Bella Ramsey exploded into our lives in 2016, when she played young Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. Suddenly, everybody wanted to be dressed down by the Lady of Bear Island.
Since then, Ramsey’s star has only risen, especially after her role as Ellie in HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us. She’s grown up a lot since her appearance on Game of Thrones, when she was still a child and subject to the rules governing child actors. Apparently those felt restrictive at the time.
“Being a kid actor, I didn’t like the separation,” Ramsey told The Guardian. “The thing I hated the most was being patronized. I didn’t like the fact that I could only be on set for a certain amount of time, and had to go and do tutoring…I get why the hours protections for child actors are phenomenally important – but I hated feeling like I was lesser or separate from the adult cast.”
According to Ramsey, she always “got along better” with their adult co-stars vs their child peers. “I wasn’t intimidated by going onto a set with a load of people twice, three times my age,” Ramsey said, “As I’ve grown up, I’ve learnt that I have autonomy to stand up for myself and for other younger people that I work with now. I want to enable them to advocate for themselves in the way that people older than me taught me to advocate for myself!”
Bella Ramsey weighs in on the Game of Thrones series finale
Ramsey is currently appearing in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget on Netflix, but I know that I’m most looking forward to seeing them return as Ellie in The Last of Us season 2, because I loved them in the first season and because season 2 will adapt the video game The Last of Us Part II, which has some huge twists and turns that angered tons of fans when it came out in 2020. I’m excited to see how the show handles the story as well as a potential revival of the fan blowback.
“Whatever decision is made by the creators, there’s gonna be opinions,” Ramsey said. “It’s quite nice to just have that level of distance from it now.” The Last of Us season 2 starts filming early next year, FYI.
If the new season of The Last of Us does get some blowback, it won’t be the first time Ramsey was involved with a show that angered some fans. Although her character died before the pot boiled over, Game of Thrones had a famously divisive ending.
“I was pretty insulated ,” Ramsey said. “ did a good job with what they had.”
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