Image via HBO
[Ed Note: MAJOR spoilers for The Last of Us’ third episode—“Long Long Time”—below.]
I haven’t stopped thinking about Episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us since I watched it. Titled after the Linda Ronstadt song of the same name, “Long Long Time,” the installment is a radical departure from the ongoing journey of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as it sidelines the leads for a majority of the runtime. Instead, it introduces and fleshes out the story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). Bill is a survivalist, living alone in an abandoned town after FEDRA packs and ships out the remaining townsfolk. A few years go by, and Frank wanders into town, falling into one of Bill’s traps. After Bill brings Frank inside for a warm meal and a fresh change of clothes, the two fall in love.
What unfolds throughout the episode is basically The Last of Us’ version of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, as Craig Mazin’s script jumps around in time, showing Bill and Frank at different points throughout their shared life together. Helmed by director Peter Hoar, the episode is an extraordinarily moving exploration of the relationship between these two men, anchored by slam-dunk performances from Bartlett and Offerman. The economy of the storytelling is fantastic, giving you just enough to fully invest in their relationship without ever feeling overwritten or overdone. It’s an absolute masterclass in storytelling, full stop.
“We were blessed with a great script that had all the nuances of the relationship and the characters in it. We just needed to follow the breadcrumbs and connect the dots,” Bartlett tells Complex. “One of the beautiful things for me about this experience was being paired with Nick and finding that both of us wanted to just go there. Go to the places that the script asked us to go to, to be vulnerable, and to fill out what the script was asking us to do.”
“It was a great map and a great compass. And our director, Peter Hoar, and Craig were around a lot, coloring things,” Offerman adds. “But it all comes back to the script. If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage, as it were.”
Complex jumped at the chance to speak with both actors about their performances. What follows is a delightfully fun conversation—complete with a few trademark sardonic remarks from Offerman—about their reactions to the script, how they conveyed empathy, the benefits of a good red wine pairing, and much more.
What stood out to you about the script when you read it, Murray?
Murray Bartlett: Um, everything? [Laughs.] I have said this before, but it’s the truth; it’s one of the most beautiful episodes of television I’ve ever read in that it’s beautiful writing and feels like a film. It’s so complete, it’s so nuanced, it happens over a long period of time, and it punches in at sort of just the right moments to fill out the picture of what this relationship is in such an extraordinary way. That all happening in a world where it’s very difficult to find connection, to be vulnerable, and to survive makes it extra poignant.
All those things I responded to in a huge way, like in that, “Oh my God, I want to be in this!” kind of way. I’m not a gamer, so I didn’t have a connection to the game. But I did love Craig Mazin’s previous work, especially Chernobyl, which I think is a genius-ly created piece of art. There was no question in my mind about this. I was just bowled over by the material and the team of people who are working on it. I wanted to be part of it.
Nick, what about you? Was your experience similar?
Nick Offerman: I didn’t really care for the script. I thought it needed work. I mean, Murray put it very well. I would just also say—to make a contribution—it’s a beautiful encapsulation, answering the question in a horror, action genre piece, with people trudging toward survival, or, “We must get her to the Fireflies at all costs.” It’s a wonderful lensing of why. Why should we do anything? Why do we humans strive for anything? This episode beautifully answers that question. And their answer is gourmet cooking.
MB: [Laughs.]
Listen, I watched that episode after I’d had dinner for the evening and almost went back downstairs and fired up the grill again. That food was beautiful.
MB: Did it inspire you to get just the right wine pairing?
That’s key. My palate needs a little bit of refinement there. I’ve got some work to do. But I’ll take inspiration from you all. In thinking about this episode, I keep coming back to the idea of empathy. Your performances are so empathic, bolstered by a script that traffics in that too. As actors, is empathy hard to convey?
NO: I guess I don’t think of empathy as an emotion. I think of it, I guess, as a state. Sympathy, I know what it is to sympathize. I know what it is to empathize. I feel like it never occurs to me to try to play empathy. I’m gratified to hear that’s your interpretation of it. It just means that what Craig has given us to struggle through with each other and to communicate whatever each scene contains is us trying to—hopefully succeeding at—touching the honest humanity of it. Will you love me? Will you shut up? Will you sit down and have some dinner? Whatever it is, that often—I think—can look like empathy. Especially if, say, you’re in a loving relationship and your partner gets a deathly illness. Then, maybe you see a lot of empathy or not. I think if you’re playing your objectives successfully, then hopefully that comes across.
