In the upcoming second season of “The Last of Us,” the brotherly bond between Pedro Pascal‘s Joel and Gabriel Luna‘s Tommy continues to be a significant relationship that grounds the characters amidst the surrounding apocalyptic horror.
During a press conference moderated by Variety‘s Jazz Tangcay in Los Angeles, the actor described the process of building that connection with Luna as an organic evolution from Season 1 to Season 2.
“I think that there was just a very, very well placed arc for us,” Pascal said. “I started the season with [Luna]. We started Season 1 together on D-Day, right? And so there was a kind of bonding, initiation process, stepping into all of it. We had our rehearsals and pre-production. We went river rafting.”
Luna chimed in: “We did go river rafting, Bow River, which was really nice.”
Pascal noted that in Season 1, the two characters were separated and reunited — “put in the snow together.”
“I had you there when I feel like a lot of the flesh of my character started to display itself and got to be played,” Pascal said, addressing Luna. “So in Season 2, it felt like a real natural building of what we had established as characters and as scene partners.”
Luna agreed with Pascal, noting, “I think when we first started, we had a really nice FaceTime call where I felt a very uncanny familiarity with you.”
At the conference — which included creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and other Season 2 cast members like Isabela Merced and Young Mazino — Pascal discussed the arrival of the highly-anticipated new season. “I think there’s something really exciting about giving everyone another season of a show that everyone loved and that everyone has worked so hard on and has put so much into,” he said.
The actor was asked about his mindset when approaching the five-year time jump from Season 1 to Season 2. Pascal’s character, Joel, and Bella Ramsey’s character, Ellie, are somewhat estranged at the beginning of the second season.
Speaking to Ramsey, Pascal said, “I feel like it was a beautiful setup by Craig and Neil that the first thing that I got to shoot was just you and I and in kind of an intimate setting. There’s incredibly painful distance between the two of them and the playing of the scene, but we still got to be on set and fuck around and laugh and stuff like that. And that was incredibly comforting, that was like coming home.”
For Pascal, this role is distinct from others.
“My mindset was grateful to be back and yet, at the same time, this experience, more than any other I’ve had, is hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel, in a way that isn’t very healthy. And so I kind of feel their pain,” Pascal said.
“I suppose I was in an unhealthy mindset,” he added, with a laugh.
The series, set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with humans who have been transformed by a virus into zombie-like creatures, first debuted in 2023. Pascal answered a question about the present-day relevance of “The Last of Us,” commenting that “storytelling is cathartic.”
“There’s a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that kind of catharsis and a safe space to see human relationships under crisis and in pain and intelligently draw a political allegory, societal allegory, and base it off of the world that we’re living in,” he said.
Pascal answered a question about the show’s impact on his life and public profile.
“This job definitely created a new chapter in my life in a profound way because of the personal experience I had making the show, and then, of course, the way the show was received,” Pascal said.
He acknowledged that the show being “received in a way that is in measure with how deeply important it means to all of us, is a rare thing.”
The show is an “anchor” when receiving more public attention, he said. Pascal commended Kaitlyn Dever, who joined Season 2 as the character Abby. “It happened in Season 2 as well, like when we met one another, it was like, I have admired your work for so many years, and I couldn’t believe I got to be in scenes with you,” Pascal said.
Pascal was also asked about Joel’s protectiveness over Ellie and if he’s inspired by any of his own relationships. “I’m protective of the people that I love, and I think that that’s probably the main component that I relate to,” he said.
From Variety US