‘The Last of Us’ Director Mark Mylod on the Episode 2 Moment That Broke Him

[ThisStoryContainsSpoilersforHBO’s[ThisstorycontainsspoilersforHBO‘sThe Last of Us Season Two, Episode Two, “Through The Valley.”]

It All Started WHEN EMMY-WINNING DIRECTOR MARK MYLOD MADE An Offhand Comment Durying An Interview.

This is, at least, how The Last of Us CO-CREATOR Craig Mazin Tells The Story.

“I Really Wanted to Get Mark on Season One of The Last of Usbut he was working on Succession”Mazin Recalls.“ THEN HE DID THE DUMBEST THING. Mark Was Doing One of Those [For Your Consideration Emmy campaign] PANELS BECAUSE OBVIUSLY Succession Was Going to Win Everything. And the quest they asked all these Directors was: ‘if you could work with one person, who would be?’ And he Said, ‘Craig Mazin.’ And then I Texted HIM: ‘You Fucked Up.’ ‘

Mazin Sent Mylod the Script for the Second Episode of The Last of Us Season Two, “Through The Valley.”

“And THEN MARK WAS LIKE, ‘YOU MOTHERFUCKER. How Can i Resist?’”

Indeed. The Second Episode, WHICH AED SUNDAY, HAD EVERTHING – An Epic Battle Sequance, Intimate Drama, Outdoor Survival Adventure and The Brutal Killing of a Beel).

“And i can’t tell you How Much I Love Working with Him and How Grateful I am and How Bummed Out of That HE’S NOT GOING TO BE AVAILBLE TO US Anymore Because He’s Doing [HBO’s upcoming TV series version of] Harry Potter”Mazin adds.

But this story isn’n mazin’s interview (that interview, which Analyzed the Same Episode from a Writer’s Perspective, Was Published Last Night). SO Let’s Turn this over -mylod with some quests about his work on this pivotal episode kinder, at the Very Least, Another Earth Earn, Another Earn.

SO Craig Told Me The Story of Sending You The Script. WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO READING IT?

My First Reaction Was A Combination of Jaw Droping and Terror – Because As Soon As i Read It, I KNEW I HAD TO DO IT. But There’s An Extraordinary Responsibility with Taking on Writing of that Quality and Also Obviously Just Being Aware of the Importance of that Episode As A Fulcrum in. Thought, Obviously, Killing Beeved Characters on Television is Become A Bit of A Habit[HavingALSODIRECTEDTHERATHERDECEPTIVELYTITLED[havingalsodirectedtheratherdeceptivelytitledSuccession Season Four Episode “Connor’s Wedding,“ Among Other].

I’ve Been A Fan of Craig’s Writing for So Long and Has this Capacity That Born Storytelers Have, to Effortless Combine the Epic and The Intimate – Chernobyl Being A Beautify Example of that. The minutia, thoss deetails of the human condition and our vulnerability, and our flaws; he’s so beautifylly obessed with Those Details.

For Staging Abby Killing Joel, It’s A Sequance that’s Pivotal and Also Technically Complicited – You’re Dealing with All the Tese Different Actors in The Room. WHAT WERE THATS THAT WERE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOU WANTED TO DO AND, ALSO, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO AVOID?

I WANTED TO AVOID OVERTURE. I DON’T HAVE MUCH INTEREST IN SHOWING VIOLENCE ITSELF. But What Motivated Abby to A Place Where She Was Doling Such Extraordinary Violence – That Is Endlessly Fascinating. SO afterablishing the brutality and, hopephully, exploring some of the contest to what kind this young persons Was Very Much on the Same Page.

What was Important to me was to do my best to deliver Those extraorrdinary Words on the Page and to that Moment Justice. That becomes about work with the actors and, in this Case, Protecting and Supporting Kaitlyn and Bella Who Both Had to Go to Make TheMSELVES INCREDIBLY VULNERABLE. A Lot of this is Blind Instinct. It has to do with hopefully having an empathetic Connection with the Cast to Feel When Is The Right Time to Really Push for that Zen State. We Always Know Who We’re There Because i Can’t Speak After The Take, or i’m Just Simple in Tears.

