00:00There was a guy there who bought spare gimbals from military surplus sales around the world.
00:07They had cobbled together this whole... It was mind-blowing. It was so much fun.
00:16Hunter!
00:24Jackson, come in.
00:27Jackson!
00:30Jackson, come in.
00:33Thanks for sitting with me today.
00:35Yeah.
00:35So what kind of headspace do you think the fans of the show should come into the new season with?
00:40Well, I think what's wonderful about this show is how personal the experience is for fans.
00:48I've been a part of other series and movies that has a similar level of intensity from the fan base,
00:56like the Batman. You know, people are insane about that and they, you know, they take it personally.
01:01And that's great. Westworld, you know, you had people, you know, other HBO shows involved with. You had people who
01:09were writing whole theories. They were, like, basically writing whole, like, kind of alternative scripts online.
01:15For me, those stories were really a part of the show. You know, they were just kind of an extension
01:21of the show.
01:21I love that people have that level of passion for it. And so I think, you know, for fans of
01:28this show, they'll just bring what they've already built and there's that, you know, curiosity and love and concern for
01:34these characters and some sense of connection to this world and to the experiences that these people are going through.
01:41I don't know why, you know, touches on things, I don't know, that I guess are universal. There's this, you
01:46know, kind of plague at the center of it that we're all, you know, reasonably familiar with.
01:53So it's just like, you know, sometimes you get this magic mixture of things together and they work. And this
01:59show is that. And yeah, I think people just bring, you know, bring that passion to it.
02:04But I think they have some curiosity about my character, you know, whether or not we'll dig deeper into who
02:09he is than is done in the game. Maybe that'll be satisfied. We'll see. But yeah, just bring what they've
02:15already brought. Just an enjoyment and a love for it.
02:22It's okay. I know their names and I know where they're from.
02:29The girl was a parade.
02:32Abby.
02:34You're one of only two actors that have had a hand in both the game and TV show. What's that
02:40been like for you?
02:41We're in the middle of it now. I'm really pleased to be a part of it.
02:44It's a very simple explanation for me as to why I'm in the game. It's because my son was a
02:50fan.
02:50I happened to meet Neil Druckmann because he was a fan of Westworld, you know, and he wanted to meet
02:56and he hinted at my maybe, you know, having some interest perhaps in being in the game.
03:01You know, would that be possible? I was like, you know, you never know. And then Shannon Woodward was an
03:08actor on Westworld.
03:09She was working on the game. Hallie Gross, writer on Westworld, had been writing the game. She's a writer for
03:15the show now. She kind of nudged me along.
03:17And then I asked my son, I said, what is this? Do you know anything about this game? The Last
03:21of Us? What are you? What? You got to do it.
03:26So that's why, that's why I did it. I had no expectation that it would be anything more than that.
03:31You know, just a little, you know, kind of gift to my son.
03:34I do work for a variety of reasons. I try to do good stuff. I try to do stuff that's
03:39compelling to me, that's smart, that's with a group of people who are good at what they do.
03:43And then sometimes the added benefit is that when I do that, I do something that my kids think is
03:49cool.
03:49And that's why I did this. And now it's expanded into this, you know, incredibly popular global sensation that the
03:56show has become.
03:57And they asked me if I wanted to come back and revisit.
04:00And now the other person who's in the game and also in the show, I don't know what their story
04:04is, but that's mine.
04:05A moth. That probably means change and growth.
04:10No, that would be a butterfly.
04:12Okay. So what's a moth?
04:15Death.
04:18If you believe in that shit.
04:19And what kind of mind frame were you in having known so much about the game? Does that kind of
04:25convolute your acting style or does that enhance it?
04:28No. When we did the game, it was obviously motion capture. So the set was not entirely different than what
04:37you see here.
04:37There's like, you know, there are a couple of stands there. There's like an X on a thing. That's supposed
04:42to be a doorknob.
04:43You know, there's some lines on the floor. That's the wall. There's the door. It's like a car. You know,
04:49it's like super minimal.
04:50The show is like the realization of that. I mean, that was kind of, you know, obviously digital information that's
04:56going to be made for, you know, to create this immersive experience inside the game.
05:00The show is fully realized and it's really very cool in terms of the level of world building and the
05:07level of stagecraft and the talent that, you know, is brought to bear by everyone.
05:12You know, not just the actors, you know, us, but, you know, all of the creative people who it takes,
05:17you know, to work together to, you know, to make a show of this scale and this quality.
05:21It takes a lot. You see it on screen, you know, just this expansive world that allows you to kind
05:26of, you know, disappear inside as a viewer.
05:30That's like the big difference, you know, from working on the game to this is that you really kind of
05:35sense the immersion when you're on set.
05:37I love that aspect of what we do, you know, what this work is about.
05:41You know, people think that this work, oh, you know, it's glamorous, a bunch of actors running around, dancing around,
05:47you know, blah, blah, blah.
05:48For me, what I really get off on is working with everybody together, working with the carpenters, working with the
05:55electricians, working with these engineers who, you know, have designed and built, you know, these, at times, like in this
06:03show, incredibly complicated, you know, sets and things like that.
06:07And everybody kind of gathered around together with the common purpose of telling a good story.
06:11And when you hit it right and you find yourself with the right group of people who are smart, hardworking,
06:17good at what they do, and you find a story that people are drawn to, that speaks to them, it's
06:23special, you know, but it only happens because of the people involved.
06:27That's what I really, I really love the most about this.
06:29This is, you know, one of those rare ones where, for whatever reason, people around the world are touched by
06:34it.
06:34It's much better than the alternative when you're in a show that nobody wants to see.
06:38This is much better.
06:39This is good.
06:40Have you been there?
06:41Yeah, I've been in a couple.
06:42Yeah.
06:42I've been in one or two that I didn't want anybody to see.
06:45Yeah.
06:46Yeah.
06:46There's a Stallone movie I did years ago.
06:48Oh, man, that was rough.
06:51You know, those things keep you humble.
06:52Thankfully, very few people have seen it.
06:56We have automatic weapons.
06:58You lunatics have bows and arrows and superstition.
07:02So tell me how are we going to lose?
07:05Well, that sounds like an incredibly satisfying process for you.
07:08Yeah.
07:09Game.
07:09To a TV show.
07:10And what was the most memorable or fun part of shooting this TV series?
07:14There's a series of scenes that we shot.
07:16Again, it just goes back to the level of world building that goes into this show.
07:22And we shot out in the middle of nowhere, like in the woods, some clearing somewhere outside of Vancouver.
07:29A couple hours outside of Vancouver, if I'm not mistaken.
07:31And there was this rig that they had built that was the most outrageous design.
07:36I won't give anything away, but man, there was a guy there who bought spare gimbals from military surplus sales
07:47around the world.
07:48They had cobbled together this whole house.
07:50I was like, it was mind-blowing.
07:51It was so much fun.
07:53So it comes back to those people.
07:55It comes back to the theater of it all, the illusion of it all, and what goes into creating the
08:01experience for the audience.
08:03I love that stuff.
08:04That was the most fun thing.
08:05I can't give too much away, though, because you have no idea what I'm talking about, and you probably shouldn't
08:10until the show, that episode, comes out.
08:12Well, I'm getting very excited just hearing about it.
08:14Thank you very much, Jeffrey.
08:15Yeah, man.
08:16I appreciate that.
08:17All right.
Comments