Nico Parker (‘The Last of Us’): “You’ll see more Sarah than you’ve seen in the games, but they’re not necessarily surprises”

Barely eighteen, Nico Parker perfectly represents the new way of consuming video games for the younger generation: “When I was younger I didn’t play video games because unfortunately I’m not very good at them, but I have seen gamers playing ‘The Last of Us’. In fact, I’ve even gone places to watch people play like it’s a movie, in silence.” she tells us in the interview we had with her before the HBO series premiere. But thanks to having been a spectator of the Naughty Dog video game, she arrived at the shoot knowing perfectly Sarah, Joel’s daughter and engine of Pedro Pascal’s character.

Through Sarah we get to see Joel’s surroundings before the chaos erupted with the Cordyceps pandemic. Parker points out how interesting it is to see the change before and after the outbreak. Nor was it very difficult for him to switch the chip from one situation to another thanks to the fact that HBO decided to spend the money building everything they could to help the cast, and the viewer, when it comes to believing in this new reality. : “It all felt very real. Everything was really around me. When I come across an infected person, I actually come across them. having it was great” he claims.

Nico Parker, who made her acting debut in Tim Burton’s “Dumbo,” is thankful the series jump allowed showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to take a little more time to bond between Joel and Sarah: “With the help of Craig and Neil we created a space where Pedro Pascal and I were able to expand that relationship.. It was wonderful to build because it’s told beautifully in the game, in a much shorter amount of time. Taking more time to build the foundation for Joel’s character, and Sarah’s character by the way, was wonderful.”.

Of course, the daughter of director Ol Parker and actress Thandiwe Newton has had it very easy with her co-star because that bond is “genuine” also off-set: “He is one of my best friends and a very important person to me beyond work. Thanks to that it was very easy. That love relationship between them is already there, it didn’t have to be forced in front of the camera. We hang out, talk about it so that the relationship we have with each other transfers into what Joel and Sarah have. Fingers crossed that it was, I don’t know. But that’s what we’ve been doing: dating, which hasn’t been difficult at all.”.

More than Sarah?

Like almost all ‘The Last of Us’ secondaries, Sarah has a very specific purpose in the story of Joel and Ellie, but will also benefit from the adaptation of the series: “Yes, you’ll see beyond her than what you’ve seen in games, but they aren’t necessarily surprises” assures.

‘The Last of Us’ debuts on HBO Max Monday 16 January.