The Last of Us Cast Behind the Scenes Secrets Revealed
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VOICE OVER: Phoebe de Jeu
Although we're only a few episodes in, we've learning some great behind-the-scenes secrets about "The Last of Us" cast. For this list, we'll be looking at some of the most interesting tidbits that went into the making of this already hit HBO show on the acting side of things. Spoilers for the first three episodes ahead! Our list includes Hundreds of Ellie Auditions, Nick Offerman & Murray Bartlett's Casting Timeline, Bella Ramsey's Switchblade Idea, and more!
Script written by Tim MacAusland
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at “The Last of Us” Cast Behind the Scenes Secrets Revealed. For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the most interesting tidbits that went into the making of this already hit HBO show on the acting side of things. And these are just some of the things we know so far! If you haven’t seen the first three episodes yet, beware of fungus-like spoilers! Do you know of any other juicy behind-the-scenes deets? Let us know in the comments!
Fans have already made comparisons to another show where Pedro Pascal plays a grizzled badass who has to protect an endearing youngster, so it’s no wonder why he’d be drawn to the script. Joking aside, Pascal clearly saw the potential for the show from the get-go, agreeing to play Joel within a day of reading a script. In an interview with BuzzFeed, creator Neil Druckmann admitted to the creative team having eyed Pascal for a while, recognizing the nuance needed to play a haunted yet stoic survivor in the actor. Druckmann further elaborated, lauding Pascal for creating “compelling moments of humanity that you see [sic] slowly emerge.”
While the search for a Joel ostensibly wasn’t too difficult, Ellie was a different story. Back before it was a TV show, “The Last of Us” was potentially being developed as a movie, going back as far as 2014. Naturally, they looked at a lot of young actors who eventually aged out of the roles. Before they settled on Bella Ramsey, Druckmann had a chat with Ramsey’s “Game of Thrones” co-star Maisie Williams. Another name Druckmann mentioned in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter was that of “Booksmart” star Kaitlyn Dever. As much as those two actors could’ve brought something interesting to the role, we can’t see anyone but Ramsey as Ellie. Speaking of which…
Finding an actor to so effectively play a fourteen-year-old in such extraordinary circumstances is no easy task, so it’s not surprising that the producers had hundreds of girls audition for the part. What is interesting, however, is how easy it was to cast Ellie once Bella Ramsey’s tape came in. Neil Druckmann saw some 100 audition tapes before coming across Ramsey’s, at which point he didn’t see Ramsey - he saw Ellie. By no means are Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey one-to-one comparisons of their characters’ video game counterparts, so it’s heartening to know they fit the parts in every way that counts. Druckmann was even as bold to say “We just found Ellie in the real world and happened to put her in the show.”
The show for the most part has done pretty well finding actors who either physically or characteristically resemble the characters for the game. But they really couldn’t do any better than Merle Dandridge as Marlene, probably because Dandridge played Marlene in the game, too. Indeed, Dandridge is the only actor to reprise their role from the game here, and she works as well in the part as she did ten years prior. Obviously, playing Marlene this time around was a whole other experience for Dandridge, who actually got to interact with the world directly rather than act on a motion capture stage. Circumstances and environments may change, but hey, when it works, it works.
Already, “Long, Long Time” is being called one of the best TV episodes of the year, as Bill and Frank’s hauntingly beautiful apocalyptic love story has moved fans to tears. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett have such good chemistry that it’s surprising producers didn’t know this ahead of time with a screen test prior to casting. Indeed, Bartlett was cast a couple months before Offerman, who replaced “Chernobyl” actor Con O’Neill due to scheduling conflicts. Funnily, Offerman admitted in an interview with TVLine to just having finished watching “The White Lotus” Season 1 before being cast, for which Bartlett won an Emmy. However, Frank and Armond couldn’t be more different.
Some actors find delving into a source material can provide a helpful road map when adapting a character. Others like to go in entirely fresh and find their own groove. This second method is what producers advised Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal to do. But did they listen? Mostly not. To Ramsey’s credit, she wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t play the game in preparation, but she did admit in an interview with USA Today to watching gameplay on YouTube. Pascal on the other hand completely ignored their advice. In an interview with Wired, he said he was “very, very bad at it.” But he did say his nephew was “fantastic” at it, so there’s that.
Often overlooked in a show with such stellar production designs and character development is those of the stunt actors. Specifically, those playing the infected. Much like actors playing walkers on “The Walking Dead,” infected actors here had to be put through what Neil Druckmann calls “movement bootcamp” to get the physical mannerisms down pat. We can’t imagine the preciseness and discipline that goes into something like that, especially with the amount of fungus prosthetics that are covering their faces. But looking at the finished product, it’s obvious that the filmmakers found a dedicated crop of physical actors to bring the infected to such chilling light.
Filming was clearly a very collaborative and engaging process for those involved, if only evidenced by this scene. When we catch up with Joel, Tess and Ellie in the second episode, we see the latter dozing with a switchblade in hand. According to Neil Druckmann, this little prop inclusion was thought up on-set by Bella Ramsey herself. She conjectured that this being Ellie’s first night with her new traveling companions, there’s no way she wouldn’t be sleeping with some protection just in case. Especially since the adults just found out she was technically infected the night before. Ellie has a myriad of reasons to want protection, but it’s small character details like this that really speak to how the actors are fleshing them out.
