Click here to read the full article.
Nick Offerman recently appeared on the “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” podcast and blasted Ben Shaprio’s “rampant homophobia” after seeing a video for the first time of the Daily Wire co-founder and political commenter’s
attacking Offerman’s gay role in HBO’s “The Last of Us.”
“The entire episode has no zombies, no real threat, and it is about two gay dudes who meet and have a relationship, in which one grows strawberries for the other, and then they die,” Shapiro said, noting Offerman “likes to nail dudes” in the episode. “There’s gay Ron Swanson, and it’s complete with sex scenes and the whole thing. And gay Ron Swanson decides that he is also going to commit suicide at the same time because of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or ‘Romeo and Romeo’ in this particular case.”
“Holy shit… that’s crazy,” Offerman responded to the video. “That’s the most Ben Shapiro I’ve ever seen, and there’s a very good reason for that. I mean, I don’t know what to say. I’m embarrassed for his reading comprehension. I think he got eight things wrong in his recap, besides his rampant homophobia.”
Offerman starred opposite Murray Bartlett in “The Last of Us” episode “Long, Long Time,” which took a break from the main storyline of the show’s first season to spotlight the love story between two men over 20 years as the world succumbs to a zombie virus. The episode earned near universal acclaim from critics, but that didn’t stop homophobic trolls from taking issue with the show for spotlighting a gay romance.
In an interview with Variety earlier this year, Offerman said he tunes out toxic online backlash to his work because “you can’t navigate life steering by Twitter trolls, the sadness of Elon Musk and his minions,” adding: “I navigate my life by the writings of Wendell Berry and the values my mom and dad gave me. I willfully ignore the overall public zeitgeist. Something from this article might put me on some Ben Shapiro list, where a bunch of jerks literally will just call me ‘f****t’ or worse on my social media. It’s a pattern. It’s laughable and sad, but it’s also just humiliating.
Offerman won an Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance in “The Last of Us.” During his acceptance speech at the latter awards ceremony, he took aim at the toxic trolls outraged over his decision to play a gay character.
“Thanks to HBO for having the guts to participate in this storytelling tradition that is truly independent,” he said. “Stories with guts that when homophobic hate comes my way and says, ‘Why did you have to make it a gay story?’ We say, ‘Because you ask questions like that. It’s not a gay story it’s a love story, you asshole!”
Watch Offerman’s full interview on “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” in the video below.
