‘The Last of Us’ Ster Catherine O’hara on Pedro Pascal, who makes ‘The Studio’

Spoiler alert: This story discusses important plot developments in “The Price”, season 2, episode 6 of “The Last of Us”, streaming on the service currently known as Max.

When co-maker Craig Mazin, “The Last of Us”, Catherine O’hara called her a role in the second season of the HBO series, she was tickled by the idea that she would play a therapist in a post-apocalyptic society. “In this World, that someone is responsible for someone’s mental well -being – what a ridiculous printed matter! “She says about Zoom.” That makes me laugh. ”

O Schitt’s Creek “. But although she has previously tackled dramatic roles, she has never been received a character so intensely Gail – the only trained professional in mental health care within the community of Jackson, Wyoming, who offers her services in the trade for pot and drink.

In the premiere of Season 2, Joel (Pedro Pascal) visits Gail to discuss his difficulties that make contact with Ellie (Bella Ramsey), but Gail pricks Joel to reveal the secret he has been home since they met. In an attempt to let him open, she confesses that she hates him for killing her husband, Eugene, even though she knows he had to, especially because of how Joel killed him. In episode 6-controlled by co-maker Neil Druckmann and written by Mazzin, Druckmann and Halley Gross-learning we did what Joel actually did: when he and Ellie on Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) came up after he is bitten by an infected, eugene begged to be Jackson, he can be and gail and gail’s word. Instead, Joel follows the rules of the city and kills Eugene; He brings Eugene’s body back to Gail and tells Gail a reassuring lie about the last words of Eugene. However, Ellie cannot tolerate Joel’s deception and interrupts the truth to Gail, who then Joel hits and tells him he has to leave.

O’hara spoke with Variety About working with Druckmann on that scene, how Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are like Meryl Streep, how much she knew about Eugene when she filmed the first episode and this year worked on her other much -praised TV series, the Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio” -including why she continued to work after Covid.

When you recorded the therapy session with Pedro Pascal in episode 1, did you know what happens in episode 6?

I didn’t quite get why she was so angry with and so rough on Joel. I hadn’t even read the sixth episode. I am sure that Craig must have told me in the beginning, where it went, but I had read nothing. So it’s like, whoa, I have an attitude, right?

Have you imagined what could have happened?

Oh yes. Well, it’s actually in that first scene. She says, I know you had to do what you had to do, but you still did it. But he had to do that. He protected the city and she knows that. The horrible thing is that it is not his fault that Eugene was infected. Eugene was attacked, and that is the horror.

What was your experience working with Pedro?

Oh, delicious. Wow. He is everything you want him to be and that everyone fantasizes that he is. Everyone is in love with him, and with good reason. It is just so open and beautiful. He has a kind of gift that gives you the feeling, I think we will be friends forever! I mean, both he and Bella are ridiculously good actors. Their gift to separate themselves from the world they live in “Last of Us” is really beautiful – and thank goodness they have it, because what a world to have your headroom. Between Takes they are just so loose and themselves. I had to work with Meryl Streep, many, many years ago in a film called ‘Brart stomach acid’, and it was the same with her. I had to look at her in the most intense scenes, as in all her films, and then: “Cut!” “So anyway, I went out with this man in high school …” I just talk about something. It’s true, okay, That is What acting is – and Bella and Pedro are great actors.

How often are you approached for roles that are not comical in nature, such as these?

Often enough, I think, but not like this show. This was quite special, and you know, I was told that I would not be infected. So that’s a relief. That was the first thing friends asked: “Are you going to be infected? Did you get it?” You do the same work to prepare for drama or comedy. With comedy you have to laugh, but you still try to bring what you should be supposed to be put on the scene.

If this is not too personal, do you have experienced yourself of therapy for your performance and how Gail relates to its customers?

I think if you might have seen Gail with other customers, but in this case it would be so personal [for her]. It was Eugene’s birthday. That was an emotionally charged scene for her and she drinks. I went to therapy for about six months, many years ago. I went through a kind of crisis and I was lucky to have a really good therapist. She just showed me things and actually heard myself – things that you repeat again and again, but then someone wonders: “Why do you say that?” “What? What do you mean? I said it every day.” She was just very good, but I think I didn’t think it was so much [to my performance]. Maybe I did it unconsciously, but I didn’t do that, because it was so much about Joel and Eugene and the birthday and drink and the pressure of this job. It was just so loaded in the dialogue.

