It’s Time to Give Nick Offerman (‘Parks and Recreation’) His Flowers

Nick Offerman (0:00)

Someone sends me an email and says, will you narrate this documentary about beavers? Now what the fuck are you supposed to say to that? Like how do you say anything but you're goddamn right, I will narrate your beaver documentary.

Sam Fragoso (0:15)

I don't know if you need to do the beavers. I think the real question is, Nick.

Nick Offerman (0:19)

I don't need to, I get to.

Sam Fragoso (0:20)

You get to.

This is Talk Easy, I'm Sam Fragoso, welcome to the show.

Today, actor, author, woodworker, Nick Offerman. He first came on Talk Easy in 2021, around the release of his book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play. But in true Offerman fashion, this is a man who stays remarkably busy. Origin, Civil War, The Last of Us, all of which we cover in today's episode. But we begin with his new turn in the Emmy nominated series, Margo's Got Money Troubles, streaming on Apple TV. It's the kind of complicated, emotionally rich character Offerman has said he's always wanted to play, but never got an opportunity to do so. We also discuss his role in the true crime film Sovereign. His return to the stage alongside his wife, Megan Mullally and his new audio series on WNYC, dedicated to the poetry of writer and farmer Wendell Berry. In seminal books like The Unsettling of America and The Gift of Good Land, Berry extolled America's agrarian past from his cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky, writing mostly in pencil and without electrical light. I give all that context because we tape this episode just three days before Berry passed away at the age of 92 And yet, as you'll hear, his spirit hovers over large portions of this conversation. He was a huge influence on Offerman, on and off the page, dating back to the first time Nick discovered Wendell's work in the early 1990s. And so, it seems only fitting that we dedicate this episode on Labor Day weekend, no less, in memory of Berry and all he inspired in readers, including the one and only Nick Offerman.

Nick Offerman, welcome back to the show.

Nick Offerman (2:32)

Thank you. What a sincere pleasure and privilege to be here.

Sam Fragoso (2:36)

How are you doing, man?

Nick Offerman (2:37)

I'm good. I'm maintaining equilibrium. I'm very good at my disposition despite the state of the world.

Sam Fragoso (2:45)

How do you maintain?

Nick Offerman (2:48)

I'm very interested in people who make things tangibly with their hands. So, I run my woodshop here in Los Angeles, and I talk to people about things like farming and woodworking, people who aren't involved in industrial agriculture or any of the billionaire pursuits. And that gives me optimism. People's kids who want to learn about fishing or like tree house building or just like have a conversation or read a book.

And we never talk about apps or TikTok or all of the cancers.

Sam Fragoso (3:28)

Since we last spoke, you have been exceptionally busy, which is always the case. You were recently nominated for Margo's Got Money Troubles, playing a father, a retired fighter and a recovering addict who has recently moved in with his daughter and her young child to help out around the house and I think also to stay clean. I think it's a dual mission statement there.

Nick Offerman (3:49)

Sure.

Sam Fragoso (3:50)

You described the part recently as uncharted territory after 30 years of making work.

Tell me about The Waters. What felt so different?

Nick Offerman (3:59)

Well, I mean, I've had a great time for 30 years, but by and large, there are characters in a show that you care about. Their emotional journey and that's what the narrative is there for. And sometimes in that story, they would get on a bus and I would be the guy driving the bus, or I would be the plumber who would show up.

So I would be a tangential character to the main emotional core of the story.

Sam Fragoso (4:26)

You'd be a pit stop on the journey.

Nick Offerman (4:28)

Yeah. There were touches of Ron Swanson and Parks and Recreation where we obviously cared about Ron's emotional journey. But because it's a pretty fast moving sitcom, it never goes too deep.

And so that and then that nice job I got on the one episode of The Last of Us on HBO, which was a deeply emotional storyline, then people said, oh, it has feelings.

Sam Fragoso (4:58)

And you're it in this case.

Nick Offerman (5:00)

Yeah, and so now, so they're like, we need a thuggish wrestler, but who also makes us feel things.

Sam Fragoso (5:09)