[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for “The Last of Us” Season 2, Episode 2, “Through the Valley.”]
For Kaitlyn Dever, the lead-up to “The Last of Us” Season 2 included both personal grief and public backlash. It’s no wonder the smash-hit TV show helped her start processing.
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“I don’t know how these intense roles come into my life so often,” Dever told IndieWire ahead of the season premiere. “I really don’t how that happens, but I think I find it somewhat therapeutic.”
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From hidden gem horror movies (“No One Will Save You”) to true crime dramatizations (“Apple Cider Vinegar”), Dever is a chameleon performer with a penchant for dark comedy. She’s the main villain on HBO’s uber-popular zombie/mushroom apocalypse this season — and her character, Abby, is responsible for one of the year’s most shocking TV deaths.
“I wanted to focus on getting to the real root and the core of who she is,” said Dever. The actress is a long-time fan of the award-winning video game, “The Last of Us Part II,” who saw the astonishing demise of Pedro Pascal’s beloved Joel coming before almost anyone else.
“I had a lot of information that no one else had,” Dever said, looking back on her history with series co-creator Neil Druckmann. “I carried that with me for many years.”
Dever previously worked with Druckmann, who is al the head of the video game studio Naughty Dog, on “Uncharted 4.” Before that, she was also in the running to play Ellie, the teen lead in “The Last of Us” (Bella Ramsey on TV), for a potential movie adaption.
“I had a few meetings with him about that,” said Dever, describing a tour through Naughty Dog. “He spoiled the entire second game [for me] years before the game even came out.”
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That was more than a decade ago, and plans for the film fizzled. Still, the story held a “special place” in Dever’s heart, she said. A record-breaking best-seller that won Game of the Year hundreds of times, “The Last of Us Part II” hit consoles in 2020. Despite a frustrating script leak, the sequel’s main hook — a sudden and brutal execution that sees Abby beat Joel to death for murdering her father years before — destroyed gamers.
Pascal has described himself as being in “active denial” over the twist in Episode 2 (h/t Entertainment Weekly), and Dever told multiple sources she “felt bad” killing his character. The scene was among the first she shot, at a particularly difficult time in her private life. Speaking with IndieWire, Dever explained how the death of her mother just weeks before production impacted her process.
“To be very honest, I was dealing with a lot in my personal life right up until my first day of shooting on this job,” she said. “I had done a lot of thinking on the role and a lot of prep mentally, but… I really didn’t do the same prep that I normally do on other jobs. And I think it was honestly helpful for me.”
Dever described her “new routine,” adding, “I threw myself into it in a way that I never have before. I think it was helpful for this woman and this character I’m playing and just the intensity of it and the anger and the rage that she has. I just really felt like I had to really go for it.”
Letting loose in a way she “never has before,” Dever said, helped her “Last of Us” portrayal pack a punch. And you have to be tough to be Abby. The character has been a consistent source of controversy since the game came out. First, it made voice actress Laura Bailey and her young son the target of bizarre death threats — many made by fans struggling to distinguish the game from reality online.
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“I don’t think anybody predicted what the fallout would be from it,” Bailey told Vulture. “I was not prepared. But I don’t think anybody on the team was.”
After Dever’s casting, the controversy machine started up again. Not only did Abby come with the same toxic baggage as before (“There’s definitely still a contingent of people that have not calmed down from it,” Bailey explained, again to Vulture), but Dever was also body-shamed by critics who said she didn’t look the part. Executive producers have described this version of Abby as more “drama over action” with a keen focus on channeling Abby’s motive through Dever’s magnetism.
“I still wanted to do it, and I think it was because of Neil Druckmann and [co-creator/showrunner] Craig Mazin’s confidence in me that made me have confidence in myself to play her,” said Dever, who “didn’t hesitate when saying yes.” “I’ve read a lot. It’s hard not to, but I’m able to separate those things because at the end of the day, what I felt was important [was] what I was doing with the role as an actor, as a person playing a fake fictional character.”
She continued, “I had a responsibility to come at it with my own ideas and create who this Abby was going to be with Craig and Neil.” Pascal posted a photo of him and Dever on Instagram shortly after Episode 2, “Through the Valley,” aired. He praised his co-star, calling Dever “you little miracle.” The move has been interpreted by many as an effort to protect Dever from online hate.
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“It took years,” Dever said of her casting. “Season 1 came out and I just thought Bella was truly so good as Ellie. They’re really incredible and amazing, and I just love what they did. I became a fan of this show, and then, yeah, it came back into my life.”
Asked what makes a great revenge story, Dever said, “It’s all of the things that are underneath and what fuels the revenge. For Abby, she is just someone who is desperate to make it all go away and make something bad feel better. And the reality is that there really isn’t anything that’ll make that go away.”
“The Last of Us” Season 2 airs new episodes on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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