Bella Ramsey jetted into Sydney last week to launch the highly anticipated second season of The Last of Us, the epic show based on the video game of the same name that has made the young British actor a star.
Ramsey, who identifies as non-binary and “not 100 per cent straight”, plays sullen teenager Ellie, whose immunity could hold the key to saving what’s left of humanity from a deadly fungus that’s already turned a huge chunk of the population into zombies.
The new season of the post-apocalyptic series picks up five years on from the events of Season 1, with hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie now settled in a commune in Wyoming.
“She definitely is more dark and more intense this season,” Ramsey says of the evolving character, who has “really grown up” from the 14-year-old that viewers met last season. “She’s very exciting to play. She’s never boring.”
Unlikely pair Joel and Ellie’s relationship is as complex as ever, and ghosts from their past mean they’ll once again find themselves at odds with each other. For Ramsey and Pascal, who have become known for their playful but close friendship in real life, their characters’ tension was hard to film.
“It was quite sad having to be not friends with him in a scene!” Ramsey tells WHO. “The whole of Season 1 was just Ellie poking fun at him the whole time and us giggling together. And it still was in Season 2 – off screen, we were still exactly the same, just as silly, if not more, because we knew each other so well already.”
Work-wise, it’s not the first time Ramsey has been part of a global TV phenomenon. Game of Thrones fans will remember them as the young but fearless leader Lyanna Mormont, a smaller but pivotal role they landed at just 13. Now 21, they’ve had to grow up in front of the world, and the loss of privacy due to being an international star has been tricky for Ramsey to navigate, especially when it comes to questions surrounding sexuality.
“Part of the job of being an actor is that you’re supposed to have an answer to every question that people ask you,” the star told British Vogue. “But actually the answer can be: ‘I don’t know and I’m not ready to talk about that,’ and that’s something that I’m still figuring out.”
Being on a path of self-discovery is something Ramsey shares with Ellie in the new season, as the character starts to fall for best friend Dina, played by Isabela Merced. In the Vogue interview, Ramsay admitted to being “properly in love” for the first time during production of Season 2, adding, “Experiencing that while I was filming the show was really special.”
Ramsey hasn’t named the special someone, although there’s been speculation of a romance with Nashville’s Maisy Stella since the latter posted a cosy photo of the two of them together late last year. However, Ramsey isn’t likely to spill more than necessary about life away from the screen, particularly when it comes to love. “Gender and sexuality-wise, labels do not feel comfy for me in any capacity, because I feel like I’m putting myself into a box. I feel trapped,” Ramsey told Vogue.
One thing they are comfortable opening up about is their neurodivergency, with a diagnosis of autism coming while filming the show’s first season, after a crew member with an autistic daughter assumed Ramsey had it, too. Ramsey admits it was “freeing” to have confirmation, telling Vogue, “It enables me to walk through the world with more grace towards myself about not being able to do the easy everyday tasks that everyone else seems able to do.”
The Last of Us S2 premieres Mon., Apr. 14, exclusively on Max
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