BELLA RAMSEY: Well, they offered it to me, so I said yes because I wanted to do it.
PEDRO PASCAL: I didn’t know what the game was, but HBO had sent the scripts over, and I was put through a process of auditioning. Not a terribly arduous one, but one that had to be related to having read the scripts. I realized in reading episodes 1 and 2, that once Joel met Ellie, it was a part that you undeniably had to chase and play.
I was blown away by the world of it. And though I wasn’t familiar with the game, I was familiar with Bella, and with Craig Mazin, and I wanted to do it. It intercepted me in a very specific way. I had a plan for the next couple of years, and within a 24-hour period, this project intercepted everything because of how special I thought it was. And then I found out that it was this big f*ucking popular game that people lose their minds over.
RAMSEY: Yeah, that was exactly it. It was a lot.
Describe your first meeting with one another. How did you approach having to build this relationship of faux father and daughter in a way?
PASCAL: I think it’s surreal [looking back at it], the amount of pressure we felt that was not imposed upon us at all. If anything, I feel like it was inappropriate that they hadn’t asked us to do more. What I mean is I met you simply because you were coming to get your hair cut in the trailer and not because you were coming to meet me or that Joel and Ellie were going to meet.
RAMSEY: Right. It was a byproduct. You were on your lunch break.
PASCAL: It was this byproduct because we were shooting the first episode, and then you had arrived, and you were — everyone was — put in quarantine and borders were still closed. And there were very important protocols being abided by, and that could be a big part of it. But there was an artful part of not really trying to force anything to happen and the feeling of the confidence of casting, which I found to be utterly delusional [laughs]. I was like, “How could you know that you’d have a hit casting me with Bella?” Like, how did they know? Somehow, they did. And I think through a form of real decency [and eagerness] to start, we cared very much how the other felt. And that gradually brought us to a bond that is very deep. Plus, Bella is a Libra, and I am an Aries, so that means polar opposites just attract, we complement one another.
RAMSEY: There was no bonding. It was very much showing up on set as just who you are.
PASCAL: We didn’t have a choice. And I feel like we did — in an unspoken way — by taking one another’s cues and not putting pressure on one another, and yet still hoping that she approved of me or vice versa.
RAMSEY: Exactly. It was like, here, meet the person you’re going to spend the rest of the year with. And that’s cool, and I think it worked out. I think our relationship grew and developed as Joel and Ellie’s did. No, actually, Joel and Ellie initially were very estranged and had a lot of anger and resentment towards one another. We didn’t have that. We were just shy of each other. And now that I think about it, us being trapped in the car together for episode 3 did a lot for us.
PASCAL: Yeah, that and the walking. [There is] so much walking.
RAMSEY: So much walking. Do you remember you wanted to rename the show, Come Walk With Us?
PASCAL: Just Walk With Us. Because we were on that trail [in episode 3], and we had to go back to the beginning of it every single time. It was a long-written scene, and the sun was blazing.
Craig Mazin’s screenplays are unique and so meticulous that he even includes a character’s inner thoughts as dialogue on the page. As actors, what was your experience like working with such highly-detailed material as opposed to something a little less structured?
RAMSEY: [The process] was so easy, and I think we were very supported by them and held by the writing and the detail. There wasn’t a moment that I was unsure of who the character was. And yeah, he writes character thoughts in the stage directions, which I loved. They were the best scripts I’ve ever read. Craig hates praise, he hates being told that he’s good, but he’s a genius.
PASCAL: [Incredulously] He loves it! He absolutely, period-ly loves it.
RAMSEY: I strongly disagree.
PASCAL: He needs it.
RAMSEY: He needs it, but he hates it.
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