When ‘The Last of Us’ showed us a captivating gay love story in its first season through the characters Frank and Bill, it was generally well-received and loved by a lot. But that doesn’t mean it did not trigger a wave of hate and homophobia, which Nick Offerman, the actor for Bill, recalled receiving.
In an interview with The i, the third episode of ‘The Last of Us’, where he and Murray Bartlett (the actor for Frank) portrayed a queer couple, brought him a lot of homophobic hate on social media.
“I was kinda fascinated by how openly people will express hate and brand themselves as bigots. I kept thinking: ‘We can see you!’ Because there were men saying: ‘I’m a father and a Christian and a patriot and I hate queers’,” he said.
Offerman admitted that while he has gained fans from a demographic that is loyal to his “poster boy” look for American masculinity, he found a problem in that. “We’re basically punishing people for loving wrong. All these people want to do is to love each other. Like, I love Belted Galloway cows. I also love walnut trees.” He added that in his woodworking shop in LA, “straight, gay, trans, non-gender-conforming” people come to him, but “it doesn’t matter if you want to make a table, and why should it?”
