Where Do You Know That Nurse From?

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from Episode 9 of The Last of Us.The appropriately devastating conclusion to The Last of Us opened with the harrowing story of Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) birth followed immediately by the tragic death of her mother Anna (Ashley Johnson). In a lovely bit of meta, Johnson originally voiced the role of Ellie in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II video games, but she wasn’t the first game actor to make the leap from PlayStation to HBO. Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann incorporated Jeffrey Pierce, the original Tommy, as Kathleen’s (Melanie Lynskey) right-hand man Perry. Troy Baker, the original Joel, played James in Episode 8. Merle Dandridge even reprised her role as Marlene in full. And, delightfully enough, Johnson wasn’t the series’ final cameo: that honor belongs to actress Laura Bailey, whose appearance in Episode 9 was far sneakier than Johnson’s cold open.

Bailey is an enormously crucial figure in The Last of Us games’ lexicon, having provided both the voice and motion capture for Abby Anderson in The Last of Us Part II. In a true blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, Bailey plays one of the two nurses assisting the surgeon who intends to operate on Ellie and manufacture a potential cure for the cordyceps virus. Joel murders the doctor but spares the unarmed, terrified nurses.

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Laura Bailey’s History as a Voice Actor

Bailey has been a prolific member of the voice-acting community since 1999 when she made her anime debut as Kid Trunks in Dragon Ball Z. Since then, her list of credits runs a mile long: for anime specifically, she voiced the English dub of Tohru Honda in both the original and rebooted Fruits Basket, Lust in both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist, and Soul Eater’s Maka Albarn. She also cut her teeth guest starring in almost every popular anime known to mankind (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Club Geass…you get the idea). In Western animation, Bailey lent her skills to Black Widow and Gamora for Marvel’s Avengers Assemble.

Simultaneously, Bailey starred in countless games such as BloodRayne, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Street Fighter, Batman: The Telltale Series, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and two games in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise as mercenary Nadine Ross. Bailey’s also been one of the core cast members on the Dungeons & Dragons web series Critical Role since its debut in 2015. She’s portrayed three characters across Critical Role’s eight years and voices her first creation, Vex’ahalia Vessar, in Prime Video’s animated adaptation The Legend of Vox Machina.

Bailey’s Role in ‘The Last of Us Part II’ Was a Literal Game Changer

In 2020, Bailey portrayed Abby in The Last of Us Part II. Abby serves as the game’s co-lead and primary antagonist, or co-protagonist — depending on your point of view. She’s a character on a quest for vengeance whose violent actions are a direct result of events depicted in Episode 9, “Look for the Light.” Without venturing too deeply into spoiler territory, this colossal role was celebrated by the fanbase while also attracting contentious responses, some as inexcusably vile as death threats.

Regardless of a player’s ultimate opinion of Abby as a character and her execution within the larger Part II narrative, Bailey’s performance was potently nuanced and formidable to behold. Abby carries half of Part II’s narrative weight, which is enough of a legacy to inherit on its own without the compounding factor of her initial actions. Following Part II’s debut, Bailey won the BAFTA Games Award for Best Performer in a Leading Role and Best Performance at The Game Awards (the former is an award her Critical Role and Part II co-star Ashley Johnson took home twice for The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind; it’s a small world!).

Fascinatingly enough, Druckmann had no interest in casting Bailey at first “because she’s in everything.” However, Bailey’s audition emphasized Abby’s underlying vulnerability; other actresses focused on the character’s anger. “She played it smaller,” Druckmann shared in an interview with Rooster Teeth’s Kinda Funny Gamescast. “You can tell it’s someone trying to act big, and [Abby’s] not.” After Bailey’s audition tape convinced the unyielding Druckmann she was the only possibility for Abby, Druckmann jokingly cursed about the turn of events with his pre-production team. In a similarly amusing fashion, Ashley Johnson has exclaimed “Laura f*cking Bailey” in admiration of her co-star’s brilliance during several Critical Role episodes. The absolutely un-ironic power of Ms. Bailey’s talents, everyone!

So How Did Bailey Join ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 9?

Mazin and Druckmann revealed during this Sunday’s episode of The Last of Us companion podcast that Bailey was a last-minute addition to the operating room scene. The only characters left to cast were the two nurses wearing surgical masks; Bailey said, “that’s even better!” and flew to Calgary to join the shoot. In a cyclical irony of ironies, Bailey had voiced one of those same nurses in the game’s original scene and a news reporter in Part I. The actress’s role is minimal within HBO’s finale, but her inclusion is still a delightful Easter egg for fans and further proves Mazin and Druckmann’s commitment to the source material. They didn’t need to invite any original actors into this new family yet didn’t hesitate to extend offers anyway. Pierce, Baker, Dandridge, Johnson, and Bailey all delivered remarkable performances on their own merits.

And if anyone needs a good giggle: in the same podcast, Druckmann shared that Bailey took a picture on-set with the actor who played the surgeon “dead on the floor in a puddle of blood. She’s standing over him, smiling, giving a peace sign.” Anyone who knows Abby’s origins will get a darkly wry chuckle out of that one.

There’s practically no doubt Abby’s character will appear in The Last of Us Season 2 and experience the same trauma, introspection, and growth that The Last of Us Part II depicted. Now all that remains is to wait until HBO announces who will step into Bailey’s shoes as Abby’s live-action incarnation. Until then, fans can replay Part II, applaud Bailey’s inclusion in Episode 9, and snicker over the mental image of the actress flashing a peace sign over a fake corpse.

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