SUMMARY
- Despite being based on the original game, Tess' death scene was tweaked in The Last of Us series.
- In the video game, Tess's sacrifice was led by FEDRA soldiers instead of the infected, and fans' had mixed reactions to the dramatic change in her fate.
- Anna Torv who played Tess in TLOU, had to improvise a lot in her role.
One of the many surprises in the second episode of The Last of Us Season 1 was the discovery that Anna Torv’s character, Tess, was infected. In the end, the scene generated a great deal of controversy among viewers of the HBO series who were devastated and did not expect the traumatic event to transpire in such a tragic manner.
When Torv was about to film that particular scene, even the actress was somewhat surprised by how it turned out. This is because the makers of the popular TV series let Torv play the character a bit differently than it was shown in the actual game.
Anna Torv played Tess differently in The Last of Us series
Many of the painstakingly recreated scenes are taken straight from that PlayStation classic, which will be familiar to those who played the original video game. However, there is a significant divergence in how the characters are portrayed. Actor Anna Torv claims that although they may not look alike, there are deeper creative differences between them.
Torv did not consider the decision to abandon a direct impression of Tess as portrayed in the video game to be pointless or self-serving. She discussed in an interview on IGN’s YouTube channel, how Mazin and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann wanted their actors to work. This is what Torv stated:
I guess one of the first things I asked Craig [Mazin], who was our creator, was how true to the characters of the game do you need us to be?,” the Mindhunter actor said. “Or is it our interpretation? What are you looking for?
She notes that since the portrayal of her character in the series is fundamentally a little different from Tess’s in the game, it was crucial to have her own creative freedom. In the game, she and Joel are both “a bit older,” so Torv felt it was best to keep that in mind while playing the role.
These creative differences are important, even if the script and costumes are immediately recognizable to those who played the original game. They contribute to the show’s elevation as a unique interpretation.
The actress herself was surprised at Tess’ death
Anna Torv talked about how she was surprised when it came time to film Tess’ death sequence because she had imagined it would go very differently when she first read the script during the “Inside The Episode” featurette that aired following the second episode of The Last of Us.
The clickers have arrived.#TheLastOfUs showrunners Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann and more discuss how they brought the clickers to life. pic.twitter.com/7hpidFZ0uC
— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) January 25, 2023
When Tess’s death was imminent, the actress wasn’t the only one who had different expectations. Tess’s sacrifice in the video game was led by FEDRA soldiers rather than the infected, and fans had differing opinions about the significant alteration to her destiny. Although there were some variations from the original narrative, Torv asserts that they ultimately didn’t depart too much from it.
“With any good story and well-drawn character, you’ll end up sticking pretty close to it, because that’s the story and that’s who you’re playing,” Torv stated in a recent interview, “But … ultimately, Tess is Tess.”
