What would Ron Swanson say?
Emmy voters have tried to redeem themselves for the Swanson snub by showering Nick Offerman — who finally won a trophy in 2023 for Last of Us — with two nominations this cycle. The actor showed off not only his comedic (wrestling) chops on Margo’s Got Money Troubles, but also his dramatic (mutton) chops on Death by Lightning — landing him in an elite club of 2026 double nominees alongside Matthew Rhys, Colman Domingo, Laurie Metcalf, and Jason Bateman.
No one is more humbled than Offerman himself, who tells Gold Derby he doesn’t get offered a lot of roles. But these two roles, he says, reflected his “authenticity” as an actor.
Here, he reveals what scene was the toughest for him to play, what he learned from working with David E. Kelley — and why he’d be happy to play Jinx for a long, long time.
Gold Derby: Congratulations on your double nominations.
Nick Offerman: Thank you. What a crazy thing.
Matthew Rhys, Jason Bateman, Colman Domingo, Laurie Metcalf — it’s a pretty cool group. Do you all have a group text chat?
Not yet. Laurie Metcalf is [wife] Megan [Mullally]’s favorite actor, and also mine. Megan started in Chicago when Steppenwolf started, in the late ’70s, early ’80s. So we’ve been pals and huge admirers of Laurie for decades now.
Which nomination surprised you more?
Definitely Death by Lightning just gobsmacked me, because the show hadn’t been getting attention in those conversations. We felt that way about it, too. I mean, I think it should win Oscars. It’s so gorgeous, so beautifully produced by Bernadette Caulfield, and Matt Ross directed it. The costumes, the set — I just thought it was so beautiful, but it wasn’t being talked about. It was last fall, and it’s a weird little four-hour history drama. So I was really gratified and grateful that we got four nominations, which is really nice.
Do you think Jinx and Chester A. Arthur have anything in common?
Oh boy, sure. They definitely are men of indulgence. They like to taste of life perhaps a little too fulsomely, and so are often made to curb their appetites in the service of others, or their life’s purpose. They both would easily get in trouble from eating and drinking too much if they were allowed. I would just add that they both, in their story arcs, are required to rise above — they have to listen to their better angels to defeat the lesser parts of themselves in the service of others, which is a really fun thing to play.
So what defines a Nick Offerman character? What makes you say yes to a part?
I guess they have to talk slowly. They have to be a slow talker. I don’t get offered a lot of stuff, you know. It’s a very specific flavor people are looking for that involves me — there’s something authentic about me, perhaps. Like, if I come to show you the porch that I’m going to build on your house, you inherently trust what I say. I’m believable with a shovel in my hands, and I’ll leave it at that. I’ll call that poetry.
What was it about Jinx that made you want to be a part of that show?
I was actually shooting Death by Lightning in Budapest when the offer came in for Jinx, and I had to ask Megan to pinch me, because this offer comes in and all of these things are attached in one email: David E. Kelley, the novel by Rufi Thorpe, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, A24, Apple TV, shoots in L.A., former pro wrestler, Thaddea Graham from Bad Sisters, which we had just watched. Literally every aspect had my head reeling, and I said, “How in the world is every movie star not trying to get this part? This is crazy.”
Megan happened to be with me, and we were driving to Vienna for a romantic weekend, and we were able to listen to the audiobook, read by Elle Fanning of Rufi Thorpe’s great novel. So that was that. I can’t imagine a better pitch than having Elle read your book to the actor, where I was like, “Well, this sounds pretty good to me.” It’s just an absolute dream.
How did you find your way into playing Jinx?
The good fortune of writing like that is, you know — whether it’s Jinx, or Chester Arthur, or Ron Swanson, or The Last of Us, all of these guys are sprung from something in me that made the writer think I’d be a good idea. And so, in the case of Jinx, I very much have that in me. I’ve never been a pro wrestler, but I’m definitely a football-player-shaped guy who has wanted the world to love me for what I can do with my body. That’s one easy in. And then he’s a guy whose weaknesses have really caused a lot of trouble in his life, and even at this late stage, he’s still causing himself trouble. But still, after all these years, he wants to make it right. He still has that human desire of, “Maybe I can still come out on top. Maybe I can still have my hand raised at the end of this thing.”
And so I’m just so on board with that. We’re all human. We all make mistakes, and if we survive them — if we’re not kicked out of the house, if we can be forgiven and still say, “Look, I’m going to do everything I can to make this right” — I can devour that meal for hopefully up to five seasons, if not six.
