Nick Offerman tore out all of our hearts with his performance as Bill on The Last of Us. It’s one of his most memorable roles to date, but Offerman has a long career. Where else can you see him do his best work? Let’s get into it.
6. Nick Offerman as…Metalbeard in the Lego movies
Nick Offerman has carved out a reputation for himself as a gruff man’s man, a guy who can build it himself, cook it himself, and do it himself. A lot of his best roles play on this persona; he’s at his best when he’s playing some version of himself.
But occasionally he gets to cut loose and just be silly. He played a giant LEGO pirate named Metalbeard in two of The Lego Movies, putting on a seadog accent so think you might not know it was Nick Offerman under there if you weren’t listening.
The Lego Movie isn’t the meatiest part Nick Offerman ever sunk his teeth into, but it proves he can step completely outside himself when the situation calls for it.
5. Nick Offerman as…Forest in Devs
Nick Offerman, in his natural state, is taciturn, quiet, and authoritative. A lot of his best roles take those traits and milk them for comedy, but in the right circumstances they can be…kinda scary.
No where is that more clear than on Devs, a little-watched FX show where Offerman plays a tech billionaire who invents a system so accurate it can predict literally anything about life, down to the smallest detail, into the distant future or back into the far reaches of the past. The knowledge drives Forest mad, and we get horrifying scenes of detached, cold-hearted murder like the one above.
By all accounts, Nick Offerman is a warm, nurturing person, but there’s a steeliness to him that makes him well-suited for characters like this.