Kaitlyn Dever’s Grief In ‘The Last Of Us’ Was Painfully Real 

For The Last Of Us newcomer, Kaitlyn Dever, joining the cast for season two was akin to “starting at a new school”.

Coming into not only an established world with a dedicated fan base but a cast as close-knit as theirs was a daunting feeling for the 28-year-old who portrays Abby Anderson in the upcoming season.

“All these people around me are best friends and I’m like, ‘I’m new here. Hello. Hi, everybody’,” Dever tells maire claire Australia when we sit down ahead of the Max Australia premiere.

“I was definitely nervous going into it but, once you get there and you’re around Pedro Pascal’s vibes and energy, you’re just like not nervous anymore.”

Which swiftly prompted us to ask, if Pascal was as enigmatic as he appears to be. 

“He’s everything you want him to be and more. I teared up when I had to leave him on my last day. He’s just really just a wonderful person and I’ve really never worked with another actor like him.

“This cast and this crew of people just really welcomed me with such open arms and I really couldn’t have asked for a better family to really jump into.”

It’s fortunate, too, as Dever notes how “intense” the work they did together proved to be – not just physically working in the snow and on stunts but also emotionally.

Upon first meeting her character Abby, we learn she’s grieving – and its a searingly painful kind of loss that must be atoned for. Sadly, it was a feeling Dever could personally draw from, having lost her mother to breast cancer in February of last year. 

 “It was a very familiar feeling,” she tells us suddenly overcome with emotion, “I’m trying not to tear up right now, sometimes it just hits you.

“It was so close to home that it wasn’t that far away for me to have to lean into. Looking back on it, it was kind of therapeutic in a lot of ways for me.”