The Last of Us is back for a second season, but while the returning cast was glad to be back, it wasn’t easy. With the story picking up five years after the end of season one, a rift between Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller and Bella Ramsey's Ellie was tough to film.
"On a practical level, my first day on set was a beautiful setup because the first thing that I got to shoot was just Bella and me in an intimate setting," Pascal recalls during a press conference at the London West Hollywood. "There's an incredibly painful distance between the two of them in the playing of the scene, but we still got to be on set and f**k around and laughing and stuff like that. That was incredibly comforting. That was like coming home. My mindset was grateful for being back, yet, at the same time, this experience, more than any other I've had, is hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel in a way that isn't very healthy."
Ramsey adds, "Obviously, a lot has changed over those five years. Ellie was 14 and now is 19. Those are the formative years in any teenager’s life, so that definitely informed it. There are obviously deeper reasons for their little rift."
"I didn't enjoy the feeling of being estranged from Pedro within a scene. It wasn't a nice feeling when the cameras were rolling. In real life, we still kind of like each other, just about," they joke. "It was definitely interesting."
The seven-episode second season of The Last of Us premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 13, 2025, and will also be available to stream on Max.
