Players of the video game series were teed up for the twist coming in The Last of Us Season 2. But for Abby actress Kaitlyn Dever, the experience ended up hitting a bit too close to home. That’s because she lost her mother mere weeks before shooting the sequence in which her character also was dealing with the death of a parent. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Speaking to EW, Dever was upfront about the process of shooting this anticipated and controversial scene with Joel actor Pedro Pascal for The Last of Us Season 2. “To be as honest as possible, I will just say that my days leading up to this scene were horrible.” Dever’s mother died from breast cancer roughly 14 years after first being diagnosed. The actress shared an Instagram post in February 2024 to remember her mom.

“I lost my mom two or three weeks before I actually shot this scene [on The Last of Us], and my mom’s funeral was three days before I did my first day,” Dever told EW. “So I was sort of in a fog. I was in a daze.”

Showrunner and writer Craig Mazin was impressed with the way Dever handled filming The Last of Us Season 2. Mazin added that giving Dever “all the time you need” was important as well. “While I care extraordinarily about the show, it’s a TV show,” Mazin said. “I’m not going to disrupt someone’s grieving process for their own parent, especially [with] a show that’s partly about the grieving process.”

Pascal and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann have previously opened up about Season 2’s shocking death. There apparently were some theories the twist might not happen until the already confirmed Season 3, but Mazin didn’t want to torment viewers who knew what was coming.

For more, check out GameSpot’s The Last of Us Season 2 review.