The Last of Us Episode 3 | Bill and Frank Interviews | NIck Offerman and Murray Bartlett

love will abide take things and stride talk to me a little bit about the choice the creative choice to have Frank and Bill's story go differently in the TV show than it does in the game that's the one that deviates quite a bit and my process was always keep my mind open to any kind of changes again sometimes because we just have to make certain changes when translating it to this other medium but the greater the change the more good it has to be bill is like a pivotal character in the game that mentioned this relationship that he's had with his partner Frank and Craig pitch me on the idea of like what if we fleshed out that relationship and I had similar ideas in mind to flesh them out but obviously just deviate even more so I was just sort of inspired by the fact that you understood fairly subtly that Bill had a romantic partner named Frank and in the game you know meet Frank he's already dead they split up they hate each other it was a darker kind of lesson but it was also built a little bit around the necessity of gameplay there but for me I thought there was something really interesting about a man who had somehow managed to do the impossible and create a safe bubble that nobody could get into and then who should show up but somebody that gets in and then gets in his heart and I wanted to show relationship at length I wanted to look at middle age romance and commitment and what it means to love somebody and protect somebody and I also wanted to show how life would continue including natural death natural aging natural loss and we get to see these two characters that you know like any kind of human relationship they go through like good times and bad times but they get to go out on top which is rare in our world and even more rare in this other like messed up world and I think it elevates Joel and Ellie's Journey because it kind of sets up again what's at stake at this world and what do you have to gain and what do you have to lose you know Nick and Murray were just another example of us getting really lucky Murray is an incredible actor he's just won an Emmy Nick Offerman is Nick Offerman for God's sakes but you never know when you put actors together especially for Romance will there be chemistry will you will it feed and it was so I don't know it was just beautiful from the jump you could just tell it was working a man who knows to pair rabbit with a Beaujolais I know I don't seem like the type now you do who was cast first who knew who they were going to be first I was but I think we were probably unaware of who and when was cast at the time I knew a couple of months before that I was going to be doing the show yeah when it came to me later I think a couple months later Murray had been secured and the timing was such that we had just I mean I got this offer a few days after finishing season one of the White Lotus couldn't have been a more uh perfect perfectly dangled carrot that's awesome that's so amazing literally [Laughter] Nick Bella's living his like best post-apocalyptic life it seems like obviously no one would choose this but he's well set up do you think he's happy is that a word you would use for how he is before Frank shows up well it's really a good question uh based on how happy and satisfying and perhaps complete his life becomes once he finds someone to love someone to care about someone to make him scared that they're gonna get hurt and that he's gonna lose them right before that comes into his life uh I I think that you know he probably has a lot of superficial happiness you know like a squirrel uh who who has nuts stored away but boy that squirrel sure would like a hug but but the squirrel buries that emotion and that need so if you asked Bill he probably would have you know like roughly said you I'm right I'm happy but turns out he uh he'd be happier with a kiss [Music] so let's go to that scene at the piano which was a thing of beauty was it always the Linda Ronstadt song was that always the song Choice it was as far as I know yeah I had a couple of months to practice playing that song badly because that's what it said you know Frank plays badly so um from the first day that I knew about the the show that was the song really awesome choice I think that's so good was there a moment where they were like that's a little too bad could you make it a little bit less bad no too funnily enough rice rendition was jaunty [Music] no no no sir no thank you sorry not this song not this song obviously right the moment is a huge one for Belle it seems like this is the first time he's been seen truly a scene for who he is and what he wants do we think that that's an accurate take sure absolutely we meet Bill we see what his life is Bill meets Frank you know there's an air of mystery where's this going he makes this dinner all the way up until the point where Bill is despite himself and and his years of of of preparation he's caught unawares he's he's caught vulnerable where he's faced with the choice of do I dive into this for the first time in my life uh or not and that you know was was very tantalizing to get to take a swing at so who's the girl girl you're singing about there's no girl I know what stuck out to me too was Murray that Frank is also deeply affected by what is happening there right this is not just a like an Awakening and someone kind of watching that happen he's hit it seems like just as hard by what's happening oh my God yeah I think because in a world like that it's easy to give up hope in general and certainly to give up hope that you might find a meaningful connection with someone um and also that bill at first although I feel like Frank can probably see a glimmer of something inside bill but like Bill is sort of an unlikely candidate you know in a way he's got such a thick skin and sort of hard to read and is very protected the sort of situation opens up for both of them in that scene around the piano it opens up for Frank and like in a way of like I never thought I would ever find this again you know I just didn't think that that was even a possibility and the the realization of that is so overwhelming and emotional I don't think these guys would have been in each other's orbits in the non-post outbreak world right I mean they just don't seem like they