We Have Megan Mullally to Thank for Nick Offerman's Last of Us Role

Nick Offerman broke hearts with his emotional performance on the third episode of The Last of Us. As it turns out, his real-life wife Megan Mullally had to convince him to take the role.

By Daniel Trainor Feb 02, 2023 9:20 PMTags
Watch: Nick Offerman Credits Wife Megan Mullally for Iconic Last of Us Cameo

The Last of Us fans have Megan Mullally to thank for reducing them to puddles.

During the Jan. 29 episode of the HBO apocalypse drama, Megan's husband Nick Offerman gave a moving performance as survivalist Bill, which left viewers emotionally wrecked.

As it turns out, Megan was the catalyst for getting the project on Nick's radar after he had been courted by The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin.

"He sent me the script and I didn't have time on the calendar to say ‘yes' to this job and my incredible goddess of a wife read it and she said, ‘You're going to Calgary, buddy,'" Nick revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Feb. 1. "'Have fun, you have to do this.'"

Nick told host Jimmy Kimmel that he was still trying to soak in all of the praise and congratulatory message surrounding his performance, saying, "It's a tsunami of wonderful, generous plaudits."

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One of those messages came in the form of a tweet from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who tweeted Jan. 31, "Episode 3 of Last of Us is unbelievably good story telling. I am in awe of
@Nick_Offerman performance. Incredible."

When asked by Jimmy about being lauded on social media by one of the world's richest people, Nick joked, "It's crazy. I got in touch with Jeff and said thank you. He bumped me up to something called Super Prime. They deliver my package and give me twenty dollars."

Nick's performance—which chronicles Bill's decades-long relationship with partner Frank, played by The White Lotus' Murray Bartlett—gives a touching backstory to Bill not told in the Last of Us video games, on which the series based. 

However, Nick didn't have any recent real-life gaming experience to use as inspiration, as he explained to Jimmy.

"25 years ago I played my last video game and I'm very indulgent," he said. "I lost a couple of weeks to a video game called Banjo-Kazooie. Two weeks went by and the slow dopamine drip is so delicious. Then it's over and you're like, ‘Yes, I won' and immediately I'm like, ‘What have I done with my life?' I decided I'm never going to do that again."

New episodes of The Last of Us premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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