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at “The Last of Us” Cast Behind the Scenes Secrets Revealed. For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the most interesting tidbits that went into the making of this already hit HBO show on the acting side of things. And these are just some of the things we know so far! If you haven’t seen the first three episodes yet, beware of fungus-like spoilers! Do you know of any other juicy behind-the-scenes deets? Let us know in the comments!
Pedro Pascal Signed on a Day After Reading the Script
Fans have already made comparisons to another show where Pedro Pascal plays a grizzled badass who has to protect an endearing youngster, so it’s no wonder why he’d be drawn to the script. Joking aside, Pascal clearly saw the potential for the show from the get-go, agreeing to play Joel within a day of reading a script. In an interview with BuzzFeed, creator Neil Druckmann admitted to the creative team having eyed Pascal for a while, recognizing the nuance needed to play a haunted yet stoic survivor in the actor. Druckmann further elaborated, lauding Pascal for creating “compelling moments of humanity that you see [sic] slowly emerge.”
Other Ellie Candidates
While the search for a Joel ostensibly wasn’t too difficult, Ellie was a different story. Back before it was a TV show, “The Last of Us” was potentially being developed as a movie, going back as far as 2014. Naturally, they looked at a lot of young actors who eventually aged out of the roles. Before they settled on Bella Ramsey, Druckmann had a chat with Ramsey’s “Game of Thrones” co-star Maisie Williams. Another name Druckmann mentioned in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter was that of “Booksmart” star Kaitlyn Dever. As much as those two actors could’ve brought something interesting to the role, we can’t see anyone but Ramsey as Ellie. Speaking of which…
Hundreds of Ellie Auditions
Finding an actor to so effectively play a fourteen-year-old in such extraordinary circumstances is no easy task, so it’s not surprising that the producers had hundreds of girls audition for the part. What is interesting, however, is how easy it was to cast Ellie once Bella Ramsey’s tape came in. Neil Druckmann saw some 100 audition tapes before coming across Ramsey’s, at which point he didn’t see Ramsey - he saw Ellie. By no means are Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey one-to-one comparisons of their characters’ video game counterparts, so it’s heartening to know they fit the parts in every way that counts. Druckmann was even as bold to say “We just found Ellie in the real world and happened to put her in the show.”
A Familiar Marlene
The show for the most part has done pretty well finding actors who either physically or characteristically resemble the characters for the game. But they really couldn’t do any better than Merle Dandridge as Marlene, probably because Dandridge played Marlene in the game, too. Indeed, Dandridge is the only actor to reprise their role from the game here, and she works as well in the part as she did ten years prior. Obviously, playing Marlene this time around was a whole other experience for Dandridge, who actually got to interact with the world directly rather than act on a motion capture stage. Circumstances and environments may change, but hey, when it works, it works.
Nick Offerman & Murray Bartlett’s Casting Timeline
Already, “Long, Long Time” is being called one of the best TV episodes of the year, as Bill and Frank’s hauntingly beautiful apocalyptic love story has moved fans to tears. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett have such good chemistry that it’s surprising producers didn’t know this ahead of time with a screen test prior to casting. Indeed, Bartlett was cast a couple months before Offerman, who replaced “Chernobyl” actor Con O’Neill due to scheduling conflicts. Funnily, Offerman admitted in an interview with TVLine to just having finished watching “The White Lotus” Season 1 before being cast, for which Bartlett won an Emmy. However, Frank and Armond couldn’t be more different.
Bella Ramsey & Pedro Pascal Were Told Not to Play the Game
Some actors find delving into a source material can provide a helpful road map when adapting a character. Others like to go in entirely fresh and find their own groove. This second method is what producers advised Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal to do. But did they listen? Mostly not. To Ramsey’s credit, she wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t play the game in preparation, but she did admit in an interview with USA Today to watching gameplay on YouTube. Pascal on the other hand completely ignored their advice. In an interview with Wired, he said he was “very, very bad at it.” But he did say his nephew was “fantastic” at it, so there’s that.
Movement Bootcamp
Often overlooked in a show with such stellar production designs and character development is those of the stunt actors. Specifically, those playing the infected. Much like actors playing walkers on “The Walking Dead,” infected actors here had to be put through what Neil Druckmann calls “movement bootcamp” to get the physical mannerisms down pat. We can’t imagine the preciseness and discipline that goes into something like that, especially with the amount of fungus prosthetics that are covering their faces. But looking at the finished product, it’s obvious that the filmmakers found a dedicated crop of physical actors to bring the infected to such chilling light.
Bella Ramsey’s Switchblade Idea
Filming was clearly a very collaborative and engaging process for those involved, if only evidenced by this scene. When we catch up with Joel, Tess and Ellie in the second episode, we see the latter dozing with a switchblade in hand. According to Neil Druckmann, this little prop inclusion was thought up on-set by Bella Ramsey herself. She conjectured that this being Ellie’s first night with her new traveling companions, there’s no way she wouldn’t be sleeping with some protection just in case. Especially since the adults just found out she was technically infected the night before. Ellie has a myriad of reasons to want protection, but it’s small character details like this that really speak to how the actors are fleshing them out.
