Terry Notary’s work as a movement coach and choreographer is often based on a lot of research. For his motion-capture work on the Planet of the Apes franchise, he watched a lot of nature videos of apes in the wild. For Avatar, he poured himself into the cultural study of tribal cultures to capture how the Na’vi move.

But for HBO’s The Last of Us, research wasn’t as easily found — it’s not like there are many examples of how parasitic mushrooms make people move. So Notary went to the source: psychedelics.

In a conversation with Inverse, Notary discusses the secret intelligence of the Infected, working with the Russo Brothers on their new sci-fi movie, and The Last of Us Season 2.