share a lot of interest hobbies that kind of thing no but I mean one thing that's brilliant about the show are The Echoes of our own pandemic lives where suddenly the the world hits reset and different things to Value come into focus and so I agree that pre-pandemic as it were they wouldn't have traveled in the same circles but then suddenly when everything comes down to do you have food do you have gasoline do you have a battery for your vehicle suddenly the dating pool has shifted dramatically something which I find really amazing about this this show and this episode is when when everything is Stripped Away does it also strip away all the things that you've used as markers for if this is this person like a good match for me or am I attracted to this person or does it make it much more sort of Primal in terms of just sort of feeling if there's a connection there rather than like fixating on the package of when I say package I mean the whole package package I just I just appreciate the grandiosity I really was yeah leaning into that um but you know what I mean what kinds of connections do we make when everything is stripped away and I think that this relationship is a kind of a testament to what's possible that maybe we move through all of those things and you can find Connection in possibly unlikely places always if you're willing for both of your characters was there any wardrobe detail or prop detail that you just like were like once you had it in your hand or that you you requested you were like this is Frank or this is Bill when you first started the question I was like oh my God undoubtedly the meal that was served the meticulous sort of plating and it was a beautiful meal I just got a flash of seeing that plate for the first time that was just so gorgeous that you know there was there was many of those sort of um elements of the production that were just like kind of mind-blowing and and super helpful for us I come from a family of farmers and they're incredibly self-sufficient they're among the most intelligent people and you know the least classically educated they're not in the job pipeline heading for a cubicle at an investment firm they know how to make the world serve their their Harvest and so to get to drive a truck hook it up to a boat because he looks around and he says I'm gonna need to haul some stuff I can put stuff in this boat to amass the materials and the mechanisms required to power his his you know microcosm just felt incredibly competent and made me feel like I could halfway hold my head up around my aunts and uncles who do that in real life it made me think about in terms of more of a character thing the Strawberry Patch is sort of is like Frank's pride and joy because I feel like it's sort of he feels like he's doing something that is like more in Bill's territory which is like a rare thing probably and so like there was there was such sort of pride and joy in the mix of like the Practical of creating it but also it's something like kind of magical and creative uh that was a a beautiful sort of character connection for Frank I'd love for you guys to take me inside the filming of that final dinner I mean this is not a world in where people get Happy Endings right Frank and Bill of the game did not get Happy Endings and we get this beautifully Bittersweet crafted finality to their love stories it's such a nice thing so tell me just anything you want to tell me about shooting that final dinner that final day I will only say it was so uh satisfying given we got to play out this whole story with its ups and downs you know it's so funny that we like fall madly in love and then slam cut into you storming out just about the course screaming and we're fighting oh you which to me is like oh they they're they are in love that feels true and so yeah to go through this whole thing and then and then get to that final dinner and for me personally to to get to communicate to him that I'm going to go with him by the way I drink the drink that was just as an actor that was something that was one of the most delicious indulgences I've ever gotten to experience and again it's a testament to their writing that all the pieces have been put in the in place so that merely by tweaking how I drink a glass of wine hopefully the penny drops for the audience as well as Frank why are there already pills in the bottle enough to kill a horse we don't get to see Bill and Ellie interact in the show as we do in the game do you think this version of Bill how do you think he would have found Ali this only just occurred to me uh it reminds me of the dynamic between uh Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation and Aubry plazas guy came in he got his hand stuck in a Pringles cam and he tried to cut himself out what kind of Blade did he use the like competent curmudgeon and the young bad attitude upstart the realist you know the teenage realist passed out over his arm slumped onto the floor to the boncho very good question April answer her I think they would have had a begrudging admiration for each other and made a great team and a pinch it's amazing I mean Frank clearly considers Tess and Joel friends right yeah especially right especially Tess right Nick do you think Bill considers Joel a friend do you think he would ever use that word even if he does no he's a scumbag oh my God I never want that look you just gave the camera leveled at me personally that was that was so scary all of a sudden I'm like he hates the question oh my God oh my gosh hearing isn't it he's a criminal when people get too chummy with me I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don't really care about them that's a genius move thank you you're welcome Lester [Music]

Channel: TVLine

Views: 374,129

Keywords: TVLine, the last of us, last of us, episode 3, season 1, season, episode, episode 2, episode 4, promo, interview, ron swanson, april ludgate, nick offerman, neil druckmann, murray bartlett, season 1 episode 3, long long time, bill, frank, bill and frank, piano, piano scene, dinner, end, ending, review, reaction, recap, hbo, video game, nick offerman interview, murray bartlett interview, nick offerman last of us, nick offerman and murray bartlett, ellie, joel, linda ronstadt, scene

Id: dHpL2Aabc04

Length: 14min 33sec (873 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023