This story contains spoilers for episode 5 of Season 2 “The Last of Us”.
Jesse is angry. He also has impeccable timing.
Just as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) And Dina (Isabela Merced) Finding yourself stuck by many infected inside an abandoned warehouse in the last episode of “The Last of Us”, their reliable Jesse friend arrives in time to save them.
But mutant fungal zombies are not the only traveling threat to the world in the postpocalyptic thriller of HBO, and the trio immediately finds itself trying to escape the attacks of the local militia as well as a mysterious worship.
On some video calls – one in which he was surrounded by what looked like the lush natural world of the show – actor Young tooth discussed his help from Jesse in Seattle as well as the way “The Last of Us” has further propelled his growing profile in Hollywood. As for what is happening in episode 5, Mazino sums up the feelings of Jesse usually relaxed while Ellie and Dina pepper him with questions about her unexpected arrival: “He is upset.”
“It is really upset that they are there to start,” said Mazino during a video call. “He knows the issues. He knows how serious it can become. There are a lot of s – in his mind but … for him, it is a question of bringing everyone in security, surviving, then the emotions come later. Then we can chop him.”
Patrol coordinator in their colony of Jackson, Wyo., Jesse has once on a relationship with Dina – “a situation”, as Mazino calls her. After the horde of infects attacked Jackson, he became a member of the Council who heads the community.
Jesse came to the rescue, but “he is pissed off,” explains the young Mazino.
(Liane Hentscher / HBO)
Mazino describes Jesse as “a fairly happy guy” in the previous episodes of the season, as well as “a little a boy-scout”. But as the public shows in episode 5, he is also a fighter capable of competent in firearms and equipped with key survival skills. Mazino says the co-star Gabriel Luna (who plays Tommy) joked that Jesse is a “sweet monster”.
“I couldn't agree more,” says Mazino. “For these people to survive to this point, you must have a little of this savagery and be able to activate this. It is just a question of being able to remove it.”
Like Jesse, Mazino gives off a calm and soft mind through the screen of a video call. He refers to the stories of Anton Tchekhov, the artistic philosophy of Pablo Picasso and anime as “Jujutsu Kaisen”. (“If” Vinland Saga “existed in this world, Jesse would be really F – with this manga” because of his themes, says Mazino.) He is like a game to discuss a brutal dream rotation among the members of the Jackson community that he is to contemplate the Asian diaspora in a postapocalyptic world.
“It is so cold and sweet,” said Ramsey about his camber. “I have known him well and he is so perceptive and so thoughtful of everything. I feel really lucky to have known him more than the cold and fluffy guy that everyone sees on the surface.”
Respect is mutual. Mazino calls Ramsey “an extraordinary person” whose work ethics are n ° 1 on the call sheet. An RAM: Stop under a few PVC pipes with Ramsey on the set and enjoy a moment in artificial rain together.
“I was soggy and wet every day for hours,” said Mazino about filming the episodes of the Seattle show. “And as soon as you are about to dry, they get you again. Which helps to have someone like Bella Ramsey, who keeps this lightness. So, although it is wet and soggy and miserable all day, be miserable with someone who is just as miserable and wet as you really help.”
“The Last of Us” marks Mazino's deepest project to date. After years trying to do it as an actor, Mazino obtained his escape In the limited series 2023 “Beef“, Where he portrays a slacker who falls in love with the sworn enemy of the road rage of his older brother. His performance earned him an Emmy appointment.
His familiarity with “The last of us“Initially from watching youtube videos of game history scenes. But before meeting showrunners Craig Mazin And Neil Druckmann For the project, Mazino bought a used PlayStation 4 to play the key moments in the history of Jesse.
The young Mazino calls “the last of us” a rare opportunity.
(Jennifer McCord / For Times)
“When I told Craig that I had played throughout the game hoping that he would be pleasantly surprised, he said to himself:” I want you not played the game at all “”, explains Mazino.
The preparation of the role included becoming “crazy at the gymnasium for a few months,” said Mazino. He also received arms training and learned to ride a horse.
“I have been in many sets in the past 10 years and I am aware of the rare of this type of opportunity,” explains Mazino. “My expectation for writing and narration has become very high after` `beef '', and I did not know if I could find something to match this. But” The Last of Us “came to me and I love to explore different facets of myself through the character.”
Jesse has a weakness for Ellie, whom he initially meets like a thorny stranger cut with similar fabric, says Mazino. Both are solitary who prefer to avoid projectors – especially during the holidays. But Jesse also recognizes the inner fire and the potential of Ellie.
“Jesse finds Ellie so interesting and fun and endearing,” explains Mazino. “To be this little little girl and have so much vitriol and fire and anxiety. I think Jesse wants to help Ellie to exploit all this intense energy she has and put it wisely. ”
The pair also shares an attraction for Dina, who is a little more social and warm and apparently carefree. And although Jesse did not seem to worry about Ellie and Dina sharing a drunk kiss during a party in a previous episode, the couple's relationship Since then, has become more romantic and intimate.
Mazino thinks that Jesse fully aware that Ellie and Dina danced around their feelings for each other.
“I think Jesse is the type of person who understands that love is love, and it is not something on which you can attack or hang on,” says Mazino. “I think that the healthy form of love is to allow it to flourish. … Love is a spectrum … and perhaps that he recognizes that Dina is not someone he can necessarily want to be exclusively East love.”
Mazino insists that Jesse cares less about the development romance of Ellie and Dina than to make the fact that Dina followed her lover in a war zone.
“Love escapes common sense and rationality, so it just tries to be the level of end level,” explains Mazino.
Jesse (Young Mazino) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have different opinions on revenge.
(Liane Hentscher / HBO)
Jesse clearly opposes the Ellie Revenge tour which brought them to Seattle, and Mazino says that their different philosophies arise from Jesse's appreciation for the community of Jackson. Because he was able to find a house in Jackson, Jesse's response to the loss is to grasp what remains.
“I think it serves as a perfect reflector from (Ellie for) how we face death, murder and violence,” explains Mazino. “Some people, everything they see is red and they want revenge. But the other side of this choice is to savor what remains and what is precious to you.”
Ellie, he adds, is “everything about revenge, revenge, revenge for someone she has lost. But Jesse wants the opposite.
While the world of “The Last of Us” is dark, Mazino and his comrades have found ways between taking to escape the heaviness. A form of relief: a shared love of music. Mazino, Luna, Merced and Ramsey all play the guitar.
“We all brought a guitar without even telling us,” explains Mazino. “There was always a guitar on the set where we would steal one of the whole and we would have trouble. We would have Jam sessions. Someone would play a song or a song, and if we knew, we join (or) we would learn it.”
Mazino says they all have eclectic tastes and exchanged songs “like Pokémon”. (Mazino's contributions included Daniel Caesar, Frank Ocean and “some R&B things”.)
“It is so difficult to maintain strong energy for 12 to 16 hours a day,” he says. “It really helps to have people capable of laughing and making jokes and being light and playing music … So a guitar is a lifeline on a set like that.”
The young Mazino says that Jesse is a “person who understands love is love”.
(Jennifer McCord / For Times)
