While HBO’s The Last of Us might have spent most of its time reinforcing the fact that in any given apocalypse, human beings are the worst of all monsters — the show’s clickers were also downright terrifying too. Prepare yourself for the horrifying flashbacks that will come with this video of performers recording the vocalisations that characterise these zombie-like monsters.
The best job in the world.#TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/cJ15qVHnv2
— The Last of Us News (@TheLastofUsNews) March 15, 2023
Recording clicker ADR may indeed be “the best job in the world,” the chance to use one’s talents in vocal gymnastics to freak out the millions of viewers who tuned into The Last of Us on a weekly basis, not to mention the people who’ve played the video game. Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) had to deal with a lot on their adventures, but few of their adversaries telegraphed their arrival on the scene with such effectively spine-tingling ease.
A few weeks back, Polygon had an interview with clicker actor Molly Lee — who worked on both the video game and the HBO series, and helped create the original sound for the creepy characters. “One of the things they said to me early on was to imagine I was in a backpack on my own body. You can see what’s going on, but you can’t control it. Your own hands are tearing into the people you love. What does that sound like to you?,” Lee explained. “That’s where we started. You answer that question … you imagine the pain and the anguish. It started with weeping and screaming, and trying to stop my own hands from doing something that they’re not supposed to be doing, and also something that’s breaking my own heart … [The clickers] don’t have a voice … their voice box has been beaten, it’s been infected. We want to stay away from anything that sounds too human, but remembering they were human once. We don’t want to remove humanity completely.”
The Last of Us season one is now streaming on HBO Max.
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