Greg who had the one hitter uh the pot smoking paraphernalia we said it's a bummer that you had to throw that in the creek when they were chasing us and he reached into his crotch and pulled it out and was like you think I'm going to throw this thing away and so wow really so we smoked marijuana first thing in the morning in Urbana in front of the sheriff station and now here I am wow that's I mean that's if you want to make it in Showbiz you could do a lot worse you reach down into the pants you pull out a one hitter maybe there's an extra Ronnie Milsap cassette in there Milsap and weed Nick Offerman is with us Civil War is this movie we be right back citizens of America we are now closer than ever to a historic Victory as we eliminate the final pockets of resistance God bless you all and God bless America that is Civil War it is in theaters now this is Nick Offman is in our studio right now uh you got the number one movie in the country is that something that registers with you I mean that's kind of my thing yeah um no I I am I am over the moon especially because I love this filmmaker so much Alex Garland he's really underappreciated he made exmachina Annihilation we did a TV show together called devs and now I just think he's an Exquisite filmmaker and so I'm so glad that everybody's going to see this I think it's imperative do you feel besides obviously it's a compliment to be asked to be in a film that somebody is making do you feel an extra good about yourself when they ask you to play the president of the United States well I I mean it depends it really depends um but sure I I don't I don't look at it that way like um because it's not it's not that big of a role I I feel I'm kind of like Sauron in The Lord of the Rings you hear about him a lot and they're always on the way to see him but you don't really he doesn't get a lot of screen time yes yes and he's not a not a good pres I mean he's not a uh I mean good guy he's not necessarily a good guy I mean he's just trying to to pay his mortgage like anybody you know um is he based on any of our recent former presidents no there I mean there there are uh some some details about him that uh you know he he he does lean towards fascism but but no uh Alex Alex was very clear um it's an important part of the movie actually that there are there are no political Echoes of real life it's a it's a very fictional America and you actually don't know who the are in the sides of the war and you don't know my president you don't know uh what his politics are other than he's full of right yeah which I mean that could you know be anybody um and and so that's important to the film because you come out of it having a conversation about should we should we uh head towards War versus the devices conversations of like red versus blue decency versus red or you know mhmh yeah and you know I have to say I feel like and I hope you think this is a compliment I feel like you could be the actual president if you decided you want I don't take that as a compliment because I think that you have like you have the um just kind of like the real life credentials like with your Woodworking and whatnot and you're like a regular man who's intelligent punctual what would a what would uh Nick Offerman presidency be like would have you thought about that I well I mean I have thought about that um sure I would pay a lot of attention to our agriculture I'm going to answer you earnestly I I would urge our our government to pass a new Farm bill that pays attention to our farmers who are are providing all the food that we eat and who we've come to ignore in this industrial time um all right that's good yeah I mean it's not super sexy TV to talk about soil Health but I I would also reinstate Woodworking and kitchens and sewing in our schools and teach our kids sewing how to make things with their hands now do you do they not have wood shop and metal shop in school anymore not not to most schools have done away with all of their shops and their home economics like learning to to cook I mean all of those things I loved across the board I I loved learning to make casserole and I loved learning to build a table all of those things you need if if you want to serve casserole you need a table 100% you can't eat a casserole on the floor no so you took you were one of those cuz in our school like the kids who took okay kids who took um wood shop or metal shop really just wanted to make a bong in class sure and then the kids um who took home e just wanted to have a snack cuz they just made a bong in class that's right and that was kind of none of them necessarily were looking to do it as what you just described as a healthy economy it's it's moving we need resources and and you end up with a happy constituency you do yeah yeah it's true like not too many people people like who build things it seems like they they fall into that rather than I I agree I mean it's something I I really support people making things with their hands it's it's something that is undervalued in our country but the you know that's that's what creates infrastructure is people putting things together you would be such a good president I don't think it's too late I think we could still get you on some balance you know we're going to now I have a sister who's a very powerful librarian I'd vote for your sister I I would too now because I'm a pushover but she she is not she doesn't get around when she says sh people get quiet you you don't need to be shushed when she's around well this is Nick Offerman everybody vote for his sister his movie is Civil War it's in Peters and IMAX now thank you Nick we'll be back with jack anthon off on la [Applause]

Channel: Jimmy Kimmel Live

Views: 502,620

Keywords: jimmy, jimmy kimmel, jimmy kimmel live, late night, talk show, funny, comedic, comedy, clip, comedian, mean tweets, Hollywood, Los Angeles, West Coast, Guest, Celebrity, Nick Offerman, Actor, Woodworking, Civil War, New Movie, Family, Public Office, Minooka, Politics, Local Government, Ron Swanson, Ronnie Milsap, Iowa, Alex Garland, Farming, Soil, President

Id: s-WlCNMhzqk

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2024