The Last Of Us Season 2 Costumes Behind The Scenes Facts Ann Foley

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6 days ago

To celebrate The Last of Us Season 2, BuzzFeed sat down with costume designer Ann Foley to chat about creating the costumes for this season, including the subtle change to Joel's look from Season 1 to Season 2, Ellie's "Take On Me" look, Dina's iconic bracelet, dressing hordes of infected, and much more.
Here's everything she revealed:
First, since clothing is such an important piece of how actors get into character, Ann said she considers the cast her "closest collaborators in creating these characters." Speaking about working with Pedro Pascal specifically, Ann added, "I love that Pedro has such great insight into who Joel is, and I relied on that wonderful knowledge from him to help him create the look for Joel in Season 2."
She continued, saying, "They have such a great understanding of these characters, so it's always important to me to hear what they have to say and give them a voice in the fitting room. There's always wonderful conversations to be had with the cast."
One change in Joel's costume design from Season 1 to Season 2 is that he tucks his shirts in now "like a dad would." Ann explained, "When Pedro and I were doing his fittings, we talked about this subtle change, like maybe Joel's tucking his shirts in to sort of be a dad, and he's also a pillar of the community. So it's trying to be a little more respectful and dressed up a little bit more."
The tucked-in shirts are also meant to mirror Tommy, who is also a dad and leader in Jackson. Ann explained, "Tommy is the pillar of the community now, and sort of in charge with Maria, and Tommy's always got his shirts tucked in."
The only costume piece that carried over between Season 1 and Season 2 was Joel's signature jacket because it became so important to his character. Ann said, "We needed the audience to connect with a piece of clothing, knowing what was going to be coming up in Episode 3. So I had a conversation with Pedro about it in the fitting."
Ann explained, "The jacket was really the only piece from Season 1 that made it. I felt like that was an iconic character piece to Joel, and it's something that the audience was going to remember."
Speaking more about the moment in Episode 3, when Ellie finds Joel's jacket in his closet following his death, Ann said, "We needed to match that moment in the game as closely as possible. And even for people who didn't play the game, they recognized that jacket. When Ellie went and grabbed it, it broke everyone. I mean, I worked on the show, and it broke me. That's what serves the story. And at the end of the day, that's what I do as a costume designer is I have to help tell the story of what's happening."
"When we saw in the script that it was going to be a jacket, we knew it had to be THAT jacket," Ann added.
Episode 6, which features all the flashbacks between Joel and Ellie, was a perfect example of how costumes helped age Bella Ramsey up and down as Ellie. Ann explained, "At the beginning of that progression, you see Ellie in lighter colors and prints and baggier clothing, because we wanted to sort of show that 14-year-old silhouette in a way that helped physically." As Ellie gets older, the clothing gets shorter and more form-fitting.
"Seeing that progression in one episode from Ellie as a 14-year-old turning 15-year-old teenager to a 19-year-old young woman," she continued. "So the pants are baggier, the T-shirts are longer and a little bit baggier. Then, as Ellie starts to grow up and become an adult, the jeans are a little slimmer in shape, the T-shirts are shorter in the body, even the hem on the T-shirt is a little bit shorter, and the silhouette of the shirts that she wears is also a little bit slimmer. So it's little things like that that help to show that age progression."
In terms of dressing present-day Ellie, her style intentionally mirrors Joel's style in terms of the pieces of clothing she wears, but also the colors. Ann explained, "You'll see Ellie in more plaid like Joel, but also in this bluer palette, to sort of show this emotional place that they're both in that's a little bit darker. I kept that color palette for Ellie throughout the season. Very sort of blue and muted."
She added, "I felt it was really important to show, like, the similarity between Joel and Ellie in their clothes and the things that they choose."
Ellie and Dina's color palettes were also intentionally meant to be very different, but complement each other. Dina wears much brighter colors, which Ann describes as "more fun and effervescent and full of life," and she wears patterns, which Ellie doesn't.
Ann added, "I wanted there to be a sharp contrast between the two."
Ellie's signature black Converse were decorated by Bella. "I just gave Bella a pair of Converse and I said, 'I want you to doodle like Ellie would doodle in her journal, and do with these what you will,'" Ann explained. "Bella took them, and a month later, I got them back."
Ann added, "When we knew it was going to be the Converse, that's when I went to Craig Mazin [the show's co-creator], and I said, 'I would really love to have some doodles on the shoes, and I would love to give a pair to Bella, see what they would do with them.' And he was also on board with that idea."
And, Ann never asked Bella what any of the doodles on Ellie's Converse meant. She said, "I never even asked Bella what it meant, because I felt like it was between Bella and Ellie. Those are Ellie's doodles, and that's just one of the small details that help inform the actors as to who the character is, and maybe the audience doesn't pick it up, but Bella knew was there."
She continued, saying, "I felt like it wasn't really, in a weird way, I know this is going to sound strange, but it kind of didn't feel like it was my business. It felt like as long as it was true to who Ellie was for Bella, then I was fine with it. It became something very personalized that Bella got to do with their costume."
