Nick Offerman, best known for his role as the gruff parks department head in Parks and Rec, most recently starred as Bill in last week’s episode of The Last of Us. The surprisingly poignant love story told in the third episode of the HBO zombie survival series is a departure from Bill and Frank’s original storyline in the game. Offerman sat down on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday to talk about the role and about singing a Linda Ronstandt song for his performance.
Naturally, Kimmel asked Offerman if he had ever played the game The Last of Us. While the answer to that question was a quick no, Offerman explained why. Turns out, he’s not entirely a stranger to video games. He just made the deliberate choice never to pick one up again after losing two weeks of his life to Rare’s 1998 platformer Banjo-Kazooie.
“I decided I’m never going to do that again,” Offerman declared to Kimmel, after recounting the sweet dopamine rush and subsequent fall that came after beating Banjo-Kazooie. “Thankfully, because games have gotten so good… that I think I’d be in a basement and I wouldn’t even be going to audition for shows like [The Last of Us].”
Though Bill probably won’t appear in further episodes of The Last of Us, new episodes drop on Sundays.
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