Catherine O’Hara Cried So Hard She Made Pedro Pascal Lose It

Spoilers follow for the sixth episode of The Last of Us’s second season, which premiered on HBO May 18.

Given Catherine O’Hara’s body of work, the news that the Canadian-born actress — beloved for roles in comedies like Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show, Home Alone, and Beetlejuice — would join The Last of Us was unexpected. But the casting paid dividends. HBO’s zombie drama can be a relentlessly depressing watch, and O’Hara’s Gail Lynden, the lone therapist in postapocalyptic Jackson, gives the series a pop of color that helps sell the idea of Jackson as a tangible, steadily rebuilding community. Gail brings a wry humor that pierces the grim reality of the show’s world. In one scene of Sunday’s flashback-heavy episode, “The Price,” a still-alive Joel (Pedro Pascal) drops in for an impromptu consultation a little rudely, while Gail eats at a café. “You guys study dreams and stuff, right?” he asks. “Is there a ‘Doctor Is In’ sign on me like Lucy from fuckin’ Peanuts?” she retorts.

Gail was specifically created for the show, and her presence emphasizes a few major thematic threads this season: Joel’s lie, its costs, and the difficulty of forgiveness. In flashbacks, we finally learn what happened to her husband, Eugene (Joe Pantoliano), an event that informs her hostility toward Joel in the second season’s premiere. Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) respond to a distress call when they encounter a zombie-bitten Eugene. Sticking to protocol, Joel insists on killing the poor guy, who attempts to bargain to see his wife one last time. After Ellie urges compassion, Joel initially appears to relent — only to kill Eugene once she goes to retrieve their horses. When Ellie realizes the truth, she’s devastated.

The moment mirrors the end of the first season: Joel acts on a decision that wasn’t his to make and crafts a lie out of a belief that it’s for the best. The realization deepens Ellie’s skepticism over what happened in the hospital in Salt Lake City. Later, things come to a head when Joel tries to comfort Gail with a softened version of Eugene’s death and Ellie interrupts by telling the truth, shattering both of them. “I think he’s a good man who’s just trying to do the right thing,” says O’Hara from Los Angeles, reflecting on Joel and his relationship with Ellie. “She’s all he had.”

We don’t often get to see you do a drama, especially one as grim as The Last of Us.
Right? Gee, what a world.

Gail gets a big moment near the end of this episode when she learns about Eugene’s death and the additional revelation that Joel has been lying to her about the circumstances. What was your experience filming that scene?
I’m glad they didn’t use so much of the crying. I was crying all day long. It was very emotionally and mentally taxing, and I just wanted to do a good job. You give it your all every take. It is a very sad scene, but it was a fun process.

There was one take where I didn’t hear Neil Druckmann, who directed the episode, yell “cut,” so I kept crying into Gabriel Luna’s chest. I just didn’t hear the word, so I kept going. I was just crying into his chest and it went on and on and on. He’s such a dear guy, Gabriel. He’s just holding on to me. He must’ve thought I suddenly turned Method and I was going to live all the sorrow a widow could feel. Finally, I lowered myself away from his body and said, “Okay, I’m sorry. Can someone say ‘cut’?” And Pedro was on the ground laughing. Mocking me! I don’t know what they thought I was doing.

Sounds like a fun set.
They’re very lovely people. When you’ve got a great team in any line of work, it makes you happy to show up.

You’ve spoken elsewhere about not being particularly drawn to more intense material because of the headspace it might put you in. What convinced you to do the show?
When I read things, I do think, Oh boy, how much do I want that in my life? So one of my first thoughts with this script was, Do I have to meet the infected? It was nice to know I wasn’t going to. But I loved the idea that there would be a therapist in this world — and the fact that she would be the only therapist in this town. How could they possibly have any kind of mental stability themselves? So the idea of this one person was just dark and hilarious to me. It’s just good writing, too.

Gail mirrors Ellie’s position in that moment: Joel made choices for her and Eugene that weren’t his to make. How do you interpret Joel’s decision?
I shot the scene with Joel when he comes in for a session first, and I think Craig Mazin, the showrunner, probably told me vaguely what was going on, but I was so nasty and angry with Joel without really knowing why. So I’m like, What is up her kilt? But God bless her, she knows what he did.

He had to do what he did in both cases. And from my point of view, and I would think from Gail’s, too, having some semblance of reality and justice in the world, Joel did what he did to protect the people he loved. He believed he was protecting Ellie when he killed everyone else to escape with her. He did it out of love and care. Same with Eugene. He was protecting everyone in the town. That was the rule: When somebody’s infected, put him down. I think he’s a good man who’s trying to do the right thing for the sake of others, not for himself.

I mean, saving Ellie and killing a bunch of people at the hospital was kind of selfish.
But he’s saving her. He might not be saving everyone else who might’ve developed a cure, but in that moment, I would think, If there’s this one person who has possible immunity vaccination to this disease, maybe there are others. So why shouldn’t I save her? I love her. She’s all he had.

I like how we learn in this episode that Gail is pretty spiky even before she loses Eugene. We see this in the café scene when Joel’s asking her about moths.
I know! It’s so funny. “I finally have a moment alone, okay?”

Was that already in the script, or was that something you brought to the character?
No, that was in the script. Craig directed that. It was very clear and has a great sense of humor about it all — it’s very dramatic, but the moments where you most need humor in life are your darkest moments. After doing the therapy-session scene with Pedro, I knew the dynamic Craig wanted from her point of view. In the café, she’s just trying to get a moment. He’s not her only patient, you know?

In the scene, Gail is reading George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel Earth Abides, which my colleague described as the “granddaddy of all postapocalyptic tales.”
Wait, no, really? That’s what she reads to escape? That’s great. Boy, she’s all about reality.

What’s your own relationship with postapocalyptic fiction? Do you watch many zombie movies?
No, not really. Too scary. I watch this show and I’m like, No, no, no, please no.

One more quick question about the café scene: Are you wearing maple-leaf earrings?
Yes! They’re mine.

Is that your way to sneak Canadian pride into your projects?
Oh yeah. I’m hoping to be up there next week, in fact. I love my dear country.

I don’t think I’ve ever considered the role of a therapist in a postapocalyptic society before. It’s a holdover from civilization as we know it, but with mushroom zombies running around and everything, it’s maybe too much of a role for just one person to have.
She even says that in the scene with Tommy when she’s watching the baseball game — that she needs a therapist for herself, but there’s nobody. I’m sure it was Eugene for her. They got stoned together, and they escaped the reality of their lives together, and now he’s gone.

Is Gail a good therapist?
Yes. Come on! You don’t see anyone taking their own lives. Oh that’s terrible, that wasn’t funny, sorry. Look how together that town is! In the second episode, when the infected attack, you see how prepared and supportive they are of each other, just living the fear of that horror happening. I like to think Gail has held everybody together. That’s how they’re able to do what they need to do.

Last thing: I also really enjoyed The Studio. Congratulations on the second-season renewal.
Thank you!

Were you surprised by the response to that show?
Yes! It’s all timing. You never really know how these things happen. So many good things never get seen by people, and a lot of crap becomes popular. But it’s so well made and funny. Seth is so good in it. Everybody is. The whole oner idea — we shot ten-page scenes in one over and over. It was so great and fun to do.

I imagine another great thing about doing The Studio is that it’s in L.A., so you don’t have to be far from home.
Yes. And it won’t be affected by the tariffs.