‘The Last of Us’: Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman’s wife, was the one who convinced him to play Bill

There are few Hollywood couples as attuned as Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. Most of us knew (and loved) the former as Ron Swanson in ‘Parks and Recreation’, while Mullally shot to fame playing Karen Walker in ‘Will and Grace’ after which she became an American comedy staple. . The two starred together several times, coinciding in ‘Parks and Rec’, where Mullally played Ron’s second ex-wife, characterized by having a strong and very public sexual attraction to him. Since getting married in 2003, the pair have been strongly bonded both on and off screen and, like both actors, are experts in an industry where they are supportive of each other. As it shows, the advice that led him to the role for which he is currently showered with praise: Bill in ‘The Last of Us’.

Offerman plays one half of the focus couple in “A long, long time”, the acclaimed third installment of the series with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, which tells a beautiful love story between two men (the second, Frank, played by Murray Bartlett ) after the cordyceps outbreak and over time. Offerman and Bartlett’s work has earned them critical and commercial acclaim, dominating the series’ conversation since the episode premiered on HBO Max on Monday, January 30.. However, “A Long, Long Time” could have been very, very different, because Offerman almost didn’t make the episode.

He revealed this in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in January, where he explains that, due to lack of time, he would have stayed out of the project. “I’m a huge fan of Craig Mazin. [cocreador y showrunner de la serie]so when I saw that it was his script for his new series, I knew it was going to be something very special.”he said then. “It was at a time when I didn’t have time to do that, so it quickly became a dilemma. I didn’t even want to read it”.

During an interview on Jimmy Kimmel’s second night, with the episode already airing and winning over audiences, Offerman revealed why he finally decided to play Bill. It was Mullally, his “amazing goddess of a woman”, as he describes it himself, what gave him the drive to prioritize that project over the others. According to the actor, Mullally read the script and knew he had to: “He said to me ‘Dude, you’re going to Calgary [ciudad canadiense donde se filmó la serie]. Have fun! You must do it'”. And so he accepted the role for which many are already asking for the Emmy. Given the warm reception to the episode and his work on it, Offerman is very grateful: “It’s a tsunami of incredibly generous praise”says the interpreter after Kimmel feeds him reaction videos to the episode, in which several viewers can be seen crying inconsolably after watching it.

His other queer characters and projects

The director of ‘Mucho, mucho tiempo’, Peter Hoar, told in an interview with eCartelera that there was much debate surrounding Bill’s sexuality, anticipating possible criticism that Offerman was straight in real life.: “Nick was a little nervous, but he put his whole heart and soul into the role. […] We had a lot of discussions, particularly about how Bill would identify because I don’t think he identified as a gay man. Not only was he in the closet, he was in a world where he’d decided to lock away all of his feelings for him. If we wanted to put a label on it, we could have been asexual pretty much all our lives up to this point. And suddenly he feels love and it feels good, and it just so happens to be towards Frank. It’s a great story to find the love of your life no matter who he is, where he is or where it happens. In that respect, Nick was perfect.”.

Nick offerman actually wrote the foreword for this gay bear erotic photography book, so have I been waiting for years for him to be gay? pic.twitter.com/soDQZCSFyQ

? Toph Baefong (@gayearthbender) January 30, 2023

Sure enough, Nick is perfect as Bill, but really, It’s not the first time he’s played a queer character on television. In fact, he is the fourth. Before ‘The Last of Us’ (probably the most in-depth work on the list), Offerman played Captain Holt’s ex in ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’, gave birth to a bisexual chef-baker they sleep with – and of course the one who fights- the protagonists of ‘Will and Grace’ and voiced the owner of a gay bar in ‘Bob’s Burgers’. But be warned, it’s not your only connection to the LGBTQ+ community. After the episode aired, the Internet discovered through a viral tweet that he had been commissioned to write the foreword to a book of gay erotic bear photographs. A true ally.