Q&A: ‘The Last of Us': Kaitlyn Dever breaks down explosive finale, teases ‘crazier' Season 3

Miami Herald

7 days ago

LOS ANGELES - It's 6 a.m. in Brisbane, Australia, and Kaitlyn Dever is thinking about going to the beach. Except it's pouring rain outside, which is the only reason she had the option to check out the waves in the first place. The deluge has delayed her call time for "Godzilla x Kong: Supernova," the monster movie she's been shooting for the past couple of months.
Just how hard is it raining? Like a normal downpour? Or is it the kind of deluge we see in the final minutes of the season finale of "The Last of Us"?
"It's actually pouring like the finale of 'The Last of Us,'" Dever says, laughing.
With the beach off the menu, we have plenty of time to settle in and talk about the bruising (and possibly confusing) season finale of "The Last of Us." Anyone thinking that the finale might feature a showdown between Dever's character, Abby Anderson, the young woman who killed Joel (Pedro Pascal) to avenge her father's death, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who has been hunting Abby to exact her own revenge, might be disappointed.
Abby doesn't turn up until the episode's last three minutes. When she does finally arrive, she ambushes Ellie. It's not a tender reunion.
"I let you live," Abby hisses. "And you wasted it!"
Then we hear the sound of a gunshot and the screen goes black. After a reset, we see Abby lying on a sofa in an entirely different environment, being beckoned from her respite to meet with militia leader Isaac (Jeffrey Wright). She strides to a balcony in Seattle's T-Mobile Park, the stadium now being used as a base for the Washington Liberation Front. Her entrance is positively papal, and as Abby surveys the scene, a graphic lands on the screen: Seattle Day One, a time frame we've already lived from Ellie's point of view.
Q: What the hell just happened?
A: [Laughs] I don't know. I have no idea.
Q: It looks like the show just reset and we'll be starting Season 3 following Abby for three days, leading up to her confrontation with Ellie.
A: One would think, yes. But ["The Last of Us" co-creator] Craig [Mazin] hasn't talked to me about what he's doing. All he said to me was, "Just get ready for what's to come because it's going to be crazier." He always said he wanted to make Season 2 bigger than Season 1, and he said Season 3 is going to be even bigger. I'm like, "OK. I'll be ready."
Q: How did he pitch you on doing the show in the first place?
A: At my first meeting with Craig and Neil [Druckmann, co-creator of "The Last of Us" game] they told me that their plan for Season 2 was Abby's introduction to "The Last of Us" world. They told me the number of episodes, so I wasn't super surprised about that, though I wasn't thinking that the entire season was going to end on me. [Laughs]
Q: So when you got the script and read that ending ...
A: I was like, "We're really doing this. Wow." It's a lot of pressure. I always think about the times in my past when I've done things and I've had one line in a scene, and it's the most nerve-racking thing to do. Everyone else has dialogue, and you're just thinking about your one line and how you're going to say it and if you screw it up, the whole scene is screwed up because of your one line. It's pretty terrifying - but thrilling too.
Q: You're talking about Abby telling Ellie, "You wasted it"? You really spit it out with some heat.
A: That's good to know. I was going back and forth between Vancouver and L.A., so I constantly had to recalibrate and get back into the emotional intensity of Abby. That was actually the last scene I shot.
Q: How did you find your way back into Abby's anger?
A: Well, the very first scene I shot was the killing of Joel. The light one. [Laughs] So getting back into it, I'd always go back to that and Abby's monologue, what she says to Joel before shooting him. Those words are so visceral and heartbreaking and really paint a picture. So I just kept bringing myself back to that place, how I'd been thinking about saying those words for five years.
Q: Did you watch that Joel episode when it aired or had you already seen it?
A: I did watch it with my partner. But the first time I watched it, I was by myself. And before that, I had gone to do ADR [automated dialogue replacement] with Craig, and he asked, "Can I just show you a little bit of it?" And I was on the floor because I was so overwhelmed. That is the most intense episode of television I've ever seen. And then when I watched it later, I couldn't believe it, even though I had experienced it myself.
Q: You had experienced it, but you've said you don't really remember filming it because it was four days after your mother's funeral. [Dever's mother, Kathy, died from breast cancer in February 2024.] In some ways, it must have been like you were watching it for the first time.
