HBO’s critically acclaimed adaptation of The Last of Us has brought to life the beloved characters of the original game with stunning performances, and none more so than the portrayal of Tess by Australian actress Anna Torv.
Her portrayal of the character is a masterclass in nuance, capturing Tess’s calm but assertive nature as she calls the shots in her partnership with Joel.
In a recent podcast about the show’s second episode, co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin delved deeper into the character of Tess, revealing some of the original plans they had for her backstory. Please note, there are spoilers for The Last of Us below.
While in both the game and the show, we are given only glimpses of Tess’s story before we meet her in Boston’s quarantine zone, the showrunners had initially planned for Tess to have a family. In a script that was ultimately discarded, Tess would reveal that she had a husband and son before she arrived in Boston.
Tragically, her husband and son both became infected, and Tess was forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to kill her husband.
However, she could not bring herself to do the same to her son and instead locked him in a basement, where “theoretically he’s still a clicker”.
This information adds a new layer of depth and emotion to Tess’s character, making her actions and motivations in the show all the more powerful.
It’s exciting to think about what other secrets and surprises the creators have in store as they continue to expand on the story and characters of The Last of Us.
In the early stages of crafting the story for the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, the show’s creators, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, had an intriguing idea for how to reveal the tragic backstory of the character of Tess. In an episode of the podcast, they discussed how they had planned to reveal the story in two different ways.
The first would have been in the show’s cold open. “We had a cold open where the camera pushes in on this door and you just hear this pounding coming from the basement, and then we cut out,” Mazin explained. This scene would have been a haunting and evocative way to introduce the audience to Tess’s tragic past.
Later in the episode, Tess was going to share the story of her family with Joel and Ellie. This would have created a powerful juxtaposition between Tess and Joel, as the co-creators stated “She is brave enough to dare to hope,” something that Joel currently refuses to do.
Unfortunately, this idea did not make it into the final cut of the show, but elements of Tess’s maternal instinct still shine through in Anna Torv’s portrayal of the character.
Throughout the second episode, Tess engages with Ellie, asking her about how she got bitten and stressing the importance of her survival. Tess believes in Ellie’s immunity and that she could be the answer for a cure long before Joel even entertains the idea.
Fans can hear the full podcast in the video above and gain a deeper understanding of the show’s creation process.
