The reason Matthew McConaughey didn’t play Joel in The Last of Us

craig mazinco-creator of the HBO and HBO Max series, revealed that they thought of Matthew McConaughey as joel in The Last of Us, rather Peter Pascal. in the podcast Happy Sad Confused of Josh Horowitzthe producer and screenwriter confirmed that he spoke with the Texan actor, although he also acknowledged that he did not negotiate to give him the leading role.

mazin indicated that, from the beginning, the protagonist of the hit series was one of the options that were handled for the role of Joel, but they thought that his schedule was too busy to accept the role. So he had to look for another candidate, so he looked for Matthew McConaughey to assess your possible interest.

“Actually, I never spoke to Mahershala. I did talk to Matthew. I wouldn’t say he was serious, but more like, ‘Hey, here’s something we can talk about,’” he explained. “Pedro was on our list from the beginning. They told us he wasn’t available, and then as we were stumbling around, I got a call from his (McConaughey’s) agent who said, ‘You know, he might actually be available,’” he added.

However, despite having already spoken with his agent, who did not confirm availability, mazin continue with Pascalwho was very excited about the series after reading the script for the first time.

The only thing that stopped the Chilean actor is that he was filming a movie in England at that time, so the uncertainty to know if it would be part of the project was at its highest level.

“I sent it [el guion] one Friday, and on Saturday morning, I received a call… He loved it, he wanted to do a Zoom. We did, and we had what I think is the most incredible meeting of my career. Just love at first sight. I’m sure in a different universe there is another actor. And he looks Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. I’m sure it would have been great, but it would have been different. And I like what we did, what can I say? I think it worked,” she commented.

Although we know that Peter Pascal he took the leading role, at the time rumors arose about other actors who were supposedly on the producers’ radar. As they mentioned, among the names that were on that list were Mahershala Ali, Hugh Jackman, Karl Urban, Josh Brolin and Troy Baker; the latter, who played Joel in the Naughty Dog games.

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