Kaitlyn Dever was mourning mum’s death while filming ‘The Last Of Us’ season two
Kaitlyn Dever has revealed she was grieving the death of her mother during the filming of the second season of The Last Of Us.
The star plays Abby, a survivor of the show’s zombie apocalypse who swears vengeance on Joel (Pedro Pascal) for the murder of her father in the previous season. “Abby’s a grieving person; that’s what fuels her anger,” she told Vulture. “I could relate to her, and that was a surprise to me because I wasn’t expecting to do those scenes while actually living through grief”.
Dever’s mother, Kathy, died of breast cancer in February 2024, as the actor was working on the series. “I believed in my mom more than anything,” she said. “I really didn’t think she was going to die. My mom didn’t want to die”. Dever recalled the anger that was part of her grief was used for her performance.
While she died before her daughter commenced filming, Kathy was able to see some footage from Kaitlyn’s preparation for the role. “The stunt team would edit together these videos of me training,” Dever said. “I probably wasn’t supposed to send that kind of stuff through my phone”.
Later in the interview, she talked about her agent emailing cast and crew to request they don’t bring up the death while working with her. “I wanted to be able to be in control of my feelings,” Dever said, “and they really respected that. It felt like I was being carried through this devastating time in my life by the crew”.
The Last Of Us’ second season has shocked audiences, with the ending of episode two in particular being described as “brutal” by viewers online. Elsewhere, star Bella Ramsey has talked about how they were “fixated” on looking video game accurate for season two.
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Victoria Luxford
NME
