After appearing in everything from Fallout to Final Fantasy, Naughty Dog nearly didn't cast Abby's actor in The Last of Us 2 until it noticed her audition had one thing no one else's did
You hated Abby at the start of The Last of Us 2, and if you didn't love her by the end, you at least understood her, but Laura Bailey almost didn't get cast in the iconic role which won her several awards.
Neil Druckmann and Cory Barlog, creative directors of Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio respectively, discussed Bailey's casting during the D.I.C.E. Summit on Wednesday. Originally reported by PC Gamer, Bailey almost didn't get the role because Druckmann and his colleagues at Naughty Dog were worried that "she's in everything." It's a funny thing to say considering Troy Baker who plays Joel was also in a lot of games before he was cast in the role.
Bailey has played an impressive number of characters – seriously, look her up on Wikipedia or IMDb. Her first video game role was protagonist Rayne, in the BloodRayne series. She's also been in World of Warcraft, voiced Chun Li in Street Fighter games, appeared in Nier, Final Fantasy, Fallout, and even other Naughty Dog projects, controversially playing Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4 and The Lost Legacy.
Despite being "sure it was going to be a different actor," Druckmann says he then studied the audition videos "frame-by-frame" to find the perfect Abby. Apparently, Bailey showed a "vulnerability" that none of the others auditioning to play her brought to the role, and that's how he knew she was the right fit. It was the right call, as Bailey won both a Game Award and BAFTA for her performance as Abby.
Abby is being played by Kaitlyn Dever in season 2 of HBO's live-action The Last of Us series. Some, like me, are sad that they're not casting a super jacked woman like Katy M. O'Brian, who played a bodybuilder in Love Lies Bleeding. The creators have said there's "not as much violent action" in the show as there is in the game, but Abby's physicality is a big part of her character, and it'll be sad to miss an opportunity to give an underrepresented type of woman a chance to shine on screen. We'll just have to look forward
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