Nick Offerman has come to the defense of professional wrestling after training for his new Apple TV series, saying it is “not remotely like fake” and calling the way performers protect each other in the ring “really beautiful.”
In a clip shared by @TVMoments on Instagram, Offerman spoke about what he learned while preparing for his role as a retired pro wrestler in Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
“Most importantly, what I learned is it’s not remotely like fake. It’s incredibly athletic and really dangerous and really violent, but with all credit to them, they’re taking care of each other. They’re really hitting each other, but just so that they can do it again tomorrow and they can stay friends.”
Offerman said he was struck by how wrestlers communicate in the ring, explaining that matches are not fully choreographed move-for-move the way most outsiders assume.
“They have a shared vocabulary so they can say, ‘punch me twice and throw me over the ropes and then I’ll come back around.’ And so it’s not planned and rehearsed, they just are good enough to know, okay, and they do that and they’re able to pull it off.”
He said the biggest revelation for him was learning who is actually responsible for safety during a match.
“The most beautiful thing I learned was that usually the person taking the punch or being punished, they’re the ones secretly keeping everyone safe. Even while they’re like, ‘I’m gonna rip your head off,’ and they are really testing the limits of the human body, they’re also making sure that they take care of each other. It’s really beautiful.”
Offerman was trained by Chavo Guerrero for the role and did all of his own wrestling at age 54. He plays Jinx, a former pro wrestler recovering from addiction who re-enters his daughter’s life after getting out of rehab. His daughter Margo, played by Elle Fanning, eventually starts an OnlyFans account using lessons learned from her father’s pro wrestling career to build an audience.
The series also stars Michelle Pfeiffer as Margo’s mother and Nicole Kidman in a supporting role. It is written by David E. Kelley and based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, who is a well-known wrestling fan and turned Offerman on to Bret Hart’s and Mick Foley’s memoirs during production.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles is an eight-episode series now streaming on Apple TV.
Nick Offerman on why pro wrestling is not fake. He plays a retired wrestler in Margo’s Got Money Troubles on Apple TV.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ pic.twitter.com/m7sFxWhF7t
— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) April 17, 2026
