In Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Margo (Elle Fanning) has to figure out a plan when she gets pregnant and the father (Michael Angarano) has no interest in being involved, leading her to lean on support from her newly-engaged mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) and ex-wrestler father (Nick Offerman) while seeking financial opportunity through an unexpected source: OnlyFans.
Awards Buzz spoke with Offerman about whether he feels he’s made a transition from comedy to something more dramatic, even though this show is technically also considered a comedy:
“It’s interesting – in Chicago theatre where I started, I mean in the theatre, in the theatres with an R-E at the end, you hope to just get cast, whether it’s Shakespeare or comedy or Ibsen or Chekhov, you hope that you have everything in your toolbox that you need for the season. Once I moved to LA, people really want you to be a specialist. So first I was doing ER, Deadwood, NYPD Blue, and people were like, okay, Offerman, he’s a procedural drama guy. He’s the next Boreanaz. No one ever said that, thankfully. But then I had to convince people because I was like, why am I never auditioning for comedies? So then I started doing comedy theatre stuff and then Parks and Rec happened, and so now people are like, oh, I didn’t know you could do drama also. I just like to perform good writing, and so all of these things that we’ve mentioned have just been a dream come true. Ron Swanson, the stakes for him on Parks and Rec were just as dramatic, if not more, as anything else I’ve worked on, but it was just in the contextually to make you laugh more than say The Last of Us, so I’m just really grateful to be involved in this great writing.”
He had more to add about what constitutes a comedy, both in the past and now:
“I also think it’s interesting in this modern landscape, with The Bear. This happened during Parks and Rec – Nurse Jackie won Best Comedy and Edie Falco beat Amy for funniest actress in a comedy. Now, with all due respect to the great Edie Falco and Nurse Jackie, great show, and also The Bear, great shows, but don’t give them a trophy if the trophy is the funniest person. Things get a little muddy, and so when I found out that Margo was in the comedy category, I was like, okay. It’s nice to be in a category. It’s nice to be in a show that people like and there are certainly very funny things about the show.”
Watch the video above to hear Offerman’s enthusiasm about his other Emmy-nominated role this season, playing President Chester Arthur in the Netflix limited series Death by Lightning.
Season one of Margo’s Got Money Troubles is streaming on Apple TV and Death by Lightning is streaming on Netflix.
