>>212472159
>I would argue she still hasn't recovered
She has. She was never a leading star, outside of Dora, always a supporting character, but she was always in the conversation for major films, just narrowly missing out on a few (for instance she was a finalist for Ratcatcher in Gunn's The Suicide Squad, evidently he remembered her). But she most certainly dropped out of that position post COVID and in 2021-2023 she was in total nothing films on streaming, nonsense no one saw. She most certainly is in the most prominent mainstream position right now that she's ever been in. Alien Romulus helped, but The Last of Us has been a breakthrough into general audiences, especially since as I said, regardless of the issues with the season, she was not one of them and was cited all over the place as one of the best parts. Even here, on /tv/, we had people surprised at how charming she was in the role, I guess assuming that as a waifu known for the sexy pictures on here, she must be all looks and no talent.
These roles aren't in a vacuum, but being able to associate something with an actor helps in mainstream recognition. What could you say before was something the average person would recognize her from? Dora? Pretty good kids film but not that many people saw it and it's not been some cult favorite since then or anything. TLOU is popular enough that someone will associate her with being Dina in it, and the "oh yeah that girl, she was good" reaction matters for the less tuned in movie and TV watchers. People on here are glued to careers, the average person isn't.
