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J. Cole may have made trap soul artist Morray scrap his album a few times claiming that he wasn’t ready for the spotlight it would bring, but his performance for UPROXX Sessions proves he’s not far off.

The Fayetteville, North Carolina native has built a strong musical foundation with a long list of impressive singles, including “Momma’s Love,” “Still Here,” with Cordae, “Never Fail” featuring Benny The Butcher, and “Trenches.” Fans have quickly fallen in love with Morray. The musician’s rustic, soulful vocals and heartfelt lyrics draw listeners in, and every time he touches a mic or hits the booth he bares another piece of his soul, leaving it all on the line.

In a music landscape flooded by artists bragging about their abilities to not feel anything, Morray is the antithesis of this trend bringing his unabashed vulnerability to UPROXX Sessions for a moving performance.

Watch Morray’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “Letter To Myself” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Billie Eilish is one of music’s biggest stars (duh), which has helped her also become one of social media’s favorite personalities: She was one of TikTok’s most popular musicians of 2022 and she has one of the world’s most-followed Instagram accounts. On the latter platform, her account is one of only a few dozen to top the 100-million-follower mark, and yesterday (January 11), Eilish offered those onlookers a set of bedroom selfies.

In the eight-image gallery, Eilish dons some black lingerie and strikes various poses captured from various angles. Eilish captioned the post, “you’re looking right at me.” As for reactions, a recurring theme in the comments is that people really think Eilish looks like a particular classic TV character.

One Instagram user, echoing the thoughts of many others in the post’s comments section, wrote, “i thought this was Jane from Breaking Bad for a solid minute,” referring to actress Krysten Ritter. The gallery has furthermore drawn comparisons to Madonna, Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, and Wednesday Addams from Wednesday/Addams Family. Avril Lavigne also chimed by leaving two fire emojis in the comments.

Whoever it is that Eilish most truly resembles here, she’s generating some attention, as the new post is currently at over 11.5 million likes. That makes it Eilish’s most-liked Instagram dispatch since a two-photo gallery she shared in August 2020.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley spent years being loyal to Donald Trump, and she’s since learned what that gets you: A knife in the back. While promoting the paperback edition of his new book, Donald Trump V. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President, NYT reporter Michael Schmidt stopped by Morning Joe where he revealed how Trump rejected Haley for several top administration positions, including as a potential replacement for Mike Pence, because of her looks. Turns out the man who looks kind of like if a bullfrog got a spray-tan has high standards for his underlings.

Via Raw Story:

“So Trump is throwing around different possibilities for replacement of Tillerson and [vice president Mike] Pence, even as far back as 2018, talking about whether he could replace Pence,” Schmidt said, “and in discussing that, he says, well, you know, what do you think about Nikki Haley, he throws out in the Oval Office, and what Trump says is that she doesn’t look good for me, and he complains about her ‘blotchy’ complexion and saying that, you know, because of her aesthetics, he didn’t like her as a potential, you know, senior administration official or as a potential vice presidential replacement for Pence, who Trump was complaining as far back as then owed him.”

Schmidt’s anecdote is an interesting revelation given recent reports that Trump is pursuing a female running mate for 2024. The former president is reportedly considering Tulsi Gabbard, Kristi Noem, and Kari Lake. Haley is noticeably missing from that list, but that tracks given her public break from Trump following the Jan. 6 attack and her own well-documented presidential ambitions.

(Via Raw Story)

Ellie Goulding recently dispelled a decade-old rumor that she cheated on Ed Sheeran with Niall Horan. Now, fans have a reason to revisit Goulding’s connection to another man from her past: Calvin Harris.

Harris posted a selfie with Goulding in the studio today, January 12, with the exciting caption, “Back in studio!! It’s time for the third installment of our banging song trilogy.” The post quickly garnered comments from Anitta, the Recording Academy, Firebeatz, and more.

Harris isn’t wrong. He and Goulding’s sample size is small, but their two collaborative singles were bangers. “I Need Your Love,” from Harris’ 2012 album 18 Months, peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted for 25 total weeks. Harris’ 2014 album Motion housed “Outside” featuring Goulding, which enjoyed at No. 29 peak on the Hot 100 and 20 total charting weeks across 2014 and 2015.

