Melanie Lynskey talks playing a “war criminal” on The Last of Us

From Heavenly Creatures to Yellowjackets, actor Melanie Lynskey has earned a devoted following over the last few decades of her career. Her latest role is on The Last of Us as Kathleen, a woman who runs what remains of Kansas City after a zombie outbreak decimated the world.

The character of Kathleen was largely invented for the HBO show, although she has roots in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us video game. In the show’s continuity, she was the sister of the revolutionary leader who rose up against FEDRA and claimed the Kansas City quarantine zone for the people. But when he died (before Joel and Ellie show up), Kathleen took over, and she does things a little differently.

Lynskey was drawn to the role by the opportunity to work with showrunner Craig Mazin, who also created the HBO series Chernobyl. “I knew that I would have fun with Craig. I knew I could trust him to be meticulous,” Lynskey told Entertainment Weekly. “I read the scripts and I was like, ‘These are great.’ I mean, surprise, surprise, it’s Craig Mazin. I really didn’t hesitate. I was so excited about it.”

Yellowjackets star Melanie Lynskey talks joining The Last of Us

That said, Lynskey did hesitate a little when Mazin described the role to her. “He said to me, ‘I hope you’re not offended, but I would love for you to play a war criminal.’ I said, ‘Ugh, I don’t know.’ He was like, ‘I felt like that would be your reaction. Let me tell you a bit more.'”

"He told me that her brother was basically Jesus. Like, imagine growing up as the sibling of Jesus and being like, “My brother’s the greatest human being. He’s leading the world. He’s the kindest, most decent person. I don’t think I’m that great of a person. I don’t really need to be anything in particular because I have this person by my side.” And then somebody brutally kills him and it’s so unfair. Who are you after that? You are forced to step into a role that you never asked for and you don’t think you’re very good at. The thing I found very interesting about her is, when she did step into the role, she didn’t have a lot of guilt about doing bad things, whereas her brother did. She found out that she was quite heartless and so she was able to be pretty effective in a way that he maybe wasn’t because she didn’t care about people. That’s a very interesting dynamic."

It seems like a person named Henry had a lot to do with the death of Kathleen’s brother, hence why she’s pursuing him throughout the episode; we can expect more on that in Episode 5, which will conclude this little two-episode arc.

As for Lynskey, she made some interesting choices with the role. “I wanted her to be kind of gentle,” she said. “I wanted her to be soft spoken and delicate in the way she looked around. I wanted her to feel like a sweet person, and then to have a surprising capacity for violence. I thought the difference between how she carries herself and how she speaks and the things she’s doing would be interesting.”

The next episode of The Last of Us will start streaming on HBO Max this upcoming Friday morning, as opposed to Sunday night (the better to avoid competing with the Super Bow). However, it will still air linearly on HBO on Sunday.

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