I wrote in my pre-season review of The Last of Us‘ second season that Gabriel Luna’s Tommy Miller is “a much bigger, more important part of the show” than he was during season one. I also said the show asks Luna “to do a lot, and he’s excellent with everything he has to carry.” Now viewers have had a chance to see exactly why I sang his praises. In the season’s stunning second episode Luna was essentially an action star. Tommy led the commune’s defense against the infected horde in one of the best hours of TV ever made. The fallout to that attack and Joel’s death then posed a very different challenge for the actor.
What was it like filming season two’s emotional third episode? I got a chance to speak to Luna about that, Tommy’s evolution on The Last of Us, how he views his character versus the way Joel did, and the emotional toll of working on “The Path.”
Nerdist: One of the things that really bothers me about modern television and long waits between seasons is that audiences, understandably, forget a lot of what happened previously. In your case, I think it’s really easy for viewers to tune into season two, see Tommy as a leader in Jackson, and forget that we once knew him entirely as a screwup and a follower. So I’m wondering how much of Tommy’s past is framing his thoughts and actions now?
Gabriel Luna: First of all, who hasn’t gotten a little drunk and knocked out a guy in a bar for putting his hands on the waitress? So, screwup? Yeah, I mean, you’re probably right. But he also always had his heart in the right place. That’s why he has made the choices that have landed him in Jackson. That landed him a beautiful wife who is a great leader and heroic and inspiring. That led to his beautiful growing family. His heart being in the right place and giving him a sense of direction and a sense of purpose is what led him to the present moment and allowed him to have the readiness to take on what eventually befell Jackson. He’s always had it in him to be that leader. It just came with time and maturity and experience.
Joel said Tommy would bounce from group to group as a follower. How much of what we see in season two is Tommy being this new person that he’s grown into, and how much, if any, is it him sort of fighting back against who he might naturally have been?
Luna: The idea of being a follower is kind of Joel’s perspective, right? Because it’s a way of [Joel] making it right in his heart that his brother left him. And the truth of it, at least the truth of it to Tommy, is less following others and more being of service to others. That goes with his military background, which informs his current position as the head of the security council in Jackson. But at the same time, he’s doing it in service of the city. He’s doing it in service of his wife who’s our elected representative. So he’s not actually rebelling against any of his nature. He’s actually kind of falling in sync with what his nature is, which is to be of service to others.
We’re going to talk about episode three, but to do that we have to go back to episode two. Episode two is essentially an action movie where you’re running around fighting infected. Episode three is the fallout, which is a lot more contemplative. What type of story do you find more challenging as an actor to film? Which one do you find more fun? The one that requires a lot of physical work or the one that’s a little bit quieter?
Luna: First of all, it’s all fun for me. Even the darker moments. It’s all very fun to get in there with your castmates and dig into it. I love aspects of all of it. I love the action aspects. And I love just acting as it’s most true when you’re just doing. It’s not about acting, it’s about doing. And a well-crafted action set piece with meaningful action and meaningful beats for why things are happening, reasons why rounds are being squeezed off, reasons why punches are thrown, reasons why you have to incinerate a giant monster with the flame, it all has to be lines in the script that ring true the same way if you’re trying to elicit an emotional response with a line of dialogue. It has to be the same with every punch thrown.
So when it is really well crafted, it’s kind the purest form of acting. It’s just kind of being and doing. And it certainly makes it feel very, very real on the day.
All of the quieter moments, those are really challenging because where the action is kind of cause-and-effect, once you get into those quieter moments there’s just infinite possibilities of how it can all play out, how one reacts. That can be daunting at times when you’re in preparation. But then when you’re there on the day with incredible scene partners like Bella Ramsey and Catherine O’Hara, and Isabella Merced and Pedro Pascal, it’s just alleviates all concerns, man. All kinds of worries and fear go out the window because those are really incredible people just to sit across from and to live together with. So yeah, both have their challenges and their gifts, but both are always fun.
You say those quieter moments can be daunting but that you have other scene actors, except your first scene in this episode is as quiet as it gets and you don’t have someone with you. It’s when you go to clean your brother’s body. How did you prepare for that scene? What are you bringing into that scene to get into that mind frame?
Luna: That was directed by Peter Hoar, who’s an incredible director and handles the emotional moments of the show really, really well. He directed “Long, Long Time,” the episode with Nick (Offerman) and Murray (Bartlett) last season.
I had to be careful because in rehearsal it was already all coming out and I was trying to pace myself. He had several different shots that we had planned and I asked Peter to come in tight first. I wanted to get that heavy lifting out of the way. I was trying not to get all worked up about it, because I knew how important it was. And trying to design it in your head and prepare for what it’s going to be is only going to push you further away from what it needs to be.