Harris’ Instagram activity balances out Goulding’s. She marked the new year by vulnerably opening up about feeling “crippled by anxiety,” and she shared earlier this week that Higher Than Heaven, her forthcoming album, has been delayed from February 3 to March 24.

“I know you’ve all been so patient with me but we’ve had some exciting opportunities appear behind the scenes which I cannot wait to share with you in due course. In the meantime as a thank you for your patience, I’m excited to confirm that my new single is called ‘Like A Saviour.’ It’s coming soon, we’ve shot the video and it’s one of my favorite videos I’ve ever done,” Goulding captioned a snippet of her “Like A Saviour” video.

Goulding added, “Thank you all so much for sticking by me. I can’t wait to finally share this record with you all on March 24 and I hope you love it as much as I do.”

Who’s hoping that the aforementioned exciting opportunity is adding a Harris collaboration to the tracklist?

Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In a new interview with The Guardian, Pharrell answered questions from readers. He shared which De La Soul albums he thinks everybody should hear. He also discussed what fans really want to know: How he’s maintained his youthful glow over the years.

“I have been dealing with my dermatologist for 26 years,” the 49-year-old explained. “It’s a combination of things. One is understanding that I needed to be curious about how my skin works, what works for it, and then coming up with some sort of regimen and being committed to it. That’s what led us to stepping into skin health [Williams launched a vegan skincare range called Humanrace in 2020]. Once you understand that you have to be curious about how your skin behaves or conducts itself, that’s when you realize there’s a routine for you. Then be committed; that’s when you have success. The second part was just through experimentation — trying everything out, from over-the-counter to prescription.”

It probably helps that Pharrell frequently partakes in good deeds. Right before the end of last year, the artist’s label teamed up with MINI USA to release an exclusive merch collection featuring a variety of Icecream products. 100 percent of the proceeds went toward Polar Bears International, the non-profit polar bear conservation organization.

[Disclaimer: This article necessarily includes spoilers for ‘The Menu.’ Consider yourself warned; please do not bitch to me about them.]

The central premise of The Menu is that it takes place amid the ultimate foodie’s wet dream: an exclusive, one-service-per-night tasting menu presented by an acclaimed chef at restaurant on a private island. It’s also a movie that’s never stingy on detail, one of its strengths. In the opening scene, über-foodie Tyler, played by Nicholas Hoult, spars with his date, Margot, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, about the adventure they’re about to embark upon.

“12 customers a night? How do they turn a profit?” she asks.

“$1,250 a head, that’s how,” Tyler says.

“You’re kidding, right? What are we, eating a Rolex?”

Tyler, clearly, is the true believer and Margot the skeptic — a fairly traditional dramatic setup. Not only is The Menu heavy on detail, most of those details also ring true, or true enough, to anyone familiar with the world of food media, “haute cusine,” etc.

Part of which is a credit to their chief creative consultant, Dominique Crenn, the first female chef in the US to be awarded three Michelin stars and arguably at least as acclaimed as The Menu‘s fictional chef-teur, Jeremy Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes. It was reportedly Crenn, who has been known to write the menus in her own restaurants in the form of poems, who conceived most of the dishes in the film, from the alginated “lemon caviar” to the breadless bread plate.

That the film so clearly aspires to that kind of accuracy (and as far as I could tell, largely succeeds) naturally got us wondering: could a restaurant really offer the kind of experience Hawthorn does for $1,250?

For her part, the Margot character clearly believes that’s a ridiculous price for a meal. But as the movie depicts it, the meal does include:

• A ferry ride to a private island.
• An exclusive, one-per-night tasting menu (with seven courses — one of which is a fiery death, but still…).
• Locally harvested seafood (scallops).
• Locally-milled grains (for bread that the diners don’t get to eat).
• Locally dry-aged meats (DAIRY COWS ONLY!)
• Full wine pairings (including a natural one, “with a little barnyard funk to it”).

