![]() ![]() I mean, she wasn’t just another young ingenue. Bella was able to convey the full range of that - you’re interested in watching her journey. Thomas: Ellie obviously goes through a lot of tragedy in the show and handles a lot of emotions. She plays a 14-year-old so well while bringing a whole lot of depth to the part. Is that how you would put it, Elizabeth?īrown: Yes, and the fact that she is older but can play younger roles was a big standout quality for her when it came to playing Ellie. She just seemed to have the best combination of interesting qualities as an actor for the role. ![]() Bella can be both tough and vulnerable, but she doesn’t wear that vulnerability on her face. I think Bella stood out not only because she’s good and gave a great read, but I also think she has a uniqueness that stood out. And for the role of Ellie, we had a lot of young actors go on tape. ![]() Thomas: First, I’ll add that we did the casting for all the roles remotely because of the pandemic. And how about the process of locking in Bella Ramsey for Ellie? That’s such a fun window into other actors you thought could be right for the role when casting Joel. We started off with a wide net for the role of Joel and talked about a variety of actors to play him. Thomas: It’s funny because there were several guys we had been considering for that part, from Daniel Craig to Matthew McConaughey to Mahershala Ali to Kevin Bacon. Talk about high stakes and a short timeframe! Thanks to your quick work, I now can’t imagine anyone else playing the role of Joel. Pedro read the script overnight from Saturday to Sunday, loved it, and that was that. So, with the timing of everything, we ended up having a weekend to engage with him and see if he wanted to do our project more. I’ve got to give credit to Craig because he kind of swooped in and alerted us that Pedro hadn’t quite yet signed onto the other project. At that point, we thought Pedro was not available - I think he was scheduled to do another project. Thomas: We started casting the role of Joel first, which began in the fall of 2020, and there were a couple actors that we went out to about the role. What can you tell us about the process of casting Pedro Pascal in it? It’s a contender for several Emmy nominations, including the lead acting categories for a drama series. And now, congrats are in order for all the success of The Last of Us. It’s great to see you again, Victoria, after talking about everything from Watchmen to The Andy Griffith Show the last time we spoke. Keep reading for insights into casting The Last of Us that run the gamut from finding its leads to finding its supporting cast members, along with the theme Thomas discovered along the way. It was no small task to capture the vision of showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin for such a story, and Victoria Thomas virtually sat down with Casting Networks to pull back the curtain on the process, as well as had her casting associate on the series, Elizabeth Brown, weigh in. Ahead of their announcement on July 12, we wanted to speak with the mastermind behind the incredible cast that brought to life a world in which a fungal pandemic has turned much of the global population into zombies and uninfected survivors’ only hope just might be found in the form of a 14-year-old teen. The widely popular series adaptation of the PlayStation game The Last of Us broke several streaming records for HBO Max during its inaugural season run earlier this year, and thanks to a warm critical reception, buzz around its forecasted presence on this year’s list of Emmy nominations is plentiful. ![]()
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