The Last of Us series, based on the acclaimed 2013 video game of the same name, has earned praise from critics and fans with record HBO viewership. With the fifth episode, the series has developed Joel and Ellie's relationship, brought the terrifying clickers to life, and explored new aspects of the Cordycep fungus. In the fourth and fifth episodes, Joel and Ellie came across Henry and Sam while continuing their trek to Wyoming, but it ended in tragedy after the group managed to escape from both the people hunting the brothers and a pack of infected.
The fourth and fifth episodes featured an exciting cameo in the form of Jeffrey Pierce, one of the actors from the game who joined the live-action series. Pierce, who voiced Tommy in The Last of Us and The Last of Us 2, plays an original character created for the series named Perry. Perry and his leader Kathleen showed a new side of the Hunters, introduced as antagonists in the original game, and added a layer of darkness to Henry's backstory that makes his and Same's ending even more tragic.
Screen Rant spoke with Pierce about his role as Perry in The Last of Us series. Pierce talked about stepping onto a set that brings The Last of Us to life after doing motion capture and voice performances for the games. Pierce also revealed that Tory Baker, the original Joel, visited the set while he was filming and shared how he crafted his new character Perry.
Jeffrey Pierce on The Last Of Us
Screen Rant: First of all, congratulations on the show and the game. Amazing job. Man, I don't think I was ready for episode five. That was heart-wrenching. Puts you through the wringer. What did it feel like to walk on the physical set of The Last of Us after doing the motion capture and voice work for the video game?
Jeffrey Pierce: I love games because you're just sort of in this distilled environment where it is all about the work and imagination. You could be on a Broadway stage, and you're just pinging back and forth between you and the other actors, and it's all about what you're imagining together and experiencing as artists.
Cut to, you walk onto the cul-de-sac, the final battle set. This crew of people, who almost entirely took the job because it was The Last of Us and the game had impacted their lives deeply, have built 17 or 18 houses on a parking lot, and they're just absolutely seamless. Every detail, every brick, every piece of siding, every portico; aged for 20 years. It's just unbelievable.
I've never seen anything like it. And that amount of love and care and detail was put into every single prop; every single piece of wardrobe. Everything that you see was crafted out of love of the game. Oh, it's unbelievable and just humbling and moving. And you just sort of walk in and say, "Okay, I am not here to let anybody down."
I mean, even as a fan, seeing that come to life is just incredible. This was the game that revolutionized video games for all intents and purposes. But while Perry and Tommy are very different characters, there are some similarities, including their dislike of FEDRA and their loyalty to their loved ones. Can you talk about crafting this new character and pulling from your experience in the world while still making him unique?
Jeffrey Pierce: I've had the good fortune that I've played a lot of the war fighter guys, SEALs and special forces and Delta guys in games, and then in Bosch and sort of really trying to understand that world and understand those characters.
And so when I saw that Perry was in the military and that, as Craig had written it, that when the firefight erupts, Perry is a professional while everything is going to shit around him, it just gave me everything that I needed to approach him as this sort of archetypal Kurosawa Ronin who had found his cause with Kathleen and her brother.
And to me, that's all the samurai movies I've ever loved and every Western that I've ever loved. All in a nutshell. And then everything that I've done in terms of playing SEALs and these sort of war fighter guys. So it's like all the mesh of all those things made it heaven. Then he gets a great sort of samurai death, an honorable out trying to save the woman he loves by giving his life. It was icing on the cake for sure.
Why is Perry so loyal to Kathleen? Because her decision-making is so clouded by her emotion, but he continues to support her through all of it.
Jeffrey Pierce: He has sort of been the tip of the spear underneath her brother's leadership. He's the guy who taught all these people how to fight and with the expectation that maybe they wouldn't have to. But after the murder of her brother, all the training that he has brought to the table is put into action by her. And it's her strategy; her choices. We overcame the fact that they had vastly more firepower and training, and our guerilla warfare based on her tactics is what won the day.
One of the things that the game and the show are about are the idea that love can lead us to do really terrible things. And his love for her, his affection for her brother, his desire for revenge for the loss of him — all of those things have colored his judgment to the place where he can't trust his own judgment. He's put himself in her hands this far, and he's got to stay there. They haven't slept in a week. They've been fighting and killing and just doing the things that they have to do practically to try and get control of KC. And at that point, he's going to be a follower. Because ultimately that's what a warrior has to be.
Perry is a part of the Hunters from the game. What was your favorite part of exploring that part of The Last of Us?
Jeffrey Pierce: Oh, man. Well, I was involved in it in my own mind every time I played the game. The great joy of this thing to me, is that there is a whole audience of people who are going to watch the show and then get to go back and live the game and find it just as satisfying as watching the show was. And then they'll know what we were all talking about for the past decade. I love the colors that Perry and Kathleen bring, just as an outside observer, the colors that they bring to Henry's story.
Because all of a sudden Henry doesn't look like a victim. He looks like a man who made some choices that were to benefit his brother, but were ultimately selfish and done out of love as well. So we're back to the sort of idea of the dynamic Bill and Frank, who's the protector and who's saving who and when, and sort of the poisonous nature of love. It's [a] really interesting aspect of our humanity that we need to come to terms with.
I can imagine seeing real Clickers versus the mo-cap ones in the game is a wildly different experience. How did it feel to see the Clickers in real life? Because I've got to admit, I'd probably be terrified.
