Kaitlyn Dever's Dad's "Cool Taste" Led to 'The Last of Us' Role and Her Fearless Season 3 Approach

Kaitlyn Dever's Journey Through Grief and Resilience

Kaitlyn Dever has always been a force of nature, but her journey through the past two years has tested her in ways few could imagine. In just under two years, she lost her mother, Kathy Dever, after a 14-year battle with metastatic breast cancer. She also faced an intense social media backlash over her casting as a controversial character in the video game world. Despite all this, Dever found the strength to show up on set, channeling her grief and determination to push forward.

In an interview with HAWXTECH, Dever shared how she managed to navigate these challenges. “There was a moment where I was barely able to go to work, and there was a moment where I felt like I couldn’t do it,” she said. “And I think I channeled my mom in many ways to sort of push through and do it for her. And I think that that’s the sole reason why I was able to do it.”

Dever plays Abby in HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2, a skilled soldier who embarks on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge after learning Joel (Pedro Pascal) was responsible for killing her father. The role is emotionally heavy, and Dever admits it resonated deeply with her personal experiences.

A Unique Path to Playing Abby

When Dever first learned about the possibility of playing Abby, it wasn’t her own thoughts that sparked her interest. It was her father’s. “It was actually my dad’s thoughts and opinions on Abby that were way stronger than mine when I first got a call about having a meeting with Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to play Abby,” she recalled. “I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this, but earlier on, before I even got that call about the potential of playing Abby, it was my dad saying, ‘Man, that would be so cool if you could play that girl Abby.’”

At the time, Dever didn’t take it seriously. She had played the first game with her father twice, but Abby wasn’t in it. “I thought he was just saying things,” she said. “Then, later, he played the second game, and I remember him telling me, ‘Hey, you need to sit down, and you just need to watch this. You need to play this.’ And it was the end of the second game, which is so intense and the craziest moment of video gaming I’d ever seen.”

After meeting with Druckmann and Mazin, Dever became more intrigued by the role. “From my initial understanding, she was a very, very, very, very strong woman,” she said. “That in and of itself was intriguing to me. After meeting with them and discussing Abby further, I gained more insight into what they want for the role in the show. This made me even more excited to take on this kind of role.”

Navigating Controversy and Emotion

Dever faced significant controversy surrounding her casting, but she remained focused on the role and the story. “Of course, this was something I thought about when I signed on to The Last of Us,” she said. “It was also a topic of conversation when I was in my meeting with Craig and Neil. And in no way did it make me afraid or scared to take on the role.”

She admitted that the internet was a constant presence during the process. “I look at the internet and I saw things when it first came out. I’m human, so I can’t help but look at those things. But ultimately, if I’m thinking about Season 3, I have a sense of comfort knowing that I’m in really good hands.”

Dever also reflected on the emotional weight of the role, especially in the final moments of Season 2. “It’s interesting because I don’t know if I’ll ever know how to talk about that concisely,” she said. “I sometimes edit how much I say about my mom’s death because I don’t want to overwhelm the other person that I’m speaking to about it. But I feel we should talk about these things.”

She explained how she channeled her grief into her performance. “For that scene and every single episode that I was in, I channeled my own grief for everything. Grief is so front and center for this character as well. It’s a pretty interesting thing when life imitates art in that way.”

An Emmy-Nominated Performance

Dever’s portrayal of Abby has earned her an Emmy nomination, and she believes the audience is responding to the complexity of the character. “I think it would be what I responded to when I started really diving deeper into developing her character,” she said. “She’s just as broken as everybody else on this show.”

Dever emphasized that the show gives Abby more context than the game does. “In the game, she pops up out of nowhere, kills Joel, no one knows who she is, and you’re just immediately angry at this person. The show gives Abby that context beforehand and allows you to see that, ‘OK, she’s human and she’s broken, which is not all that different from any of the other characters within this story.’”

She also highlighted the emotional depth of the role. “There is a split second of this, and I don’t know if anyone caught it, but I think that there is something that I was playing with in the moment of that scene in Episode 2, right after [Joel’s death]. There’s a part of her that is expecting to feel differently, and she doesn’t. And I think that’s what’s so heartbreaking about that whole sequence.”

Dever’s journey through grief, controversy, and emotional depth has made her performance in The Last of Us unforgettable. Her dedication to the role, and to her mother, continues to inspire.