Move over, Keanu, the internet apparently has a new boyfriend.
Adam Basil, the stunt performer who played “the Bloater” in The Last of Us, told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday that the mindlessly violent fungal-covered beast he portrayed in Episode 5 has become “a bit of a sex icon.”
The man who introduced the massive version of the show’s zombie-like Clickers to HBO’s audience last week isn’t tripping on psilocybin, either.
“He’s captured a lot of people’s imaginations,” Adam told the outlet.
“Someone asked me if I’d come to their wedding. I’ve had people sending me love messages. He really brought out something in people that I don’t think even they knew they had. He’s the big daddy mushroom, I think there’s been a [meme].”
There does seem to be some lust online for the succulent-headed giant who, we’ll admit, has tantalisingly thicc thighs.
But an Out magazine post about Adam — who has also appeared in Game Of Thrones and the live-action Beauty And The Beast — suggests that people are attracted to the 6-foot-6-inch British stuntman himself, and not necessarily the Bloater.
Which, fair.
But if you do find yourself more attracted to the Bloater than Adam, we hope you find the stunt performer’s descriptions to EW of how the show’s special effects crew covered him “goo and blood” and how his costume included “hair sticking up and … fragmented teeth” as sizzling as sautéed mushrooms.