Johnson originated the role of Ellie in the video games.
Now she arrives in the HBO series as Anna.
Warning: This article contains spoilers fromThe Last of Usseason 1 finale.
Ashley Johnson on ‘The Last of Us’.Liane Hentscher/HBO
Ashley Johnsonfeels the weight of her role in HBO’sThe Last of Us.
“It’s wild.
It’s surreal and bizarre,” the actress tells EW of getting this opportunity.
Ashley Johnson performs as Ellie through motion-capture in ‘The Last of Us Part II’.Naughty Dog, Sony Interactive Entertainment
ShowrunnersCraig Mazinand Neil Druckmann relish the poetic nature of this particular casting.
I can’t believe he has all the different characters he plays.
But Ashley sounds like Ellie, and Ellie sounds like Ashley.
Marlene (Merle Dandridge) cradles a baby Ellie in the opening to ‘The Last of Us’ season 1 finale.Liane Hentscher/HBO
So she’s already this quasi-mythological creature to me.
Johnson has been living with the character of Ellie for more than a decade.
For this work, Johnson was recognized with two BAFTA Games Awards and one Spike TV Game Award.
“There are different levels of collaboration.
Most of the time it’s, ‘Here’s what you gotta say.
Bring your thing to it.’
And that’s it.
In some ways, we were all building these characters together.”
One such element wasAmerican Dreams, the comic book about Ellie and Riley that would be adapted intoLeft Behind.
Druckmann was thinking of something similar for Anna.
At first, the plan was to create an animated short.
“Then I became interested in live-action,” he recalls.
“So I’m like, ‘Oh!
We actually do it as a short.’
Johnson remembers that conversation.
That was way back in the day,” she says.
A movie version ofThe Last of Uswith director Sam Raimi attached also came and went over the years.
Druckmann finally returned to the Anna idea in earnest when developing the HBO series with Mazin.
“I just burst into tears.”
“That’s not the norm for video game adaptations,” she explains.
“Usually the voiceover or motion-capture actors don’t also go along to the screen adaptation.
So I think there was a little bit of shock there and also a lot of emotion.”
According to Druckmann, Johnson contacted him before her first day of shooting her Anna scenes.
“So before that shoot, she called me.
She was all nervous, like, ‘I don’t know how to do this.
I wish you were here.’
He’s been my co-parent now for all these months.
And I told her, ‘Just do what you do, which is collaborate.'”
“There’s been so many moments where I’ve been like, ‘Gosh!
That is taking it to another level that we didn’t get to in the game.’
All the fears she once had are now gone.
She absolutely blows me away.”
