Peter Hoar (‘The Last of Us’ director) on aligning ‘with a story that really talks to you and speaks from the heart’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

“It means a huge amount to me personally,” reveals director Peter Hoar about what his work on the third episode of “The Last of Us” means to him. For our recent webchat he adds, “I have been doing this for a number of years, but I recently started to find a groove and I think that’s kind of what you hope you will do as a storyteller. You hope that you can align yourself with a story that really talks to you and speaks from the heart.” Hoar joined our recent Meet the Experts panel with showrunners and directors. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

SEEBella Ramsey interview: ‘The Last of Us’

Hoar directed “Long, Long Time,” the acclaimed third episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us,” for which he received his first Emmy nomination this year. The post-apocalyptic blockbuster thriller is based on the video game franchise of the same name, created and written by Emmy winner Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann. It stars Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”) and Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) as Joel and Ellie, who embark on a perilous trek across a plague-devastated America against a tide of deadly fungus-infected zombies. In the landmark episode, the duo travel to Massachusetts to locate mysterious survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman). In flashbacks to over 20 years earlier, Bill survives the onslaught of the deadly plague and meets his partner Frank (Murray Bartlett). What follows is a touching and timeless queer love story that became universally praised as a benchmark for television storytelling.

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“It was just a gift, honestly, it was just the most amazing thing,” Hoar says about the experience of bringing this story to life. “I said yes to doing the show based on the title, ‘The Last of Us,’ because I’m a big gamer as well,” he recalls. “I said, yes, I’ll do it. Tell me when I start and then they sent the script and then I read this most stunning piece of writing from Craig Mazin and I just went, ‘I can’t believe they want me to do this!'”

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