{"id":631491,"date":"2026-08-11T10:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T10:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T10:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T10:48:20","slug":"the-last-of-us-star-bella-ramsey-ive-felt-slightly-on-the-outside-too-old-and-too-young-at-the-same-time-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/631491\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey: \u2018I\u2019ve felt slightly on the outside, too old and too young at the same time\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bella Ramsey often feels more comfortable around older people. The actor<\/a>, 22, who is non-binary<\/a> and uses they\/them pronouns, has been working professionally since they were 11, when they got their first TV job as the child noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones<\/a>. For half of their life, they have been in adult environments, talking to adults, working with adults. Even so, the London cafe in which Ramsey has chosen to meet makes any retirement home look like a creche. It is full of old men with their dogs, popping in for a cup of tea and a morning chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like it belongs in the Midlands. It feels a bit, like, shit and familiar,\u201d says Ramsey, who grew up in England\u2019s East Midlands and can say that with affection. Their curly hair is short, pushed back off their face, and they have a single gold hoop in one ear. The plan had been to go for a walk this morning, but it is raining so we have a cup of tea and wait for the drizzle to pass. Ramsey seems both younger and older than 22, depending on the moment. Sometimes, within a single sentence, they sound ancient and wise, and also like a bookish teenager, discovering with amazement how they think they might feel about the world.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this, too, is a result of being on film and television sets for so long. Legend has it that Ramsey\u2019s character in Game of Thrones was only supposed to be in a single scene, but their performance was one of pure grit, and they remained in the show for three seasons, almost until its bitter end. That grit took another shape in Lena Dunham\u2019s<\/a> charming medieval comedy film Catherine Called Birdy, in which they played a young English noblewoman scheming to reject the suitors who wanted to trap her, and it appears again in the British prison drama Time, in which Ramsey was a pregnant heroin addict. But it was HBO\u2019s massive, dystopian drama The Last of Us<\/a>, an adaptation of the popular video game, that made them a name internationally.<\/p>\n

Ramsey was cast as its young lead, Ellie, an orphan who, in the midst of a zombie-like apocalypse, joins forces with Joel (Pedro Pascal<\/a>), who becomes a father figure to her. When it first aired in 2023, Ramsey and Pascal found themselves at the centre of one of the year\u2019s most successful and hyped new shows. The duo became the object of parasocial ardour, with fans rooting for their cross-generational friendship, and both were nominated for every acting award going \u2013 Ramsey for two Emmys, two Golden Globes, two Critics Choice awards, an Actor award and a Bafta.<\/p>\n

Ellie is a complex character, brittle and petulant, yet Ramsey\u2019s performance gives her vulnerability and heart. As with Time and Game of Thrones, the actor has a knack for conveying rough-edged softness, for young women who mask their inner turmoil by fronting up to the world.<\/p>\n

In person, Ramsey seems so earnest and gentle that it is easy to forget just how much they have done over the past 10 years. One benefit of working so hard, for so long, is that they have been able to buy their first flat, close to where we\u2019re sitting today, on the edge of a lovely park in a suburban area of London. They have been unpacking boxes this morning. \u201cI feel like this cafe might become my regular eating spot,\u201d says Ramsey. \u201cThey also do jacket potatoes, which is my favourite thing. No one does jacket potatoes any more, properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey feels guilty about the fact that they have bought a flat at 22. \u201cIt feels very wrong. You\u2019re not supposed to do that until you\u2019re older.\u201d The flat is small, cosy, one-bedroom, and they are living alone, happily. Their thoughts about it unspool at length, as they talk out the good and the bad, each argument undulating softly, taking its turn. Ramsey often seems as if they are in discussion with themselves, carefully weighing up both sides of a point before they decide to make it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done it a bit early. I started working when I was 11 and I\u2019m now 22, so it\u2019s been 10 years, and I guess people maybe start working when they\u2019re 21 and then buy a house when they\u2019re 31, so I don\u2019t know. Buying a house is impossible now, and it\u2019s only because I ended up in this industry, that pays people too much money, that I\u2019ve been able to do it.\u201d They take a breath. \u201cIt just feels like a glitch in the system. I feel so embarrassed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018I just felt like I couldn\u2019t access anyone, or that people couldn\u2019t access me. I just felt a bit strange\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Bella Ramsey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Living alone suits Ramsey; they need it. \u201cElse I sort of become almost less of a person. I become whoever I\u2019m around, in a way. I just meld to the people around me.\u201d Is that a people-pleasing thing? \u201cI think so, but it\u2019s also an everything thing.\u201d For example, they say, right now they are looking at me, so they can\u2019t see themselves. \u201cIn my head, it\u2019s like you\u2019re the only one who\u2019s here. So, yeah, I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s an interesting thing that I\u2019m just beginning to understand.\u201d I am not quite sure I do understand, but it sounds like an excess of empathy. It also sounds as if Ramsey relishes being alone, and being alone is not common when they are working. \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to be able to come home and just be me and I\u2019m not having to worry about how anyone else is feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BellaBella Ramsey in British prison drama Time. Photograph: BBC\/Sally Mais <\/p>\n

