Bella Ramsey doesn’t like watching her Game of Thrones performance

HBO’s The Last of Us is an enormous hit, thanks in no small part to the efforts of stars Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie). Both actors turned in career-best performances as the surrogate father-daughter duo, which is no small feat considering that they were also stellar on one of HBO’s other massive series, Game of Thrones.

Ramsey was only 11 years old when she landed the role of Lady Lyanna Mormont on Game of Thrones. By the time the series ended, she was 15. She’s now 19 and has only grown better at her craft. According to a new interview Ramsey gave with Vanity Fair, this makes it hard for her to look back on her past performances.

Bella Ramsey on watching Game of Thrones: “I can’t do it anymore”

“What I do mind is watching myself and then realizing that everyone else is seeing it, too,” Ramsey explained. “That’s when it’s weird. I liken it to looking back at your Instagram posts and captions when you’re 18. You’re not that person anymore. You’re not posting inspirational quotes anymore.”

The actor specified that this includes her star-making turn in Thrones, which was by far her most well-known performance before she stepped into the role of Ellie.

"I can’t do it anymore. Sometimes my mom will just pull it up and watch it and I’m like, “Stop it. Cut it out.” Yeah. No, that’s not fun. I used to be a lot worse with it. I really used to not be able to stand it. But now I think enough time has passed. That was eight years ago now for me. I feel like I’m officially entering middle age."

Bella Ramsey on dealing with Internet haters

When Ramsey was first cast on The Last of Us, it sparked some predictable gatekeeping from fans of the original Last of Us video game, since Ramsey didn’t look exactly like the version of the character from the game. The gatekeeping was particularly silly in this case, since Ramsey and Ellie are both young, brown-haired teenage girls. What are we even debating?

Ramsey discussed dealing with that online hate, and how she and showrunner Craig Mazin made a deal to try and avoid it together:

"When I first got announced as Ellie. That’s when it was the most [intense], and I’d never really experienced any negative reaction before. It was present the whole way through, but it died down after the initial outcry. Now [that] the show has come out. I’ve stopped looking for the negative things. That’s what’s changed—I’ve stopped looking. I made this oath with Craig Mazin that we wouldn’t look at the bad stuff. If I’m scrolling and I see something bad, I won’t scroll. I’ll just be like, “Scroll past. I don’t need to digest that. You don’t have to hate on yourself, Bella.” I’ve learned to manage it just by not engaging with it."

Here’s hoping Ramsey keeps that outlook and avoids the haters as the show heads into its second season, which will adapt the divisive sequel game The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us season 1 is currently streaming on HBO Max. According to Ramsey, we should expect to potentially see season 2 sometime around the end of 2024 or early 2025.

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