Among the drama directors vying for an Emmy this January is Peter Hoar, the helmer behind the memorable episode from The Last of Us that starred Murray Bartlett (Frank) and Nick Offerman (Bill) as two men who fall in love far from the horrors of the QZ zone. Here, the director known for his work on The Umbrella Academy, It’s a Sin and The Last Kingdom looks back at his work on “Long, Long Time” and how he didn’t set out to make the world cry “uncontrollably.”
“But I did,” he added simply.
DEADLINE: You have directed genre dramas before. When you were hired for The Last of Us, were you told right away that that your episode wouldn’t involve any actual sci-fi/high-concept stuff?
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PETER HOAR When I first said yes to the show, I didn’t know what I was going to get. And I did think to myself, as a gaming fan, ‘oh, I hope I can get to do one of the big set pieces and big explosions and swarming of the infected and whatever.’ But honestly, I would not change anything for the world. This was the best outcome. What I love about genre is the subtle genre types, as well. This is sci-fi, but that’s not how it feels. That’s not how it comes across. There are many parts of this that you don’t realize are sci-fi, and I think that’s sci-fi at its best.
DEADLINE Were you familiar with the game The Last of Us? Had you ever played before?
HOAR Yes, I was very familiar with the game. I had played the first game, but not the second. I then had the second game spoiled for me deliberately because I made it happen. I told my DP Eben Bolter to tell me all about the game before I played it, which is stupid because I know what happens now. But I am a huge fan of the game. It was difficult and quite tough, as well. Even on an easy setting, there are quite a lot of times where you get killed. But this was such a well-designed, well-written game that we all knew that it would become a series or a movie at some point. So I was thrilled to be able to be a part of it. And as I say, at one point, I would’ve done anything. But I’m glad I got my episode.
DEADLINE What was the mood you were going for with episode 3? More importantly, how did EP Craig Mazin want this episode to look different?
HOAR Did Craig want it to look different? No, not really. He didn’t ever give us a direction like that. He didn’t say, ‘you have a different episode, go make it look different.’ In fact, if anything, he would’ve probably said, ‘go and look at what we’ve done and that’s the show.’ The only thing he was really keen on was the way the camera was used. It was fundamentally a handheld camera show, which was something that I think he was really into for his previous show, Chernobyl. I think it’s something that Craig responded to in its realness, its vérité. But that was really the only thing he asked us to do. The mood we were going for … well, I dunno if it was a mood necessarily, but there was a freshness to our episode because both Joel [Pedro Pascal] and Ellie [Bella Ramsey] were free from the destruction and the horrors of the quarantine zone and of Boston. Ellie had never seen this world. It was green and the water was clear and the air was clear. We just wanted it to freshen up a bit and make it look more colorful.
DEADLINE Where was that town you shot in?
HOAR Calgary. There was an old cul-de-sac of roads, but unfortunately it was on a flood plain, so the original houses had all been washed away. So we used that road and built our own houses on it. We built shells, obviously, except for Bill’s house. We built everything else from scratch except the roofs, and that was partly down to time. The VFX departments stepped up and put all the roofs on in post, and hopefully you can’t tell.
DEADLINE How much did you feel like you had to direct Nick and Murray?
HOAR A lot of people say to me, ‘how do you direct actors?’ You certainly you don’t tell people how to act. I think that’s a mistake. You encourage and you enable, and make sure that there is a full understanding of why they’re there, what it means and how it should feel. Obviously Craig is there with me, and we do this together. But we just let them go and do it. I’m a director, yes, but there are other departments that impact this one moment. And one of those, of course, is casting. You don’t just sort of pick a name out of a hat and go ‘yeah this should work.’ Those two men were just divine and full of love and understanding and had a clear passion for this script and the story. Lots of people have said it’s a great middle-aged love story, as well as it was a male love story.
DEADLINE Can an episode become a little too tear-jerky? Did you ever feel like you should hold something back?
HOAR I didn’t certainly set out to tell a story that would make the world cry uncontrollably, but I did. There was one note that I gave Murray. I said, maybe this is the scene where we don’t cry. It was impossible because Bill was so passionate and in the moment saying to his love Frank, that he was his purpose. And Murray was like, ‘I can’t do it. Look at him, I can’t do it. He’s just so beautiful and human. I just can’t hold it in.’ So, that note was redundant! I’m there to make people feel something. And I know that there were times we made choices, like one piece of music in particular, which I know makes me feel things every time — Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight. That’s in a montage toward the end. But yeah, the simple answer is it can become too tear-jerky. There’s a straightness to this gay love story. It’s not flamboyant. It’s genuine and it’s authentic. We all talk about Nick and Murray, but there are some great performances from Pedro and Bella, particularly the scene where Ellie reads a letter from Bill. That’s just a beautiful scene. The way she reads that letter is hilarious, but yet heartbreaking. And the way that Pedro reacts is just beautiful.
DEADLINE Talk about your decision to not show the dead bodies of Frank and Bill at the end of the episode.
HOAR Well, that was always on the page, never to show the dead bodies. It’s also something we discussed as a group at the very beginning. It’s not gratuitous. I think what EP Neil Druckmann would’ve would probably say is that the world of The Last of Us is a very brutal one. And in brutal world, people are gonna get hurt and people are gonna experience horrendous trauma to their bodies and their minds. I think Craig thought we just didn’t need it. It wasn’t necessary.
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