HBO Max has updated the third episode of The Last of Us, originally released for streaming on Sunday, Jan. 29, with an opening that remembers the late Annie Wersching. The actress, who passed away after a battle with cancer on January 29, provided motion capture and voice acting for the role of Tess in the 2013 PlayStation game The Last of Us. In the HBO streaming adaptation of the Naughty Dog game, the role is played by Anna Torv (Fringe).
The memorial appears at the beginning of the third episode, "Long, Long Time." It includes a black-and-white image of Wersching with the actor's name and her year of birth (1977) and death (2023). While the memorial did not appear when the episode first aired, given the closeness in release time and the announcement of her death, it was added to the streaming service early in the week. It can currently be viewed when streaming the episode.
Annie Wersching Fondly Remembered Her Time on 24
Wersching is best known for her roles on 24, Bosch, Timeless, and most recently, as the Borg Queen on the second season of Star Trek: Picard.
However, despite her role as Renee on 24 being one of the actress's most prominent roles, she almost wasn't cast in the series. It was due to her incredible talent that she became a lead in the series, and one of the proudest moments in the actress's career. In 2010, Wersching spoke to MovieWeb about how she initially became involved in 24, some of the challenges of stepping into the role of Renee, and how proud she was of the role, saying:
"I was cast in a Fox and Twentieth Century Fox pilot that Jon Cassar and Joel Surnow went to do in the spring of 2007. That pilot didn't get picked up, so when they were casting for Renee, they were actually having a very difficult time casting for the role of Renee Walker, just trying to figure out how old they wanted her to be, how young, how tough, how cold - so they brought me in for it, and the role that I played in the pilot was very different from Renee, so I think they brought me in thinking "oh we liked working with her, but she's not really right for this, but we'll bring her in." That was a very proud moment for me in my audition life just because I feel like I really went in and sort of changed their mind about what they had preconceived about the type of actress I was and something that I was right for."
Annie Wersching's family is currently running a GoFundMe to help support the actress's three children.