“Is this a realistic price” was my editor’s prompt, and yet… the seemingly simple question of whether a restaurant could offer what Hawthorn did for the price described is actually a more complex tangle of sub-questions. Such as:

1. Could Hawthorn charge $1,250 a head and still turn a profit?
2. Could they do that ethically/sustainably?
3. Is $1,250 a person an exorbitant price or a bargain?

The first question is complicated further by some artistic choices. At some point, we find out that Chef Slowik has “an angel investor,” who “kept him open through COVID.” This raises the question of whether Hawthorn would even need to turn a profit, or if some rich guy was just keeping it open at some level of loss as an ego thing/tax write-off for his other businesses (talk of him tampering with the menu does seem to suggest that he tried to compromise its integrity to cut costs). Still, any qualms about the level of luxury on offer at that price could simply be hand-waved away with “well, the investor was losing money on it.”

It’s also, we find out, going to be Chef Slowik’s last service (spoiler alert?). Thus, turning a profit presumably wasn’t a huge concern. You probably don’t fill out your costs ledger for at least a few weeks before your giant murder-suicide. Alas, we press on.

PART I — Is $1,250 A Fair Market Price?

For the sake of argument, let’s assume Hawthorn was a profitable restaurant at some point or was designed to be. Now, is $1,250 a realistic price? It seems logical to compare Hawthorne to some of its obvious analogs:

• A tasting menu at Noma will reportedly set you back about $670, including wine pairings.
• For Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester, you’re looking at £210 ($247.80), plus wine pairings at levels of £125 ($147.50), £250 ($295), and £500 ($590). That’s $837.50 for the most expensive version.
• The testing menu at The French Laundry is $390 for food, plus $500 for wine pairings — so $890. They also have a “black truffle and caviar dinner” next month for $1,200, which is pretty close to the $1,250 people are paying at Hawthorne.

None of those prices (which aren’t easy to find, by the way, presumably to keep out the riff-raff) includes an exclusive seating for 12, one service per night, a ferry ride to a private island, or the famous chef knowing your name and deepest personal foibles, as Jeremy Slowik does. On the question of whether $1,250 is a believable price for Hawthorn, the answer is clearly “yes.”

Slowik is presumably juuust a bit more famous than some of the world famous chefs we know, and Hawthorn’s offerings juuust a touch more fabulous, and thus it costs a hair more than the fanciest single service at The French Laundry. I’m fairly certain the writers conceived it that way.

PART II — Is That Fair Market Actually… Fair?

Whether $1250 a pop for 12 seats is a sustainable price is more complicated. The aforementioned Noma, in Copenhagen, a perennial on any list of the world’s best restaurants, recently announced that it would be closing its doors at the end of 2024 (almost too-perfectly timed to The Menu hitting HBO Max). Noma’s influence on The Menu is fairly obvious to people who have heard of Noma. For anyone else The Menu‘s production designer spelled it out to Variety, back in November:

“Hawthorn’s austere style is clearly influenced by restaurants like Noma, where Tobman once spent a memorable Christmas Eve, hanging out with the staff for 12 hours on the night before it closed for a lengthy break. ‘The staff was rather rowdy that night,’ he remembers. ‘I learned so much about their techniques and I thought if I could ever do a film that captured this environment, it would be the greatest gift.’”

The reason for the announcement — which was actually something of a flex in and of itself, given that most high-end restaurants saying they will be open for the next two years would be a statement of hubris rather than a retirement announcement — according to chef founder Rene Redzepi was that the fine dining model was “unsustainable.”

“Financially and emotionally, as an employer and as a human being, it just doesn’t work,” Redzepi told the Times.

In an essay he wrote in 2015, he also noted, “In an ideal restaurant, employees could work four days a week, feel empowered and safe and creative. The problem is how to pay them enough to afford children, a car, and a house in the suburbs.”

In that sense, a famous restaurant is kind of like a sports dynasty. The more successful it gets, the more entitled the role players feel to be paid a salary commensurate to their successful work, which is tough to do while also paying the superstars exorbitant superstar salaries, commensurate with their being the premiere superstars.