A: I had to fly out three days after her funeral. And the fourth day was that scene in the chalet with the Fireflies and Joel on the floor. So, yeah, it's all a blur, and it felt like I got to experience it as a first-time viewer. I'd see things and go, "Oh, yeah." Grief does a really interesting thing with your brain. It messes with your memory.
Q: Filming the scene where you brutally kill one of the most beloved characters on television goes back to what you were saying about pressure. And to do it under those circumstances must have been overwhelming.
A: I was terrified. I had spent so much time contemplating my mom's death before she died, thinking about how I wouldn't be able to go on. I couldn't imagine. And then it's a heartbreaking thing to think about, how life moves on. And you have the choice to keep going or not go to Vancouver and do the show that she was so excited about me doing. And then after she passed, I realized there's no part of me that couldn't not do this. I had to do it for her.
Q: How did you fight past the fear?
A: My dad really encouraged me. I really was terrified. And he was like, "You got this. Mom was so excited that you got to be in this show." And luckily, the crew was so understanding and supportive. Everyone took care of me.
Q: Then it's 15 months later and the episode finally airs, which I'd imagine brings about a different set of worries. Did you go online to check out the reaction?
A: Of course I did! I kill everyone's favorite character, the love of everyone's life. I'd never been part of anything this massive before. Like, the whole world is watching this. I had no idea what to expect.
Q: And what did you find?
A: It was more positive than I thought it would be.
Q: I didn't play the game, so one of my first thoughts after watching it was: Wow, gamers can keep a secret.
A: They can. I loved watching all those TikTok videos where people were filming their parents or partners watching and showing their reactions.
Q: Having played the game, you've known about Abby and Joel for years.
A: My dad was playing the second game and handed me the controller and said, "Kaitlyn, you've got to see this." In the game, it's so jarring and shocking.
Q: On TV too!
A: [Laughs] But with the game, after they kill Joel, all of a sudden you're playing as a woman. And my first reaction was, "Is this Ellie? Am I playing as Ellie?" It is interesting how they take these two characters who are mirrors of each other in many ways.
Q: I was thinking about how it'd be great if Season 3 would have an episode with Abby and her father that mirrored the one with Ellie and Joel.
A: That's a really good idea. I hope we get to do something like that.
Q: I have a feeling you might. Maybe you even know something about that. [Laughs]
A: Honestly, I can keep a secret too! I knew about Joel dying long before even Season 1 because I had met with Neil years ago when they were talking about making a movie from the game. And he was showing me the making of the second game and asked, "You want to know what happens?" And I'm like, "Oh, my God!" So I've been keeping this in a long time.
Q: So you're good at keeping a secret. Gamers know how Season 3 is likely to develop. You've played the game. Are you being coy?
A: [Laughs] We don't know what Craig's plans are. He has been playing with dynamics, even in that first episode of the season where we see Abby taking charge and being a leader.
Q: She sure looks like she's a leader in the finale's last scene.
A: That scene plays at the idea that Abby is sitting in her power. And whatever that means, I will keep to myself for now. People who have played the game will have a few guesses.
Q: When you went to work on "Godzilla x Kong: Supernova" the day after the Abby/Joel episode aired, did people treat you a little differently? Maybe keep their distance a bit? Hide the golf clubs?
A: It was pretty wild to go to work that day. Everyone wanted to talk about it. And all they could really get out was, "Oooooof, that episode."
Q: One thing I kept looking for all season was where they used CGI to remove a spider bite from your face. I couldn't find it.
A: [Laughs] It's in the first episode with the Fireflies. I had gone home for a few weeks and got a spider bite on my cheek. I thought it was a pimple. It was not a pimple. It was a huge spider bite and ... I hate to use this word, but it was oozing. And the CGI is amazing. You can't even tell it is there. I still have a scar on my face because they had to cut it out.
Q: So, to summarize: a very eventful shoot for you.
A: For many reasons. I'll never forget it.
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