The crew was ready to, like-- they were ready to kill us.
Yes.
Everybody I have cared for has either died or left me.
You have no idea what loss is.
HOST: If you could pick anyone in the world, who would be
on your apocalypse dream team?
Um--
(GROANING) Oh, there's just too many people.
Michelle Obama, Indiana Jones--
[LAUGHS]
[INAUDIBLE]
Trust me.
I would have to pick my dad.
He knows all of those things--
a family of mechanics who can do anything,
and he's a bomb expert for the military.
So I think he's the guy.
Number one, Smaranda Luna, my wife;
I think love is an important element
when trying to get through times like those, and you know what?
Me and her will be enough.
[LAUGHS]
Amal Clooney.
I met her recently, and I've never
been more in awe of an individual in my entire life.
My sister 'cause she's just incredible.
Oh, my god, and Neil.
I, a hundred percent, am convinced that he would know
exactly what to do in any circumstance,
specifically apocalypse-rated.
So I would a hundred percent have Neil there.
Well, obviously, outside my kids,
'cause I have to protect them, I'd race
over to my brother's because he's more
of a survivalist than I am.
He knows how to ride every vehicle, fix things.
He'd be a much better survivor than I would be.
Joel-- [LAUGHS] and Pedro 'cause now
he's totally prepped for it.
So that would be it.
He'd be good fun, too.
We could hunker down, and it would be OK.
Oh, well, I'm definitely taking Bella Ramsey with me
because she's ferocious and she's small.
She can get into places I can't get,
and I'd give her the switchblade for sure.
She's really good with that. - You.
You. You should come to our--
Come with us
--apocalypse team.
We like the lighting in your room, so you.
Thank you so much.
If she so much as twitches-- [CHOKING] Don't.
Oh, okay.
What's been your favorite behind-the-scenes moment?
I just laughed a lot.
Pedro's really funny.
I think, you know, that it's not a secret.
In between takes, he would just make me die laughing.
We used to get the giggles a lot.
It's because you spent so much time being so serious,
that you'd start going, this is ridiculous!
And we would just crack up, like,
tears running down our face, like, no, please stop.
Crack up.
The contagious giggle situation got to the point
where it was so extreme, that we suffered.
Like, the crew was ready to-- like,
they were ready to-- they were ready-- they
were ready to kill us.
Yes.
Which just made us laugh even more.
So funny seeing people suffer.
[LAUGHS]
If you don't think there's hope for the world,
why bother going on?
You haven't seen the world.
So you don't know.
HOST: What are three things you need
to survive a mutant-fungus, brain-eating apocalypse?
You need a sharp wit.
Mm-hmm.
Or-- or-- or a sharp weapon.
[LAUGHTER]
A water purifier.
A blade.
What else, Neil?
A joke book 'cause you gotta keep your humanity.
Listen, if you're surrounded by a bunch of people, mad men,
and they have guns pointed at you, what do you do?
You're not gonna start fighting them.
You take out your joke book.
You read a joke.
Maybe you win them over.
Mm.
Well, I would definitely not survive.
I wanna be really clear about that, Tre.
I would not make it.
(LAUGHING) But I think, for those people who do,
they need to want to live more than anything
because it's the will that keeps you going more than anything.
Did you play The Last of Us at all before you
both got these roles?
Before we got the roles? No.
No.
After we got the roles, and we were told not to.
Yeah, we defied orders.
We rebelled--
We rebelled.
I even went behind his back and asked PlayStation
to send me the game.
- Really? - Yeah.
Wow, you took it a step further than I did.
I did. I did.
But it was good for us, I think, to disobey them
and do our little bits of research.
I think it was really beneficial.
It was super beneficial.
We have a greater purpose than any of us
could have ever imagined.
You originated the voice of the character
in the video games.
How was it like bringing this character
to life on the TV screen?
It was a beautiful experience because I
have had the great privilege of living with her for ten years
now.
And so I know her and love her and care about her and her
difficult decision making and her sacrifices
for the greater good.
And I feel very protective of her.
So to be able to step into her shoes
in a prestige HBO adaptation was extraordinary
and a wonderful dream, and also an opportunity to take
an old pal for a new ride.
HOST: Craig, you know, Chernobyl and The Last of Us
are both about world-ending disasters.
Were there any similarities in the development
process of these two stories?
There was a similarity.
I started both of them the same way--
talking to a scientist.
For Chernobyl, I sat down with a nuclear physicist.
I just said, explain to me how nuclear reactors work.
And for The Last of Us, I talked to a mycologist, which
is a specialist in fungus.
And I came to understand how fascinating and complicated
and potentially terrifying fungi are.
And from there, I was able to kind of go forward.
So I guess they, kind of, both started the same way.
How are the infected different from
any flesh-eating monsters we've seen on the screen before?
They're people who are sick.
That's the big difference.
They're not supernatural.
They haven't come out of a grave.
They're sick.
And we wanted to feel that with them.
We wanted to feel a connection to them, almost a pity.
We want to understand they were people once,
and that is both sad and scary because there is a question.
Is there still a person in there?
When you saw them on the screen for the first time,
what was your gut reaction?
They were scary.
All of the noises--
the actors in the fight-- in my quick fight anyway--
those actors were amazing.
Like, that was all on them.
Like, that was all prosthetic.
And their-- like, all of their motion and movement and
the whole bit was just them.
And the sounds-- like [CLICKING]----
like, that was all--
so that was freaky.
[CLICKING] [GROWL]
We have our production offices where we're prepping the show,
and they take me into this little room.
And there's a clicker there.
He's just standing there.
And this incredible prosthetic makeup that Barrie Gower, who
worked with us on Chernobyl and worked on Game of Thrones,
had created--
it was there.
There it was.
There was a clicker standing there.
It was just so crazy because I know, as a fan,
like, if you can't get the clickers right, I'm off.
I'm out.
Bye.
Because you don't care.
Because you don't get it, and you don't love it enough.
Like, I care.
I get it. I love it.
The clickers have to be perfect.
They have to sound perfect, and they do.
HOST: Neil, we know you're being very faithful to the game
in this series adaption.
But where did you see areas that this world could grow
or expand in this TV series?
With the game, we were pretty hardcore about only seeing
things through Joel's perspective,
and then, later in the story, through Ellie's perspective.
And that's it.
There's no privileged view ever in the game.
With the show, we're able to really
kind of explore other side characters when
Joel and Ellie are not around.
'Cause there are these other, sometimes villainous,
characters in the game, and we now
get to humanize them and show that, you know,
no one believes they're the villain.
They believe they're the good guys,
and they're trying to do what's right by their own people.
And that's kind of like the juice of the story, which
is putting people that both feel like they're
doing the right thing, but they're
at odds with each other.
And then how does that kind of conflict get resolved?
You trust me?
HOST: What do you think your characters of Joel and Ellie
learn from each other as they embark on this journey?
How to be human again.
Yes.
How to love again.
Uh-huh.
And how to kill people in many different types of ways
to keep the other one alive.
On a practical level, you teach me to survive--
Yeah.
--yeah-- and to kill and shoot guns.
Right.
All the things you need.
Yeah.