Pedro Pascal is in "active denial" about his departure from 'The Last Of Us'
The 50-year-old actor has led the cast of the HBO drama but in the second episode of the current second season, 'Through the Valley', his alter ego Joel Miller was killed off, but he's trying not to think too much about his exit because it makes him feel too "sad"
22 April 2025
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly before the episode aired in a newly-published interview, he said of his plans for Easter Sunday (20.04.25) when the episode aired: "It's April 20. If it were the '90s, I'd be high. But I think I'll be working. So I have no idea.
"I'm in active denial. I realise this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over.
"I know that I'm forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on 'The Last of Us'. And, no, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad."
Pedro always knew he would be killed off when he accepted the role because of the events of the 'Last of Us' video games.
He said: "It was just a matter of how and when."
But when the day came, Pedro had a "weirdly relaxing time" in the make-up chair while enjoying a "good conversations" with prosthetics expert Barrie Gower and his make-up designer Paul Spateri, but he spent much of the time in a "dreamlike" state.
He said: "I was always sidestepping how I really felt, that in a big way my experience was coming to an end on the show.
"I guess that was the strangest thing to step through because I felt so bonded to everyone in the show after going through the gauntlet of season 1 together, not just with Bella [Ramsey], but with the entire cast and crew.
"So to have this goodbye was very sad for me, and I had such a physical manifestation, a violent mirror of how sad it was for Joel to die. To be honest, it was quite dreamlike."
And with his appearance transformed to appear he had a swollen eye, blood stains, bruises and cracked limbs, his co-stars looked devastated as soon as they saw him.
He recalled: "[I] killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me.
"This kind of shock and heartbreak... it was weird to be on the receiving end of that. It's like the extreme version of, 'Is there something on my face?' I really could see this sort of grief take over everyone's look in their eyes."
However, Pedro will still appear in season two, though he didn't want to be drawn on when Joel will feature.
He said: "Something that I do feel like keeping secret is, how will those things play and where will they be placed, which I think is still a lovely thing to not know for people that watch the show."
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