That being said, the line cooks in The Menu don’t have cars, children, or houses in the suburbs. Just a barracks with unpartitioned beds (14 of them, by my count) and communal toilets — sort of a knowing parody of the phenomenon I just described in the above graf. Obviously, The Menu‘s version is a bit of heightened reality but it’s not terribly far off from the workplace described in this piece about Blaine Wetzel (whose restaurant was also on a private island).

Even acknowledging that it’s hard to ask “could that be a sustainable business model?” without asking the corollary “should that be a sustainable business model?” As The Noma example seems to suggest, public sentiment about the latter is beginning to affect the former. Famous chefs know they can’t expect their sous to sleep in barracks anymore. Perhaps that’s part of why this dinner is Chef Slowik’s last hurrah. Also, Noma, elBulli, and other restaurants operating at the caliber of Hawthorn rely on “stages” to work for free in exchange for being able to say “I cooked at Noma!” Though I will note — it’s tough to imagine a short-term free laborer still being committed enough to kill themselves in order to help the chef’s execute his vision.

Chef John Benhase from Savannah, Georgia, where The Menu was shot, helped run a chef boot camp for the actors playing Slowik’s chefs, taking time off from his work as a real chef. I put the question of whether Hawthorn could be a sustainable business to him directly and he immediately brought up the matter of stages.

“I think we’re seeing more and more that the model of stage labor [basically the chef version of an unpaid internship] and semi-free labor and stuff like that is no longer something that’s sustainable or realistic at all,” Benhase told me. “Whether it ever really was is a whole other question. So that would be my question to your question: who knows how many of those people were working there just because of the place, and whether they were even getting paid, or if the payment was just room and board and proximity to greatness.”

That an aspiring chef would take on upwards of six figures of debt in culinary school only to get their foot in the door of an industry that relies on chefs working for free and minimum-wage doesn’t make much sense, and wouldn’t seem to bode well for the long-term prospects of a system that relied on it. As Buddha Lo, the most recent Top Chef winner told me after his victory, “I’ve always found it a bit weird with the schooling system and the culinary schools in the US. For me to be a chef, I went to culinary school in Australia, where they realized that they have a skill shortage in cooks,” he explained.

“So they decided instead of people having to pay to go to school, everyone gets paid to go to school. So I got all these incentives to be a cook. I think that’s what’s affecting our cooking industry in the US is that nobody’s going to go to pay thousands of dollars for cooking college and then get paid $13 an hour at a good restaurant.”

Suffice it to say, the question of whether Hawthorn could function at the listed price seems to be yes, and the question of whether Hawthorn should function at the listed price could fill a thesis or a policy paper. That the model itself seems untenable is one of the themes of the movie. Asking a cook to kill himself for his head chef is just the low-wage/high-regard fine dining system taken to its logical if semi-absurd endpoint. That’s The Menu in a nutshell.

The inherent paradox of fine dining is that it takes what can be the most selfless act of service — feeding someone — and turns it into both high art and luxury commerce, both of which prize exclusivity. Which is to say, the opposite of selfless service. That’s not a critique of fine dining (which I, and most chefs I spoke to for this piece, enjoy), and in fact, The Menu seems to work best on people near enough to acknowledge that paradox.

PART III — Is $1,250 As Ridiculous As It First Sounds?

“Believe it or not, I didn’t charge you enough.”

This brings us to question number three: is $1,250 for that meal exorbitant or a bargain?

“Could I see myself paying that?” John Benhases says. “Absolutely, if I could afford it. But I think that I’m a poor representation of that. I’ve been spending all of my money on going out to eat and drink since I didn’t have any money.”

A lot of chefs were conditional in similar ways. Chef William Preisch of Abbey Road Farm in Oregon — himself a chef prone to making foams and “snow” and ice cream from the lees at the bottom of a wine barrel — initially said, “if that were Thomas Keller or David Kinch and [Hawthorn] was what they did instead of The French Laundry or Manresa, my answer would probably be ‘yes.’”

As our conversation evolved, he walked that back. “I mean truthfully, I won’t pay $1250 for anyone’s food. That price point that doesn’t compute for me.”

