Nick Offerman Is Showing a New Side in ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’

Nick Offerman knows he has a type. Since his mid-career breakout as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation, the Illinois native has cornered the market on a certain brand of deadpan, handy, emotionally removed yet gruffly lovable steak eater. Offerman has happily leaned into that persona himself, but as often happens with iconic roles, any type tends to belie greater depth — and it’s certainly the case with Offerman, given his origins in Chicago theater and his range of work in indie films, that there’s long been more than meets the mustache.

The Last of Us changed things. In one 2023 episode of HBO’s apocalyptic drama, Offerman beautifully charted a standalone queer romance over decades opposite Murray Bartlett, going on to win a guest-acting Emmy for his wrenching turn. The industry started seeing him differently; peers and colleagues would commend his work there. This dynamic started changing the shape of the offers coming his way — arguably culminating in Margo’s Got Money Troubles, premiering April 15 on AppleTV+.

The pedigreed new dramedy from Emmy winner David E. Kelley stars Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer and Elle Fanning as dysfunctional single mother and daughter. Their relationship enters a dramatic new phase when the latter — also single, barely getting by with ambitions to become a writer — gets pregnant after sleeping with her married professor and decides to keep the baby. The tension is escalated when Fanning’s Margo chooses to make ends meet by cultivating a following on OnlyFans.

Offerman enters the picture as Margo’s estranged father, Jinx, a retired pro wrestler and recovering addict. His experience as a flamboyant performer, combined with his absence from much of Margo’s life, makes him an unexpected mentor for his daughter when she needs one most. That relationship allows Offerman to deliver one of his most surprising, tender performances to date — one that plays off of the archetype he’s spent years effortlessly playing to, while revealing all of that gloriously messy human stuff that’s long been lurking underneath.

In his first interview about the show, Offerman himself acknowledges it feels like new territory. And with it almost out in the world, that’s scaring him a little bit.

I’ve watched all of Margo’s Got Money Troubles. It was such a nice surprise seeing you in this role. 

It’s the most flavorful role I’ve ever had emotionally, and so I’m pretty excited and also terrified for the world to see me have feelings.

Say more about that. What’s the fear?

Well, I have had the good luck to be able to flourish some of the more dependable tools in my toolbox over my career. It was just interesting at age 54 to be like, “Oh wow, I’ve never been cast as someone where we care, across a series, about his emotional journey.” It’s wonderful as an artist to get to face things that still make me terrified. That seemed like a very daunting challenge. To face off professionally and artistically with Elle and Michelle made me feel wonderfully like a freshman, and I still have a lot to live for.

Why do you think they thought of you for it?

People always ask me questions about Ron Swanson and his effect on popular culture, and I enjoy the answer I came up with, which was: The clown is not aware from behind the makeup of why the children are crying. I was in Budapest shooting Death by Lightning for Netflix, which was also an incredibly gratifying and enjoyable job, when this offer came in. It had every aspect: David E. Kelley show, hot novel, Michelle Pfeiffer, Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman. Shoots in Los Angeles. Former pro wrestler, everything — really delicious role.

The pitch came just with this resplendent banquet of dishes. I was like, “What am I missing here? What guy in the business is not killing for this part? This is the best part on TV for a guy.” I suppose Mother Nature gave me this body that could become a convincing former pro wrestler. And thankfully, my work in The Last of Us, particularly,showcased that I have hopefully enough range to cover the dramatic side of the character. Because I’m a human being with insecurities and I own a mirror, I’d be on set and people would say nice things to me about my work that day and I would say, “Well, thank you. I’m glad I’m not fucking it up.”

You won an Emmy for The Last of Us, which did track the kind of emotional arc you were referring to earlier — only, over a single episode. Was that the beginning, maybe, of this new chapter? 

As a student of life and a student of this art form, it just makes me very grateful that I’ve made the right gut decisions to lead me to where [Last of Us creator] Craig Mazin thought I was the right person to deliver that script. When I watch the episodes of Margo, I’m terrified. I have a sour stomach, I have terrible butterflies. It’s interesting. I can’t be objective at all. I can definitely enjoy everything about it, although the fallible human in me watches it and it’s like, “I think this is great, but could I be wrong? Is that just because I want it to be great? How is this pace? How is this tone?” It means so much to me; I’ve spent so much of myself creating a beautiful sculpture and it’s going to be unveiled, and I’m just terrified, up all night thinking, “Are they going to get it or am I going to die a frustrated artist?” That’s why I feel like there was a general approbation of my work in The Last of Us when I first met Michelle Pfeiffer and we began doing scenes. She said some incredibly nice things to me about my work in that, and I still have to take a deep breath and say, “Okay, Michelle Pfeiffer sincerely gave me these compliments.” 

When it comes to creating this sculpture, as you call it, you’ve got a lot of physical stuff to work with in playing a former wrestler and recovering addict. What goes into embodying that for you? 

If I’m not grilling meat in the scene, then I probably need to do some homework. Even now as we speak, I’m preparing to go work on a movie with Alex Garland for which I have some intense voice work and physical work to do. When I got this job, I immediately got ahold of this amazing trainer in town called Grant L. Roberts, who transforms people. We made a plan and I was like, “Okay, I’m going to work out. I’m going to put on as much muscle as I can, but not go through Marvel Superhero School because he’s a former wrestler with addiction issues, so I don’t want to look like John Cena or something.

