The Last of Us Joel actor Troy Baker says he was "woefully unprepared" for the role: "It taught me how to stop trying to convince people that I could act"

The Last of Us star Troy Baker has opened up about his thought process approaching the daunting task of portraying protagonist Joel Miller across two games.

Baker is one of the most prolific video game actors of all time, portraying such iconic roles as Sam Drake from Uncharted, Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and most recently, Higgs Monaghan in Death Stranding 2.

However, from the outside looking in, I can absolutely see how his performance as Joel in The Last of Us would be particularly harrowing. It's an emotionally devastating series, and his character in particular deals with some incredibly heavy trauma, both mentally and physically (sorry).

"You ever show up to something and go, 'I am so woefully unprepared for this'?" Baker said during a panel at GalaxyCon New Orleans 2025 (queued up below). "And it's not imposter syndrome, it's a fact. You are not equipped to do the thing that you're about to do. You could be like, 'let's go bungie jumping!' and then you get on the platform and you go, 'I can't do this.'

"Like, my body physically will not allow me to do this. That was The Last of Us for me."

Troy Baker Q&A | GalaxyCon New Orleans 2025 - YouTube

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Baker then recounted the first time he and Ellie actor Ashley Johnson were told the story of The Last of Us at Sony Pictures Studios. According to Baker, the two actors took a break from the meeting, at which point Baker asked Johnson, "'Do you realize that if this thing sucks, it's our fault?' [laughs] Because we knew that what they were gonna make was gonna be good."

Of course, both Baker and Johnson would both go on to deliver career-defining, universally acclaimed performances that helped catapult The Last of Us to its status as one of the greatest narrative-driven video games ever. But at the time, Baker felt he still hadn't proven himself, despite his already built-up catalog of credits.

"It taught me how to be a better actor. It taught me how to stop trying to convince people that I could act and just realize that Joel has no idea that he's in a game," Baker said. "And he's just in a moment in his life."

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