A Star Of HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’ Was ‘Encouraged’ To Not Play The Video Game

The Last of Us, one of the best video games of the 2010s, was released when Bella Ramsey was 10 years old. The Game of Thrones actress did not play it then — a big break for her parents who didn’t have to explain what a “Molotov cocktail” is — and she still hasn’t played it now, even after being cast as Ellie in the HBO adaptation.

“I was actually encouraged not to,” Ramsey told USA Today when asked if she’s played The Last of Us. “After my first audition, they asked me, ‘Have you played it’ And I said, ‘Nope,’ and they said, ‘Keep it that way.’ [Laughs.] I did watch some of the game play on YouTube just to get a sense of it.” Hopefully she looked up a guitar tutorial for “Take On Me,” too.

Ramsey continued:

“I’m so excited for it to come out – it was such a big part of my life. I shot for a whole year, which is quite a long time when you’ve only lived for 19 years. Pedro wrote a little card to me at the end, saying, ‘How interesting that something so huge and life-changing should happen so early in your life and so late in mine.’ I thought it was a really sweet observation and I just had the best time.”

The Last of Us premieres on HBO in 2023, but until then, you can catch Ramsey in Lena Dunham’s oddly effective Catherine Called Birdy.