It’s fairly safe to say that if you weren’t already enamored with Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett after seeing them in Parks and Recreation and The White Lotus, you certainly were after this week’s episode of HBO’s hit new series The Last of Us.
The pair absolutely nailed their respective roles as Bill and Frank, and managed to leave us all sobbing by the time the episode’s credits rolled. Offerman and Bartlett took to HBO Max’s Twitter account for a rapid-fire Q&A, answering a number of questions about their roles on the show as well as their personal lives.
Just past the three-minute mark of the above clip, Offerman and Bartlett are asked what they would be doing with their lives if they weren’t actors, and Offerman offered possibly the most blunt and Ron Swanson-esque response you could ever hope for. Fans familiar with Offerman’s character on Parks and Recreation undoubtedly heard the character, and not the actor offering up this response.
“I would build things out of wood, like boats, and musical instruments, probably.”
While woodworking is a known hobby of Offerman’s in his personal life, a lot of us would be most well-acquainted with Ron Swanson enjoying this pastime. An early episode of the NBC sitcom springs to mind, in which Ron’s workshop has a city-mandated health and safety inspection, only to fail miserably. Of course, Swanson considers the assessment to be absolutely ludicrous.
As for Bartlett, he would likely want to be out in nature as much as possible, potentially as a park ranger. A response which would also have appeased Offerman’s (at this point) alter-ego, having gladly taken up such an occupation by the time Parks and Recreation had finished its run.
Despite bringing some of his textbook Swanson-esque energy to The Last of Us, Offerman really went all-in on as Bill, going so far as to push showrunner Craig Mazin into letting him deliver perhaps the most iconic one-liner in this week’s episode.
The Last of Us will be back with another episode this Sunday on HBO Max.