Dina teasing Ellie about her Converse was a running joke that lent itself to the practicality of getting Ellie out of those sneakers for boots, which helped Bella while they were on location, filming stunts, and more. Ann said, "Ellie's a rebel, and she doesn't care, and she's going to do whatever she wants to, and she's always going to go against the norm. So it actually works in a really cool way with her wearing them and Dina calling her out."
Ann also joked, "I mean, listen, as a costume designer, when I see that in the script that Ellie is wearing Converse in the snow, I'm like, this is just me as a costume designer, I'm like, 'Really?!'"
Certain outfits from The Last of Us Part II were necessary to recreate as closely as possible. One of which is Ellie's outfit when she sings "Take On Me" to Dina in Episode 4. Ann said, "I felt it was important. Craig and Neil [Druckmann, who created the games and co-created the series] felt it was important, and so did Bella."
She continued, saying, "That scene is so gorgeous, and it's right out of the game. I really felt it was important to try to stay as true to not only the colors that the characters were wearing in the game, but also the silhouette. This is an iconic look for Ellie, and we want it to stay as true to that iconic look as possible."
Meanwhile, the rust-colored shirt that Dina wears while in Seattle, notably in the "Take On Me" scene, is meant to be a nod to Dina's backpack color from the video game. Ann specifically took the color and put it into the shirt because it stays "true to the essence of the character."
Dina's bracelet, which she gives to Ellie in the game and also in the Season 2 finale, was a collaboration between the costume and props departments. The bracelet was custom-made, based on references from the game, and then the costume team "broke it down, aged it, and made it look like it could have been a vintage piece," because they wanted the feeling that it had maybe been in Dina's family for a long time.
Speaking about working with the props department on creating the iconic bracelet, Ann said, "I knew Nevin [Swain, prop master for Season 2] was a genius when it came to creating these props. So he had somebody who built the bracelet for us. I loved this bracelet. When I was starting prep on the show early, early on, I remember having a conversation with my friend's 16-year-old daughter, and she said, 'You have to promise me, Aunt Ann, that Dina's bracelet is going to make it into the show. Just please promise me.' And I was like, 'Okay, I promise it will.'"She continued, saying, "So it was really important to me to make sure I got that right for Noah because she was so passionate about it. Of course, it's a big part of the story as well, so there was no way it wasn't going to make it into the game, but the fact that Noah brought that to my attention made it even more special to me."
Another costume piece that is a replica from the game is Ellie's striped shirt that she wears to the museum with Joel in Episode 6. Ann recalled, "I knew that T-shirt had to be that because that's such an important part of the game. I wanted that down to every last detail to be exactly like it was in the game. The only thing that I changed was that I changed it from a tank top to a T-shirt because I felt the tank top was too adult, and I felt the T-shirt would make her look more like a kid."
She added, "My team, my breakdown team, who are all incredible artists, hand-screened the stripes onto a T-shirt."
Dina's jacket was not custom-made but rather a jacket from Aviator Nation that Ann had on her mood board for Dina very early on when she started to think about costumes for Season 2. She said, "There is an air of effervescence and fun and just everything that Dina is, which is full of life, which is why I love that rainbow. Neil Druckmann was immediately drawn to it. He felt like this would be a very iconic Dina jacket, sort of like the jacket that Joel wore last season. When I put it on Isabela [Merced] in fitting, it just made sense."
She said there were discussions about the fact that Aviator Nation didn't exist prior to the outbreak in The Last of Us. She said, "We discussed the fact that the Aviator Nation did not exist in our timeline. But as Craig and Neil have always said, it's all about serving the story, and what serves the story best, just like the Pearl Jam song 'Future Days.' That serves the story, doesn't matter if it was in our timeline or not. We had similar discussions about this jacket. It just felt like Dina."
Ellie's green jacket that she wears in Seattle involved numerous conversations between Ann, Craig Mazin, and Ksenia Sereda, who was the director of photography for Episode 3, because Ellie needed to stand out enough but also blend in with the forest and Seattle's landscape. "We went and looked at all of these different shades of green," Ann said.
She continued, saying, "We wanted to try to find that perfect green that would look great in the forest, that would separate her enough so that you can see her. But also, so she kind of blends in a little bit, because that makes sense for who Ellie is."
Meanwhile, Joel, Ellie, Tommy, and Abby's parkas for Episodes 1 and 2 were all custom-made by the costume department on The Last of Us. Ann explained, "We needed so many, and there was no way that we were going to find vintage parkas with a '90s kind of vibe, in multiples of six." Joel and Ellie's parkas intentionally have "very similar style lines," with one being blue with a green tint, and the other being blue with a deep purple.
Explaining how the costume department made the jackets, Ann said, "We found the fabric. We stripped the fabric, overdyed the fabric, splayed into the fabric, and then the fabric goes to the workroom. They build the shell. Then, when the shell is done, it goes back to breakdown, where they wash it down to get those really great faded edges."She continued, saying, "Then it goes back to the workroom, where it's waterproofed, and then all the other things are added, like the fake fur that we used on the hood. Then once it's built completely, it goes back into breakdown for its final aged look, where they add dirt and grime and anything else that might need to go on there to make it look 20 years old."
