Mens Journal

one of the original McDonald brothers —

says it was “a master class” working opposite

Michael Keaton who plays Kroc. But lately

Offerman has also been busynot acting

embracing his second unplanned career

as everyone’s favorite wiseass handyman

uncle dispensing homespun advice about

everything from oral sex to boatbuilding

and preaching the value of manual labor

with books likePaddle Your Own Canoe and

his newest a memoir/how-to/wood-por-

nography centered around the shop called

Good Clean Fun. “It was basically tricking

my business people into letting me do what

I love” he says. “When I turn down money

jobs because I want to do something at the

shop they say ‘Grumble grumble the shop.’

So I noticed the grumbling and I said ‘Well

let’s do a fancy book that’s going to require

me to spend four mont hs in t he shop’ — and

they were like ‘Great we love the shop!’ ”

Offerman just got back from 30 days in

Europe with his wife actress Megan Mul-

lally where they hit London Barcelona

Rome Venice Berlin and Copenhagen.

“Vacations arehard tocome byforus but

when we do we vacation the hell out of it”

he says. “We visited an embarrassment of

restaurants went to the theater and saw

wonderful works of art and talked to some

people at the Vatican asked for a few rule

changes. They said they’d get back to me.”

Now he’s home for a week during which

time he’s recording an audiobook ofThe

Adventures of Tom Sawyer (t he r e’s s ome -

thingabout hiswry Midwesternmerriment

that aspires to Twainishness) and getting

in some quality shop time. “I get antsy to

get my hands dirty” he says. “If you’re stuck

in Atlanta working [an acting] job for six

weeks by week f ive you’re like ‘Jesus God

let me just swing a hammer.’ ”

Mullally credits the woodshop with giv-

ing some shape to his days. “Because he’s not

actor-y in the way a lot of actors are — which

is great because t hat’s intolerable. He’s just a

really solid person.”

Offerman comes by his blue-collar shtick

honestly having grown up in the middle of

corn country working on a family farm

owned by his grandparents in Minooka

Illinois. His dad taught junior high school

between working the f ields; his mom was a

nurse. Somehow the football-playing farm

boy caught the acting bug and he spent a

few years cutting his teeth in the Chicago

theater scene (dramatic not improv though

he was buddies with a young Amy Poehler)

before moving to Los Angeles at the behest

THIS PROBABLY WON’T COMEas much of

a surprise but Nick Offerman isn’t the type

to make a fuss over his birthday. The actor

writer and accidental paragon of American

masculinity had one a couple of days ago —

his 46t h — but he didn’t do much to mark t he

occasion. “I think birthday celebrations are

important to people who have more drudg-

ery in their lives” Offerman says. “Like

‘Only three more months until I get shitfaced

with my brother-in-law!’ I get to do jobs that

I love which is the luckiest thing in the world

for a grown-up. So I have a little bit of my

birthday every day.” Offerman points to a

box on the table in front of him. “In fact I

think that puzzle is the only gift I received.”

On the box is a photo of a mustached Burt

Reynolds circa 1972 shot from behind

bare-ass naked except for a football jersey.

“Beautiful gift” Offerman says.

Offerman is sitting in his woodshop on

the east side of Los Angeles a functioning

place of actual business where he can typi-

cally be found when he’s not shooting a TV

show f ilming a movie or penning his next

New York Times bestseller. (He has two.) He’s

dressed in a blue T-shirt camouf lage shorts

and a navy-blue gimme cap promoting his

uncles’ farm and trucking company and

sporting a faceful of scruff with a mustache

that seems to have gotten a head start. Offer-

man has had this shop since 2000 when he

was an aspiring workaday actor who made

half of his income as a furniture maker. In

2009 when he got the role that changed his

life as Ron Swanson on NBC’sParks and Rec-

reation he made the inf initely wise decision

to hang on to it. “I said ‘Well that’s a bummer.

I hate to just lock it up’ ” he recalls. “I love t his

shop. I made it myself — every time I’d get a

good acting job I’d get one good tool.” That

band saw for instance? “That was fromMiss

Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.”

Parks and Rec ended last year after seven

seasons and since then Offerman has been

exercising his dramatic chops guest-star-

ring on FX’s cult hitFargo and taking a sup-

porting role in this month’sThe Founder

an iconoclastic biopic about Ray Kroc who

grew McDonald’s into an international

chain. Offerman — who’s excellent and

only the faintest bit Ron Swanson–ish as

ofagirlfriend.Hespentalongtimeham-

mering nails building sets and backyard

yogastudiostomakemoneybetweenaudi-

tions but was told by a prophetic casting

director that all he had to do was grow a

mustache and wait for his “sheriff years”

and he’d be fine.

After a while a man appears at the shop

door and announces “There’s a pretty rad

cloud formation happening out here.”

“Be right there!” Offerman says. “That’s

Daniel Wheeler. Incredible sculptor — his

shop is across the alley. We often call each

other outtolookatthe sky.” Offermanshuf-

f les his way to the parking lot and gazes

upward nodding in approval. “These clouds

are dope.”

INTHE FOUNDER Offerman plays Dick

McDonald one of the two California broth-

ers who started the original McDonald’s

hamburger stand in the 1950s. A straight

arrow with a buzz cut whose f irst words

onscreen are about the french fries being

5percenttoocrispDickisanhonorable

man who values precision dependability

and family. “Any character that’s earnest

who has his heart in the right place I can’t

really help but infuse with my dad” Offer-

man says. “Dick McDonald is very different

from Ron Swanson yet both are inhabited

a great deal by Ric Offerman.”

Offerman’s dad has been the def in-

ing f igure in his life a decent self-reliant

throwback who taught his son how to wield

a hatchet and drive stick. In the new movie

there’s even a serendipitous moment of life

imitating life: The McDonald brothers

relocate their hot dog stand from Arcadia

California to nearby San Bernardino by

sawing it in half and towing it down the

highway; Offerman’s dad did much the

same thing with the home Offerman and

hissiblingsgrewupinanoldtwo-story

farmhousehegotfromaneighboring

farmer in exchange for providing a new

heater for his neighbor’s tractor shop and

a set of cabinets for his kitchen.

The movie tells the story of how Ray

Kroc a salesman from Illinois fast-talked his

way into a partnership with the McDonalds

built their business into a national chain and

then ultimately forced them out and took the

name for himself. They’re the Winklevoss

twins to his Mark Zuckerberg. “Dick and

PREVIOUS PAGE: SMALLZ & RASKIND/GETTY IMAGES

Josh Eells is aMen’s Journalcontributing

editor. He wrote a cover profile of Norman

Reedus for the July/August issue.

“I get antsy to get my hands dirty. If I’m on

a six-week acting job by week five I’m like

‘Jesus God let me just swing a hammer.’”

SEPTEMBER 2016 89 MEN’S JOURNAL