Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel in the HBO Max adaptation of The Last of Us, has revealed that he has not played The Last of Us. There are two reasons: the actor does not know how to play video games and does not want to imitate the video game, Joel. He spoke about this in an interview with GQ.

Pedro tried to play The Last of Us but then gave the controller to his nephew because he realized he didn’t have the skills to play. Then, he watched his nephew play during the day, but it was only a small fragment. This is how he explained his decision:

Joel is outstanding. The whole thing is an impressive visual experience. And then I began to worry that I would want to imitate him too much, which I think would be the right thing to do in some situations and wrong in others. So I just wanted to create distance and have everything more in the hands of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Pascal also said that the show would keep everything that is important for a video game but also surprise the audience.

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The Last of Us is due out next year, but there’s no word yet. Filming is still ongoing.