‘The Last of Us’ Star Young Mazino Breaks Down Jesse’s Shocking Death

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 2, Episode 7 of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on Max.

 After a decade of hustling for his big break in Hollywood, Young Mazino was ready to throw in the towel. He had already given the acting thing his best shot, quitting his finance job to pursue the craft at the worst possible time — three weeks before the pandemic began. 

“Everything went to pieces. I went on this existential journey. I left New York, I went to the desert, and I did a bunch of psychedelics to do some soul searching,” he tells Variety. “I decided to focus on other things.” 

But the universe had other plans. “Of course, when I’m finally at peace with that, I then get the opportunity of a lifetime and get dragged back into this whole mess,” Mazino says with a laugh.

That opportunity was, of course, “Beef,” the Netflix anthology series that saw Mazino square off with Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, and would earn him a supporting actor Emmy nod for his portrayal of aimless crypto bro Paul Cho.

Now, he stars in another acclaimed series, HBO’s “The Last of Us,” as a different kind of man. Jesse is the apocalypse’s equivalent to a Boy Scout, prioritizing his community’s safety at all costs.

In the Season 2 finale, after Jesse discovers that Dina (Isabela Merced) is pregnant with his child, he encourages Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to rendezvous with Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and abandon her quest for revenge against Joel’s killers.

When the duo hears that Tommy is up against WLF forces, Ellie declines to help, instead heading to the aquarium in pursuit of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Jesse and Tommy ultimately find Ellie after she’s killed Abby’s friends Mel (Ariela Barer) and Owen (Spencer Lord), bringing her back to the theater where Dina is recovering from an injury.

Just as the team prepares to return to Jackson, Abby finds them, unceremoniously shooting Jesse in the head.

Speaking to Variety from the roof of his Maryland home, Mazino unpacks his take on the beloved game character and his own whirlwind descent into Hollywood.

What was your familiarity with the game before signing on?

I watched the first game’s cutscenes in a compilation I found on YouTube a long time ago, and then when the meeting with Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann happened, I quickly bought a used PS4, and I played through the game up until the point where my character dies, And then I figured I was ready for the meeting. And I watched the first season, too.

Did you go back and finish the game after Jesse’s death?

No. I’m dead!

I imagine that after “Beef,” you had a lot of offers coming your way. Why was “The Last of Us” the right fit?

I didn’t have to audition for this, which is a rare thing. Gabriel Luna, my castmate, shared in an interview that [co-creator Craig Mazin] has said that he casts by the soul. He cast souls, not people, which is why we may not necessarily look like our characters. But you can inhabit the essence of it. If it wasn’t for “Beef,” if it wasn’t for the brilliant Lee Sung Jin and Jake Schreier and everyone there, I don’t think I would have had the exposure that would have allowed Craig Mazin to even know that I existed.

What were the qualities you saw in Jesse that made him a character you wanted to play?

I love that he’s a reliable, steadfast, stalwart dude. Kind of reminds me of my dad. Personally, I’ve been very selfish with my ambitions, and impulsive, and I’ve kind of been a loner my whole life. To find someone who was so gung-ho about community, and who cares so much about his friends, in some ways, I feel like that’s the that’s the son my dad would have wanted. Someone who’s dependable and reliable – which I am! But I have been selfish with my desires to be an artist and do my own thing. I’ve always been more fixated on freedom. I feel like Jesse represents the other side of that, which is to voluntarily want to have these burdens of love and burdens of responsibility.

I was glad to see one of the most telling cutscenes from the game included here, when Ellie chooses to go after Abby at the aquarium instead of helping Jesse find Tommy. At the end, Jesse says, “I really hope you make it.” Was that line sincere or sarcastic?

The note that I was given was that Jesse’s incredulous. We’re so close to making it out of Seattle in one piece, all together. This is the happy ending! We go and get Tommy, and we go home. In my mind, I’m like, “At least by now, you know, Ellie, that that’s the plan. Because you know that Dina is pregnant, you know that we are in a horrible situation.” I have been vulnerable with her in the bookstore, telling her something that’s so personal, and trying to use that as a point to be like, “You have to be there for each other. That’s the only way we get out of this.”

In that moment, for Ellie to suddenly go off the rails again, and want to go towards revenge, I think it’s exasperation. It’s mix of feelings, but it’s not good. Ellie lays in on Jesse, and it’s like, “Fuck the community! You let a kid die today!” It’s not like Jesse had no problem with that. In that scene, my action was to look down. Because I think if I were to watch that happen, I would have gone and attacked them. So when she uses that to dig at Jesse, she’s digging deep. She’s going for the jugular. He realizes she’s past that point. She’s just lost in the red.

That last line, I wanted to be mixture of sadness that she’s lost. She’s probably gonna die out there. But I have priorities. I still have to get Dina back home safe. So I genuinely meant it – I hope you survive. I’m pissed off. I’m annoyed. Maybe I want to knock her out and drag her with me to get to Tommy. But I also understand that she does have a point. Her community was beaten to death in front of her. So who am I to prevent her from chasing after that revenge?

Jesse also reveals that he didn’t vote for Ellie’s plan to send a team to Seattle and find Joel’s killers.

He wanted to make a distinction there and separate himself from her, because she needs to know. He is “Captain Wyoming” to a fault, and he believes in the community and wants to go and follow those rules. He’s already out here, breaking his own rule and going against the literal vote that he was against. Despite all that, Ellie’s still wanting to go and continue the suicide mission. He says it with some relish and some satisfaction.

You call it a suicide mission, but Jesse’s ultimately the one that pays the price for Ellie’s recklessness.

Exactly. Ellie has literally taken the future of Jesse. He could have been a father. Community is so valuable to him, imagine having his own family. That would be everything to him. He truly finds his purpose, and for him to just get blasted away because of this necessity for revenge over someone that’s already gone, I think that plays into the psyche and the trauma that Ellie goes through.

That scene when Jesse lets the WLF capture the Scar seems to really represent how his priorities shift after learning he’s going to become a father. How did that revelation inform the way you took Jesse through the rest of this episode?

Jesse does a whole lot of compartmentalization in those moments. Once he confirms that that he’s going to be a dad and that Dina is pregnant, he goes into just mission mode: Take all the emotion out of it. Focus on the objectives. Get home safe no matter what.

We need to unpack his speech in the bookstore, when he reveals his past love to Ellie, and the decision he made to stay in Jackson. It’s helpful context about Jesse’s character that we don’t get in the game. How did you approach that?

I think if I was Jesse, I would probably gone with her to Mexico. That was very revealing to a lot of things about Jesse. When Dina mentions, “Does he ever just see him seem kind of sad to you?” I think that’s a very interesting point, because I understand what that feeling is like, to have really deep-seated melancholy that you never really show. It never really comes out, and you can laugh and joke and be jovial for the most part.

But I think on Jesse’s solo patrols, when he’s by himself, when he leaves the party and he’s in the woods smoking a joint, I think his mind goes to these things. When I read that, I was like, “OK, Jesse, I get you.” You’re not just a super-soldier bionic person without attachments. He knows the things that really, truly matter, and what he’s given up to protect the things that do matter. I think that’s what gives him that chill confidence, which is knowing that he’s already walked away from the love of his life in order to protect the people that that raised him. That’s a very Zen thing to do. I don’t think I’d be capable of doing such a thing.

It feels like Jesse is a little jealous of the way Ellie gets to move through the world so impulsively, while he’s always had to be this Boy Scout.

Yeah! There’s that element where he admires Ellie’s precocious nature and the fire. In some ways, she’s free. I think that Jesse recognizes that they are cut from a similar cloth, they just got dealt different cards. Jesse doesn’t know that Ellie is immune to infection, so he notices that there’s some strange veil of armor that lets Ellie be a bit more casual about these things. Jesse has the responsibility of being the future leader of Jackson, and he’s not immune to being infected. Death is right around the corner. And they’re going after the same bright light that is Dina.

There’s a cool scene where Tommy and Jesse catch up to Ellie after she’s killed Owen and Mel. Jesse sees the lengths at which Ellie is going to for revenge. In those moments, he’s like, “You would set the world on fire.” And she literally has. She has been murdering people on her own with Dina. She just merked a man and a pregnant woman! Even though it’s devastating to Ellie, he’s like, “Damn.” In some ways, that’s the person you would want in your corner if shit hits the fan.

Well, shit does hit the fan. Just like in the game, Jesse’s gone in the blink of an eye. Was there ever a world where his death was more drawn out?

No. I think that was a perfect way for that to happen. I think that just shows the nature and brutality of this world. One slip up, and you’re gone. And I think that’s so indicative of what this show is trying to tell us. There are other deaths. You have Joel’s horrific, slow death. But I think this hits different. It hits hard. Ellie is trying to process what just happened while Tommy’s about to die next.

Jesse couldn’t be any more different than your “Beef” character, Paul. You’ve already gotten to show so much range – what kind of roles do you hope to pursue in the future?

I’m really looking for something I can consume myself with. I think that comes through a role that has to do with a particular trade or craft or occupation. If I had to play a taxi driver and I was required to just do nothing but drive a taxi around for six months, or if I had to learn how to become a blacksmith, or if I had to go to boot camp for six months for a role, that’s something I really want to experience. I locked in my next project, which is going to be a really cool indie film. I loved playing Paul, I loved playing Jesse, and I think for me, it’s just about leveling up and continuing to work with phenomenal people.

I’m also continuing to develop and learn and take notes from my own performances. I want to get to a point where it my acting is that perfect balance between refined choices and yet free to just flow within the environment. When I decide to fully write and direct, I’ll be able to make some bangers.

Your star rose very quickly after your breakout role in “Beef.” How did you adjust to that?

I love art, but I’m still trying to take the rest in stride, which is the publicity of it all, the loss of my privacy and anonymity and dealing with whatever the hell Hollywood is. Sometimes it feels so fucked up for me personally, because I’m doing these lavish, luxurious things. Going to nice hotels in Paris and London to promote this wonderful show, meanwhile, people are getting bombed in their homes and there are active wars and occupations and massacres and genocides happening all over the world. I’m really feeling strange these days because I’m like, “What am I doing here?” It’s hard for me to continue my dream that I once had walked away from, and now it’s coming back, yet, I know as the wise Jaden Smith put it, “the economic and political state of the world.”

In that sense, the post apocalyptic “The Last of Us” world seems, in some ways, very idyllic. In this community, it’s very binary: Outside, monsters. Inside, good. I’ll take clickers, bloaters and stalkers over oligarchs and politicians and capitalism.

There’s a lot of conversation online highlighting that, as an Asian man, you’ve played characters who eschew stereotypes and are seen as attractive. Do you feel pressure around embodying that kind of representation?

I’m very aware of all the characterization and stereotypes that Hollywood and the West have. I’ve grown up around that. When I was really young, I was under the impression that, “Oh, am I just naturally unattractive on account of my ethnicity?” I was mystified by that. And then at a certain point I got when I got older, I just couldn’t give a shit, The world is so much bigger, and it really is just ignorance.

I don’t really feel pressure. I don’t find myself to be a representative or the ambassador of Asian men. I think everybody has to reach into their own well and figure out what it is for them to be a human. My personal life is very different from what people perceive me as. I’m working on an anime series with my buddies. We play “Sea of Thieves!” I don’t need the world to love me. I just need one beautiful, lovely woman to love me. Just one is good.

This interview has been edited and condensed.