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“We’re wasting everyone’s time!” Years later, Troy Baker recounted what made a key scene from “The Last of Us” iconic

“We’re wasting everyone’s time!” Years later, Troy Baker recounted what made a key scene from “The Last of Us” iconic

News
Video games
October 14, 2024, 1:43 p.m



“The Last of Us” is an unrivaled example of drama and excellent acting in today’s games – one of the crucial scenes takes place right at the beginning of the game and TV show. Troy Baker, the actor who played Joel, shared years later why it entered the story.


The Last of Us Part I begins with a shocking event that will forever go down in gaming history. The world as we know it ends in the first 15 minutes and Joel, the game’s main character, loses his daughter Sarah. We could also see this scene later in the HBO series, The Last of Usin which Pedro Pascal played the main character.


Troy Baker, who played Joel Miller The Last of Us Part IYears later he talked about how they filmed that iconic scene. It turned out it was repeated a dozen times, which irritated Troy Baker.

Baker says that once during filming Neil Druckmann, the game’s director, came up to him and said, “Next time we’ll shoot THAT scene.” Everyone knew it wouldn’t be pleasant or easy because the scene was a traumatic experience. So Troy prepared for the next motion capture session. After years he said:

I just walked in, full of my own ideas, feelings and excited… And we’re on our way… Take one and I just lose it… I just scream and whine.


But that wasn’t enough for Neil Druckmann. They repeated this scene seven to eight times, and during the breaks both Troy Baker and Hana Hayes (the actress who played Sarah) cried.. So the work continued in a very difficult, serious atmosphere until Neil finally said, “I think we’ve done it.” Troy Baker breathed a sigh of relief.

Troy Baker (Joel) and Hana Hayes (Sarah). The Last of Us behind the scenes. Naughty Dog 2013. - 'We're wasting everyone's time!' Troy Baker shared years later what made a key scene from 'The Last of Us' iconic - News - 10/14/2024

Troy Baker (Joel) and Hana Hayes (Sarah). The Last of Us behind the scenes. Naughty Dog 2013.

But after three months, Neil Druckmann contacted Troy and said they needed to redo the scene. Troy Baker replied, “Dude, don’t do that to me.” However, Neil was adamant. They returned to re-record the traumatic scene from the beginning of the game. On the second or third try, Neil walked up to Troy and said:

Neil: I notice resistance.

Troy: You’re damn right to resist. We have this. I know it, you know it, and we’re wasting everyone’s time because we have it!

But Neil Druckmann was adamant again. He calmly explained to Troy what he had missed and what he needed to do to make this scene one of the best in video game history.


Neil: Here’s what I have. I have a broken man.

Troy: Yes! His daughter just died!

Neil: Here’s what I don’t have: “What’s going on? This is what happens. I can fix it. It doesn’t work. She goes. She’s gone. I’m exhausted”.

In these few short words, Neil Druckmann expressed the full range of emotions Joel should feel as he holds his dying daughter. However, what really proved to be eye-opening advice was what Neil said a moment later:

You know, the only thing you haven’t done this whole time is not just…look at her. You looked everywhere, you cried to heaven, you looked at Tom, you closed your eyes, but you never just looked at her.

After years, Troy Baker revealed through tears and with a shaking voice that today, when he became a father, he finally realized that this would be the only thing he should do in such a moment.

And now, as a father, I understand: if I were to spend a few fleeting moments with my son, there would be nothing more important in the world to me than just looking at him.

And that’s exactly what happened – Troy looks at his deceased daughter at a crucial moment, and the entire scene is heartbreaking to this day – it has gone down in gaming history as an unprecedented display of drama and excellent acting in games. Just that one small detail, like a look in the eyes, was enough to make it believable and memorable.