Ramsey prefers to keep their family\u2019s lives private, and does not want to specify where they come from in the East Midlands, but it sounds rural and remote. \u201cIt was quite specific and wonderful.\u201d School was a drive away, and it wasn\u2019t the kind of place where you could walk to a friend\u2019s house, or vice versa, so they kept themselves busy with after-school clubs. When they were 10, they auditioned for the Television Workshop in Nottingham, the young actors\u2019 group that has been called the working\u2011class Rada, and which counts Samantha Morton, Jack O\u2019Connell, Vicky McClure and Felicity Jones among its attenders. Ramsey failed to get in the first time, but was invited back to reaudition at age 11. \u201cAnd then I got in. It was such a good lesson. For your very first introduction to be a rejection, I think, is perfect.\u201d <\/p>\n

Did they audition because they wanted a career in acting? \u201cNo. I definitely didn\u2019t go there with that in mind.\u201d The Workshop is firm about that not being the point of the group, and Ramsey insists that they only took part for their own enjoyment. \u201cAnd then I started to get auditions for things. And even then, I never thought about it as being a career. It was just fun, and then when it did become my career, and everyone started calling it that, I found it very strange, and still do.\u201d Can they call it a career now? \u201cNooo,\u201d Ramsey says, cringing a little. \u201cFeels wrong.\u201d Maybe in time? \u201cI mean, it has definitely been an experience that is now feeling like work, which it hadn\u2019t when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey seems to have escaped the notorious curse of the child star. They seem nice and normal, in so much as it can be normal that 32 million people watched them in the season one finale of The Last of Us. As a child, they were protected from some of the industry\u2019s cruelties, yet, ever the pragmatist, they suggest that such protections were both good and bad for them. Take The Worst Witch, an adaptation of the beloved children\u2019s books by Jill Murphy. Ramsey was 11 when they were cast as Mildred Hubble, the main character. They were not allowed to have a parent chaperone them on set \u2013 \u201cI think to avoid pushy stage parents,\u201d they say today. \u201cBut it was terrible for me. I\u2019d never been away from home, even for a sleepover. I didn\u2019t like school trips. I wanted to be around my parents. And then I was away from home for 16 weeks, over the summer. Home at weekends, but in a hotel room by myself [while working], at age 11.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young cast were looked after by professional chaperones, but, as the lead, Ramsey felt the weight of responsibility. \u201cI was put in an interconnecting room with one who was 10 and told that I was to help look after her,\u201d they recall. At the time, that felt fine. \u201cI felt like I could just do it. I didn\u2019t feel that young.\u201d And now? \u201cNow I look at 11-year-olds, and I\u2019m like, God, you\u2019re tiny.\u201d People like to ask Ramsey if they feel as if they missed out on having a traditional childhood. \u201cI think some of the freedom and innocence of it, sure. But I was having so much fun. I didn\u2019t want to be anywhere else other than on set.\u201d They loved acting, loved being part of something. \u201cIt was one of the worst times and the best times of my young little life. I guess it sealed the thing that was already there, of being older than I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, for the first time since The Worst Witch, Ramsey found themselves acting with a group of their peers. In the film Sunny Dancer, they play a teenage cancer survivor called Ivy, who heads off to summer camp with other teenagers who have had, or who have, cancer. Ivy is angry at the world, and feels isolated by what she has been through. It is a sweet, wonky coming-of-age film, with a very British eye on the teenage experience. There is banter, there is sex in a tent, and there is a lot of vodka being swilled from the bottle.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018I\u2019ve always felt slightly on the outside, too old and too young at the same time\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Bella Ramsey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI was so nervous that I\u2019d be on the edge of things, and that they\u2019d all get along really well, and that I\u2019d be the odd one out, or not as included,\u201d Ramsey admits. They have spoken before about being miserable at school and not fitting in with people their own age. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt slightly on the outside, too old and too young at the same time,\u201d they say today, which makes sense. They were more comfortable around adults, yet their silliness and sense of fun seemed childish to their schoolmates. \u201cIt\u2019s probably a neurodiverse thing as well,\u201d they say. Ramsey had long suspected that they were neurodivergent, and received a formal diagnosis when filming the first season of The Last of Us. \u201cI just felt like I couldn\u2019t access anyone, or that people couldn\u2019t access me. I just felt a bit strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SunnySunny Dancer: Bella Ramsey as Ivy and James Norton as Bob. Photograph: True Brit\/Colin J Smith <\/p>\n

