Actor Nick Offerman is renewing his criticism of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro over Mr. Shapiro’s years-old takedown of Mr. Offerman’s gay role in HBO’s “The Last of Us,” accusing him of “rampant homophobia” during a new podcast appearance.
During an episode of the “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” podcast published Sunday, host Sam Fragoso played Mr. Offerman a clip of Mr. Shapiro’s 2023 commentary criticizing “Long, Long Time,” the standalone episode in which Mr. Offerman’s character, a survivalist named Bill, falls in love with a fellow survivor, Frank, played by Murray Bartlett, as a zombie pandemic collapses society around them.
In the clip, Mr. Shapiro mocked the episode for abandoning the show’s central threat and argued that “gay Ron Swanson decides that he is also going to commit suicide,” a reference to Mr. Offerman’s famous “Parks and Recreation” character and to the episode’s “Romeo and Juliet”-style ending.
Mr. Offerman appeared stunned by the clip and said he was “embarrassed” for Mr. Shapiro’s reading comprehension, and according to TheWrap, which first reported the exchange, added that “I think he got eight things wrong in his recap, besides his rampant homophobia.”
Mr. Offerman also compared the resurfaced clip to content from podcaster Joe Rogan and said he worries about the reach such commentary has with audiences who share Mr. Shapiro’s views, though he said he generally avoids engaging with online critics directly, joking that he’d rather spend his time reading the writer Wendell Berry than “snark back” on social media.
This is not the first time Mr. Offerman has addressed backlash to the role. He used his 2024 Independent Spirit Award acceptance speech to respond to homophobic criticism of the episode, telling the crowd, “It’s not a gay story, it’s a love story, you asshole.” Mr. Offerman also won an Emmy for the performance, and he received two more Emmy nominations this year for his roles in “Death by Lightning” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.”
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