Nick Offerman Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

Sometimes I don't even see the things I've been to. I watch it to be practical and see what I can do better or, you know, just to see if I'm having the right effect on the audience. I never looked at myself as a fan and said yes, you were amazing in that scene, body shop friend, the character robbed an American body shop, it was my first leading role in a television show, it was a pretty inconsequential show on Comedy Central, but it was something very exciting. For me, I had auditioned for a lot of shows and, you know, I was very close to getting them and I never got them.

Stealing was easily the best part of the show, it was kind of a mockumentary, it was quite comical. I only remember that he had an inexplicable bald spot. place, but I was very excited about the good news, another road test under the carriage, it occurred to us when we were like cooking up our appearance, all the other guys did the same thing as normal frat boys where they were like, oh, I should, I should roll up. my sleeves and have cool hair like Danny Zuko and I was like I want to have a weird bald head and always have mad scientist glasses and a weird handlebar mustache and be dirty.

Children's Hospital I did a movie with Rob Corddry in the beginning I guess in the 2000s and we had a great time, he was the white mayor of this town and I was his sheriff and we had a lot of fun and we got along well and soon after he wrote Children's Hospital and sent it to me. and I loved it and I thought it was really funny and he also said that they had the idea of ​​casting my wife Megan Mullally in the boss role and we both thought it was the funniest thing we had ever seen and we were desperate to do it Megan.

Unfortunately, I was sidelined with this other show called Parks and Recreation that totally ruined my run on Children's Hospital, so I was supposed to be a regular on Children's Hospital in the role of Chance Briggs, but after some negotiations, NBC He agreed to let me do it. like one or two a season, so I still have to make a handful of them. The reason there were so many funny people on that show is because it was so fun to work on, it was completely dirty and irreverent, there were no rules you had to follow. as stupid as possible hey, when was the last time you had your prostate checked?

I don't have time for that kind of thing, do you have time for cancer? Get in here, no, get in here, we loved working, it was a lot of fun, it felt like that. something we were getting away with, Parks and Recreation, parks and recreation, it's 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 on the same day to play Michael Scott, so I was a big fan of The Office and I had known Rainn Wilson for a long time and I would tell Meghan that we would take care of The Office and I would say, you know what would happen if ?

Someday I will have a great opportunity. I think it'll be on a show like this in a part like Dwight Root, which is exactly what happened, but they were creating Parks and Rec and they asked me to read for a different part. who was a romantic interest for Rashida's character and it was great and everyone was so happy and they sent the tape to NBC and literally said it's a quote Nick Offerman, you said someone like Aaron Eckhart and he sent us this pig, I think it was the term they used to get NBC to say 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 who should be. 20 years older than him and they called me and said they wanted me to do that and then NBC auditioned me for five months, they looked at all the other people in the world who could speak English, but Mike and Greg stuck with it and finally got me. he gave the role, he was a libertarian who hated the government and that was the impetus for the role and you know, together we added layers to it and they made him a carpenter because I like the carpentry shop on the show, it's my real job. buys in real life and their canoes like I made those canoes and stuff like that, so you know, I think any character on a show that lasts is a collaboration between the writers and the actor to continue fleshing it out coloring between the lines as You have two options, 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 I had had on stage, I definitely preferred a substantial mustache which was the first thing I we did.

What we agreed on was that he would have an amazing mustache, the hairstyle was developed during the first season, but we called him a total jerk, we thought he was really funny and other than that, Mike Schur and Greg Daniels told me to the whole cast we want you to feel real, so if the show goes on, please don't start doing Pilates and lose a lot of weight, and he specifically asked me to say "husky," so I ate at least two cheeseburgers a day for seven years. rest as they say is history everything good people were crazy about the jinx documentary no wonder the man who made it Andrew Jarecki before making the jinx made a narrative feature of the same story of God starring Ryan Gosling as Robert Durst Kirsten Dunst as his wife and alleged murder victim and I was cast as his 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 research package, so there were videos, there were interviews. I think they asked me if I wanted to meet the guy and I didn't. I panic. I think Christian Bale would be ashamed of me. Kirsten and I saw the screening in LA when it was over, it was so good. and then at the end Robert Durst is still living in Galveston selling real estate, the movie made you furious because this guy was clearly a murderer and he was free, we left the screening and thought this movie sucks, I hate this movie because it doesn't end like this , we know that story, oh, so he went to jail.

I was like no, this guy you can still go see him and we were very angry, so I was very happy that Andrew, I mean, what tenacity. he ran the story and made the curse win a bunch of trophies and got Robert Durst to confess that I'm a scream act. A good friend of mine called Martin Garner is coming, who was a guy we did some collaborative writing with. We had written some. things together and he found the Ax Cop graphic novel and brought it to my attention and a couple of other friends did too, I guess, because he had a mustache and he had a deadpan expression.

