‘Older in my body and mind’: Bella Ramsey grows up and out of teenhood with The Last Of Us (2025)

SINGAPORE – Bella Ramsey has received critical praise for playing teen protagonist Ellie in the hit HBO series The Last Of Us (2023 to present).

This, despite its producers receiving online flak from fans of the video game franchise of the same name on which the acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama is based, for not casting someone with a closer physical resemblance to the Ellie from the source material.

In previous interviews, the 21-year-old admitted to “doom-scrolling” the negative comments, but has since grown to accept that it was a good fit after all.

With the much-awaited Season 2 premiering on HBO and Max on April 14, the five-year time jump between the seasons resembles the one in real life – Ellie has matured, as has Ramsey by three years. That made playing an older Ellie much easier.

Speaking to journalists at an online press event earlier in April, the English performer, who identifies as non-binary, says:“I was 17 when I started Season 1, and 20 when I started Season 2. I grew up, and so did Ellie, so it felt just like I was older in my body and my mind. That informed how I played Ellie, just matching her to the same age that I was. She’s still Ellie, (but) maybe she’s got a slightly hardened heart and is a little bit tougher than she was in Season 1. She’s more weathered by the world.”

The Last Of Us’ first season is based on the best-selling 2013 action-adventure game. Set decades after a fungal infection caused social collapse around the world, itfollows Ellie and tough survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) as they navigate their way across the United States, fighting predatory humans as well as the zombie-like infected.

They hope to reach a secret laboratory that will extract the factor that makes Ellie immune to the fungus, in the hope of finding a cure.

At the end of the season, they reach the lab, but Joel, discovering that the research will kill his young protege, fights his way out and escapes with her.

Being immune to the fungus that has devastated the world is not the gift that most might think it is, says Ramsey.

“In some ways, it is a superpower. But in other ways, it’s inconvenient to have to keep this secret. For her to know this information, that her purpose in life was to be a cure, has been detrimental to her mental health,” adds the breakout star from the popular HBO fantasy series Game Of Thrones (2011 to 2019), in which Ramsey played the child aristocrat Lyanna Mormont.

Season 2 is based on the game’s 2020 sequel, and follows Ellie and Joel five years after the events of the last season. New cast members include Isabela Merced and Young Mazino as Ellie’s friends Dina and Jesse respectively.

Viewers will also meet Abby, a soldier seeking revenge against Joel, who killed her father during the lab escape.

She is played by American actress Kaitlyn Dever who, like Ramsey, received a gamer backlash, though for a different reason.

Those familiar with the game hated the antagonist Abby and transferred their dislike onto the 28-year-old star of series like Dopesick (2021) and films such as Booksmart (2019).

The same vitriol was also directed at Laura Bailey, the American actress who portrayed Abby through motion capture and voice acting in the game and became the target of online death threats.

It was reported that Dever had to receive additional security during filming. But she says in a separate interview that the online furore was no deterrence to her joining The Last Of Us, which has already been confirmed to return for a third season.

“It was in no way going to stop me from taking on this role and this kind of challenge. I do like a challenge in the work that I do. It makes me feel accomplished, like I’m getting into it every day at work.”

She adds: “I certainly was thinking about it, but it didn’t overtake my brain space in a way that hindered the process of bringing her to life. I really felt like what was most important was the job and doing the work. Whatever happens after that, I don’t have control over.

“It was nerve-racking at first, but ultimately, everyone on set made me feel so supported, which was nice.”

• The Last Of Us 2 is available on HBO and Max, with new episodes released every Monday.

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