HBO
Caitlin Deaver, who played Abby in The Last Of Us, buried her mother shortly before the start of filming — a dramatic reality that resonates with the loss of her character.
The article contains spoilers for the second episode of The Last Of Us season two.
Deaver’s mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, an illness she fought for 14 years and eventually died in February 2024, a few days before the start of filming for the second season of The Last Of Us (including the very scene where Joel is tortured and Abby takes revenge for her father’s murder).
«It was a huge emotional scene. There were so many actions and things to manage. To be as honest as I can, I’ll just say that my days before that scene were terrible,» says Deaver. «I lost my mom two or three weeks before I filmed it. And the funeral took place three days before the first day of shooting. I was in a fog, in a daze».
The creative team of The Last Of Us immediately reworked the shooting schedule to give Caitlin a few free days and the opportunity to choose «a more suitable moment» to work (as much as possible); also, the number of people on the set was limited to only the most necessary staff.
«We said: “Take your time. Take as much time as you need,'” said showrunner Craig Mazin. «Even though this show is extremely important to me, I don’t have the right to interrupt someone’s grieving process for their own parents — especially for a scene that partially deals with such topics».
The scene with Joel’s death is taken directly from the video game The Last Of Us Part II. In it, Abby holds the character of Pedro Pascal hostage, telling him that she is the daughter of the very doctor he killed to save Ellie (Bella Ramsay) from the operating room. Eventually, after torture, Deaver’s character kills Joel with a broken golf club in front of his adopted daughter.
«Due to my life circumstances, I couldn’t actually work in the standard mode of an actor, and I was very worried about this. Usually I memorize a monologue three weeks before filming a scene, but here I had a different approach… I think it really helped the character… I think I managed to do it. I tried to let go and not think about it too much. In the end, the words written in the script were strong in themselves,” Deaver adds.
Pascal himself reacted rather reservedly to the death of his character in the series:
«There was always an understanding that the series would remain faithful to the source material. So it was just a question of how it would happen and when».
While his colleague Bella Ramsay admitted that she sobbed when she read the script for the first time:
«I knew Joel was going to die, but when I read the script, I was so afraid to get to that moment. I burst into tears. It was the first time I ever cried while reading a work of fiction.
It should be noted that the second episode was directed by Mark Milod — a director known to the viewer for the Emmy «» recognized episode «Connor’s Wedding» in the series «The Heirs»as well as no less dramatic episodes hit «Game of Thrones» (one of them, by the way, first introduced Bella Ramsay as Liana Mormont on TV).
The final shot of the episode, where Ellie, Dina, and Jesse drive back to the defeated Jackson, dragging Joel’s body through the snow, was probably one of the most dramatic — and, if you already know that at this moment, Ashley Jackson’s song is playing in the background (the original Ellie from the game and the mother of Ramsay’s character in the first season), then tears are definitely unavoidable.
Currently, the second episode of The Last of Us has receivedthe highest rating for the series on IMDb — previously, the record was held by the series about Joel and Ellie’s escape from Kansas City in the company of Henry and Sam. At the same time, Rotten Tomatoes has a totalthe viewership rating dropped to 53%, when evaluating 93% of criticsThe complaints are mostly about the cast, which does not match the game’s images: Bella Ramsay is allegedly not pretty enough, but Caitlin Deaver does not have the same physical build as the original Abby (while the showrunners hired her for the role without auditionsbecause we were sure that the actress would fit perfectly into the story).
The first two episodes of the second season of The Last of Us are currently streaming on HBO (with official Ukrainian dubbing on Megogo), with the rest of the seven episodes to be released every Sunday. Earlier, HBO officiallyextended the series for a third season.