A video of The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal twerking with one of the HBO series' zombie-like clickers just surfaced online, courtesy of Saturday Night Live.
SNL shared the behind-the-scenes clip on Instagram. It shows Pascal busting some moves to Latto's "Bad Energy" on the set of the long-running sketch comedy show, opposite an unidentified cast member in clicker makeup. Pascal is hosting the 12th episode of SNL's current season, which is set to air on Feb. 4, 2023. While Pascal's dancing apparently took place between takes, the presence of a clicker on the set suggests that the episode will include at least one The Last of Us-themed skit. SNL has not confirmed this is the case, however.
The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann recently explained why Pascal replaced original Joel actor Troy Baker in the HBO adaptation, noting that Baker doesn't resemble Joel in real life. "The unique thing about video games is you don't need to look the part... Troy Baker at the time was this tall, skinny, bleached-hair hipster -- but then when he spoke and moved, he became the role," Druckmann said. "That's why we couldn't cast those same people into these roles for the show, but they were instrumental in bringing those characters to life."
Why Pedro Pascal Couldn't Turn Down TLoU
Pascal described the Joel role as too good to pass up in a recent interview. In particular, Pascal said he was drawn to The Last of Us by the opportunity to work with its co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin, whose previous HBO series, Chernobyl, had impressed him. He added HBO itself was another reason why he signed on for the video game adaptation, recalling how he grew up watching the network's initial slate of shows, which he described as "very, very mature."
In the same interview, Pascal also admitted that he ignored the brief he received from HBO about avoiding the Last of Us video game prior to filming the adaptation's first season. "[HBO's] instruction was: Don't play the game," he said. "I ignored them. I tried to play the game, and I was very, very bad at it. (But my nephew was fantastic.) It was important to me to play notes that were directly related to what was originally in the game -- physically, visually, vocally."
The Last of Us Season 1 is currently streaming on HBO and HBO Max, with new episodes dropping Sundays.
Source: SNL, via Instagram