When The Last of Us Season 2 begins, there is a “painful distance” between Joel and Ellie, according to star Pedro Pascal.
What did Pedro Pascal say about Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us Season 2?
With how things ended in The Last of Us Season 1, Joel and Ellie grew apart during the five-year time jump between seasons. While speaking at a press conference moderated by Variety, Pascal recalled his first day filming Season 2 with Bella Ramsey.
“I feel like it was a beautiful setup by Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] that the first thing that I got to shoot was just you and I and in kind of an intimate setting,” Pascal said. “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.”
Joel is carrying a lot of grief to begin Season 2, especially in his relationship with Ellie. Joel lied to Ellie about the Fireflies, telling her they couldn’t find a cure. Meanwhile, Joel killed them before they could operate on Ellie’s brain.
Pascal spoke about returning to play Joel, which can be difficult due to the emotional weight of portraying the character.
“My mindset was grateful to be back,” Pascal said. “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 laughed, adding, “I suppose I was in an unhealthy mindset.”
The Last of Us Season 2 premieres April 13 on HBO and streams on Max.
(Source: Variety)
