Nick Offerman, Murray Bartlett defy stereotypes, expectations in ...

There were times on the set of HBO’s The Last of Us when members of the Alberta crew would ask Nick Offerman technical questions about things that are usually beyond the skill set of the average actor.

Offerman says it’s all part of how an audience “conflates seeing you on television swinging a hammer with mastery.” While the actor has played a variety of diverse roles in several prestige television shows in the past few years – including Fargo, The Resort and Devs – he is probably still best known as alpha male Ron Swanson, the mustachioed libertarian on the sitcom Parks and Recreation. On top of that, most of his online bios add carpenter or woodworker alongside actor, writer and comedian to his list of professions, a reference to the woodworking collective and shop he has run in California for more than a decade. Among the books he has written are Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living and Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop. He also wrote the foreword for something called The Tool Book: A Tool Lover’s Guide to More than 200 Hand Tools.

“When I got onto the set, there are a lot of things I can do and skills that I have,” says Offerman, in a joint Zoom interview with his Last of Us co-star Murray Bartlett. “But then, of course, there are many I am very ignorant of. Even people on the crew, in special effects, would ask me questions about welding or the diesel generator. I mean, there are some holes in my knowledge.”

When it comes to playing Bill in The Last of Us, it could be argued that whatever baggage Offerman brings to the role – “I’m often accused of masculinity, which I’m always surprised by,” he says – adds more depth to the unexpected storyline that unfolds in Episode 3, which aired Sunday.

Audiences are introduced to Bill as a survivalist and conspiracy theorist who sees his worst suspicions realized after a pandemic turns most of the population into flesh-eating zombies and the government clamps down with brutal, militaristic rule. He responds by quickly moving off the grid and setting up a lonely compound where he is completely self-sufficient. One day, a survivor named Frank, played by Bartlett, falls into one of his traps. Bill is initially deeply suspicious of Frank and wants to be rid of him, but they eventually fall in love.

“Bill hates people,” Offerman says. “He has a lot of pain and so in a lot of ways – perhaps the ways are superficial – he’s like: ‘Thank God, all of the goddamned people are gone. I can finally be happy with all of my systems and all of my intricate survival techniques.’ But I think what we learn is when you crack that hard outer shell, the centre of it is the seed of vulnerability. It’s a human being and he wants to be loved and wants to love.”

What starts as a character study, becomes one of the most tender and emotionally involved hours of television in recent memory as it chronicles Bill and Frank’s relationship over the decades in an isolated world that is only occasionally interrupted by outsiders. The episode was largely shot in High River, which is transformed into an abandoned but oddly idyllic small-town community for the pair. HBO embargoed all coverage based on interviews with Offerman and Bartlett until after the episode aired, presumably so there would be no hint of spoilers about the surprising tone and content of this standalone chapter.

Gabriel Luna embraced Calgary, and the Flames, during shooting of HBO's The Last of Us How HBO's mega-budgeted The Last of Us took over Alberta, from Waterton to Grande Prairie

Bartlett, who won an Emmy for playing Armond in the first season of HBO’s The White Lotus, says he was surprised by the depth of the episode and characters, particularly for what is ostensibly a horror and action series. Neither genre has historically been known for giving depth or even much screen time to queer characters.

“It’s beautifully surprising in that it’s, from what I understand, unexpected in the genre,” he says. “Not only that, it’s not us doing a typical queer relationship. The relationship itself is surprising and dismantles those stereotypes. It doesn’t even entertain those stereotypes in a lot of ways. I think one of the things a lot of us hope for as actors is to break through stereotypes and make people think about things in a different way and redefine relationships and characters in a way that allows us to see we are all connected or have universal qualities that really make us more similar than different.”

The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO.