Nick Offerman almost turned down the role of Bill in HBO’s flagship series and hasn’t played a video game in 25 years!
Warning, spoilers. The following article reveals key plot elements from Episode 3 of “The Last of Us”.
The Last of Us moved audiences a lot with its episode 3, where it leaves out protagonists Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to focus on the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett ).
In the exciting episode, widely acclaimed by the public and critics, Nick Offerman lends his features to Bill, a role he almost refused for lack of time. It was his wife, actress Megan Mullally, who finally convinced him otherwise: this is what he revealed on the set of Jimmy Kimmel Live as reported by our colleagues from AdoroCinema.
I didn’t have time to say ‘yes’ to this job and the goddess my wife is read [le scénario] and said, ‘You’re going to Calgary, my friend! Have fun ! You have to do it.’
This is how Nick Offerman came to play the character of Bill, a lone survivor who creates a fortress in Lincoln with an entire defense apparatus to keep the infected and other survivors out of the area. Everything changes when Frank, played by Murray Bartlett, falls into one of his traps: the two men then form an alliance which ultimately becomes a beautiful romantic relationship spanning two decades in this famous third episode, entitled “For a Long , Long time”.
As you know, The Last of Us is one of the most anticipated video game adaptations of all time, but Nick Offerman also revealed that he had never played the original game released in 2013 and that in In fact, he hadn’t played a video game in a very long time!
25 years ago I played my last video game and I’m very complacent. I lost a few weeks to a game called Banjo-Kazooie. Two weeks passed and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this slow drop of dopamine is so delicious.’ Then it’s over and you say to yourself: ‘Yes, I won!’ And immediately, I say to myself: ‘What have I done with my life?’
He is therefore not familiar with video games, in particular The Last of Us (2013), its extension Left Behind (2014) and The Last of Us Part II (2020) which serve as sources for the HBO series.
“So I decided I’d never do that again and luckily because the games got so good, like The Last of Us, I think I’d be in a basement and not even go to auditions for projects like this,” he jokes.
As a reminder, The Last of Us tells what happens twenty years after the destruction of modern civilization. Joel, a seasoned survivor, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a quarantine zone. What begins as a simple job quickly turns into a brutal and harrowing journey as the duo must cross the United States and depend on each other to survive.
The first season of The Last of Us has nine episodes, which air weekly on HBO in the US and on Amazon Prime Video at home. The show has already been renewed for a second season.
Find Nick Offerman’s interview in its entirety and in its original version below: