The Oscar-Winner Who Turned Down Joel In The Last Of Us Would Have Been More Game-Accurate
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
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Casting can be a tricky thing, not only because it’s tough to find the right actor to play each part, but because those actors might have scheduling conflicts or creative differences or the project might just not be for them. Somewhere out there in the multiverse, there’s a world where Matt Damon starred in Avatar, Nicolas Cage played Superman, and a Google search for “Will Smith Oscars” yields a Best Actor win for Django Unchained, not a photo of a slap heard around the world.
Before a casting director lands on the right person to play a certain character, they have to wade through all the wrong people. Before fate brings an actor like Robert Downey Jr. and a role like Tony Stark together, Tom Cruise is under consideration. Before Michael J. Fox can find a way to work around his Family Ties filming schedule, Back to the Future has to waste a few weeks trying to make it work with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly.
When HBO was casting its TV adaptation of The Last of Us, Pedro Pascal wasn’t the only star they considered to play grizzled smuggler Joel Miller. A few other names have been floated, like Mahershala Ali, and a different True Detective alum — Matthew McConaughey — recently confirmed in an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he turned down an offer to play Joel during the show’s early development.
Matthew McConaughey's Joel Probably Would've Been More Game-Accurate
If McConaughey had taken the role, it would’ve marked a reunion with HBO almost a decade after the first season of True Detective. McConaughey’s turn in True Detective was the height of the McConaissance, and he’s teased the possibility of reprising his role as Detective Rustin “Rust” Cohle in the future, so you’d think he’d jump at the chance to work on another HBO drama. But, as McConaughey explained to Horowitz, when the offer for The Last of Us came in, he was focusing more on other endeavors like writing, and didn’t want to commit to being a series lead (even a series lead who was famously doomed to die pretty early in season 2).
We ended up getting the perfect Joel in Pedro Pascal, but McConaughey’s would-be casting is an interesting what-if scenario. If McConaughey had taken the offer, The Last of Us would’ve been a very different show, with a very different Joel. Pascal’s Joel wears his heart on his sleeve — he’s much more sensitive and vulnerable and openly emotional than his video game counterpart — but McConaughey’s Joel probably would’ve been more like Mud or Rust Cohle, which would’ve been closer to game Joel: a stern, softly spoken, trauma-hardened badass.
The Last Of Us Found Its Perfect Joel With Pedro Pascal
Image via Max
While McConaughey might’ve been a more game-accurate Joel, Pascal ended up being the perfect Joel for this version of The Last of Us. Ultimately, the success of The Last of Us relies on the audience believing in the father-daughter bond between Joel and Ellie, and becoming endeared to them as they become endeared to each other. The TV show hasn’t gotten everything right — it mischaracterized the older Ellie, it cut out some key emotional story beats, and it’s done away with subtext entirely — but Pascal and Bella Ramsey absolutely nailed that central dynamic.
McConaughey would’ve undoubtedly made a great Joel, but there’s no accounting for whether he could capture that magic. The kind of on-screen chemistry that Pascal shares with Ramsey — and Troy Baker shared with Ashley Johnson in the games — is extremely rare. What are the chances that McConaughey would’ve had that same electric chemistry with Ramsey or whoever else would’ve been cast as Ellie in that version of The Last of Us?
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