Nick Offerman Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

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'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.

[laughing]

[upbeat music]

American Body Shop.

The character Rob on American Body Shop

was my first leading role in 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 you know,

come very close to like getting them and never got them.

Oh, jeez,

look at that, he's on fire!

[Male] He's on fire!

Rob was easily the best part on the show,

it was sort of mockumetary,

it was pretty broadly comic.

I just remember I had an unexplained bald spot

that I was really excited about.

Good news, another undercarriage road test.

We came up with it when we were cooking up our looks.

All the other guys

did the normal frat guy thing where they were like,

oh I should roll up my sleeves

and have cool hair like Danny Zuko.

And I was like, I wanna have a weird bald spot

and always have some mad scientist glasses

and a weird handlebar mustache and be filthy.

[upbeat music]

Childrens Hospital.

I did a movie with Rob Corddry

in the early 2000s I guess and we had a blast.

He was the white [bleep] 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 Childrens 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.

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 Childrens Hospital career.

So I was supposed to be a regular on Childrens Hospital

in the role of Chance Briggs

but after some negotiation, NBC agreed to let me do

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.

Do you have time for cancer?

Get in here.

No!

You get in here.

We loved working on it, it was really fun,

it felt like we were getting away with something.

[upbeat music]

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 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 Megan, we'd watch The Office,

and I would say, You know what,

if I'm ever gonna get a big break

I think it's gonna be on a show like this.

In a part like Dwight Schrute.

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 Rashida's character

and it went great and everybody was very happy

and they sent the tape to NBC and they said,

literally, this is a quote,

Nick Offerman?

You said someone like Aaron Eckhart

and you sent us this hog?

I 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,

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 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 role

and then together we added layers onto him.

They made him a woodworker because I,

like Ron's wood shop on the show

is my actual shop in real life

and his canoes, 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, stupid [bleep]

This is a waste of time.

The mustache was one of the looks that I had had on stage.

I definitely favored a substantial mustache.

That was the first thing we agreed upon,

was that he would have a kick ass mustache.

The hair do 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 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 stay beefy.

So I ate at least two cheeseburgers a day for seven years.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[upbeat music]

All Good Things.

People were crazy about the documentary,

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 [bleep] story.

Starring Ryan Gosling as Robert Durst,

Kirsten Dunst as his wife and murder victim, allegedly,

and I was cast as her brother.

And these are all real life people

and it was really good.

I mean it was a really good movie.

Thank you Ma that's nice, I feel

much better about my life now!

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 a screening of it in LA when it was done,

it was so good

and then at the end, Robert Durst

is still living in 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, we were like,

this movie sucks, I hate this movie

cause it doesn't end like that story, we know that story.

Like, oh then he went to jail, I was like no,

this guys is still, you can go see him.

And we were really angry so I was really happy that Andrew,

I mean what tenacity, he stuck with the story

and made The Jinx, won a bunch of trophies

and got Robert Durst to confess on screen.

[upbeat music]

Axe Cop.

A good friend of mine named Martin Garner

was a guy who've 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 of other friends did too.

I guess because he had a mustache

and he had sort of a dead pan delivery.

We've got some bad guys to kill!

I will chop your heads off!

I knew people at Fox Animation and I brought it to them

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 took off as a huge animated hit

but the people who love it really love it.

I mean I think for some reason people

just didn't discover it cause it's really funny.

Love doing voiceover stuff.

It's a way to get to work on really funny writing that

doesn't have the limits of the physical world

so you can be stupid in so many more ways in a cartoon.

I always seem 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 in 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.

[upbeat music]

We're The Millers.

We're The Millers, I played Don Fitzgerald

and when that came to me I just thought it was really funny.

Jennifer Aniston is amazing and Jason Sudekis

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 cause 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.

[Female] The tent scene comes to mind in particular.

That was upsetting.

That required a lot of therapy on my part afterward,

I still get weird around people's ears.

So I guess we're swinging.

Hm, oh yeah.

Oh!

There they are.

Wow.

I love you looking at this, I'm touching her boobs.

[Female] Was that written in the script?

I believe 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 Sudekis

especially in that tent scene, he really made me crack up.

I pride myself on not breaking easily

but when I do, I go for it.

[upbeat music]

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, in my acting roles,

I've tried not to get pigeon holed

in Ron Swanson-esque 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 I sort of reached a limit where I was like,

if I was an actor I wouldn't do

this exact same thing for every job.

And so I was really grateful when Phil Lord and Chris Miller

cast me as Metal Beard and in our first session,

we played around with that does this guy sound like?