Food, at its basic level, is sustenance. Which shouldn’t be exclusive. But at its higher end, it’s art, it’s an experience, it’s an “event.” Would I, personally, rather find a different exceptional meal for less money than the one in Hawthorn? Sure. But would I rather spend $1,250 on the Hawthorn experience (assuming it didn’t result in my death) than, say, floor tickets to an NBA game or some such? I’d probably go Hawthorn.

At the risk of being crushingly obvious, whether $1,250 is a ridiculous price to pay for Hawthorn kind of depends on whether you’re a Tyler or more of a Margot. Which is to say, a rich foodie who would do a murder-suicide for the perfect meal, or a seen-it-all sex worker who just wants to give handjobs and crush cheeseburgers. Jk, but what I mean is, do you just want to eat or do you want to see art and have an experience? The beauty of The Menu as a movie, to me, is that does a pretty good job of juggling both. It’s a tasting menu that inspires reflection but doesn’t leave you feeling like you still need a cheeseburger afterwards.

I asked Chef Benhase if we’re spoiled in terms of how much we’ve become accustomed to paying for restaurant food.

“100%,” Benhase agreed. “I think people are wanting to get paid more and they should, given cost of living, given all the different parts of our society and economy right now. But then people are assuming that food is going to stay the same price. But if you don’t factor in labor and things like that into the price of the final product, then it’s not a sustainable business.”

—

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

The Great Gas Stove Debate rages forth because 2023 is already a political cluster. It’s strange. Even Meghan McCain thinks this is a dumb argument, although she also waded into it herself. And there’s not too much sense to be made of this controversy, other than my made-up theory: House Republicans spent most of last week holding over a dozen House Speaker votes amid intense GOP infighting, and they might be craving more drama? Matt Gaetz loved it and wants more Hot C-Span coverage in the future, and he also happens to be one of the more prominent players in the gas stove matter.

To briefly boil this down to something succinct, some Republicans have grown convinced that President Biden wants to ban gas stoves, which conjures up all sorts of mental imagery of the feds bursting into people’s homes and dismantling their kitchens. The Daily Beast relayed Fox News coverage that has perked up ears to the alleged situation, but CNN pointed towards the Consumer Product Safety Commission chair setting the record straight on there being no ban, either in the works or planned.

Still, that hasn’t prevented “come and take it”-style reactions from House Republicans, including Florida’s Gaetz, who went so far as to post a Twitter video with the #FoodieRevolt tag and a battle cry: “You’ll have to pry it from my COLD DEAD HANDS!”

A video. Of a stove. From a sitting member of Congress.

This follows a previous declaration from Texas’ Ronny Jackson, who tweeted, “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!”

The point here isn’t that gas stoves make for tastier food, although Bon Appetit has also weighed in on those initial reports of a ban. Rather, it’s worth noticing that the stove issue is starting to resemble the Second Amendment furor that periodically arises. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried to engage with Jackson, although she probably should have left it alone.

The Gas Stove Controversy will probably continue, but in all likelihood, there will be a fresh Congressional outrage next week. Stay tuned!

Awards shows can provide plenty of drama, as Will Smith certainly proved at last year’s Oscars ceremony. But it’s not always the boldfaced names collecting the golden statuettes who are the center of the action, as pianist Chloe Flower discovered earlier this week during the Golden Globes broadcast.

As The Daily Beast explained, Flower was hired to draw the audience back into the show with a little live piano playing whenever the broadcast returned from a commercial break. A piano also played whenever a winner’s speech began to go over the allotted time, but in those cases it was a pre-recorded track, and not coming from Flower. Which nobody realized.

As a result, the pianist became the source of much ire throughout the night whenever a celebrity’s Golden moment was interrupted by the sounds of a piano playing.

When it was Austin Butler’s turn to get played off — just before he dedicated his award to his late mother — he suggested that “you could at least play ‘Suspicious Minds.’”

Colin Farrell simply said “you can forget that piano!,” as he was only just getting started.

But it was the indomitable Michelle Yeoh, who was named Best Actress for Everything Everywhere All at Once, who really took it to the next level. “Shut up, please,” she said when the music began to play her off. “I can beat you up, ok? And that’s serious.”