Jeffrey Pierce: I think that they had 75 stunt men and women and dancers. They trained for four or five weeks [to learn] the movements of the Clickers and all the combat that they were doing all around us. And they were amazing. Guy and Maggie were the two stunt coordinators. Maggie doubled Ashley [Johnson] in the games and was the choreographer in the games.
So Maggie's involvement is just an extension of the games, too. And so when those 75 very well-trained people came out of the pit, it was about as intense an experience as you could possibly imagine. Very little acting involved in trying to stay cool under fire with them coming full speed at us from this burning building.
I was just watching it. My jaw was on the floor. Episode 5 has absolutely amazing wild stunts with fire, Clickers, a Bloater attacking. Can you talk about filming that sequence?
Jeffrey Pierce: We shot for, I think, three-and-a-half weeks all night in that cul-de-sac. It was cold, and it was dark, and it was as much fun as I've ever gotten to have anywhere in my entire life.
That's amazing. Was it different working with Neil on the show versus the game, or was the experience similar?
Jeffrey Pierce: Neil was not up there, much to my dismay. It would've been great to be high-fiving him on that set in terms of just being able to sit back and say, "Look what we did." But Troy [Baker] actually popped into town for a convention, so he got to come to set and see us shooting one night there. Went to dinner with he and Craig [Mazin], and then he came to the set afterwards and got to see us playing.
It was a really, really special experience to share that with him. But in terms of the experience, the ease with which all of it happened. Because when something is written wel, I don't know that anybody's going to tell you this. When it's well written, our job suddenly becomes so easy.
When it's badly written, our jobs become very, very difficult, because you're like, "Can I keep this thing above water?" But I've never been handed a piece of material by Neil or by Craig that didn't just flow in a human way with more ease than anything I've ever touched. So yeah, it had the same underpinning experience on the games for sure.
Perry is a new character created for the show, as is his leader, Kathleen. Did Neil come to you about the character specifically?
Jeffrey Pierce: I emailed him after they got the pickup and knew that Craig was in. And I said, "Look, I'll come carry a spear and stand in the background. Anything you need to make this thing go. I'd love to be a part of it. And if not, that's fine too." And there was a character that we talked about initially, and then they said, "Nah, we're not going to sort of buy you as a victim." I think he said, "We're not going to buy you as sort of a weasel." So that was flattering. And then two weeks later, they called and sent the scripts for Perry and offered me the chance to do that.
That is incredible. What do you think about Kathleen's speech about Henry? Because it's hard to sympathize with somebody so willing to kill a kid. It almost seems a little hypocritical, given that she's willing to risk everything to avenge her brother.
Jeffrey Pierce: It's an interesting line she says, to the effect of, "Kids die every day. What's the big deal? What's the difference? And in the world today, kids are getting killed every day. So, why should he be special?" I think it's her take on it. "You killed my brother. Why should I treat yours any differently?" And it speaks to sort of the rot at the heart of us as human beings. We're unable to have empathy.
Empathy might've helped Henry find a better way to save his brother than by sacrificing somebody else's. Empathy might've gotten Kathleen everything she wanted out of stopping and killing FEDRA if she had been able to empathize with Henry's experience and with his little brother. And that's the kind of story we need as human beings. If we can't find our way to it as a collective, then we deserve the end that we're going to get.
Considering you've been a part of The Last of Us from the beginning, what surprised you about working on the series?
Jeffrey Pierce: Oh, man. I haven't had a lot of opportunities just to interact directly with people who play the game. And the times that I've met people, and they find out that I played Tommy in the past have been really special moments because everyone wants to share how it impacted them. And I did my first ever convention with Troy in Wales, like in December.
And I met hundreds of people who went from the age of 13 to 23, and The Last of Us had a dramatic impact on the way that they see the world, both games, and the way they see each other, and the way they see people who are different from them. Or for a gay kid to be like, that's the star of the second game is this gay woman. To see themselves or to be able just to say with a powerful empathy, "I can love Ellie. She's a gay woman, and I can love her journey and love her as a character." It doesn't have anything to do with me.
A portion of people are upset about Bill and Frank because it's going to force them, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not a year from now. But in their lifetime, they're going to come to terms and realize love is love. [And think] "I can't believe that I had that prejudice reaction to that story in 2023." At some point in their life, they're going to have that moment. And this upset is the beginning of that because art has to fuck you up in order for you to grow from [it]. And I think that Craig and Neil are doing a great job of fucking people up.
I couldn't agree with you more. I got one last question for you, Jeffrey. With The Last of Us renewed for a second season and knowing Tommy's struggles in The Last of Us 2, what advice would you give Gabriel Luna about going into a darker storyline?
Jeffrey Pierce: He dove into the games and dove into his understanding of Tommy in ways that I would've begged any actor to. And I never had to. He just did his work, and I love to see that. I mean, he is a professional. He is a top-notch artist, and he did everything he needed to get ready. And I think that he is chomping at the bit for what awaits him on the road. Yeah, I can't even do anything but applaud. Keep going forward.
About The Last Of Us
Based on the wildly popular 2013 video game of the same name The Last Of Us takes place in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a fungal outbreak. The series follows Joel, a hardened smuggler, tasked with escorting 14-year olf Ellie across the ravaged United States in hopes of finding a cure.
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