Pedro Pascal might’ve said goodbye to Joel Miller on screen, but off screen? He’s nowhere near ready to let go. The actor, 50, has finally opened up about the seismic twist in The Last of Us season 2 – and his emotional state says it all: he’s in “active denial.”
Fans are still reeling from Joel’s brutal death in episode 2, “Through the Valley.” But according to Pascal, no one’s taking it harder than he is. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad,” he admitted in a candid interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience… but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel.”
Pascal knew from day one that Joel’s fate was sealed – a near mirror of the game’s shocking narrative. “It was just a matter of how and when,” he shrugged. But knowing it and living it turned out to be two very different things.
When the day came to shoot Joel’s final moments, the experience felt strangely peaceful, almost detached. He described the hours in the prosthetics chair with makeup wizard Barrie Gower and designer Paul Spateri as “dreamlike.” His makeup – swollen eyes, cracked limbs, blood stains – painted a chilling picture of what was to come.
But the real gut punch? Seeing his castmates react to the transformation. “I killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me,” Pascal recalled. “This kind of shock and heartbreak… it was weird to be on the receiving end of that.”
And yet, despite Joel’s death, Pedro isn’t fully gone from season 2. The Game of Thrones alum coyly teased that viewers haven’t seen the last of him. “Something that I do feel like keeping secret is, how will those things play and where will they be placed,” he said.
Pascal’s exit marks the end of an era for The Last of Us fans – and for the actor himself, it’s proving harder than expected to walk away from the gruff, grieving father figure he made iconic.
If his portrayal of Joel taught us anything, it’s that sometimes love is brutal – and losing it can leave a wound that never quite heals.
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