From the stage to the television screen, Sam Hoeksema has been on one exciting acting journey. And most recently, he took that journey to the next level when he played the terrifying clicker on HBO Max’s The Last of Us. We had the absolute pleasure of sitting down and chatting with him about what it was like wearing all the prosthetics, working alongside Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, and so much more. Check out everything he had to share below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sam Hoeksema
Julia Roth: Thank you so much for chatting with me! You are terrifying. Well, not now, but in the show. How did you get into acting?
Sam Hoeksema: Thank you. I originally got into acting back in elementary school. My sister was super into it, and they were doing a school musical and didn’t have enough boys to do the production. I was big into band and singing at the time, and my sister nudged me, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. My sister acts as well, and it’s been a fun sibling thing for us to go on this journey together.
JR: That’s incredible to have someone who supports and understands. Did you go into acting as an adult through the traditional route, or did you move to Hollywood and wish for the best?
SH: I went the traditional route and went to New York to study at a theater school called Circle in the Square. There I got thick in the reeds of old 19th-century plays and did Shakespeare and really loved it. My first love was the theater, and I trained for that. When I graduated, I ended up doing a lot of theater regionally around New York and in New York City. I didn’t really get into film and TV until three or four years ago. COVID was rough on the theater industry, and it helped push my transition.
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I’m very grateful for how smooth this transition has been. And the timing of The Last of Us and meeting Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin was perfect. The journey of acting is constantly renegotiating who you are and how you related to the industry. As you grow, you have to check in with yourself and figure out what interests you at that moment and what might interest you in the next. It’s been an incredible journey so far.
JR: Speaking of The Last of Us, what an incredible opportunity. What was it like auditioning for the role of The Clicker?
SH: It was definitely a process but an exciting audition. A little less traditional, for sure. Normally when you have an audition, you get what lines form a scene to read. But with this, there were no reading lines. Instead, our movement coach, Paul Becker, had put together a movement sequence that mirrored a clicker from the second game that I had to follow and go through. And with that, I got to put my own little spin on how I thought they might look.
In a way, it was still a tad bit traditional with an unconventional twist. It was hard to judge how well I did since we didn’t have much to go off of. But we are here now, so my shamble was on point.
JR: Were you familiar with the source material, and did you play the games?
SH: Oh yeah. I am a huge gamer. I would say I was a very big closet gamer for the majority of my life. It wasn’t cool to be a theater kid and a gamer in some circles. But now I feel like that’s totally changed in recent years, which is such a blessing. Productions and adaptations like this are finally getting recognition for how terrific they are, and we get to share all this great stuff.
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JR: How intense was it putting on all the prosthetics? And how much of it was CGI?
SH: The majority of what you are seeing is prosthetics. Weta is such an incredible tool in the industry. The CGI is just a flourish at the end. The first time we put everything on, it took about eight hours, but we were able to knock it down to about four or five during filming. I had done prosthetic work before, but nothing on this scale. This was a whole different level.
It was a challenge to get used to moving and acting while all done up, but it was a huge gift in the end. Motion capture is an amazing thing, but there is something about getting to really dawn the mask and explore the character or monster. There is something special about being all done up and then getting to act right alongside Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. They were incredible to work with, and their reactions helped up the adrenaline on set.
JR: Speaking of everyone’s favorite internet daddy – how was it working with Pedro Pascal?
SH: He is amazing. Pedro’s amazing, and he is a daddy on set too. He is the perfect lead for this show, and he is so humble. We would have days on set where the focus was on me, and Pedro would be off to the side, off-camera, supporting me through it. He would come over and chime in between takes and was one of my biggest cheerleaders. My time on set was incredible, and getting to work with Pedro and Bella was such a joy.
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JR: Did you ever spend time on set when you weren’t working?
SH: Of course, I spent a couple of days hanging out. Neil and Craig let me visit the set to check out what was going on, and I got to spend time with Terry Notary as he worked with the other infected performers. It was just great to be a fly on the wall and watch the monitor with Craig and see the magic happen.
JR: Do you have any non-spoiler moments from the episodes that have aired that you love?
SH: I love episode two because it was the start for us. It’s the first time they brought a clicker onto the set, and that is such a great moment for everyone in the show. We weren’t sure how everyone would feel, but it was something special. And it was even better since it’s such an intimate sequence in the museum, so it felt cozy, and we had the time to just feel things out and the freedom to explore.
Neil directed that episode, and he is a personal hero of mine. He is such a creative person, and coming from the games to the show has been such an incredible journey to watch and be a part of. But then there is just something special about episode five, where it felt like we had 400 people on set. Everyone is running, and there are guns going off, and fire is everywhere. It really appealed to the little kid in me who wanted to be a part of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and let me live out my Lord of the Rings moment.
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JR: You mentioned early that, as an actor, you are constantly renegotiating what you want and like. Now that you have experience life under all of these prosthetics, will you be seeking out more roles like this?
SH: I told Neil that he gave me access to a part of myself that I didn’t really know I had before. It’s a very kind of ethereal type of work doing this sort of thing. It is so different from having lines and getting into the head of whoever you are playing. It’s a totally different feeling, and I loved it. I find it to be very freeing work. You get to shut off your brain and any kind of self-judgment or criticism.
I don’t know if I can do it every single day, but I did tell Neil and Craig I’ll happily play a clicker until I’m 90. I even told Barrie Gower, our prosthetic designer, that we need to find a way to include an episode in an old folk home so I can rock out in a wheelchair.
JR: So, aside from The Last of Us, what else has been on your plate?
SH: I have quite a few things that I’m unfortunately not able to talk about. It’s impossible to work in Hollywood without having to sign an NDA. But people can follow me on Instagram and my IMDb to keep up with what’s next. I have more stuff coming out that year that doesn’t necessarily involve 10 hours of prosthetics. It’s different, but it is going to be great.
This interview was originally published on 2/25/23.
https://www.geekgirlauthority.com/the-last-of-us-season-2-hbo-pedro-pascal-bella-ramsey/
Who I Am: A nerd by the strictest definition. I enjoy diving straight into my favorite fandoms without a care in the world. I live on video/board games, fantasy movies and TV, and all things geeky.
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