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The Last of Us hired Kaitlyn Dever extra security over hatred of her character Abby & we're SHOOK
Dever's co-star, Isabela Merced, spilled all the tea and we are gagged.
Fandoms are a blessing and a curse when it comes to fictional stories. Writers, producers, actors, and anyone involved in any creative project needs their love and support, but sometimes fans walk a thin line between love and hate.
Kaitlyn Dever, who’s slated to take on the role of Abby in the upcoming season of The Last of Us, is learning all about what it’s like to be on the receiving end of some fandom hate, and she hasn’t even appeared on screen yet.
For those unfamiliar with the storyline, spoilers aside, Abby’s character’s going to put us through some… emotional BDSM, to say the least, in the upcoming season
To Dever’s credit, people aren’t mad at her, per se. There was a long wait to see who would take on the iconic and controversial role. Fan theories ran abound, and the announcement for Dever was welcome, if a little surprising.
The problem, according to co-star Isabela Merced, who plays Dina, is that people forget Abby isn’t real.
Merced, whose character goes through a long-anticipated romance with the show’s main character, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), recently appeared on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz and discussed the issue.
“I’m worried about your buddy, Kaitlyn Dever, one of the great actors of our time,” said Horowitz when he shifted to the topic to the backlash. “Abby, no spoilers, does some things that people don’t necessarily approve of. Kaitlyn’s going to get some hate through proxy of just being Abby.”
Merced said there were such “strange people” who “actually genuinely hate Abby,” with a reminder that Abby is “not a real person.”
She also said that poor Dever actually had to have special protection placed on her because of people’s inability to separate fact from fiction, saying Dever “had to be extra secured, like, by security when it came to filming.”
Still, Dever doesn’t seem phased by it yet, with Merced saying her “head is in the right place,” despite some personal problems she’s dealing with outside of the public eye.
Although Merced admitted it’s all “devastating to see,” she said Dever deserves an Emmy for her performance, and that she’s “so excited for people to see how incredibly well Bella and Kaitlyn did on this.”
We’re still eagerly awaiting a release date for when we’ll be able to watch it all go down, but we’ll scream the news from the mountaintops as soon as we find out.
In the meantime, watch Merced’s interview below.
Andrew J. Stillman is a freelance writer and yoga instructor exploring the world. Check him out at andrewjstillman.com or follow him @andrewjstillman on all the things.
Andrew J. Stillman is a freelance writer and yoga instructor exploring the world. Check him out at andrewjstillman.com or follow him @andrewjstillman on all the things.
