Keivonn Woodard shines in “The Last of Us” episode
Keivonn Woodard, a 9-year-old Deaf actor, had a major role in the latest episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” that aired last weekend on HBO and HBO Max.
“The Daily Moth” reporter Renca Dunn did an interview with Keivonn and her mother, April Jackson-Woodard, in December.
Now the episode, titled “Endure and Survive,” has been released. I watched the episode and the story was very touching. I will give a brief recap.
Keivonn’s character is Sam, a deaf boy who is under the protection of his older brother, Henry, who is portrayed by actor Lamar Johnson. The duo is hiding in a city and trying to avoid being detected by a violent militia. Henry is able to sign to communicate with Sam (Keivonn). Sam also communicates with others using a notepad.
In the middle of the episode, Henry and Sam meet the main characters of the show, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). They don’t trust each other at first, but they decide to work together to try and escape the city. They communicate through sign language, notepads, and with the help of Henry’s interpreting. There is plenty of ASL throughout.
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Towards the end of the episode, the four are confronted by the militia and a horde of infected. They manage to escape, but there is one tragic thing that happened for an emotional ending.
HBO Max’s YouTube account released an “Inside the Episode” video that had the show’s creators and writers break down the episode. It revealed some behind-the-scenes footage and showed that CJ Jones was on the set as the Director of ASL and gave some guidance to Sam’s acting.
Check out Episode 5. It is worth watching, even if you haven’t seen any of the shows on “The Last of Us.”
A cool fact about Keivonn is that he plays hockey for the Bowie Hockey Club Under-10 team in Maryland. He was featured in an NHL.com article and said in an interview that he hopes to be a pro hockey player in the future.
https://www.dailymoth.com/blog/interview-with-keivonn-woodard-in-hbos-the-last-of-us-series
“Inside the Episode:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtMnpyNy7R0
NHL feature: https://www.nhl.com/news/the-last-of-us-actor-keivonn-woodard-star-on-and-off-ice/c-340955844?tid=306702280