During a video interview for BBC Radio 1, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey discussed what it’s been like working on “The Last of Us,” and what brought them to the project in the first place. For Pascal, the major factor was getting to work with Craig Mazin. “I knew ‘Chernobyl,’ which is unrelated to the game, is Craig Mazin’s show, and I would’ve, I don’t know, murdered somebody to work with Craig I suppose,” he said. “That’s a horrible public confession to make, but that was my introduction.”
Mazin may have been the initial draw for Pascal, but his family’s input helped seal the deal. Here’s what he said:
“I got to read [Mazin’s] first few scripts for the adaptation of ‘The Last of Us,’ and that day I spoke to my sister who was driving my nephews, her children, her teenage boys to school and I said, ‘You know, there’s this job opportunity. It’s actually based on a video game,’ and she’s like, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘It’s called the L-‘ and I didn’t even get to the AST of the word ‘last’ and my nephews were like, ”The Last of Us!’ You have to do it! You have to do it! You better get this job!’ And so I understood very, very quickly what was at stake.”
Pascal knew immediately that this story was a big deal and began researching the game and seeing how important it is to many people. “The entire world kind of opened up to me in terms of its– and I realized the level of influence I was under without realizing what the reference was since it came out in 2013.”
“The Last of Us” premieres on HBO on January 15, 2023.