Episode #38： Ron Swanson with Actor Nick Offerman
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
137.09595
Summary
Nick Offerman, who plays the manliest character on TV right now, Ron Effin Swanson from NBC's Parks and Recreation, joins us to discuss what makes Ron so manly, mustaches, and Nick s true passion in life, woodworking.
Transcript
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Brett McKay here and welcome to another episode of the Art of Manliness podcast.
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Well, this week's edition is quite a treat for us.
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I sat down with actor Nick Offerman, who plays the manliest character on TV right now,
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Ron Effin Swanson from NBC's Parks and Recreation.
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During our interview, Nick and I discussed what makes Ron so manly, mustaches, and Nick's
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We really appreciate taking the time to speak to us.
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So, Nick, I know a lot of our readers and listeners are big fans of Parks and Recreation and your
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For those who haven't seen the show, could you kind of describe Ron Swanson and why Art
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of Manliness readers would be interested in him?
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Well, Ron Swanson is the director of Parks and Recreation Department in a small Midwestern
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town, and he is an American man who has remained refreshingly unaffected by the information
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So, he lives a very simple life without the confusion of choice provided by the internet
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and social networking and cell phones and all that, who's sort of a throwback to a more
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He's really into freedom and liberty and self-reliance that I think a lot of American men are attracted
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to, and I think a lot of people know men like Ron Swanson.
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That's what I've encountered when I've talked to people.
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It's like my grandpa or like my uncle who lives out in Montana.
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Well, yeah, I think it's something that, I think Ron's ideals are something that most suburban
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or urbanite people in this country can only dream of because we are sort of necessarily
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required by our businesses to take part in all of the modern technologies that Ron eschews.
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Yeah, so, I mean, do you think that's why there's the appeal for him?
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Because, I mean, since the show started a few years ago, the show has developed a really
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great following, but Ron Swanson has kind of become this almost cult hero.
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I mean, there's Tumblr blogs dedicated to cast that look like Ron Swanson.
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I know, I've seen, like, these magnificent oil paintings of the character Ron Swanson.
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Well, I mean, it's hard for me to say being behind the clown makeup myself exactly what
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it is, but if I had to guess, it would be that, that Ron sort of represents what we all
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I mean, I mean, I myself don't do Facebook or Twitter.
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And it's all I can do just to keep up with my email inbox.
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And it drives me crazy that we're now, that the part of me that wishes I could be more
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like Ron is the part that has to answer 80 emails a day.
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I was talking to my wife about it, saying, in the day of the telephone answering machine, what
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would you think if you came home every day and you had 80 messages that you had to listen
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And it's something that I feel enslaved by or certainly caged by my obligation to the
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Can shrug and say, I care nothing for any messages on my computer.
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So, you know, Ron is known for his kind of iconic mustache.
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Is that something you keep when you're not shooting or is that just for just for the show?
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I throughout my career, I have had every possible iteration of facial hair and head hair.
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I've done a Mr. T, a full on Mr. T, as well as an albino Mr. T.
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I love everything from shaved head to long hair.
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I love everything from huge full beard to, you know, mutton chops to clean shaven.
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And so over the years, I have sported the mustache for different roles.
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It is especially effective, of course, for cop or sheriff.
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And, you know, for years, I would be told by casting directors, when you when you arrive
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at your sheriff years, you're going to you're going to do very well.
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And so so it was sort of one of the tools in my arsenal, one of one of the weapons I had
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And when Mike Chur and I began talking about Ron, that was kind of the first really the
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first decision we made was, well, this guy has a ridiculous kick ass beefy mustache.
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Is she a fan or is she like, yeah, fortunately, she's a big fan of my weirdness, my whisker weirdness.
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She not only is a big fan of the mustache, but no matter what strange thing I do to my
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Well, you're a lucky man because I know a lot of guys wish they could grow a mustache,
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But Ron Swanson would be like, I don't care what what my wife says.
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I know I know a lot of people in that predicament and I say to both of them, I think it's a
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Whatever it is, you know, you're locked into whether it's your image of yourself or your
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husband or if it's some sort of hygienic, you know, sometimes women are like, no, that's
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Sometimes I don't want a bunch of crumbs or I don't know what.
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But I, you know, I tell people it's a it's a really eye opening experience, at least try
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My dad grew a full beard and he was crazy about it.
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Because I've heard Jerry O'Hare who played or not Jerry O'Hare, Jim O'Hare, right?
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He's quoted as saying is that you are as manly or manlier as Ron Swanson.
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And it sounds like you kind of have a very similar your approach to technology is kind
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Is there any other things you've infused into Ron Swanson that comes from your just personality
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Well, first of all, I should say that Jim O'Hare was speaking erroneously and he may have
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been trying to avoid the glaring fact that he is very similar to Jerry Gergich.
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Roundly detested around the set of our show and could not be more of an Eeyore.
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Regarding his comments about me, it's funny to me and I think kind of sad that manliness
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has become sort of this niche conversation, much like, you know, gourmet burgers or custom-made
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And, you know, it sort of speaks to me about how soft our society has gotten that someone
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would want to interview me about how manly he is.
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And I think it's because I grew up, like, the men I grew up amongst, I'm the sissy in my family.
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My dad and my uncles and my grandfathers are farmers and firemen and these guys, these guys could crash
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their tractor into a canyon and pull up their pickup truck and rebuild the tractor into a combine
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and then drive it into a field and harvest enough grain to feed a small city and then drink a case of beer.
