Australian actor Murray Bartlett has made a name for himself in recent years with memorable turns on HBO’s “The White Lotus” and “Looking” along with Apple’s “Physical” and Hulu’s upcoming “Welcome to Chippendales”
He also has a role in the new series adaptation of the acclaimed video game “The Last of Us”, which recently scored a January 15th premiere date on the premium cabler.
The series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, a man hired to bring a girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the quarantine zone twenty years after a zombie-esque outbreak. Ellie is immune to the Cordyceps infection that causes the transformation and is thought to be the key to a cure.
Collider recently spoke with Bartlett to promote the release of the ‘Chippendales’ mini-series and asked him about what to expect from “The Last of Us” adaptation in which he plays the small supporting role of Frank.
Bartlett says he’s not a gamer, but he did a bunch of research into the property ahead of the series and has a deep love for the characters and the story, calling it “incredibly cinematic” and an “amazing, complicated story with really deep themes in it”. He then says:
“They’ve really beautifully adapted all of those elements into this show. It’s an incredible team. Part of the team created Chernobyl, which is another amazing piece of TV. There’s an amazing cast. They’ve put a lot of love and resources behind it.
…The scripts that I had to work with, one particular script is one of the best hours of television I’ve ever read. It’s beautiful. It’s beautifully written. There are these zombie creatures in it, but it’s tender, and it’s human. I think it’s gonna be really special. I haven’t seen any of it yet, but I’m really proud of the work we did, and I think it could be really, really wonderful. It will be really wonderful.”
Nick Offerman, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Anna Torv, Jeffrey Pierce, Storm Reid, Melanie Lynskey, and original game actors Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker will co-star in the nine-episode first season was written by “Chernobyl” creator Craig Mazin and “Last of Us” game director Neil Druckmann.