You know, Gail tells everyone who wants to listen to her self -mediating with alcohol and with weed. But I don’t think you will ever play her as drunk or high. How did you come to that choice?

I think we all agree. Maybe we didn’t even discuss it. I didn’t want to play drunk. I like to play drunk, but it doesn’t always help you with someone. If you are drunk, you are in your own head, you know. You just come out with nonsense. And I really wanted to be there for Pedro, for Joel, and Gail for him. I think that is someone who knows how to maintain a level of high or buzz. I think she just narrowly. I did ask for a cup. I liked the idea. There used to be a great woman who lived on the street from where I grew up, and she drank all day, but she would drink from a cup. She put milk in her whiskey so that we children would think she drank milk. She is just this beautiful woman with whom we would hang out all day. “Where is everyone?” “They are at Ruth’s house.”

We will never see Eugene and Gail together in the show. Have you built up a background story for them?

Not really. I didn’t need. It was there on the page. I didn’t see Joey Pantoliano shooting and I didn’t meet him. But looking at that scene, you see in his eyes what Gail means to him.

It was interesting when he said: I want to hear what she’s going to say [to me]. First I thought: “She wanted to forgive him for something? Oh, that’s what He Want to hear. He wants to hear that it is good of Gail. “But then I realized, no, he believes in her professionalism, as well as her love for him, that she would know the right thing to say he is dying.

Neil Druckmann told me about photographing the scene in which Gail learns that Joel lied against her about how Eugene died and that he asked you to scream at Joel and you whispered instead, what the take that he used in the episode. What do you know about photographing that scene?

I read this! It was sent to me by my agent. I thought, “Do I argue with him? Or do I disagree with that? Is that what I did?” I think I was just what we were doing in the day, I didn’t think so. Actors can be so insulted by line measurements or certain notes, and it is so stupid because you just close, and that is the least creative in the world. I don’t feel that way. You trust the person, and you know they know what they are talking about – Neil, of course, does that. So what he asked of me for the scene, I just took it if, okay, what was missing? What did he search for? He may have said, “Shout to him.” I don’t remember that, but I think you should take what the directors say as their version of what they are looking for from you. He said in the interview that I took it and internalized it – I think that is my job. He wanted to feel something of Gail to push Joel away. That moment is where that pain and anger begins. Just before, she thinks, thank you, Joel, at least to bring him to me. But yes, I just think you should cool off if you get notes, if you know they know what they are talking about. Sometimes you can work with people who don’t know and close. “Okay, thanks, I do.” As my husband says, “noticed properly.”

How did it feel to have this show? And “The studio” broadcast at the same time?

Sweet! You never know if anyone will look. Well, I knew they would look at ‘The Last of Us’ and I hoped that they would look at ‘the studio’. But it is the daily job that means something that you can count on. “The Studio” was really fun to do. We have done scenes of 10 pages in one [take]Time and time again. You do a lot of Takes, but then no coverage! It’s great. It felt so real and raw and natural and fun. Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg]They are such a good team, the way they work together. They are both ridiculously creative and open at the same time, really collaborating. All actors, Ike [Barinholtz] and Kathryn [Hahn] and chase [Sui Wonders] – Everyone is so good. It was really fun.

At the end, however, for that entire Cinemacon scene [in Episode 9]I had Covid.

Oh wow!

I got Covid in the atmosphere, and that is all I could see looking at that. I can see that my attitude is just [droops her body]. I didn’t test it because we tried to finish and we left the city in a day or two, so we had to photograph all those scenes. I just kept distance. At one point I had a water bottle on the floor and Evan came by and he said, “Oh, do you want your water?” “No, don’t get it!” I just knew, such as: “Don’t touch anything!” Thank goodness I didn’t give it anyone.

Anyway, sorry, I didn’t even answer your question! I was very lucky and they came out at the same time; I meet friends, they go, “Wow, are you in everything?” “No! I have not worked for a year yet!”

Do you think you will be back for the following seasons of “The Last of Us”?

Don’t know. Craig certainly did not say this next season. It is the Abby story. Maybe. But I think it was to serve Joel and Ellie.

Finally, since you looked at the show, what do you think Gail did in episode 2, when the city was attacked by all the infected person?

Don’t help much! She was with a gang of people on one of those attics or cellars, just to help them chill, deal with the fear – and perhaps to go around a joint.

This interview has been edited and condensed.