‘The Last of Us’ Co-Star Merle Dandridge On Playing Marlene 10 Years After Voicing Her In the Original Video Game

Merle Dandridge’s absolute passion for her character Marlene in The Last of Us is inspiring to hear. After playing the character 10 years ago in the original video game, she continues to find so many compelling aspects to the character now that continues her journey in the HBO live action version. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Dandridge discusses the complexity of this world and her character in it which still inspires a great deal of awe and enjoyment within a whole new group of people. She also talks about that, despite the fact that she’s voiced so many great video game characters, she still can’t get into playing the games in which they were originally featured.

Awards Daily: How did you find out you were going to be playing Marlene again?

Merle Dandridge: I got a call from the video game creator and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann and he said, “I am very pleased that I will be able to offer yet again the role of Marlene to you.”

Awards Daily: Was it hard to get back into her mindset?

Merle Dandridge: You know, I think some of the hurdles that might have come up were just of my letting go of what I thought I knew about her from 10 years ago. A few things have evolved including life, my maturity, and maturing into the role, the fact that I never played her in live action. That before I depended on the animators and the game production for a lot of things. But some of the core ingredients about who she is were different in the telling of the story and the TV series, and the connection to Ellie was slightly different. Previously we had established that they had been a duo, that they had been together for quite some time. In the live action the stakes were much higher and her pain was deeper in that she had to keep Ellie at a distance to protect Ellie and also honestly to protect herself, of the pain of seeing this piece of her previous life. So trying to raise the stakes and believably create that kind of trust and connection that Ellie would trust her implicitly in that short amount of time. That she could trust whatever Marlene would say and you can see it in Bella’s (Ramsey) expressive eyes that she trusts Marlene implicitly and does understand and see what Marlene has laid down to her, that I am your protector, I am your person, I have been looking out for you, and, in her own way, love and protect you.

Awards Daily: That gets into the complex character of Marlene in both mediums. She is the kind of leader making the tough choices that you would want in a crisis, but as an audience member and as the player of the game, she is in some ways the final bad guy. What was your final thought about her when it comes to these final aspects?

Merle Dandridge: It’s interesting to hear her framed as the bad guy. It’s interesting to me because one of my favorite things about the whole world of The Last of Us is how completely conflicting each character is, but at the same time I don’t know how this magic is created and how they are so darn empathetic. You root for people who do unimaginable things because you inherently and deeply understand where they are coming from. I am thinking specifically about Joel and Tess right now and how the audience has gotten to almost cheer for them even when you see what they’re capable of. So when I think of Marlene I love that they had added a tangible enactment of the backstory I had understood as what made up her heartbreak. And that Anna, Ellie’s mother, is fundamental to some of the things–that she is lost and why she is in this situation that she is in right now and why she even cares about this child in the first place.

Approaching a character as complicated as she is, I think it surprises me because I love her and her plight so much so I can only think about what she is called to do. Because she is called to a difficult task, she is called to a leadership that is painful and difficult and fraught with hard decisions at every turn. The fact that those things converge with the life that she had before really puts her ethics and her walking the walk to the test. It’s almost biblical. Yes. this is what you are standing for but will you sacrifice, will you submit your ultimate sacrifice, will you lay it down? I think the fact that we’re able to sit with her in the agony of that decision for a moment, I think is a great gift. I wouldn’t want to be in Marlene’s shoes but I respect her. I think she’s a tough broad and she did it from her heart, and with integrity and ultimately love for the people around her.

Awards Daily: You have done video game voices along with stage and screen acting pretty consistently off and on across the years. What is it about these different types of acting that appeal to you?

Merle Dandridge: Well, I love changing it up. I love to be uncomfortable. One of the great things about video game acting is that the technology is always changing. Every time I go to do a different character in a video game the modus operandi is completely different. Something has shifted, you have to wear a different apparatus or something is different. I never come to it with this is how I lock into it. I’m always learning on my feet. I think the excitement of having to stay flexible, having to stay present, to figure out as you go, is one of the things that attracts me to it, along with the epic kind of storytelling that is going on in video games. It is thrilling the kind of characters that you get to play. You are not limited to your physical instrument, so that’s even more exciting! I could be a monster, or some kind of supernatural creature, I could do whatever I want to do within the realm of what I can contort my voice into.