Jinx definitely gets put through his paces in the first season. What was the toughest scene for you to get through and to perform?
Off the top of my head, without thinking about it, I think the scenes where the Child Protective Services people are in the apartment — I’m getting emotional just thinking about it — and he has to take it upon himself to basically confess his weakness to these strangers, to humiliate himself in front of his daughter, and say, “Look, the reason for this is because I’m a failure. It’s because I’m weak.” To have to play that was pretty devastating. And I’m so grateful to our writers for putting me in those shoes, because that was — it’s the kind of thing where if you stand still and say the words in the right order, it should go pretty well.
What are you proudest of? I would imagine it would be that scene then.
It’s hard to single things out. I’m proudest that we did it. It’s the kind of material that’s so good going in that you’re like, “Well, either we’re going to screw this up, or this is going to turn out to be a really effective piece of storytelling.” I was cowed, definitely, because I admire Elle and Michelle so powerfully — I was pretty nervous. And also Dearbhla Walsh, our director, speaking of Bad Sisters, I really hoped that my game was up to their level. So the fact that we achieved it — and that we did scenes with Michelle and a baby and eating birthday cake, or shooting scenes with them in Vegas, in a bar, shooting pool, being able to maintain my focus and not flip out that I was in this threesome with the two of them, and to have these great relationships with those two actors — that’s the thing. I’m proud that I was up to the level that I was.
And also that I trained really hard to make my body look right, and then to perform actual wrestling, and that I never had to go to the hospital — that was a great source of pride. I was definitely walking funny for a couple of weeks after we shot the wrestling scenes, but thanks to my great coaches, Chavo Guerrero and John Epstein, I was able to stay out of the ambulance.
Pretty impressive, that for sure. How did you get the tone right? Because it is such a balance of comedy and drama. You go too far in either direction, and it doesn’t work.
That’s a good question, and we asked ourselves that in the middle of a working day. There was one day where I barge in on Margo and Suzie, and they’re shooting some OnlyFans stuff, and she’s got her top off, and she’s in a pose, and I’m like, “Hey, have you seen the remote?” And it’s like a horror-comedy scream, and I go back out. It couldn’t be more broad of a moment — walking in on your daughter in that position — and then pretty quickly we’re at the table talking about OnlyFans and pornography and decency and shame, and it shifts completely across to heavy drama and emotional work. Elle and I were like, “What is this? What is this show? How is this going to work?”
And we just said, “We can’t know this. We’re not the writers, and we’re not the editors. All we can do is play each scene as truly as we can,” and try to give them the best chance to make it work. So the funny thing is really funny, and the dramatic thing is really heartfelt, and here we are. I kind of love that about David E. Kelley. He will make you laugh, and things can get downright slapstick, but then suddenly it’s just an emotional gut punch, and he’s really got your emotions by the short hairs as well. He has a deft touch for that. He’s proven that show after show.
And I’ve got to say, I was really impressed. I had been on an episode of The Practice 20 years ago, and I never got to meet him then — I was just a guest star on that. But I did not expect him to be as involved. He still is just in it, from soup to nuts. He’s there doing his damnedest to make the show as good as he can. In fact, we had to ask him to stop fixing the script, because he kept writing. He’d see us shoot stuff, and he’d say, “Ooh, I know how I can make it better in episodes five and six.” And eventually we were like, “David, you’ve got to stop making it better, because we have to lock down our locations and shoot what you’ve written.” And he was agreeable, thankfully.
Yeah, he seems like a pretty nice guy.
So nice, hilariously. The two of them are such a crazy, quiet, normal power couple. For being on the Mount Rushmore of modern entertainment, they couldn’t be more approachable — just sort of sweethearts.
It’s amazing that it took them this long to finally do a show together.
I think it just speaks to the nature of our business that they could have forced something a long time ago, but they let it happen organically. Thank God they did, because finally David was like, “I think you’d better look at this part,” and Michelle was like, “I don’t think so — well, if you’re on it.” She read it and was like, “Well, I can see it work, honey.”
What did you learn from doing the first season that you want to bring to the second season?
I’m interested to see, just technically — one of my questions is how old Bodhi is going to be, because we had these two amazing babies that we just loved working with, which is really lucky, because it’s such a crapshoot if you have babies or animals in your show.
