In 2013, Troy Baker became Joel Miller in The Last of Us video game. Flash forward to a decade later, the acclaimed video game is adapted to a TV series for HBO Max earning similar top marks from critics and fans. One of the biggest differences in the adaptation is Baker’s role. Baker was once the grizzled, beloved Joel. Now, after Episode 8 of The Last of Us, Baker has portrayed a grotesque member of David’s cult in the live-action version of the story. Spoilers for The Last of Us Episode 8 follow! Baker’s James character in the TV series was butchered by the same little girl he fought so hard to protect as Joel in the video game.ย
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As the story goes, Baker’s James played a part in kidnapping Ellie. However, anyone who has watched The Last of Us knows Ellie’s survival instincts are not to be trifled with. Ellie fought her way out which meant driving a machete into James’ neck, ending Baker’s run on the TV series almost as quickly as it began. Still, it was a long day on the set for the actor.ย
“That was a long day,” Baker said in an interview aired on Sunday’s episode of The Last of Pods. “That was my longest day on set. And I went through, I think, eight… yeah, probably eight sets of wardrobe because there is a blood bag that is attached to a hose that somebody has on an air compressor so that when I’m sitting there and it hits, it’s quench, and blood, and just blood and blood and blood and blood and blood. And then I hit against the wall, I slide down into my own blood, and then I sit there in my own blood. That gets very cool.”
Ramsey, in the same episode of ET and ComicBook’s The Last of Pods, recalled the experience of working with Baker. “I think me and Troy had this immediate respect for each other,” Ramsey said. Because I had seen bits of the game, and he was obviously coming onto the show, and it was a really special experience meeting him for the first time, and being like, it’s like that Spider-Man meme where it’s like [pointing at each other].” Ultimately, Baker became one of Ramsey’s biggest cheerleaders as her Ellie geared up to slaughter his James. “I think he was basically encouraging me that I was Ellie, and I was equally as and in awe of his Joel,” Ramsey noted. “And I think we just bonded over that a little bit. We didn’t talk about it a lot. We didn’t pick each other’s brains, we just took it as a new thing.”
With Ramsey swinging her prop machete at Baker several times, it is a good thing the two got along! Ramsey ultimately protected her co-star by never missing the mark and prompting the blood bags to burst in just the right spot but that still wasn’t enough to keep him safe from coming close to a painful experience for the sendoff! “Thankfully, Bella did not miss, thankfully, because otherwise that would’ve got into my head,” Baker explained. “The hardest thing that actually happened is that room was built out and everything that is there, but we’re on a sound stage, but I went back and I hit this metal shelf so hard! I don’t think this is the take that they used, but I saw it. Everyone basically went, ‘Oh, we may need to get a new actor. Oh, no! How did it look? We got it?’”
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