That also aligns with why I like theater acting. There is always an element of surprise, the element of the audience, the communion of what happens in a space when you’re in live theater. Anything can happen, I can fall off the side of the stage and the audience could catch me. So much is captured as lightning in a bottle. Then, in front of the screen, the intimacy with what the camera can catch is different than in any other place. The thrill of being able to express and elucidate the human experience in so many different ways is part of why I became an artist. To be that mirror and also to keep me on my toes.

Awards Daily: Do you ever play the games that you voice?

Merle Dandridge: I have tried to play games. I still cannot get out of the train in Half Life 2. It is ridiculous. I remember, I think we were working on Uncharted 4 and during a lunch break Neil Druckmann sat me down and was, like, “All right, you have to learn how to play this game.” I think Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture had just come out and he was. like, “I’m going to teach you, here’s how it goes etc.” I’m like, I can type, I play piano, I have good hand eye coordination, but something about the controller and I do not mix. So I am very, very happy to watch my friends play, watch the cutscenes, or watch game play on YouTube and all of that. But it is not my skill set, I really wish it was.

Awards Daily: I saw from your publicist you recently starred as Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at the Pasadena Playhouse. What was that like?

Merle Dandridge: One of my first loves when I endeavored to be an artist was music and Sondheim in particular. He has this Shakespearean quality to his characters. They are epic and the text is always revealing something new every time you approach it. Desiree Armfeldt has always been on my list in the canon of characters I’ve wanted to play. During the pandemic it seemed like we were going to lose the stage forever. There was always hope, but to be in that space with these unbelievable talents, these great artists bringing this piece to life, then a 22-piece orchestra. I had been missing that kind of music in my life and it was so wonderful to turn myself inside out and really find a fresh perspective on the character. Because it is so canon in musical theater I think there has been a specific idea of who that character is and I realized I had never actually seen a full production. So I did not have that in my mind. My Desiree was different, she was a different animal apparently than the way she’s usually approached. But being back on the stage was fundamental for me and it opened and stirred my heart and my spirit in ways I can’t even quantify.

Awards Daily: As you have talked about, doing the voice of Marlene is different than playing her on screen. What was it like having different actors playing the characters from the game?

Merle Dandridge: It was exciting! Automatically there is a different kind of energy in how the characters interact. There is a fresh perspective, there is a different ferociousness, a new spark. One of the great gifts I think in my evolution in being in The Last of Us community is that we experience the characters on a low cap stage which leaves so much to our imagination. Let us expand, play it over and over again, and figure out what this world is, and what do these characters want to be? That was the genesis of the overarching sense of how these characters move and interact together. But there is a different fire that comes when you get that tactile sense of being able to touch scenes, experience, breathe the dank air, and look into the characters’ eyes in that way. I can only express my spirit constantly being astonished, walking into those spaces, not having to imagine them. It immediately brought something different.

Honestly, when I first stepped on the stage I was nervous. Because how do I elucidate, how do I use my instrument as Marlene, and she was always there, I just had to trust it. Looking at the artistry put into the props, the love that was in the set deck, the fire and the power of the other actors. It was such a life gift, because I have loved and cared about this story for so long, and to get the chance to walk it out in this beautiful adaptation for the screen. How often do you get an opportunity to hold something you love like that? An artistic piece, and carry it through so many different phases of its offering in this world. Being a part of being able to open it up to a whole new audience. I knew they were going to be moved. I didn’t know it was going to be on this level, but I knew it was going to make a big drop in the ocean. I’m just so grateful that these heartfelt, beloved characters and this heart-wrenching story have gotten the opportunity to reach a whole new group of people. That is the gift. It is something I will always cherish and be grateful for.

Awards Daily: Final thoughts?

Merle Dandridge: Thank you for receiving our offering with the same heart in which we gave it.