This weird sounding, you know like Irish pirate

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--

Really hard!

Wiping ye 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.

[upbeat music]

Me, Earl and the Dying Girl.

That film was great.

It was a wonderful book, it was a wonderful script,

adapted 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 at 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 23, I have not yet achieved and I'll be 50 this year.

So I despised them and still do.

You have not even unwrapped your college dire--

Mom 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 [bleep]

and then if you hold them

and they're very hairy and warm in general

and you're creating a 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 usable footage.

I felt terrible because you know,

you're being told hold that cat against its will

so that we can photograph you together.

[upbeat music]

The Founder.

The producers had put together an incredible bible of

articles and interviews and there's

tons of video interviews with these guys.

I think you have to ask the question from the get go,

am I gonna go for Charlize as Megan Kelly in Bombshell,

am I gonna go for 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.

How the heck did you come up with this?

Oh I didn't, we did.

Dick McDonald, my brother.

Hi, boy I gotta tell you, this is the most...

Well it's nice to meet you.

Working on that film with Michael Keaton,

at first I think that was the scariest

circumstance I'd been in.

My final scene in the movie is a very dramatic

sort of face off with him in a men's room.

We shot it around Atlanta and I'd gotten there

a week early to get acclimated and do costume fittings.

But the director said, Hey we're shooting

at this country club, it's a scene

with Michael and Laura Dern and couple of other actors,

come on by and say hi and whatever.

And right when I got there 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.

Why wouldn't it be cool?

Barf.

And so I had to 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 grab your ideas and run off to start

my own business using all those ideas of yours?

Would've failed.

He was all business.

Not very nice, don't meet your heroes and all that

and we rehearsed the scene a couple of times,

they're like okay let the crew have the set,

we'll get it all set up.

So we have time, we go sit in two chairs like this

and then Michael Keaton is like, Hey man...

Like completely so friendly and nice

and what I realize is, everyday he shows up

and he's all business until he gets it figured out

and then he's like, all right 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 has...

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,

oh my god he's looking right at me!

[whimpering]

I have to talk here pretty soon.

So I had to keep it together.

[upbeat music]

Hearts Beat Loud.

The role of Frank Fisher in 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 you can get another one.

I worked on a movie called The Hero

which is a beautiful film, this guy named Brett Haley

made I'll See You in my Dreams starring Blythe Danner

and then The Hero starring Sam Elliott

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 just 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 there were shots of me walking down the street

cause the audience cares about how my day is going.

I was like, what so I just walk?

And emote?

All right.

Roll camera.

I'm not even sure it means anything.

Meaning smeaning.

I want it that way?

They want what, what way?

Cause it doesn't matter--

Wait, 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.

Hmm.

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,

we all took a knee and said,

Our movie's going to be good.

It was so gratifying to get to do that.

The first day we'd 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 pro musicians.

I wasn't even trying to establish a rapport

it's just when your costar, when your fellow actor arrives,

whoever that may be, you're like, Hey, hi.

So you already know that you're about to make

this art project together in which you love each other

and you go through a journey together.

You have some laughs, you have some tears.

Then you meet her and you're like, Hi.

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 fondness, a camaraderie

and then I just start

teasing her, messing with her like,

one foundation of our relationship was

me making fun of my age.

I started texting her emojis, I started trying way too hard

with my emoji game, things like that where I was like,

Kiersey I don't know if you're up on

what's fresh or fire with the kids these days.

You know, and that would really annoy her.

So we just immediately had a dad, daughter rapport.

Like dad trying to be cool be like,

Hey what's up do you like house music?

Because I'm down with that.

[upbeat music]

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 I was like,

said to my wife, Honey I have a very good part

in a very exquisite eight 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 as smart and talented as him

and they're dreamy, then everybody else

is dreamy cause 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

so I'm very grateful to be among them.

When I get a job, one of the things I relish the most is

okay you got the job, sometimes before the deal closes,

I call whoever 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

[bleep] up 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 Stacey,

who did our hair and make up, she won

a BAFTA for The Favorite, not a big deal,

she then took the picture of this guy and 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 baldness on top.

What am I actually doing here?

I'm not gonna tell you.

Don't worry, you're gonna figure it out.

I come from Chicago theater and sometimes people

hear that and they mistake it for Chicago comedy

and it's two very separate things.

So I'm a straight theater actor,

I'm not a trained comedy performer.

I'm trained in elocution and sword fighting

but when you do theater, you do whatever's 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 hoped 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 not want to be known as a comedy star

or only a tragedian.

I'd rather be known as someone versatile

who can get the job done.