Was there any special special decision an actor made on that day that that surprised you? Something that you didn’t expert from your prep?

Yeah, I didn’t Expect Bella to make me Cry. I SPENT MONHS THINKING About That Moment. Durying Prep, I’M Basical Filming the Scene in My Head and that Internal Scene Becomes Cleerr and Comes More Into Focus As the Process Gets More Evolved. SO by the time we actualally get to the day, i’m so prepled and i’ve run the moment so Many Times in my head. But Bella Took It to A Level Where i was Just Just Destroyed. I Can’t Help Connect on Some Level, As A Parent, To Seeing A Young Person in Such Pain When The Performance Is That Good. It’s Kind of Difficult in the Room to Disassociate From That And Think “It’s Justing” Because It Was Transcending that.

And I Felt the Same with Kaitlyn. It’s been Well Documented That Kaitlyn is Not The Big Physical Character That Abby Is In the Game. SO The FECITY AND PHYSICALITY AND STAMINA She Display Over the Multiple Days That We Were Shooting… I’V WORKED COMPLE [in this shot]so you don’t need to kill youRSELF on this take. ” But then kaitlyn wound get into the moment and she would [go all out] Anyway. It Was The Same Wen We Were Up on the Mountain Running From The Infected. I’D Say, “You Get Past The Lens Here, It’s Just of You Running, You Can Take 10 Percent Off It.” But She Couldn’t or Wuldn’t in the Moment. She was just an actor who would just give everything, whoh is my Dream as the Director.

Obviously, The Episode Has A Massive Action Battle Sequence As Well, Which and Wuld Think, If Anything, Wound Be Even More Gruling. Obviously, You Worked On Game of ThronesWHICH HAD SOMEWHAT VAGUELY SIMILAR ACTION EPICS. Was there anything from that experience that helped you prepare for this, or any specialist goal you had for this?

HBO

Everything’s A Learning Curve in Life, Isn’t It? Game Thrones WAS A HUGE STEP UP FOR ME IN Terms of Experienceing A Big Scale Production. It Was Certainly The Biggest Thing i’d Done at the Time, and It Was Kind of A Stepping Stone on the Way to The Last of Us.[[Thrones Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss]have Similar Instincts to Craig, Which Is Whok, I Think, They’re Good Friends. They are all interested in the human condition and then putting that onto a Huge Canvas. This Particular Episode Was A Step Up from Anything That I HAD DONE Game of Thrones In Terms of Physical Production, Scope and Scale and Ambition. I DID FEEL MORE CONFIDENT IN How to Express A Vision and How to Use [pre-visualization software] and how to work with the visual Effects Team, The Stunt Team, The Movement Coaches – All of that.

But My Instinct Has Always Been to Focus on the Emotion, Focus on the Story, Focus on What Makes Any Character Vulnerable in Any Given Moment. What Are The Flaws and What Is The Context for Those Flaws, And How Is That Relative? That’s Always the Obsense as for me – WHY is somebody behaving like that? One of the joys of The Last of Us is is this perfect cocktail examining of the Dark Side of Love, But With Monsters. What’s Better than that?

My Favorite Shot in the Episode Was Who The Infected Rise Out of the Snow. But Wondering What Shot You Were Most Proud of?

I don’t know about a shot. BUT IN TERMS OF THE BIG SET PIECES, WORKING OUT How to get Kaitlyn Slringing Down The Mountain, the Infected Emerging from the Snow, and the CHASE OFF to the Copper Mine – web. But Just Feeling That Same Visceral Fear That I Did When Playing The Game Was Very Satisfying.

In Terms of Original Content, The Whole Assault on Jackson – Just the Sheer Challenge of that And the Ambition of It And the Intension of Its After Day – Was Hugeli Enj.

But Whats the Scariest Thing Was by Far – and, ultimately, the most satisfying things for me – is that closeup on Bella the Realized Joel Is Dead. That will Stay with me Forever – and Hopeful All -Audience, As Well.

For More on “Through The Valley,” See Our Interview With ShowRunner Craig Mazin: “All Relationships Break.”