Image via HBO
In order for HBO’s The Last of Us to work, the casting of series leads Joel and Ellie needed to be perfect. The entire plot of the video game to series adaptation hinges on the relationship between the grizzled and capable Joel and young spitfire Ellie as they journey across a post-apocalyptic America. It’s a difficult challenge, but one that HBO nailed by casting Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the starring roles.
Both performers have quite a history with HBO, having seen their careers explode thanks in part to landing roles on Game of Thrones. Pascal is now leading The Mandalorian and showing up in movies like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent alongside Nicolas Cage, while Ramsey nabbed the lead role in Amazon and Lena Dunham’s young adult comedy, Catherine Called Birdy. The Last of Us arrives on HBO with Thrones-like expectations, as the beloved franchise is widely considered a landmark in storytelling for the medium. But fans can rest assured the series is masterful in its adaptation due in part to just how superlative Pascal and Ramsey are in bringing the characters to life, finding the perfect middle ground between fulfilling the spirit of the game and putting their own unique spin on it.
Prior to the launch of the series, Complex sat down with both performers to talk about how the journey of the show reflected how they cultivated their relationship together, the tightness of the scripts, making bad puns, and more. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The chemistry the two of you have is not only so good but so essential to making the show work. How much time did you both spend cultivating that relationship versus doing what was on the page?
Bella Ramsey: We spent zero time cultivating it. We cultivated it as the show went along because we didn’t have the time. Pedro was there for about a month before I was, and then when I got over there, I had to quarantine. So we didn’t get the chance to meet properly and bond. It just sort of happened as we got to set.
Pedro Pascal: Thank God.
BR: It’s an interesting parallel. Our friendship and relationship progressed as Joel and Ellie’s did, which I think actually lent itself to the result of their relationship. We immediately liked each other; we were just shy of each other. It’s like, “Is Pedro gonna like me? Is Bella gonna like me? Blah, blah, blah.” Turns out we do quite like each other.
I imagine the scripts are pretty tight already but was there room for the two of you to find new ways into the scenes and improvise on set at all?
PP: Yeah, the scripts were really, really tight, and there was very specific source material to research and to make part of the entire puzzle. The jumping right-in aspect ultimately made sense and paralleled the characters and the actors playing them. We knew at the onset that we were going to be together for a year, stepping into this incredible adventure together. That unspoken understanding just bonded us without having to force that. It was a very effortless thing.
There was so much of the script to adhere to and be held by, but there was always room for spontaneity. As we came to understand the characters and the experience of playing them more, it opened itself up to us more and more—just like the characters open themselves up to one another more and more. It was well-designed in a practical way.
Bella, was that your experience as well?
BR: Yeah, completely. The scripts were so tight and so perfect; I never felt trapped or constricted by them. We were freed by them. There was always room and space for us to breathe within them, which was nice. The more we grew comfortable with each other, the more we would be generous with each other and help each other’s performance by throwing things in to help it feel fresh. Not that it will make the cut necessarily, it’s more to enhance—I don’t know to say; I’m just spouting words now. But you know what I mean—
PP: Yeah, I know what you mean.
BR: Let me give you an example: Ellie’s pun book with all her jokes. They’re funny, maybe the first two or three times you hear them, but then they become unfunny very quickly—if they were ever funny at all. I find them quite hilarious; I don’t know if you agree.
I do, yeah.
BR: Oh, thanks! If there was a scene where that joke has been recycled too much, I’d throw in another joke. Or bring back something that we’ve laughed for hours about from like two months ago, just to keep it fresh. It was a very freeing environment where that could happen.
The Last of Us premieres on Jan. 15 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.
