Pedro Pascal is portraying Joel in the upcoming The Last of Us series for HBO. It is natural to assume that he’d play at least the first game to learn the character. But according to him, his skills on the sticks made him take a backseat role for this part of his research.
In a recent GQ interview, Pascal recounted the time he tried to play Naughty Dog’s 2013 hit and how he barely made it a few minutes in before his nephew had to take the controller.
“It’s so sad, I haven’t any skill,” said Pascal. “I tried, you know. And then it was only a matter of minutes before I had to hand it over to my nephew. It really takes a specific kind of skill, and I don’t have it.”
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It is possible that Pascal handed the controller to his nephew as he got to control Joel, as the introductory bits where the player controls Sarah are tutorials that are impossible to fail. Regardless, he was then asked if he watched the whole game — which can take around 16 to 20 hours — but Pascal said he was only able to watch “for as long as [he] was able to that day.” However, the abbreviated look didn’t stop him from liking Joel.
“I found Joel so impressive,” he said. “I found the whole of it such a visually impressive experience. And then I got worried that I would want to imitate too much, which I think could be right in some circumstances, and then a mistake in others. So I just wanted to create a healthy distance, and for that to be more in the hands of [show co-writer] Craig Mazin and [game writer and show co-writer] Neil Druckmann.”
The first Last of Us game leans more on the difficult side when compared to other big AAA titles, especially since it doesn’t have the array of accessibility options that its sequel has. And while the rumored remake of the first game is likely to have more of said options, Pascal’s struggle to experience the game’s story speaks to many others who are likely in the same boat and would cherish the opportunity to experience its story in a non-interactive medium.
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Pascal finished talking about The Last of Us by speaking to the show’s adherence to the game’s script. He likened it to The Mandalorian, saying that it was in good hands of people who love the franchise in that they are “honoring what’s important” while also including some unexpected twists, too. But it will be some time until viewers see what he’s talking about, as the series is not expected to premiere until 2023.
