Yahoo News Jeffrey Pierce, Melanie Lynskey's right-hand man in The Last of Us , supports costar against critics
Jeffrey Pierce, the actor who voiced Tommy in The Last of Us video games and plays Perry on the HBO series adaptation, is speaking out in defense of his costar Melanie Lynskey. Lynskey has faced negative remarks about her body from naysayers saying she didn't look the part of a warlord in this post-apocalyptic genre show.
"I think it just shows an embarrassing lack of understanding of the world," Pierce says of the internet harpies in an interview with EW. "Look, I would say that Hollywood has done a terrible job of creating the mythology of, what is a man? What is a woman? What are these aesthetics that we hold up as power? And so I think that, in this particular story, because of who [showrunners] Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are, we get to turn those narratives on their head."
Pierce's Perry in The Last of Us show is the right-hand man of Lynskey's Kathleen, who led a revolutionary movement in Kansas City to overthrow the oppressive military regime in the metropolis. Though, she ended up exacting a similar form of tyranny once in the seat of power.
Liane Hentscher/HBO Jeffrey Pierce as Perry and Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen in 'The Last of Us'
America's Next Top Model cycle 1 winner Adrianne Curry, who has since deleted her Twitter account, remarked on the social media platform that Lynskey's "body says life of luxury...not post apocalyptic warlord." Lynskey took the opportunity to address Curry, as well as others who have made negative remarks about her body and bemoaned her casting in The Last of Us.
"Women, and especially women in leadership positions, are scrutinized incessantly," Lynskey wrote, in part, during a lengthy Twitter thread. "'Her voice is too shrill.' 'Her voice is too quiet.' 'She pays too much attention to how she looks.' 'She doesn't pay enough attention to how she looks.' 'She's too angry.' 'She's not angry enough.' I was excited at the idea of playing a woman who had, in a desperate and tragic time, jumped into a role she had never planned on having and nobody else had planned on her having, and then she actually got shit done."
Pierce and Lynskey spend the majority of their time on The Last of Us together. Their characters don't even meet up with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) until the final moments of the fifth episode.
Pierce commends Lynskey for how she's handled the audience feedback, and is thrilled to be part of a show that challenges peoples' perceptions.
Liane Hentscher/HBO Jeffrey Pierce plays Perry in HBO's 'The Last of Us'
"The homophobes who got freaked out about episode 3. Good!" he says. "Because the only way they're ever gonna get past that is to have that notion in them triggered until they ask the questions that go far enough for them to say, 'Oh shit, they're just people like I am. They're just people who want to be loved, who want to have life experiences.'"
"That this casting [of Lynskey] can trigger people's stupid response to body image somehow having a bearing on who that person is at their core, yeah, it's important that triggers," the actor continues. "Be trigged! And then be faced with it with the grace and the courage and the calm that Melanie has faced in this moment. More people are gonna learn from that lesson, from her handling it the way she did, than if the ugliness had never reared its head."
More broadly, Pierce believes it is "the responsibility of art to trigger us and to force us to confront the ugliness inside of ourselves."
"Then we can choose to change or not. That's when it becomes a choice," he adds. "So, yeah, I'm really pleased that something coming from Hollywood is bringing these things to the forefront because it exists. Racism exists and misogyny exists, and until we confront these things head on, we're f---ing doomed. I think that it's timely, it's fine because you gotta get that poison to the surface if you're gonna deal with it."
Check back for EW's full conversation with Pierce about his role in The Last of Us.
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