Star of Naughty Dog's Intergalactic says Neil Druckmann has been "bootcamp-ing" her after The Last of Us backlash: "I know Laura Bailey's experience"

News
By published

"We're going to make something that we're proud of"

Protagonist Jordan in a screenshot from the reveal trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
(Image credit: Naughty Dog)

Actor Tati Grabrielle has been connected with Naughty Dog for years now, thanks to her appearances in the 2022 Uncharted film and the ongoing The Last of Us season 2. Her starring role in the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophecy is her biggest collaboration with the studio yet, and she says she's been briefed by director Neil Druckmann on all the unfortunate baggage that can come from the worst parts of gaming fandom.

"Neil's been bootcamp-ing me," Gabrielle tells Entertainment Weekly. "I know Troy [Baker]'s experience, I know Ashley [Johnson]''s experience...I know Laura Bailey's experience." Bailey portrayed Abby in The Last of Us 2, and received a shocking - even by the standards of the gaming world - amount of harassment for the role.

"I got a lot of love," Gabrielle continues, "but there was a lot of hate over me being a woman, me being a woman of color, me having my head shaved, all these things that I didn't even actually initially see — I'm out of the social media zeitgeist for that reason — but once I did, Neil was like, 'Ignore it. No matter what, me and you, we're going to make something beautiful. We're going to make something that we're proud of.'"

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.