Before The Last of Us was a fan-favorite HBO series, it was a story-driven, action-packed, emotionally profound video game, and original Joel actor Troy Baker has shared new insight into what it was like bringing that character to life in the game—including in some of the story’s toughest scenes overall. Baker is a familiar voice to many, with roles in some of the most iconic franchises in the world, from Indiana Jones to Fortnite and a truly staggering number of others.

Yet, among the roles he is best known for is certainly Joel, one of the main characters in the harrowing post-apocalyptic survival game The Last of Us. Joel begins as a father who tragically loses his daughter, Sarah, at the onset of the Cordyceps infection outbreak. In the wake of that loss, he goes through the motions of trying to survive in this new nightmarish landscape, only to meet Ellie, a young girl who is discovered to have immunity to the infection. With this new father-daughter dynamic, Joel finds himself in a series of intense, often rather violent situations.

This comes to a head when Joel brings Ellie to the Fireflies, thinking they will use her immunity to find a cure, only to discover that their process means killing Ellie, and he massacres them to save her. This scene, and Joel’s death, in which he is brutally bludgeoned to death with a golf club, is among the most brutal and difficult to watch in the entire game, and at Comicon Napoli 2026, Baker spoke exclusively with Screen Rant about portraying Joel in those scenes, his perspective on the character, and how this role connects to his real-life fatherhood.

Troy Baker Has A Powerful Connection To Joel’s Journey

Although Baker is now well-known for playing Joel, the actor shared that, at first, he came very close to walking away.

Troy Baker: I came this close to not being Joel. I was on my way out of the audition because I walked into that room, and I was like, I’m not that guy, dude. When you walk in, and I could see, yep, that guy could play Joel, that guy could play Joel, that guy could play Joel, and I’m like, ‘I don’t look anything like this character. I’m too young.’ I was mad at my agent because I was like, ‘You want me to read for some dude who’s like 50 years old? C’mon, man.’ And I literally owe it to Christina, who was the casting director at the time. I was turning and opening the door, and she goes, ‘Troy!’ And I was like, ‘Hey.’ And she goes, ‘Good, you made it. They’re ready for you.’ And I walked in. So, she caught me, but I would’ve allowed my fear and my insecurity and my arrogance to prevent me from the role that I’m kind of here to talk about.

There was still a learning curve for the role even after that, Baker shared.

Baker: Once I got the gig, I had to continually chip away at my ego because now I’ve got this role, and I was such a fan of Uncharted that I was like, well now I’m the new Nathan Drake. So, I’ve got to be the new Nolan North, and I’ve got to impress everybody and make sure that they know they didn’t make a mistake. And it took me a long time. You know, Ashley [Johnson] is not worried about any of that stuff. She’s just being Ellie. And it took me a while to catch up to her. Once I did, I think we did something special, but it has been a continual process of me realizing that I don’t create these characters. They already exist. I live inside of them for a while. And then I pass them on to you, and then you get to live with them. And then you pass that onto somebody else. It’s like we’re just custodians of these things for a little while. But boy, while I do, I have a lot of fun.

But in terms of how much of himself he brings to the roles he plays, Baker was clear: “All of it.”

Baker: This notion of you’ve got to shut out your emotions and shut out whatever you’re feeling and whatever is happening to you, I’m like, no, that’s it…I have to bring [it all], no matter what I’m feeling. There have been times when I’m like, man, there is something in my shoe. You bring that.

Joel’s brutal death also hit hard for Baker, he shared.

Baker: There’s the seven stages of grief, and I encountered those with Joel. I bartered. I got angry. Depressed. And then, finally, through multiple different stages, I finally went to acceptance. But, I mean, Neil [Druckmann] and I fought. And he’s one of my dearest friends, and he was like, ‘You have to trust me on this.’ And he was right.

However, Baker revealed, Joel’s death wasn’t the scene that he and Druckmann fought about the most; it was the scene in which Joel confesses to what he’d done to the Fireflies.

Baker: I will never forget being in my backyard and arguing with him. I was like, ‘We can’t do this. Never. He would take this to his grave, and it’s his burden to bear. And I went into that scene angry. ‘We shouldn’t be shooting this f—g scene.’ I was so mad…I realized I was so wrapped up in how Troy Baker felt about that scene. He didn’t just go, ‘This is happening, why? That’s a great question. Joel would never do that. That’s f—g interesting, isn’t it?’

In the end, Baker said, this actually became his favorite scene.

Regarding whether Joel was ‘in the right’ for what he did to the Fireflies, Baker has a clear perspective.

Baker: There is no right or wrong when you’re in that situation. I’ve always heard people say, ‘I would step in front of a bus for my child.’ They’re not saying it to be noble; it’s a fact.

This concept hits home for Baker as a father, as well.

Baker: In my arrogance, I was like, ‘When our son is born, he will sleep in his own bed. Day one.’ And my wife was like, ‘Okay.’ And my son, he’ll go through these spurts. He’ll go up into his room, and then he’ll be like, ‘Hey, can I sleep with you guys?’ And we’re always like, ‘Yes.’ So, he was down with us, and he asked me—and every time I say this, I almost cry—he’s almost eight; he’ll be eight in like two days. And we’re about to go to sleep. My wife was already passed out, and he and I, I finished reading, he finished reading, he puts his book down, I put my book down, and he looks at me, and he’s like, ‘Dad, is tonight the last night?’ And I went, ‘Do you want it to be?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know. I think I’m ready to go to my own bed.’ Now, he has slept in his own bed before that, but I was like, ‘You need to know this. Before you were born, I was like, he’s going to sleep in his own room. And then you got here, and I couldn’t imagine’—and I’m saying this in the dark, so I can just barely make out the outline of his face—And I said, ‘I can’t imagine you being any further from me than you are right now. But you can go to your room whenever you want. You can also come down here whenever you want.’

For Baker, this approach to parenthood is something he sees in Joel, too.

Baker: At that moment, I’m talking to a seven-year-old, but I’m speaking to the seventeen-year-old, and to the twenty-seven-year old, and the thirty-seven-year-old. Which, I will be damned if he doesn’t know he can always come home no matter what. I don’t care what you’ve done; you can always come home. Call us first. I never want him to feel like, ‘My parents are going to kill me.’ No. My parents are going to love me, and they’re going to help me figure this out. I would do anything for him. So, it’s not a matter of was it the right thing or the wrong thing. Joel never went, ‘I’m going to do the wrong thing.’ He was like, ‘I’m going to walk into that hospital and murder anybody who gets in my way. I’m going to save that girl.’

Baker also shared that he thinks Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel in the HBO series, did a great job capturing that very same sentiment.

Baker: Everyone goes, ‘Well, it was him redeeming himself for losing Sarah.’ And I think that’s who he was the entire time…and I will say this, Pedro did an amazing job because [Joel] clocked out. Joel is. It’s dispassion. It’s like you’re gone, you’re gone, and you see, oh my God, there is a military precision to who you are that you keep at bay, and you just took the governor off. And that’s who you are now…That’s how it would be, a father just being like, you’re done, you’re done, you’re done.

Released

June 14, 2013

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language

Publisher(s)

Sony

Engine

Proprietary (overall), Havok (physics)

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

No, The Last of Us Part 1 does not have crossplay

Cross Save

no

Expansions

The Last of Us: Left Behind