From Bad Teacher to Booksmart and a tragic turn in TV drama Dopesick, Kaitlyn Dever’s acting career thus far has been nothing if not unconventional.

But art mirrored the more linear trajectory of life after the actress accepted a starring role in the second season of post-apocalyptic drama The Last Of Us. 

Dever, 28, plays Abby Anderson, a soldier determined to avenge her father’s violent death in the hugely popular HBO show starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.  

In one of her opening scenes, Abby recalls finding her father’s lifeless body shortly after Pascal’s Joel had killed him with a bullet to the head.  

And Dever admits she delivered those lines just three days after buying her real-life mother Kathy, who died at the age of 53 following a 14-year battle with metastatic breast cancer.

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Kaitlyn Dever has revealed she started filming the second season of post-apocalyptic drama The Last Of Us just three days after her mother’s funeral 

Dever, plays Abby Anderson (pictured), a soldier determined to avenge her father’s violent death, in the hugely popular HBO show starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey

She told the latest issue of GQ Hype: ‘I had just experienced [that]. Even though death is part of the human experience, we are not meant to be used to grief and watching your best friend die. 

‘So that was a crazy line to repeat over and over again because I had just seen her. She wasn’t alive any more and I saw her body in the hospital. 

‘And that experience is gut-wrenching. Nothing will ever be as bad as that.’ 

Dever announced the death of her mother, a former professional ice skating coach, in an Instagram post shared in February 2024. 

She has since endeavoured to accept the loss, and admits she wishes more people knew how to approach and talk to those experiencing grief. 

‘The people that lose someone actually want to be asked about the one that they lost, they really want you to ask as many questions,’ she said. 

‘It’s actually going to make me feel like her presence and her spirit is still here, and it keeps her alive, you know, her essence, like by talking about her and sharing stories about her. 

‘And I know that if I talk about it and share my experience it may help someone else in their experience.’

Dever admits she filmed her opening scenes after buying her real-life mother Kathy (pictured), who died at the age of 53 following a 14-year battle with metastatic breast cancer

The actress spoke to the latest issue of GQ Hype about the loss of her mother and subsequent attempt to process her grief 

Dever watched her mother battle breast cancer for more than a decade before her death in 2024, and she admits fellow actor Andrew Garfield was a source of strength during those years. 

Garfield had previously discussed the pᴀssing of his own mother during an emotional live interview with Stephen Colbert. 

The actor was moved to tears after being broached on the subject of his mum Lynne Garfield’s death to pancreatic cancer in 2019, but admitted he ‘hopes the grief stays with me, because it’s the unexpressed love that I never got to tell her.’ 

Recalling the impact of his words, Dever recalled: : ‘I would Google it and watch it often, because I always felt like… the worst thing in my life that could happen was losing my best friend. And I always thought that I wouldn’t be able to go on. 

‘But then I’d look at Andrew and think, well, his life seems to be moving forwards.’

Ice skating coach Kathy was also survived by her husband, Tim Dever – who memorably voiced Barney the Dinosaur from 2000-2002 – and their youngest daughters Mady and Jane. 

The full interview with cover star Dever is available to read online at GQ Hype now

Read More Kaitlyn Dever’s mother Kathy loses her 14-year breast cancer battle at age 53: ‘I don’t know how I’ll go on’

‘Thank you for fighting so hard for us for so long,’ Dever shared shortly after her death. ‘I am forever, forever, grateful for the special time we got to spend with you, sweet mama. It will never be enough.’

‘I will be broken forever without you and I don’t know how I’ll go on. You were the greatest mom and wife anyone could ever ever ask for.

‘I’m grateful that you gave me Mady, Jane, and Dad. We’ll always have each other to lean on because of you.’

Dever compared her dearly departed mother to ‘sunshine’ itself because she ‘warmed me when I needed it the most and made me smile [whenever] I was sad.’

‘My mama. My life. My everything. I don’t even have the words. Nothing I’ll ever say will amount to the gifts you have given me in my life, the boundless joy you brought, the deep, endless, unconditional love you gave me and our family.’

She added: ‘Your love was everywhere. It was in the morning having coffee with you and shopping on The RealReal. It was sitting out by the pool eating watermelon (with salt on it of course) and listening to Willie Nelson. 

‘It was laying in your bed with you watching Seinfeld and listening to your infectious laugh as you recited every line from memory.

‘It was making fun of each other, it was getting to tell you about my day, it was getting the best advice from you anyone would be so lucky to [receive]. 

‘It was going places with you, because no matter where we were, we were having fun and laughing.’

Read the full feature online at GQ Hype now.  

Dever watched her mother (pictured) battle breast cancer for more than a decade before her death in 2024, and she admits Andrew Garfield was a source of strength during those years 

Garfield had previously discussed the pᴀssing of his own mother during an emotional live interview with Stephen Colbert (pictured)