This message contains spoilers for the episode of this week of The last of usnow streaming on max.
The last of us Co-creator Neil Druckmann was behind the camera to direct the penultimate episode of the second season of the postapocalyptic drama, and it was an imposing assignment. In the space of an hour, Druckmann had to colline five years in the life of Joel and Ellie, tightening in a flashback in adolescence of Joel, and creating fully expanded versions of the father of Joel and the husband of Gail Eugene in the space of a few scenes. He had to lead Pedro Pascal after his former first first man had left another project after Joel was killed in the second episode of the season.
And as the main creative force behind the two Last of us Video games, he thought we had to be even more careful than usual to give fans of the game the moments they expected to see live for years.
Last week, Druckmann spoke with Roller About the realization of Pascal with Bella Ramsey once again, to work with the stars invited Tony Dalton and Joe Pantoliano, and if watching Pascal and Ramsey never gave him doubts about the fact of killing Joel.
Logistically, was he filmed roughly at the same time as the first two episodes of the season?
No. We pulled Pedro for episode two, then he went to work on a different project.
Thus, even the New Year’s party scenes were not filmed at the same time as Craig Mazin turned his version for the first of the season?
We had to restore everything. I joked people that it should be what it was for Robert Zemeckis to have to shoot Back to the future II. Fortunately, I had two monitors. One instructor had what Craig shot in episode one, and the other instructor had what I was shooting live. I was able to cut some images of this episode, but we had to take up everything, including the Seth argument with Ellie and Dina from Joel’s point of view.
It was a very emotional episode, and it is also probably the last episode with a lot of Pedro and Bella together. How was it to direct them in this area?
It is such joy. They are so talented. They now understand these characters so much. I am in such a unique position, because I have lived with these characters and these scenes for so long, and to revisit them in these scenes which mean so much for fans, but also for me personally … I was very nervous. I wanted to make sure I did him justice not only for the show, but just The last of us Overall, and what the players will expect from these sequences that come out of the game. In the moment, I was so pleasantly surprised by what they put in front of the camera. There are certain moments in live action when you have happy accidents, as you cannot plan something. When they are in the space capsule, and Joel asks Ellie how he did it, then you see that he has this beautiful smile on his face, and he turns around, and you see the glow of a tear in his wrinkles. You don’t see him crying; Just that. We could not plan this, and the fact that we caught it, I’m like, it’s just … You just catch these beautiful moments that are right there, then they left. It is the beauty of live action.
So Pedro had left for a while, then he returned to play Joel once again. Was he more emotional than usual filming this?
Yes, although on a daily basis, you wouldn’t feel it. But certainly, as we got closer to the end, you could feel this separation of the ways of coming. And then on the last day, in particular, he became really moving when we finished the last blow and trained for a while and that we had him hugged and chatted and renamed.
When you were doing the first season of the show and watching the magic that Pedro and Bella were making together, was there a time when you reconsidered the Abby scenario? Where did you think this kind of chemistry does not present itself every day, and maybe you should hang on to it?
No. I knew because of their chemistry, because of what they brought, how painful it would be. And you had to be painful to tell this story. If they had no chemistry, I would have been worried about the way we tell this story. So, for me, it was more a question, this story can be complete, this story can live alone. This is how we made the first match. But we have put certain changes and adjust the preparation of the following story if we had the chance to tell it. Fortunately, the show managed to such a degree that HBO, with open arms, is delighted to make us continue to tell the story.
I assume that the compromise version would have been to save Abby for another season or two, and in the meantime, give us more Joel and Ellie Adventures during the difference of five years. Has it been discussed?
Yes, because we discuss everything. We even discussed if we hadn’t killed Joel, just to question him. Because everything should be on the table. Everything must be questioned to make sure we make the best choices for this version of the story. We even discussed, could we tell this other story, could we extend this moment? But the more we discuss it, the more badly he felt. It was as if we would only do it for commercial reasons, to maintain this feeling that people have longer. But there was no story there to motivate him. The incitement incident, the origin of this story is the death of Joel. Any incitement incident, you need to access it as soon as possible. What motivates all this trip to which Ellie continues begins with Joel.
