Having a role be synonymous with you, it can be a lot when another actor takes on that same role. Troy Baker has been known as Joel in The Last of Us for a decade, and now Pedro Pascal has his take in the minds of newcomers and long-time fans of the video games. In an interview with Variety about the penultimate episode, which sees the veteran video game voice actor as “Buddy Boy” James, he had the opportunity to give praise to The Mandalorian actor’s performance.
While Troy Baker has been acting in games and animation for quite some time, his work as Joel brought him to prominence. Seeing Pedro Pascal take on Joel, someone the BioShock Infinite actor is a “fan” of, has captured the character in a “more dangerous” light. For him, what makes this performance of the character is the subtly “of his choices.”
“He does this thing where he’s so confident in his grasp on the character that it allows him to just sit comfortably in his own conviction. He does everything on a knife’s edge. There’s nothing that’s wild. If you watch all of his choices, there’s so minimal, and because of that, they’re profound. And it makes Joel, in a lot of ways, more dangerous.”
Troy Baker praises Pedro Pascal for his performance as Joel in The Last of Us
Almost any major video game release likely stars the actor. He has been nominated for five BAFTAS for The Last of Us, its sequel, Far Cry 4, Death Stranding, and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. Other games he has starred in that he is known for are BioShock Infinite, Batman: Arkham Knight, God of War Ragnarök, Metal: Hellsinger, and Marvel’s Avengers.
The Last of Us was a 2013 game developed by Naughty Dog on the PS3. It starred Troy Baker as Joel and Ashley Johnson as Ellie, who is played by Bella Ramsey in the HBO series. Other actors from the game appear, like Tommy’s original actor Jeffrey Pierce as a new character, Perry, and Merle Dandridge reprises her role from the game in the series as Marlene, the leader of the rebel group the Fireflies.
New episodes of The Last of Us hit HBO and HBO Max at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET. The finale will air this Sunday (March 12). All other episodes are available to catch up on if you are not caught up already.