So I just tried to relax and I went outside and I was kind of welling up already, just standing outside the door because I’m standing in the middle of the street. That whole set that you see is real. I mean, that whole town is there. And I remember standing outside the door of the restaurant, which opens up into a fully working interior of the mess hall, and my eyes were starting to water. But there’s fire burning everywhere all around me. So it started to just dry up all this emotion, and I’m just thinking about all these weird technical aspects of things. All of that is swirling in my head. Then I walk through the door and it all just completely evaporates because it’s just me and the scene. And, of course, 50 crew members and a camera and everything else.
But I walk up to that body and what came to mind was being at my grandfather’s funeral in 2013 where I was asked to go into the immediate family only viewing of the body. At the time, I was the only one there. He’d lost both of his sons, he’d been divorced. And I was his sole heir. So when it came to immediate family, it was just me. I remember that being the true life experience that was flashing through my head as we were doing the scene in episode three.
But yeah, the more preparation I tried to do on that scene, the further I got from what I wanted. And once I just kind of relaxed and eased into it, all of the memories and all of the inspiration kind of came.
One of the reasons I’ve been so drawn to your performance this year is I think it’s really nuanced. Tommy has taken on this leadership role and he’s trying to keep things under control, but there are these moments where the mask of cool and calm sort of slides off. That comes up with Ellie when she says Joel would already be going out after Abby. Tommy snaps at her, “Don’t talk to me like I didn’t know him.” What is it about that moment that pushes the veil of calm off for a moment? What is it about that interaction that pushes him too far?
Luna: It’s great writing first. But I’ve so often gotten to be the fun uncle Tommy, while Joel was taking all the disciplinary actions. But now she’s mine. She’s my charge and she’s mine to look after. And she’s a young adult and is going to do what she wants. But in that scene, I have the first moment of having a teaching moment with her that isn’t about training. It’s more about the central thesis of our relationship and our family and what the dynamics are now. Because when you lose somebody abruptly like that, all the family dynamics shift and everyone has a different place and they have different responsibilities. People pick up where the loved one they lost would have, with tasks that they would’ve been assigned with.
So I think it’s that. You see the first flashes of what it is to be Ellie’s paternal figure in her life. And sometimes the young pups need to be nipped at, so that they can understand what the reality is of certain situations.
You have another one of my favorite scenes in this episode. It’s the scene with Catherine O’Hara, which terrified me because of what she says and how smart Gail is. But I want to know what it’s like when you’re sitting there with Catherine O’Hara, a legend, and she’s absolutely crushing it in that role. What’s it like trying to do your job and be in the moment while also watching this incredible fellow performer?
Luna: She and I worked on the same HBO movie 16 years ago in Austin, Temple Grandin. I was just a day player, and we didn’t have a scene together, but we were in the hair and makeup trailer together. We had a really lovely conversation back then. She was so kind and welcoming. The only regret I had is that I wasn’t working with her that day. It took 16 years, but it came around and the experience was everything I would’ve hoped it would be.
She’s a master. She’s an absolute master. And it is those who have that funny bone and have that comedic sensibility that are always the greatest dramatic actors, because they embody the truth of life. It’s that it’s always both. It’s always good and evil, it’s always happy and sad. The extremes are always happening all at once. And she has that. That’s what makes her exciting to watch and unpredictable. You know that the pendulum can swing to the maximum in both directions.
I remember limping around all that day. We had finished all the action stuff and foolishly, I went to the gym and started pushing sleds without adequately stretching. My legs were super tight from just running around in cowboy boots, my calves were super tight. I was doing sled pushes at the gym and then feeling a strain in my calf. And so the whole day, I remember just hobbling around and grabbing my guitar and playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” because we were at the little league field, but we just had some really wonderful chats in between takes. Then just she goes into it, and seeing all the little tiny micro expressions that she has, the twinkle in her eyes of just somebody who’s seen the other side, she’s incredible. I treasure those moments.
Tommy knows Ellie really well. He says you’re basically exactly like my brother, and he knows him better than anybody. So by not keeping an eye on her immediately, was Tommy tacitly letting her sneak out of Jackson?
Luna: I’m sure Tommy’s got his hands full with Benjamin, his son, his wife, and everything else. But I think it’s still a matter he was able to see that she’s an adult before Joel was. And that’s why I’m the one that takes her shooting. I’m the one that takes her out riding. I was the one to see the warrior that she is, and the adult she’s become, before he was. And he was still trying to hold onto this to the young girl and the daughter that she is the. So I’m a little bit more ready to let her choose her path.
I don’t think I consciously knew she was going to take off that night and turned a blind eye. It’s that Tommy has a better understanding of who she is as an adult and that she’s left untethered because she is her own person.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who has never knocked someone out in a bar. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
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