Kaitlyn Dever Shot That 'Last of Us' Abby-Joel Scene 3 Days After Her Mother's Funeral, Speaks to How That Impacted Her

Kaitlyn Dever is speaking out about what was going on in her personal life in the weeks leading up to filming that very intense Abby scene with Pedro Pascal‘s Joel in The Last of Us season two.

If you don’t know, in the April 20 episode of the HBO hit, Abby beat Joel to near-death before stabbing him in the neck, to avenge the death of her father.

Kaitlyn previously revealed that her beloved mom passed away after a lengthy battle with breast cancer in February 2024. Her mom’s funeral fell just three days before filming the Joel death scene.

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Kaitlyn explained to EW, “It was just a massive scene emotionally, and with blocking, too. There were so many moving parts and so many things to navigate.”

“I lost my mom two or three weeks before I actually shot this scene [on The Last of Us]. and my mom’s funeral was three days before I did my first day. So I was sort of in a fog. I was in a daze.”

How she got through it? “To be as honest as possible. I will just say that my days leading up to this scene were horrible.”

She continued, “Because of my life circumstances, I wasn’t actually able to do my normal routine as an actor, which was really interesting because I was kind of worried about it. Usually if I have a monologue like that, I’m memorizing it three weeks before I do it. I had a different approach, and I think that it really served the character in a lot of ways. I was able to sort of… I don’t know, just really let it go and not think about it too much because the words on the page are so powerful anyway.”

Showrunner Craig Mazin spoke of it as well, telling THR, “The tragedy was that Kaitlyn lost her mom very shortly before the start of shooting. And it was very upsetting. And Mark and I were just like, “How are we going to do this to her?” Because when she came back, that was the next sequence and the nature of our schedule was such that we couldn’t really move pieces around. Pedro had other obligations. Isabela was working on [James Gunn’s upcoming] Superman. So we were stuck. I spoke with Kaitlyn and she was like, “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ll be fine, I won’t be fine, but…”

Craig continued, “So I have to say the professionalism and dedication that Kaitlyn showed was, honestly, I don’t know how she did it. I would never say anything so vulgar as to say she was using these emotions that she had. This is different. But she showed up and went right into it and did it. There’s this moment — and I don’t know how this happens — when Kaitlyn is looking at Joel. She turns her head, sees the golf clubs across the room, turns back to him, and a tear just drips out of her eye. ‘How did you time this?’ But they’re in the moment, they’re feeling something, and that’s a choice in that moment. And just the way Mark kept them all safe and connected to create what I think is the most upsetting … well, I take it back. There’s another moment in this season. It’s more upsetting.”