‘I assume I would be a chicken s***’: Nick Offerman on facing the apocalypse in The Last of Us

*Warning – Major spoilers ahead for The Last of Us episode three*

Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett’s episode of HBO’s hit video game adaptation The Last of Us has a heartbreakingly beautiful, Romeo and Juliet-style ending.

Offerman’s Bill decides he cannot live without Bartlett’s terminally ill Frank, and the two die peacefully together in bed after consuming a lethal overdose of drugs.

At a recent roundtable interview attended by The Independent, the pair were asked if they would have the “courage” to go through with their characters’ actions if faced with the same scenario.

“I am perhaps too romantic but I don’t know that I would have the guts to go through with what happens in this episode,” Bartlett responded.

He continued: “I would certainly want to… And in that context of being in that situation, having had the incredible connection they had, I would be very drawn to that concept but I’m not sure that I would have the guts to fully go through with it.”

Nick Offerman in ‘The Last of Us’ (Liane Hentscher/HBO)

Speaking more widely about their characters’ courage in the face of a zombie apocalypse, Offerman joked: “When asked if I would have the courage to do anything, as an honest human being I have to assume, no.”

The actor added that he does share some traits with his survivalist character: “I come from a family that is very practical and we are self-sufficient and I do like to know a lot of the kind of things that Bill knows so that I’m ready to help myself and my loved ones in any given circumstance.

“But, I’m also a fallible human, so, if asked in the final reckoning, I’ll assume that I would be a chicken s***.”

Elsewhere during the roundtable, the Australian actor revealed that his partner was “really affected” by seeing him aged up and sick in the series.

The Last of Us is available to watch in the UK on Sky Atlantic and NOW. New episodes arrive on Mondays at 2am GMT.