Do you remember what was discussed about the version where you did not kill Joel?
I don’t do it, because it was a very short conversation that had no impact on us. Because we knew that we explored something that, you know, we are not going to get a lot of them, and we didn’t do it.
I did not play the games, but friends who did it, told me that the porch scene, where Ellie told Joel that she wanted to try to forgive her, does not appear until the end of the second match. Why did you put it to this point?
The reason why we moved it, and the reason why it was not a great choice difficult for me, is that when we were playing the game, we knew that we wanted this scene. This scene was written. We did not know where to go this scene, and for a long time, it was in a very different place from the end of the game. And (it went there) only when we finished the production of the game. It is difficult because I do not want to explain why we moved it at the end, because then I go to the place where the show goes finally. But he seemed appropriate for it to go. And the way the game is delivered is, you buy the game, then you have the whole story, and you decide how you want to experience it. The game is about 20 and 30 hours, depending on how you play. Do you decide, do I want to play an hour a day or an hour a week, or do I want to spend 30 hours without sleeping? People have made all these different versions, but the story is all there for you. With the show as it is delivered, these are one hour songs each week, and (we knew) that we are not going to finish the story this season, then there is a gap, potentially a multi -year gap before continuing. Consequently, there are certain configurations which are paid that we have felt in our conversation on the way in which this story would be delivered, would be too long of waiting which will not land as well as when they are contrasting here with these events. And that will become clear when you watch episode seven and see where the show goes, explaining why we could not wait so long for the porch scene to appear.
Earlier, you talked about the responsibility of the people who knew and loved the game to deliver these moments that they know so well. How did you understand how to balance this by trying to please people like me who have not played the game and who simply live this as a television?
In my conversations with Craig, we talk a lot about where the show goes. What is this program talking about? What is the soul of this story which, for me, must remain the same? If we lose that, then we went too far. Because it is an adaptation, it is a different support, there will be changes. Just fundamentally. It is a highly collaborative art, both on the side of the game and the side of the show. So the best way to honor the two is to do the best possible version in history and make sure our destinations are the same. The disaster, how we get there, different choices, these can vary. I know that people will separate them and some people will agree with that. Some people will not. It’s just the nature of the beast that is part of the package. When you do something so popular and is seen by millions of people online, you will get each reaction under the sun, especially when it is an adaptation of something that people love so much. But I also know how to do a good job, we have to make certain changes. It’s just fundamental for what we do. I just have to protect his soul throughout.
Finally, we should talk about the two notable guest stars of the episode. Let’s start with Tony Dalton.
The most charming and intimidating man on television. It is a kind of difficult role. It is very short and very poignant. He must enter and be so intimidating that you should think that this guy could break and hit his son. But he must also have so much empathy, and perhaps you even have sympathy for him, that this guy with the tools in front of him makes his best to raise his child, and it is not very certain that he could be wrong. But hope is that he does better than his father, who beat him. It was important to obtain this idea not only of generational trauma, but of hope and generational repair. Because it enters the porch scene. And it’s a message that Joel leaves with Ellie. When we wrote this scene, Tony Dalton was my first choice. I immediately imagined it in this role, and I remember jumped on a zoom call with him and Craig and described this scene to him – I was very nervous that he would say no – and he was just on board. It is like: “It sounds great. When do we start?”
And Joey Pants (Joe Pantoliano)? In a few minutes, he makes me cry.
He talks about the brilliance of Joey Pants. And it’s so interesting, because when we threw it, I don’t think we have given it enough credit for its versatility. The scenes originally had more humor in them, because we could see Joey having this humor of a gallows. When he looks at the lake, there was a line at the start where he said: “I don’t need a paint by Bob Ross. I need gail. ” On paper, it’s funny, and we could see Joe doing it. But he took the performance elsewhere. There is an innocence and purity. And he just gave this great performance, and it was only a joy to see. But when you watch the episode, you see a version of this performance. There were so many other beautiful choices that he gave us, and it was actually difficult to choose this one.
