Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: HBO, Rutina Wesley, the last of us

The Last of Us: Rutina Wesley on Bringing Her Take on Maria to Series

Rutina Wesley discusses how she got over her initial fears about bringing Maria to life from the video games to HBO's The Last of Us.

Rutina Wesley is no stranger to popular franchises with her turns on True Blood, NBC's Hannibal, The CW's Arrow, and OWN's Queen Sugar. She even made an appearance in arguably the most popular zombie apocalypse franchise in AMC's The Walking Dead, but apparently, the prospect of playing an established video game character in Maria for the HBO series adaptation of The Last of Us was intimidating. Maria is the wife of Tommy Miller (Gabriel Luna), who finally meets her brother-in-law Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his young traveling companion Ellie (Bella Ramsey) when the latter two cross into Jackson, Wyoming. The following contains spoilers for the series' sixth episode, "Kin."

"It's terrifying playing a character that's been established, even though it's a game," Wesley told Entertainment Weekly. "But I also was up for the challenge of playing her in my way and putting my energy on it to see what people would think of that." Maria, who was originally voiced by Ashley Scott in the 2013 Naughty Dog PlayStation game, is the leader of the Jackson settlement. Players encounter her and Tommy only at the hydroelectric dam before Ellie runs off upon finding out Joel was trying to push her off on his brother to finish the journey to the Fireflies. While the series teased the dam, much of it would be played out in the town, which was introduced in 2020's Part II, another deviation from the games by creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

When it came to fleshing out Maria more, the series had her reveal her past life as an assistant district attorney before the Cordyceps apocalypse. "Sometimes you can do an adaptation of something, and it's a copy of a copy. Sometimes it's not so great," Wesley said. "But I felt here with The Last of Us, they really have had a chance to fly with these storylines, even if they altered them a bit because it's human people." The actress recalled when she was pitched the role. "I loved Maria, particularly because she's a born leader. She's fierce and she has this calm and stillness that I love. She's the type of woman that I described like; if she smiles, you probably only see it with her eyes. She's not gonna give you full-blown Rutina red carpet teeth."

For more, including how Wesley credits the series for giving Maria added nuance, her relationship with Tommy, and her future in the series, you can check out the whole interview here. The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!