Flower took to Twitter — where she was a trending topic — to explain that it was not her you were hearing. And host Jerrod Carmichael also explained that it was a pre-recorded track.

Flower reiterated that point in her interview with The Daily Beast, where she explained that her job was simply to perform live when coming back from commercial breaks — and that was what she did. “I would never play during someone’s speech,” she said. “I’m not a producer, I’m an artist. So I’m not concerned with time. I just would never do that. That’s not something that I would feel comfortable doing, and it was never something that was asked of me. So that is setting the record straight, I hope.”

As for having Yeoh threaten to kick her a**? That was cleared up, too. As Flower explained:

It’s funny because the winners’ portraits were happening right next to the piano, so a lot of the winners had to walk past me in order to take the portrait. And I stopped Michelle on her way to the portrait and I told her, “I would never play during your speech. I was not playing.” And we held hands, and she was really nice and gracious, and it was totally fine. And Austin, I did the same. I spoke to Austin. I didn’t speak to Colin. I didn’t speak to Eddie [Murphy]…

I think in the moment when you’re on stage… I don’t take it personally because they’re trying to say thank you, and I don’t feel like it was directed at me, you know? And it’s the first time in the history of the Globes that you have a live musician, so it just automatically gets directed to me because I’m the one there. There’s no face to the sound people [backstage]. So I became the face of that, unfortunately. But I didn’t take it personally.

Flower also admitted that when Yeoh won, “I was clapping harder than anybody. I was like, screaming from the piano, kind of unprofessional… I was just so happy for her. I still love her, I’m still a super fan of Michelle Yeoh. I respect her so much as an artist, as a person. I think she’s an amazing actress.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

Miguel owned Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart from 2011 to 2012. “Sure Thing” became his first-ever No. 1 on the chart in May 2011, and he hit No. 1 again as the featured artist on Wale’s “Lotus Flower Bomb” that December and with his own hit “Adorn” the following year. SZA’s “Kill Bill” currently reigns atop the chart, but Miguel has accomplished a surprising re-entry.

According to Billboard on Thursday, January 12, Miguel’s “Sure Thing” sits at No. 20 on this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with 8.4 million official US streams netted in the week ending January 5, with credit given specifically to TikTok.

TikTok had the same charting impact for The Weeknd’s “Die For You” on this week’s Hot 100 chart, cracking the top 10 for the first time despite releasing six years ago. A similarly delayed revelation is happening with Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary,” landing at No. 68 this week.

Per Billboard, “Sure Thing” is also re-emerging on other charts — leaping from No. 143 to No. 69 on the Billboard Global 200 (21.2 million global streams) and debuting at No. 134 on the Billboard Global Excl. US chart.

It’s possible that Miguel will soon have new material eligible to populate the charts, as he teased a snippet of a new song in mid-November.

The Last of Us? More like The First on… Rotten Tomatoes?

OK, so that wasn’t great, but apparently the HBO adaptation of one of the most acclaimed video games of all-time is. The Last of Us currently has a sparkling 97 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it “a gripping and ambitious work that seems fated to become the premium cable network’s next Twitter-trending hit” (Vulture) and “not just a love letter to the original video game — it may just be an improvement upon it” (Inverse). Assuming that sky-high (or should I say, giraffe-high) 97 percent rating doesn’t plummet, The Last of Us will have the “highest ever score for a live-action video game adaptation” on Rotten Tomatoes.

That includes both TV shows, like The Witcher (81 percent) and Halo (70 percent), and movies, a list that’s topped by the Sam Richardson-starring Werewolves Within (86 percent). If you include animated TV shows, The Last of Us only slips to third, behind Arcane: League of Legends (100 percent) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (100 percent).

In case you’re wondering: the lowest-rated video game show on Rotten Tomatoes? 1993’s Sonic the Hedgehog animated series, which is honestly very rude to Jaleel White. And the worst video game movie? Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark, starring Christian Slater and Tara Reid. If The Last of Us had been made in the mid-2000s, Joel and Ellie would have somehow been played by those two. We dodged a real bullet there.

The Last of Us premieres this Sunday on HBO.