There was also a big conversation about changing the jackets that Joel, Ellie, and others wear in the Jackson winter scenes from lightweight jackets to parkas, considering the actors were going to actually be out in the snow and needed to stay warm, etc.
Ann recalled, "In the game, everybody's wearing lightweight jackets. I remember having this conversation with Ashley Swidowski, who's one of the game designers at Naughty Dog, and we talked about it, and we were like, 'This is great for the game, but not great in real life. So we're going to have to make these changes.' So everybody got parkas."
Ellie's Seattle look is one of the most iconic from the game, so this costume was recreated for the show as closely as possible. The only differences in the show are that Ellie's shirt is a chambray fabric instead of denim because it has a better "drape" on camera, and she wears a short-sleeved T-shirt instead of a tank top.
Ann elaborated, saying, "We chose to go with a T-shirt here, just for practical reasons on set and for everything that was happening. Those were also larger conversations that we all had about, okay, this is what it was in the game, but we might need to shift it a little bit just because of weather, locations, the practicality, what we happen to be shooting. But still trying to stay true to the essence of the original look in the game."
When Jesse rescues Ellie and Dina in Seattle in Episode 5, his costume was intentionally created to mirror Joel's because Ellie is meant to think in that moment that maybe Joel came to save her. So, Jesse is wearing a plaid shirt that's tucked in, and his tape on his boots matches the tape on Joel's boots in Season 1.
Ann explained, "I believe in the script, it even said as a note in there, 'When Ellie is trying to focus on who just came in, she thinks for a moment that that's Joel.' So we went down to even the tape on his boots, similar to the tape that Joel had on his boots in Season 1. Jesse had on a plaid shirt, and it was tucked in like Joel would tuck his shirts in. So it's little subtle, Easter eggs like that that trick the audience a little bit into going, Oh, my god. Could that be Joel? That was the point, wanting the audience to have the same reaction that Ellie is having."
In Episode 2, in order to have Tommy stand out against the horde of infected infiltrating Jackson, he's the only person wearing a red jacket. "I wanted the audience to be able to track Tommy in all the chaos. So none of the infected, nobody else really has red on them in a significant way. It's just Tommy so that Maria can spot him from the rooftop and see him down there on the street, but so can the audience," Ann said.
The color red for Tommy also carries through in his Seattle look, which we see in the Season 2 finale. Ann explained, "I wanted to follow through with that color palette, but it's a little bit darker for Seattle, and keep him in that red. So we found this really great wax canvas that we broke down that had a deep burgundy color to it, and then made this wonderful jacket that had a leather collar. So it's kind of waterproof, but it still stays true to his color palette that we sort of set at the beginning. Again, it was custom-made for him, and I loved this follow-through of his winter jacket had red in it, and I wanted the Seattle jacket to have red in it."
Every infected extra comes in for a costume fitting, and they are all given different looks in order to give these characters a little bit of backstory. "We had one guy in a Seattle Loggers sweatshirt and a Clicker wearing this really great rocker band T-shirt with a striped shirt over it. It looks like the grunge from the late '90s. Maybe that's who this guy was when he got bit," Ann recalled.
She explained, "Every single one of them has a different look to them, because it was important to give them a little backstory of who this person was before they got bitten. So you're gonna see a lot more color and texture in them. These were people before they got bitten. So we wanted to show that but specifically for Jackson."
For Episode 2, the costume department did "close to 600 fittings" between the infected, the stunt team, and the citizens of Jackson. The horde in Jackson was given a lot more color so they could stand out against the snow, as opposed to the horde in the subway in Jackson, who are in a different, wetter environment.
She continued, saying, "We needed them to stand out from the snow, so there is a lot more color and a lot more texture, so that they don't just disappear into the blizzard, and you do see them stand out a little bit more. But in Seattle, we're in a different environment as well."
The costume department also worked closely with prosthetic designer Barrie Gower and his team. All of the cordyceps you see on the clothing were handmade by Barrie and his team. In fact, the color of the cordyceps even changes between Jackson and Seattle.
Ann explained, "Barrie and his team are absolutely brilliant, and they create all of those cordyceps pieces for us that go into the clothes. Their shop was right next door to our shop, so there was a lot of conversation and a lot of working together to try to make all that happen and make it as seamless as possible."She continued, saying, "The color of the cordyceps changed a little bit from the cordyceps in the snow in Jackson. Also, it's a lot wetter in Seattle, so that part was really interesting as well. Like doing that integration of the cordyceps into the clothes, and seeing the cordyceps break down the weave of the cloth in the clothing."
And finally, one of the best examples of the prosthetic and costume departments working so closely was in Episode 5, when Ellie chases Nora into the basement of the hospital, and we see the cordyceps and spores room with the infected W.L.F. soldiers trapped. Ann explained, "My team worked so closely with Barrie Gower and Paul Spateri, who ran the department for Barrie, in incorporating and helping them to get the costumes built directly into the set."
"That was one of my favorite moments of the season, I think," Ann began. "It was stunningly beautiful. The workmanship and the craftsmanship that went into that were absolutely next level."
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