The Last of Us’s Nick Offerman hasn’t played a game in 25 years, and blames Banjo-Kazooie

Nick Offerman, who stars in the TV adaptation of The Last of Us, says he hasn’t played a game in a quarter of century, and Banjo-Kazooie is to blame.

Offerman was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night, discussing his performance in the recently-aired third episode of the show.

Noting that the show is based on the game of the same name, Kimmel asked Offerman if he played video games in real life.

“No,” Offerman replied. “25 years ago I played my last video game.”

He explained: “I’m very indulgent, and I lost a couple of weeks to a video game called Banjo-Kazooie. 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 – and thankfully, because 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.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Offerman revealed that he may not have taken the Last of Us role had it not been for his wife’s intervention.

“[Craig Mazin] sent me the script, and I didn’t have time on the calendar to say yes to this job,” he explained.

“Then my incredible goddess of a wife read it, and she said: ‘You’re going to Calgary, buddy. Have fun. You have to do this.'”

Offerman features heavily in the show’s third episode, which has been met with widespread critical acclaim. The episode introduces Bill (Offerman) and Frank, (Murray Bartlett), two post-pandemic lovers living alone in their own isolated town.

Offerman is the latest star of the show to reveal he hasn’t played it. Leads Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey have also confirmed they didn’t play the game during preparation for the role.

Further reading

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Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us had the highest audience ratings yet

Viewers were up 12% following a record jump the previous week

Pascal said he didn’t want to imitate the video game version of Joel too much, while Ramsey, upon stating during her audition that she hadn’t played the game, was told to “keep it that way”.

Last week HBO said it had renewed The Last of Us for a second season. The news came after the show’s second episode recorded the largest ever week two audience growth for an HBO original drama series.