„We’re Wasting Everybody’s Time!” Troy Baker Recounted Years Later What Made a Key Scene From The Last of Us Iconic
The Last of Us stands as an unmatched example of drama and excellent acting in games today - one of the crucial scenes occurs right at the start of the game and the TV show. Troy Baker, the actor who played Joel, told years later what made it go down in history.
The Last of Us Part I begins with a shocking event that has forever gone down in gaming history. The world as we know it comes to an end in the first 15 minutes, and Joel, the game's main character, loses his daughter, Sarah. We could also watch this scene later in the HBO series, The Last of Us, in which Pedro Pascal played the main character.
Troy Baker, who played Joel Miller in The Last of Us Part I, years later talked about how they filmed this iconic scene. It turns out that it was repeated a dozen times, which irritated Troy Baker.
Baker recounts that once during filming, Neil Druckmann, the game's director, approached him and said, "Next time we will be shooting THIS scene." Everyone knew that it would be neither pleasant nor easy because the scene concerned a traumatic experience. So Troy prepared for the next motion capture session. After years he said:
I came in just already filled with my own ideas, emotions and work-uped… And we go for the scene… Take one and I just lose it… I just scream, wail.
But that wasn't enough for Neil Druckmann. They repeated this scene 7-8 times, and during the breaks both Troy Baker and Hana Hayes (the actress playing Sarah) cried. So the work proceeded in a very difficult, grave-like atmosphere, until finally Neil said: I think we got it. Troy Baker breathed a sigh of relief.
However, after three months Neil Druckmann approached Troy and said that they had to redo the scene. Troy Baker replied: "Dude, don't do this to me." However, Neil was relentless. They returned to record the traumatic scene from the beginning of the game again. On the second or third attempt, Neil approached Troy and said:
Neil: I’m pickin up some resistance.
Troy: You god damn right you picking resistance. We’ve got this. I know it, you know it and we’re wasting everybody’s time because we have it!
But Neil Druckmann was relentless again. He calmly explained to Troy what he was missing and what to do to make this scene one of the best in video game history.
Neil: Here’s what I have. I have a man broken.
Troy: Yeah! His daughter just died!
Neil: Here’s what I don’t have: “What’s happening? This is happening. I can fix it. It’s not working. She’s going. She’s gone. I’m broken”.
In these few short words, Neil Druckmann included the entire spectrum of emotions that Joel should feel while holding his dying daughter in his arms. However, what truly proved to be an eye-opening piece of advice was what Neil said a moment later:
You know, the one thing you haven’t done this entire time is you haven’t just… look at her. You looked everywhere else, you cried to the heavens, you looked at Tom, you closed your eyes but you never just looked at her.
After years, Troy Baker tearfully revealed in a trembling voice that today, when he became a father, he finally realized that it would be the only thing he should do in such a moment.
And now as a dad I understand, If I had few fleeting moments with my son, there’s nothing else on the world that would be more important to me than just looking at him.
And that's exactly what happened – Troy gazes at his passing daughter at a crucial moment, and the entire scene continues to be heart-wrenching to this day – it has been recorded in gaming history as an unmatched display of drama and excellent acting in games. Just this one small detail, like a look in the eyes, was enough to make it believable and memorable.
