Catherine O’Hara Talks Her “The Last of Us” Role

HBO
One welcome surprise for many people unaware of casting news was the appearance of “Schitt’s Creek” and “Beetlejuice” star Catherine O’Hara in the first trailer for the second season of HBO’s “The Last of Us”.

The series adaptation of the award-winning PlayStation games sees the seven-episode second season adapting around 35-40% of the second game. That means a prologue section of the game set in the wintry town of Jackson is being fleshed out a bit.

O’Hara appears to be a big part of the new scenes set within Jackson, and the trailer teases that Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller undergoes a therapy session with her character who is newly created for the series.

It will be a more serious role than we usually see her in, but O’Hara tells EW she’s bringing humor with her part, saying the best dramatic roles usually have a little humor to them:

“You can’t take that [humor] out of your life, and when you do, it makes for a very dull performance. I have an odd relationship with Pedro’s character. You don’t quite know why she’s got…well, she’s got this edge to her, but it makes for some weird, good dark comedy, I think. So it’s there. I never want to deny the gift of humor.”

She says she was aware of the game through her adult sons and watched the show’s first season, and one of those sons now works on the series as a set designer. Of the new season’s tone, she says: “It’s so intense, and the second [season] is way more intense if you know the game.”

She also has some kind things to say about the show’s leading stars:

“I just love working with Pedro Pascal. Both of them. Bella. Wow. Was that intimidating? It always is. It’s not my territory…. You’re just like, thank you for inviting me and I’ll try to be a good guest. But they were very kind to me and it was great.”

Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Spencer Lord, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Danny Ramirez, and Jeffrey Wright also join the new run which hasn’t set a specific date, but is looking likely to be right after the third season of “The White Lotus” wraps its run on April 6th.