He knew people from Fox Animation and I brought her to him. for them and we ended up making a cartoon. I just thought it was tremendous fun despite my participation. I was surprised that it wasn't a success. It never really took off as a big animated hit, but the people who really loved it. I loved it. I mean, I think for some reason people just didn't discover it because it's so much fun. I loved doing voice-over stuff, it's a way to develop really fun writing that you know doesn't have the limits of the physical world. He can be stupid in so many other ways in a cartoon.

They always seemed cast to me as people who scream or somehow get into battle and that's why I always end up destroying my voice because you're not limited, you know, if you're fighting a dragon. In real life you can only do a limited number of takes because of the budget, but in an animated work you can kill the dragon all day long, so I always tend to lose my voice, so I had to learn to be very careful to be able to go. at home and I still talk to my wife we ​​are the Millers we are the Millers I played in Fitzgerald and when I came up with that I thought it was so funny Jennifer Aniston is amazing and Jason Sudeikis is so funny and being a comedy duo with Kathryn Hahn who is like a tornado of comedy, it was absolutely charming.

I picked things because I think the writing is good and I thought it was a really fun script and it looked like a blast, which turned out to be what bothered me. After a lot of therapy on my part, I still get weird about people's ears, so I guess we swam, that was something I did. The director may have suggested it. You know, you find yourself in those situations and you just start playing. I think there is sexual relations with the ears. was just one of those lucky inspirations, probably the hardest thing was trying not to laugh at Jason Sudeikis, especially in that tense scene, he really made me laugh.

I pride myself on not breaking easily, but when I do, I do, the Lego Movie, ours. Businesses want everyone to be specialists. You know, if your big break is playing against a tennis champion, then no one wants to see you in a movie about basketball, so we've talked about my acting roles. I've tried not to pigeonhole myself and Ron Swanson ESCA Roles, but when people cast you in animated work, they cast your voice and what you sound like, which I'm pretty okay with, but then I hit a plateau where I thought I couldn't. If I was an actor, I wouldn't do exactly the same thing in every job, so I was really grateful when Phil Lord and Chris Miller chose their metal beard for me and in our first session we played with what this guy sounds like.

It sounds weird, like I'm an Irish robot and I was so happy to be able to do a funny voice and I'd love to do all kinds of funny voices and I know it's going to be really hard to wipe your ass with a hook instead of a hand. It's very difficult, I think we're going to do more Lego movie stuff. I guess it all depends on how he does business-wise, but last I heard I thought there was more to come, so I'll be happy to do Metal Beard until I ran out of ideas, Earl and the Dying Girl, that movie was great , it was a wonderful book, it was a wonderful script, adapted by the writer of the book across the board, it was a work of art, it was a beautiful thing to be a part of. of the cast was great, we filmed it in Pittsburgh which is where it was set and the young actors were surprisingly good, frankly they were annoying because the competence they showed at the age of 19 to 23 I haven't reached yet and I will.

I'm turning 50 this year so I despised them and you still haven't even finished their college drama. Don't go through my stuff, we'll discuss it and she can go through your stuff that I've worked with, I mean the occasional horse or donkey. I had not worked with a cat in a film and I would not recommend anyone to work with a cat in a film. Usually on a film set you end up having to turn off the air conditioning because it makes noise and the rooms get uncomfortably hot. Cats don't like it. that and then if you hold them and they're very furry and warm in general and you're creating like an oven ball, they don't like that either and they let you know that with their claws I was surprised that they could edit. together some usable footage I felt terrible because you know they're telling you to hold that cat against his will so we can photograph you together, the founder, the producers have put together an incredible bible of articles and interviews and there are tons of videos Similar. interviews with these guys, I think you have to ask the question up front: Am I going to cast Charlize as Megyn Kelly in Bombshell?

I'm like: I'm going to go with a full impersonation or not, and so far for me. It hasn't been because people don't know what the guy is like, you know he's not Teddy Roosevelt or something, so what we did was gather everything we needed about these

characters

and then feed the story how we wanted to tell it. I came up with this, well we did it, we did Dick MacDonald, my brother worked on that movie with Michael Keaton at the beginning. I think the scariest circumstance I've ever seen in my final scene of the movie is kind of a very dramatic confrontation with him. in a men's room we screamed in Atlanta and I had gotten there like a week before to acclimatize and do costume fittings and the director said, hey, we're filming in this Country Club, it's a scene with Michael and Laura Dern and a couple.

