‘The Last of Us’: Josh Peck on His FEDRA Soldier Monologue & Working Opposite Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 4.]

The Last of Us made way for a major character introduction as viewers met WLF leader Isaac Dixon (Jeffrey Wright), but things kicked off with a bang in a 2018 flashback amid his defection from FEDRA in Seattle, which included a cameo from Josh Peck. Yes, you read that right.

The actor who stepped into the boots of a FEDRA soldier was traveling in a van alongside Sergeant Dixon and others through the ravaged streets of Seattle in Episode 4’s opening scene. All the while, Peck’s soldier delivered a dark monologue about his treatment of the citizens whom he referred to as “voters.”

When asked by a young recruit, Burton (played by The Gilded Age‘s Ben Ahlers), what that term meant, it was Isaac who chimed in to note that the nickname was born out of the reality that citizens no longer had the power to vote, leaving them powerless. The joking tone conveyed in Peck’s monologue suddenly shifted at that point as he became apologetic over his flippant approach to the subject.

Suddenly, everything was halted as a bus blocked the path of their vehicle, and crowds of suspected WLF members surrounded them. Isaac exited the van with Burton in tow, as the others sat behind. When Isaac connected with Hanrahan (Alanna Ubach) and confirmed identities, he turned around to throw a grenade into the back of the FEDRA van and locked the door as he doomed his former colleagues, including Peck.

Below, Peck opens up about his cameo, taking on The Last of Us and Oppenheimer post-Nickelodeon, and more.

How did this cameo come about? Were you a fan of the game or show before you landed the role?

Josh Peck: No. I knew how big it was and how loved and well done it was, but it wasn’t until I got the audition that I watched the first episode, because I wanted to make sure I was matching the tone and to see the world in which it takes place that I fell in love with it. I binged the entire show in one sitting. And so when the audition came, it was really good writing and a monologue, which you don’t usually get as an actor. Most of the time, if it’s some procedural, you’ve got lines like, “Oh, they found her down by the quarry,” whereas this was really something to take a bite out of and make choices and dig in. So I was excited, and good writing makes it easy because you understand the entry points, it humanizes it. So there are a lot of ways in which I could draw from memories in my life and stories that I’ve told before, and then a couple of weeks later, I got the part.

Speaking of the monologue, your character is telling a story that is delivered with a comedic ignorance that’s quickly extinguished by Isaac. How do you balance that tonal shift?

I think ignorance is a good word. I have to remove the subject matter from what I’m talking about because it’s so extreme and so ugly, and I don’t have any parallels in my life to match that. What I do have is a parallel of telling one of my favorite stories to friends that still cracks me up to this day. And in that way, you just can’t judge it because no one will know that when I’m telling this story about this awful thing on the show, I was really thinking about my best friend and something we did when we were teenagers. But as long as it’s rooted in this real place and it matches the stakes that the scene requires… that’s my own little secret. And then it was also an access point for me with the tone shift, is that he is hurt by Isaac calling him out, and who hasn’t been in this situation, be it at school or in your workplace, where someone has sort of chastised you for something. So all of those things I could really relate to.

Was the monologue fully scripted, or did you get to play around with it?

No way. It was word for word, and I say that because when something is really good writing… look, I already had the job and I’m dead, so I’m not fighting for screen time… I really am a fan of the show and of Craig Mazin. When it’s really good writing, it’s like music, and you don’t want to throw in an extra little flourish here or there because it throws off the timing, and so I wanted to try and get it as word-perfect as I could. And then what was great, because we had all day to shoot, every take was a little different in flavor. And one thing I did do before they would yell action was we would just get the giggles before [because] I didn’t want to start [the monologue] from a cold stop. I wanted to go in with that energy.

How was the filming process between the van and the street scene?

The first day was all the exterior stuff on the street, shooting inside the van, and then the next day was everything within the van, but we shot it on the sound stage. And when a show as good as The Last of Us and you have the resources, we could remove every wall of the van literally from the driver’s cab to the right, the left side, and the back. So literally, the camera could get anywhere it needed to get. If we had just had a stock vehicle, we would’ve been much more limited.

Wow, that’s wild that they could remove the sides of the van.

Yeah, they built a match of the car. It was like a giant LEGO.

How was it working opposite Jeffrey Wright?

Jeffrey Wright’s one of my favorite actors. Basquiat is one of my top five favorite movies. It was cool to be on set and just be in his energy. And when I was doing my fitting for the show about two days before filming, I saw half of a picture of Jeffrey in the wardrobe fitting room, and I just remember going, [makes awestruck face], because I didn’t know who was playing Isaac, it was a secret up until that point. [When] I saw his headshot, I was stoked.

Are you excited for the secret of your casting to come out? How do you hope fans react?

I mean, I’ll probably stay off the internet once it comes out. I know people are going to have opinions, but I hope they like it.

This is just the latest big project you’ve been a part of since 2023’s Oppenheimer. Do you have any big plans for future roles?

Just getting to work with people that I’m a fan of, and on shows with great writing and great actors, I’ve been so spoiled with Oppenheimer and this. These are the kind of movies and shows that I love. And I think I’ve always tried, whether it was this movie, The Wackness, I did years ago with Ben Kingsley, and sort of everything since, I try to do things that I want to watch. So what’s next? Who knows? I wasn’t expecting it to be The Last of Us, and it worked out that way. So I just try to be ready for whatever the next best thing is.

What is a fun behind-the-scenes story from your experience on The Last of Us?

So I auditioned and about two or three weeks later, I got the part, and they said, “We’re going to shoot in about a month.” So you have a month till shooting, and in the world of TV, between the time you get a part from [when you start] shooting, you might get ten different revised versions of the script because actors change, locations change, circumstances change, they improve things, they punch up things, it just changes. Sometimes you walk on set and they’re like, “Hey, we rewrote this.”

And so I remember I’m working off the script and I’m preparing every day. And then I get there and the day before filming, I get this pit in my stomach and go, “Oh my god, I haven’t gotten a revised script. Am I working off the right script?” So I called the assistant director, and he goes, “No, that’s the right script. That’s what we’re shooting tomorrow. And I go, “Okay.” And I show up on set, and Craig, after he introduces himself, looks at me and says, “What if I had changed everything on you last night?” And I was like, “I was worried you did. I was so terrified that this entire monologue was going to be completely different.” And he laughed and looked at me and said, “Nah, I don’t work that way.” Shout out to Craig.

The Last of Us, Season 2, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and Max