This story about Bella Ramsey and “The Last of Us” first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Bella Ramsey grew up while filming HBO’s hit freshman series “The Last of Us.” Literally.
“We spent a year there in Calgary,” Ramsey said. “We adopted a dog over there. It was the best year of my life, it really was. I turned 18 while I was there and did absolutely nothing for my 18th birthday. He paused, then added, “The day before yesterday, I stabbed an infected in the basement. That was the last day I had children.
It was a fitting milestone for the British actor, thrust into the spotlight with her star turn on the series after breaking through with a small but iconic role as the young, determined Lyanna Mormont on “Game of Thrones.” In “The Last of Us”, Ramsey plays Ellie, a teen immune to the massive fungal infection that wiped out most of the world’s population, transforming the diseased into zombie-esque creatures doomed to destruction. changed with the trend.
This sudden investigation into stardom has, unsurprisingly, taken some adjustments for the now 19-year-old. Ramsay said, “There’s definitely a pressure and I felt it massively, especially when my casting was announced and there was a very mixed reaction.” “What I saw wasn’t pretty and I was already thinking, ‘Did they pick the wrong person?’ I felt that pressure while shooting. But now it is out and everyone is happy and I am happy.”
And while the burden of expectations has been relieved by the warm reception to the series, the success has only sharpened the public’s interest in the actor, who identifies as non-binary. “I guess I’ve adapted to being famous, but then I arrived at LAX late last night from London and there were people waiting outside the airport with things to sign and there was a paparazzi guy and it was very was weird,” he said. “Like, how do you know I’m here?”
Further evidence of Ramsey’s change to a more precise identity came when his team asked what pronouns they wanted to use in the articles. “I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I settled on them/them and then went back to it because it was too easy. And now I’m at the point where the articles will use anything and it doesn’t really bother me. And it all happened because of language. It was about not being perceived as a woman, because I am not. I just didn’t want to be in headlines like ‘Bella Ramsey, the young, strong, inspirational woman,’ because that’s who I am now.
At the same time, Ramsey had no trouble finding Ellie as a character uninterested in the idea of diving into genre-heavy material given that her basic familiarity with “The Last of Us” was only that it was a video. It was a game. “The description of the story and the characters was so great, even without knowing the scale of it, I was like, ‘This looks so interesting,'” he said. “The size of the project never really bothered me — it’s more about how interesting it is. It was incredibly interesting, and I’d heard about it and it’s a little bit gay, so I was like, ‘I’m in. Am.’
For Ellie herself, Ramsey felt an immediate connection. “Ellie came very naturally to me,” he said. “Some characters, I read the script and you already feel them under your skin.”
Read more here from The Race Begins Issue,