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You know, I mean, these guys are like superheroes of manliness compared to me.
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But I just happened to have ventured into the big city, you know, into a field that's made up
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mostly of sort of simpering Shakespeare acolytes, among which I count myself.
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I mean, I enjoy putting on a pair of tights as much as...
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We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
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But there is, I think, one of the things that I learned watching the show, there was an episode
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where Ron built a canoe, just like the night before.
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It's almost like a, I think, a second career for you.
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I mean, I actually am on the cover of the current Fine Woodworking magazine.
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On the stands right now, which is one of the...
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Probably one of the proudest achievements I'll ever come up with.
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That episode you're referring to was actually shot in my shop.
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I spent a lot of my career building scenery as a supplement to my acting income.
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I also spent a couple summers blacktopping roads and driveways and parking lots.
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Which are, you know, in hindsight, those are all things you might consider manly.
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I wasn't setting out to lay the groundwork for Ron Swanson.
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Or trying to become a guy who could grow a good mustang.
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And my woodworking, it sort of speaks to this conversation in that when I got to Los Angeles and I saw, you know,
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your average actor is often a very sad personality because they're so narcissistic.
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And, you know, the actor has so little power over their career path that it's just incredibly emasculating.
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And I got to Los Angeles and I saw all the folks around me suffering, suffering from terrible neurotic lives
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where every day was, you know, filled with the ennui of what will become of me, what am I thinking,
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should I move back to Kansas City and, you know, take that accounting position at my uncle's firm.
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And so when I sort of saw that, my reaction was to make sure that I kept building things out of wood
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while I was auditioning and trying to get acting work
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so that I could just simply hold my head up around my family when I went home for Christmas.
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Yes, I mean, I guess it's kind of a therapeutic thing for you then in a lot of cases.
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And is there a, you know, there's a website you have for your shop,
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and you have just these really fantastic pieces, very beautiful.
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Is there a particular kind of project you like to work on?
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I mean, is there a piece you like to make all the time for people?
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No, I mean, I've made a lot of dining tables that are just one slab of a tree
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But, no, you know, I really just love making things out of wood.
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I have some ukuleles coming up, which I'm making in preparation to then try some acoustic guitars.
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And I think, I don't think I'll ever become, you know, a canoe shop or a guitar shop.
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I think I like making a couple versions of something until I'm like,
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okay, that is a kick-ass table, that is an awesome cabin,
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that is a canoe that I can keep for the rest of my life.
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And then I sort of keep, then I look for what's next.
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I have a couple helpers at my shop, and they are the same way,
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but they also, they kind of head up the operation
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where if somebody wants us to reproduce a table or something,
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And we actually, coincidentally, just yesterday,
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So it's now, there's now some little items you can get on the website
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And so, you know, there's still not, there's a T-shirt and a cap, you know,
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Is there anything I can buy from this shop that's not a $500 footstool?
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So what's the address for your webpage for your shop
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I'll make sure to put that in a link in the post
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woodworking seems like a really involved trade.
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So, I mean, how do you balance that with your acting career?
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or are there, you know, seasons where you're just acting
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then your other times you're doing just woodworking?
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And the last few years, my shop time has been cut into considerably
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But even so, acting is not the most grueling schedule on the planet.
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And, you know, I get days off when I'm not in the story
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So I still get into the shop with some frequency.
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And, you know, I definitely am doing less work now,
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but I'm looking forward to continuing to work with my hands
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It's like, oh, I wish I had a good shop in my garage
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and I would build a table out of a slab of wood.
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because they just seem kind of intimidated by it.
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Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to have a really firm foundation
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in just tool skills when I began what I would call fine woodworking.
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I had several years of being a professional scenery
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But regardless, in general, I think the best advice I could give anybody
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is to start subscribing to Fine Woodworking magazine.
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That's what I did when I got hooked on actual, like, fine woodworking.
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That magazine was just my grad school and my Ph.D. program.
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It's really incredible, and I'm not affiliated with it.
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but I'm simply a huge disciple of the magazine.
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And the thing you'll discover is there's stuff in there
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and there's all kinds of different things you can try and tackle
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or don't take as much of an initial outlay financially.
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and turn, like, anything from pens to lamps to candlesticks to, you know, bowls.
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There are certain things that take up less space
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But, you know, it's like anything that requires a little bit of gumption.
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and I love, I read a quote that fine woodworking masters,
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they say, you know, the greater your mastery celebrated,
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it just means that you're that much better at covering up your mistakes.
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Like, I read an article on fine woodworking many years ago,
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and the article was how to cover up your dovetails that you've screwed up.
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And I said, oh, you can screw them up and cover them up?
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Well, then I, you know, I was completely scared to try dovetails.
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But once I read that article, I was like, oh, well, now I have permission
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And I made a really beautiful shaker blanket chest with a ton of dovetails in it.
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And, you know, I probably messed up 5% of them, and no one will ever know.
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I mean, that's the, you know, that's, I think, I think that's what,
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that's what this side of people who admire Ron Swanson,
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and I think that's what they're craving to hear, is get off your ass,
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go get it, put down the, you know, video game controller,
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Well, those are some wise words and wise advice from you
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Good luck with everything, and I'll see you around campus.
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Nick plays Ron Swanson on NBC's Parks and Recreation,
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and you can catch Parks and Rec Thursday nights on NBC.
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you can check out his website at offermanwoodshop.com.
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Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
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make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com.