The Last Of Us Disgusting Monster Now A Sex Icon?
The bloater from the Last of Us is being heralded on some corners of the internet as "Big Daddy Mushroom," the weirdest sex icon of all time.
As Pedro Pascal says “Daddy is a state of mind,” and The Last of Us actor Adam Basil is quickly learning how true this statement is. Basil played the grotesque, hulking Bloater from the latest episode of HBO’s fungal apocalypse show and has been getting love messages and wedding invitations in his DMs. Basil told Entertainment Weekly, “He seems to be a bit of a sex icon,” adding, “He’s the big daddy mushroom, I think there’s been a [meme].”
Fans of The Last of Us show and video games will be very familiar with the Bloater, which is essentially a very large infected person covered with the cordyceps fungus. These special kinds of infected pose a greater threat to the protagonists, as they’re stronger and more vicious (similar to the frightening Clickers we saw earlier in the show). While the tank-like creature might not be something you’d consider conventionally attractive, it is a masterwork of visual effects and practical prosthetics.
The EW interview with Adam Basil dives deep into the process of creating this viscerally disgusting creature, which includes stepping into a full body mold and being fitted with numerous prosthetics. From there, the suit is covered in blood, goo, and other viscera. While the suit looks great on its own, some final visual effect touches are added in post-productions to bring The Last of Us bloater to live-action.
An entire team had to come together to create The Last of Us bloater suit. The suit was built by Barry Gower, a prosthetics designer, and his team along with a fabrication company called Stitches and Glue. The VFX are provided by teams led by VFX supervisor Alex Wang, VFX supervisor Simon Jung, and animation supervisor Dennis Yoo.
Adam Basil is a stunt performer who has played many other creatures like the Bloater from The Last of Us (though apparently, the others weren’t as sexy). Basil has provided performances for characters like Venom, Beast from Beauty and the Beast, White Walkers in Game of Thrones, and more. He has even doubled as both The Hound and The Mountain in Game of Thrones.
It’s interesting to see how much work, effort, and time goes into creating a character like the Bloater. The Last of Us was a big-budget gamble for HBO Max which seems to be paying off in spades. The massive TV show based on the hit video game series has proven that video game adaptations can be wildly good and wildly successful.
The Last of Us hit number six on the Nielsen viewing charts with 837 million minutes viewed for the week of January 16 to January 22. These impressive numbers mean that the series is outpacing its fellow HBO series House of the Dragon for viewers. Also, the show has great reviews from newcomers and fans of the games alike.
It definitely goes to show that the care and time going into The Last of Us is well worth it. If you’re interested in checking it out for yourself, you can watch the first five episodes on HBO Max now. The next episode will be hitting HBO on Sunday, February 19.
