“[She] Wasn’t In The F-cking Game”: Last Of Us Star Bluntly Reflects On Character Backlash

The Last of Us star Melanie Lynskey bluntly reflects on the backlash to her divisive non-game character, the Kansas City rebel leader Kathleen. Based on the acclaimed PlayStation video games, HBO’s The Last of Us is created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, following Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie as they make their way across a post-apocalyptic America. The show was a hit with audiences and critics alike, but Lynskey’s Kathleen proved to be a somewhat controversial inclusion for some.

As the wait for The Last of Us season 2 continues, Lynskey reflects on the response to her character in a recent interview with TheWrap. Her character, who wasn’t actually in the video games, was divisive in part due to her physical appearance, with certain vocal viewers body-shaming her and expressing that she didn’t resemble a post-apocalyptic rebel leader. Check out Lynskey’s response below:

“Some dude wrote me a message and he was like, ‘Sorry, but getting the facts right is important and you just don’t look anything like the character in the game.’ I wanted to be like, ‘Sorry, getting the facts right is important? That character wasn’t in the f–king game.’

“I just try to have compassion. Sometimes I go to their pages and I look at them and I’m like, ‘You know what? This person is struggling. Life is really hard. Here he is with his kids. OK, this is humanizing this person who feels the need to tell me every day that he doesn’t like me.’”

Kathleen Was A Great The Last Of Us Addition

While using their source material as a guide, the creators of The Last of Us thankfully didn’t confine themselves only to what happens in the game, embracing departures where necessary. Kathleen is one of these departures, with the story taking Joel and Ellie to Kansas City instead of Pittsburg where they eventually encounter the hunters.

Related: Kathleen’s Story Proves Why Adapting The Last Of Us 2 Will Work

While the hunters do exist in the game, their leader is not explored. Lynskey’s Kathleen fits with one of the core themes of the show, namely that the environment has transformed seemingly ordinary people into monsters. The characters of Henry and Sam are present in The Last of Us game and in the show, but Kathleen’s presence helps to make the duo’s story even more compelling, more tragic, and more intense.

Kathleen and Perry (Jeffrey Pierce) are the faces of the hunters, turning the group from a somewhat amorphous antagonistic group and reframing the Kansas City portion of the story as a revenge mission. Kathleen’s desire to get back at Henry for the death of her brother is all-consuming, but it’s also understandable. While Lynskey’s character in The Last of Us is truly ruthless and violent, her motivations make her empathetic, a quality that Mazin and Druckmann expertly apply to almost every character in the show to great effect.