I grew up an athlete. My dad was an incredible coach and athlete. And so I understand that if I want to start on the basketball team next year, I start dribbling today. And my wife [Megan Mullally] is a prodigy. She’s always been the kid with her talent and her beauty and her singing voice. She’s always been the kid that you’re like, “Okay, let’s put on a show.” know that I’m not going to show up and everyone’s going to say, “Oh my God, we’re going to throw roses at you.” I use my work ethic and I do my best to make a physical transformation.

Both the book and show take a very nuanced, unsensationalized approach to OnlyFans and sex work. What did you make of the material? 

That’s probably my favorite sort of thematic issue in the book, addressing me the age old feminist question of how we consume, to speak in generalizations, sex work in our society versus how we view it and judge it socially. I am such a huge fan of Rufi Thorpe, and I’ve read all of her novels now, and I love the questions that she poses. That sensibility is handled so nicely. My character has knee jerk reactions, superficial reactions, and then is given the opportunity to look at the whole playing field and say, wait a second, “Am I John Lithgow in Footloose looking at this issue through societal eyes or through the dogma or tradition of family values? I have a single daughter who’s in trouble, who has found a way to provide support to her child and herself in a way that I’m failing at right now that isn’t hurting anybody.” I love that shift that my character is allowed as an aspiring alpha male to say, “I’m going to come down on the side of love and family and not social judgment.” 

This is also a different kind of role for Elle, very vulnerable, and you guys have such terrific chemistry. Did you connect over entering uncharted territory, in your own ways, together? 

When the offer of the show came in, that was the ribeye of the meal: to play Elle’s dad and to do a series with Elle — who, from her show The Great, Megan and I had declared the world’s greatest young actress. We just hold her in such high regard. And so it was fascinating getting to work with her because she is so effortlessly professional. She’s so young and accomplished. I’m not a rookie myself, but quite often I would just really appreciate the sort of battle toughness that she had in attacking a lot of this material where scenes would be difficult for internal or external reasons, or a combination thereof. 

We just met Nick and Elle, and our characters also have a lot of estrangement and a lot of weirdness between them. But here we have the narrative of these eight episodes: Let’s link arms and let’s get this motherfucker done. 

You’ve highlighted the breadth of the show a few times — getting to tell this larger, open-ended story. But you’ve done that before, obviously, going back to Parks and Rec.

I feel I’ve learned to imagine the entire narrative of a world, and it was easily learned with Parks and Recreation: They looked at me and took my attributes and characteristics and created something so much more sublime and effective and enjoyable than if NBC had come to me and said, carte blanche, “Nick, write your dream role,” where I would’ve come up with something so much more adolescent and stupid. You know what I mean? That’s the part of me that I would’ve just created. The show would’ve been called “My Id.” 

I show up with my shovel and I’m like, “Show me where to dig and tell me what you want. You want a hole, you want a trench? I do it all. I can shovel like a motherfucker.” I just love to be there with my shovel and be of value to them, have them say, “We heard about your shoveling, and they were right. You dug very well.” And so hopefully I’ll be back to dig more holes next year on Margo.

You went straight into Margo from Death by Lightning — which was a very different physical task. 

After Death by Lightning, I was supposed to do a role in an indie movie playing a dad dying of cancer. It was this really wonderful script, and I was committed to it. I was producing it. We agreed on Death by Lightning that I was in a fat suit — Chester Arthur was considerably more porky than me — and just as we were getting ready to start in Budapest, the cancer movie fell apart and went away. I no longer had this requirement to stay skinny-ish, and so I gladly packed on about 20 pounds. There’s an Austrian dish called a crispy pork knuckle that was a popular tavern meal in Budapest. I’m glad because, among the successes of that show, I really felt like I was successfully fat looking. Immediately at the end of Death by Lightning, then I was like, “Okay, now we’ve got to take that weight off and turn it into some beefy shoulders [for Margo].” 

It was fun seeing you in that milieu, getting to do the full period transformation. 

[Creator] Mike Makowsky generously, again, said he only thought of me as soon as he started writing it. It’s a funny thing because a lot of actors, I think, would have a tough time finding a compliment in that — this guy’s a real hedonistic indulgent piece of shit. (Laughs) “I couldn’t think of anybody but you” is a pretty left-handed compliment. But I have a healthy enough self image that I can appreciate the difference between my true character and what I can portray.

And I saw you’re doing a musical with Megan next. You guys work together often, but that feels like a whole other exciting level. 

I was glad to have a period of four months to try and get some of that work done. And now Megan and I are about to do this musical together, which she’s been workshopping for many years. It’s from the creators of Urinetown and Spelling Bee, both writers and music, and I’m just over the moon about this show. I’m so glad it’s being produced. I have a fun part as well, but it’s very much Megan’s show. She’s the lead.

You’re playing Eugene O’Neill, right?

Yeah. I appreciate that since I’ve been on TV, I bring a certain value to selling tickets at a theater, and I can understand that superficially. But on stage, I’ve also done some of these workshops of the show. So I’ve been involved and getting to work with these Broadway professionals. Again, my skillset is allowing me to ride in this clown car with a bunch of the greats. Their talents are so astonishing to me, and I can appreciate, “Okay, no one’s hiring me to perform a Tony Award-winning aria,” but hopefully I will bring my shovel to bear on this campaign while they dance circles around me. As long as I get to keep showing up and they give me a sandwich, I’ll keep minding my matters.

**

Margo’s Got Money Troubles premieres April 15 on AppleTV+.