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- Hey, I'm Lamar Johnson
from HBO's, "The Last of Us"

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and I'm here with the A.V. Club.

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(upbeat music)

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Since you had already
played "The Last of Us"

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before filming, how did
you want your performance

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to be different from the game?

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I wanted it to be different from the game.

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You know, I did want to
honor what the actor did

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in the game, but I also didn't
want to create a carbon copy.

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So I did want to lend myself

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and my instincts to this character.

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And, you know, Keivonn
and I, we built a bond,

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so I kind of just wanted
to just like, okay,

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let me just be present and
just, you know, just react

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to the moment as opposed
to me trying to, you know,

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think about it before it even happened.

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What was it like to see the
clickers in their full costume,

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especially the main
bloater of the episode?

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It was absolutely amazing.

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I think the special effects
people and the makeup, you know,

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even the production design,
everything was just spectacular.

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And believe it or not, most was practical.

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Most of it was practical.

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It actually was there.

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All the clickers coming
out of the ditch, you know,

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the car crashing into
the house, it blowing up.

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All that actually happened,
I have videos on my phone.

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What was the toughest scene
for you to film personally?

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The toughest scene for me

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to film was obviously the final scene,

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final death scene between,
you know, Henry and Sam.

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Just because we built such
a great bond over the two

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and a half months that we were shooting.

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To shoot that scene, it was
heartbreaking, you know,

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and also to see his body
kind of flailing like that,

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I mean, it's a really
tough thing to stomach.

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You know, the scene between Sam and Ellie,

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Jeremy, who was the director
of episodes four and five,

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we watched that scene on
the monitor and by the end

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of that scene we were both
tearing up and crying, you know,

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and the following day I
had to do the death scene.

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So, it was just, I'm like, oh man.

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It was just a super emotional couple days

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but I'm really happy
with how it turned out.

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What's your favorite on-set
memory from filming the show?

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My favorite on-set memory would have

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to be the wild action sequence
when all the infected come

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out of the hole.

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It was crazy that day,
there's fire going, you know,

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there's like over a hundred
extras with stuntmen,

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stunt people,

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especially with Kathleen's
crew along with the infected.

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It was just a crazy, crazy couple,

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we shot three weeks of nights

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and it was just a crazy couple weeks.

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What's your favorite apocalypse-set film,

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TV show or video game?

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My favorite apocalypse-set film would have

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to be "I Am Legend".

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I love "I Am Legend", I love Will Smith.

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I love that he was just in this world,

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kind of by himself with his dog

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and sort of building a
relationship with these mannequins,

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you know, trying to, because
I mean, he's by himself.

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So I think connection,
whether it be human or not,

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is something that us as
human beings, we crave.