For me, I’m really proud of the work, because I’ve gotten to work on a bunch of wonderful things, but I’ve never been in a whole series where we care that much about my part’s emotional life. And I have these relationships that are so complicated with Michelle and Elle — founded by such powerful affection and familial feeling, but so eroded by a life of iniquity on Jinx’s part. So I just really looked forward to it. It was so gratifying to flesh that out and deal with the two sides of Jinx’s coin: “I really want to be here for you guys, finally. I want to be a good guy. I swear I’m going to be good this time,” up against, of course, his failures and his continued trouble with addiction and other things. It has been a wonderful challenge. I don’t know where anything’s going. I don’t know what’s going to happen in Season 2, but I just can’t wait to see. I’m thrilled and a little trepidatious about what challenges they have in store for me.
For Season 2, you’ve run through all the roadmap of the book. So there’s no path forward — it’s now just their brains.
Yeah, which is exciting and terrifying. But fortunately, Rufi Thorpe, our novelist, is also involved in the furthering of these character arcs. So, with the amount of brains and firepower in the writers’ room, I’m very confident that we’ll come up with eight episodes of a real doozy.
Why do you think audiences have responded so much to the show? What do you think it’s tapping into?
I think, honestly, it’s tapping into the humanity in this sort of time. It’s tapping into what all great novels tap into, which is: What is life all about? What is the point of all this? And it’s taking care of, it’s loving, the people around you. It’s taking care of the people who are taking care of you. It all comes down to that. So it’s this weird mishmash of a ragtag family that has finally, through years of dumb mistake after dumb mistake, all realized, “We are the most important thing in our lives, and we have to protect this crazy, dysfunctional family at all costs.” I think that’s what people are really moved by. And there are a couple of OnlyFans workers thrown into the mix. It’s this crazy gang just saying, “Let’s take care of this kid. There’s a kid here that we want to raise with love and decency,” and we bring our wrestling and our Hooters past, and the Lord is thrown into the mix, and strippers. I just love that earnestly. It’s a wonderful message of inclusivity and equality, saying we’re all just a dips–t like Jinx trying to figure out how to love each other, and people really want to root for that.
Are you ready to get back in the ring again? Are you training?
At the moment, I’m not, but I’m looking forward to it. We don’t start for a few more months, and I’m not sure how much wrestling there will be in Season 2. I hope there’s more, and I will happily do questionable things with my body once again.
Any woodworking in Jinx’s future?
Probably not. If they brought that up, I would shift it to maybe metalworking, or something adjacent, just because I feel like that’s a little too Ron Swanson to get into woodworking.
What advice would Ron Swanson have for Jinx?
Oh boy, that’s a good question. I think he could probably tell him to stay home. And he’d probably have addiction advice. He’d have some spoonerism about, “Whenever I’m tempted to take a little too much of the juice, I chew camel jerky.” He’d have some sort of old-wives, fisherman’s-almanac solution to what ails Jinx.
I’m sure when you’re out and about, you most often get complimented on Ron. But is Jinx starting to break through? Are people talking to you on the street about Jinx?
People do say that they are enjoying the show. I don’t hear people say the word “Jinx” much. They say, “I saw your new show, and I loved it.” It’s harder for a character’s name to break through when it’s only eight episodes and it’s kind of dramatic. But hopefully, by Season 4 or 5, it’ll start to sink in.
So you’re in it for the long haul.
Oh God, I would love to get to do this for a very long time.
And what are you most looking forward to about the Emmys?
Oh, it’s just so nice to be in the conversation. It’s a dream to get to work, to get paid to be an actor, and to work on things that you’re actually proud of with incredible collaborators — and then get together at a party that’s like, “Hey, we all are getting a pat on the back.” It’s really nice to see other performers that I look up to, and to get to rub elbows for a night and take a second out of the hustle and say, “Hey guys, nice job, thumbs up.”
Why do you think voters responded so much to this show? I’m sure you’re going to give me the “awards don’t matter,” but what is it about this show that you think voters responded to?
I feel like, first and foremost, Elle. Elle is like a David Bowie record. She’s so electric and exciting and fearless in her performance. And then Michelle is right there with her. I feel like those two names, and those two personas and their visages, are historically attractive to a viewer. People are like, “Oh, I like looking at those two people. I love what they’ve done in their careers.” So they make the fly paper sticky, and then their performances — who knew Michelle would delight us with a surprising comedic turn after all of the incredible things she’s done? That she had a whole other channel? To my way of thinking, that’s what people thrill to. That’s the headline: You check out these two ladies, these two single moms.
And the dad’s not bad.
I’m happy to be waiting in the car.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