MB: I wonder if what you’re responding to is the empathy of the writer because it’s an incredibly empathetic script. The way it plays out, as Nick said, there’s a lot of colors and manifestations of empathy. It can be tough love. It can be helping someone who’s in great need. It can manifest in so many different ways. It takes an empathetic writer to be able to see the complexity of love and empathy and to frame it, like Craig does, in such a beautiful way.
How did you guys work together to bring this relationship to life?
MB: I always hesitate to say this word because I feel like I need to put a hashtag in front of it, but we were blessed with a great script that had all the nuances of the relationship and the characters in it. We just needed to follow the breadcrumbs and connect the dots of what we were doing. So there was that, and an incredible production, an incredible director who is sensitive and worked with us with such care and empathy.
One of the beautiful things for me about this experience was being paired with Nick and finding that both of us wanted to just go there. Go to the places that the script asked us to go to, to be vulnerable, and to fill out what the script was asking us to do. We were lucky that we enjoyed working together and were willing to walk that road together. It was really sort of discovering it in the moment, a lot. Right? I mean, with a great map [Laughs.].
NO: It was a great map and a great compass. And our director, Peter Hoar, and Craig were around a lot, coloring things. But it all comes back to the script. If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage, as it were.
Was there any feedback that Peter or Craig gave you that helped to dial in to something or bring a scene to life in a way that it wasn’t on the page
NO: I’d say only in nuanced ways. As an actor, you’re figuring out, “OK, in the scene, I need to get from C to D.” While you’re working on that, the director—or the writer, producer—might know that what we need to see from this scene is simply this moment when Bill cares about Frank. I can get mired down in my actor shit or my human foibles. So one of them can come in and say, “Just roll your eyes,” or whatever the bit is. And you’re like, “Oh, great! Thank you for that.”
For me, that’s often something that helps me immeasurably. It’s a simplification where you’re reminded you’re not performing a Tschaikovsky symphony. Just let us know you’re annoyed with him for a second.
MB: I feel like we—all of us, all the departments—felt a great love for this script. It felt like we were all connected in our love of this script. It really did feel like our job was to not fall off the rails. Sometimes [it was] exactly what Nick said. Sometimes, when you’re in the moment, you need a little reminder of a technical thing. Like, “You need to look up so we can see what is going on in your eyes.” Just little things that will reveal what’s going on in the scene that may get bogged down in the moment. We were so lucky to have Craig and our director Peter to gently nudge us in the right directions.
What do you love about these characters?
MB: [Pauses.]. Oh my God. What do I love about both characters?
Frank, specifically.
MB: I love that he hasn’t been made cynical. Even in one of the very early scenes at the dinner, he’s kind of buoyant. He’s still able to anticipate something good in a post-apocalyptic world like that. I think that’s just an extraordinary quality, a buoyancy in the face of—he’s not daunted by the carefully constructed armor that he sees Bill has created around himself. He’s like, “I think there’s something beyond that.” Even if he can’t fully see it in the beginning. I think that’s a beautiful quality.
Nick, what about you?
NO: I appreciate that Bill can butcher his own venison.
MB: [Laughs.]
NO: That’s a very highly regarded skill that too few people possess.
I don’t have that skill, so I’m very jealous. What were your memories of shooting that final dinner scene together? Other than having another delicious dinner with perfectly prepared venison and a great wine pairing?
MB: [Laughs.]
NO: Rabbit!
That’s right. Yes, yes, yes.
NO: This doesn’t speak well of me as an artist, but it was delightfully indulgent because I feel like all the groundwork had been successfully laid. We had checked all the boxes. If we’ve done our jobs right [and] the storytelling is in place, all we have to do is luxuriate into the scene, this meal, these emotions. And then, in that state, in that sort of drawn-out chord, I get this moment of, “I’m fucking doing it, too.” I get to communicate that by downing my glass of wine.
If we’ve done our jobs right, that penny drops for Frank and the audience. That was [Laughs.] like being scripted to perform an exquisite slam dunk where you’re like, “OK, how about this?” [Mimes dunking a basketball.] I am just very grateful to be on the receiving end of that piece of scripture. Hopefully, I didn’t screw it up.
MB: I think it’s such a beautiful scene. [It was] such a beautiful scene to read in the script. And it was one of the last scenes that we shot. So as Nick said, by the time we got to that scene, we’d kind of been through the lifetime that these characters had together and been immersed in it for a month. I felt like we were fully present. The experience of that was very alive in us. Doing this scene, to use the meal analogy, was really like dessert. A really, really great satisfying dessert.
NO: Hashtag blessed AF.
The Last of Us airs weekly at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.