Other actors come and say hello to me 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 film your

most

important scene in the movie where are". I'm not at all prepared for this afternoon, it's so cool and I said yes, of course. Oh well, it wouldn't be cool to throw up, so I had to prepare it and those were the circumstances under which I met Michael Keaton. We show them everything. system all our secrets were an open book so why didn't you steal it?

You just have your ideas and run away start my own business using all those ideas of yours that fail here are all the not very nice businesses you know how to not fulfill your heroes and all that and we rehearse the scene a couple of times they say okay, let us, but the crew has the set, we'll get everything set up so we have time to go sit in two chairs like this and then Michael. Keaton says, hey, man, he's completely friendly and nice, and what I notice is that every day he shows up and he's such a pro untilHe figures it out and then says, okay, let's talk about baseball or fishing or whatever, we became great friends, but A man who works with someone like him you immediately understand why he's a big movie star, he's great, he's talented. , he's a very hard worker, but he has this acquaintance, he likes to shoot rays from his eyes, so when you're doing a scene with him and he focuses on you at least for me.

I thought he had to speak here very soon, so he had to stay calm. have several, which makes me feel so lucky that he keeps me minding my manners, so maybe I'll even get another one. I worked on a movie called The Hero, which is a beautiful movie, 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 dealer friend and the Movies like this are wonderful, he is a great filmmaker and he wrote his next movie. For me he called "hearts beat loud" and I was over the moon.

I mean, it's the first time I got to be a protagonist that was like a normal guy like there were shots of me walking down the street because the audience cares how my day goes I was like what so I just walk and I like feet emote good, roll the camera I'm sure that means anything meaning meaning I want it that way they want what what way because it doesn't matter, it's me I'm sorry Are you mentioning the Backstreet Boys in reference to my lyrics? With 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 mother Ted Danson Toni Collette. I mean, she's crazy, but Kiersey Clemons. Because my daughter is so spectacularly talented, when she started singing well, she got down on one knee and said our movie was going to be good, and it was so gratifying to be able to do it that the first day we met was in New York and I didn't do it. I don't know, a week or two before we started filming we got together to rehearse our band to rehearse our music because none of us are professional musicians. I wasn't even trying to establish a relationship, it's just one like when your co-star when you're a fellow actor, whoever comes along, you say hi, then you know you're about to do this art project together where you love each other. and they go on a journey together, they laugh a little. you have a few tears, then you meet her and you say hi, like we're about to dance together, we'll play amazing football together or whatever, so there's already a kind of affection, camaraderie and then me. just start making fun of her like I'm playing with her like one of the foundations of our relationship was me making fun of my age when I started texting her emojis.

I started trying too hard with my emoji game. I don't know if you're aware of what's new or exciting with kids these days and you know that, and that would really bother her, so we immediately had a father-daughter kind of relationship, like Dad was trying to be cool and saying, Hey what's up? Do you like house music? Because I don't agree with those developers. I got a call saying Alex Garland wanted to meet with me for a TV series and I was a big fan of his. I mean, I started crying a little when I got there. that call because it was like Stanley Kubrick or something where I thought it wasn't in the realm of someone to 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 role in a very exquisite 8-episode show and you know, it all built up from there. He turned out to be an absolute dream to work with and when someone is as smart and talented as him and them. If you are a dreamer, then everyone else is a dreamer because everyone wants to work with it and be around it, so the whole team and the department heads, all the collaborators, the producers, the cast are one after another, they are absolutely amazing heroes etc.

I am very grateful to be among them when I get a job. One of the things I enjoy the

most

is, "Okay, you got the job, sometimes even before the deal is done. I call the app wherever Alex is and say." Okay, what mustaches can I have? What weird hairstyle can I have? Can I shave my head in a way that will make my wife angry? I love looking strange and unrecognizable, so we talked back and forth and finally Alex found a photo of a guy. and the incredibly talented Nadia Stacy, who did our hair and makeup, won a BAFTA for favorite, no big deal, then took this guy's photo and created it for me, it was my beard, but she trimmed it, so she took my beard crazy and It made it different, crazy and it made me look redheaded and then I had a shaved head so it was a wig with baldness on top.

What am I really doing here? I'm not going to tell you, don't worry. Figure it out, I come from Chicago theater and sometimes people hear that and they confuse it with Chicago comedy and they're two very separate things, so I'm a street theater actor. I'm not a trained comedy actor. I am qualified and I like elocution. and sword fighting, but when you do theater you do whatever is in season and in any theater season you usually have a Shakespeare or Tracy Letts drama, a comedy, so you learn all the tools that you didn't aspire to work with. in comedy or drama or any genre per se, I just hope to work on the best writing possible and therefore I am making my dream come true by having a variety of things that I would not like to be known as a comedy star or, If you only know, a tragic.

I would prefer to be known as something versatile that can get the job done.