'The Last Of Us' Star Nick Offerman Reveals Why He Hasn't Played The Hit Survival Game
Nick Offerman just came clean about why he’s never actually played The Last of Us despite starring in the hit HBO adaptation of the video game.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the actor said he’s kept his distance from the drama series’ source material because he literally swore off gaming decades ago.
Offerman then revealed the hilarious reason that he stopped: an unhealthy obsession with Banjo-Kazooie, the 1998 platform game for the Nintendo 64.
“Twenty-five years ago, I played my last video game,” he said, adding that he can be a “very indulgent” person.
“I lost a couple of weeks to a video game called Banjo-Kazooie. And two weeks went by, and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, 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?’ And so I decided I’m never going to do that again.”
The “Parks and Recreation” alum quipped that if he ever plays The Last Of Us, he may meet the same couch-locked fate yet again.
“Games have gotten so good, like The Last of Us, that I think I’d be in a basement and I wouldn’t even be going to audition for shows like this,” he said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Offerman revealed that he nearly turned down the HBO role until he received an encouraging push from his wife of nearly 20 years, Megan Mullally.
“I didn’t have time on the calendar to say yes to this job, and my incredible goddess of a wife read [the script] ... and she said, ‘You’re going to Calgary, buddy,’” Offerman shared, naming one of the Canadian locales where filming took place.
“Have fun! You have to do this,” he recalled Mullally saying.
The postapocalyptic series’ third and latest episode, in which Offerman stars as the character Bill, was met with criticism across social media this week over a confusing geographical error.
During the show, a scenic mountainous shot is described as “10 miles west of Boston,” though viewers familiar with the area outside the city quickly began rebutting this claim.
On Twitter, fans posted screenshots of the supposedly Boston-adjacent scene, pointing out that it looks nothing like the city’s surrounding towns and suburbs in real life.
Even author Stephen King swooped in to roast the episode for the obvious blunder.
“Do you really want to tell me that’s 10 miles west of Boston?” the famed horror writer tweeted Monday.
THE LAST OF US. Episode 3: Do you really want to tell me that’s 10 miles west of Boston?
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 31, 2023
Last week, HBO announced that “The Last of Us” had been renewed for a second season amid the series’ massive success.
