HBOJosh Peck has been discussing his cameo in The Last of Us, revealing how he tried to humanize his “despicable” character.
Drake & Josh fans got a surprise during The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 4 when star Josh Peck appeared in the show’s shocking opening scene.
Peck plays a FEDRA solider who delivers a deeply unpleasant monologue that alludes to the way his fellow soldiers are treating civilians in the Quarantine Zone.
It’s a brief but memorable cameo, and the actor has been discussing how he got the role, as well as preparing to deliver that memorable speech. Meaning SPOILERS ahead…
Josh Peck immediately knew who his Last of Us character was
HBO“It was just an audition that came in,” Josh Peck tells Variety. “Like most great writing, when I read the scene, I was like, ‘I think I know how to do this.’ I sent it out into the universe and hoped, but sort of didn’t expect to hear anything back because I don’t usually get things as good as this. So when I heard back, I was so excited.”
Elaborating on the process, Peck adds: “When you get great writing and a monologue like this, you get excited as an actor, because you go ‘there’s a lot for me to do here. I get to make a lot of choices. I get to bring myself and do the work that’s required.’ Those are the auditions you feel the best about because you left everything on the table.
“With The Last of Us, the writing was so good that I immediately had a very specific take and choice about who this guy was.”
How Peck tried to “humanize” his character
HBOOnce he landed the role, Peck then set about trying to understand his character, who laughs about a soldier called Greenberg bullying and abusing “voters” in the Quarantine Zone.
“War can make people say and do things that they never thought they were capable of doing,” the actor says in the same interview. “It’s important that you have empathy for your characters, even when they are despicable, because otherwise I don’t really know how to humanize them.
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“What gave me a great insight into this guy was I had to personalize the story in a way. Obviously, nothing in my life could ever match up to something this extreme and horrible, thankfully, but I could relate it to just telling my friends one of my favorite stories that still cracks me up. That was my entry point into how to personalize this thing, and strip it from the extreme nature of it, and just do what this guy is doing.
“He’s talking to his co-workers, his friends, and telling a story that happens to be pretty terrible. Another good entry point is when he is confronted by his superior, the great Jeffrey Wright, he’s hurt. He’s like, ‘Hey, man, this is my go-to story. Aren’t we all on the same page here?’ There were entry points in ways in which I could humanize it, even though what he’s talking about is beyond my understanding.”
As for the Greenberg character whom he’s describing, Peck says he pictured someone he knows to make the scene work: “Oh, yeah, I have a Greenberg in my life, and he knows who he is. You don’t know him. He’s a civilian, I don’t wanna give his name. He’s a wild, wild person.”
For more TLOU coverage, find out when The Last of Us takes place, plus why they chose ‘Tale on Me’ for key The Last of Us scene, and why Ellie left coffee beans on Joel’s grave.