Sunny Dancer sounds as if it was liberating for Ramsey. \u201cAs I\u2019ve got older, I\u2019ve found people my age easier. I think everyone levelled out.\u201d The film\u2019s cast was effectively living out a version of the summer camp that they were depicting on screen. \u201cEveryone got on with each other in slightly different ways, and started to annoy each other a little bit, in a familial, sibling way. It was so fun.\u201d There is a lot of drinking in the film. Ramsey once said that they had never been drunk. Is that still the case? \u201cI\u2019d say I\u2019ve got a little bit closer to that,\u201d they reply, coyly. \u201cMaybe a little bit happy? But I\u2019ve still never had a hangover.\u201d Suddenly, Ramsey sounds exactly like a 22-year-old.<\/p>\n

The film was supposed to be the last time that Ramsey would play a teenager. \u201cIt was going to be my final big bang,\u201d they say. But they\u2019re playing another one, in Maya, a new thriller for Channel 4, in which Ramsey stars as a teenage girl forced into a witness protection programme with her mother, played by Daisy Haggard, who also writes and co-directs the series. \u201cI really thought that I wanted to move away from that, but then, also, I\u2019m only going to be able to play teenagers for a very limited amount of time in my life. I may as well, if they\u2019re interestingly written.\u201d It has been produced by the company behind The Tourist and Fleabag, so may well be worth that brief return to adolescence.<\/p>\n

It sounds as if Ramsey is as busy as ever, then, but right now they\u2019re not filming anything at all. They are writing a TV series, which they can\u2019t yet talk about, and working on music with friends. \u201cI really don\u2019t want to just be an actor who makes music. I really want them to be separate,\u201d they say. They are taking it seriously. \u201cI don\u2019t want people to listen just because it\u2019s me.\u201d Later in the summer, they will go back to Vancouver for the third and final season of The Last of Us. Filming has already begun, but Ramsey\u2019s services are not yet needed. Ellie is absent from the story for a period of time, as the focus has shifted to her nemesis, Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever.<\/p>\n

Ramsey has enjoyed this time off. \u201cI was getting to a place where I\u2019d done a bit too much and was starting to not enjoy it, a bit, and not feel inspired, and feel a bit resentful of it.\u201d They never wanted to feel that way about acting. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do that, for my 11-year-old self. It was their favourite thing in the world. So I took a step away, and now I am really excited to go back and I miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

They can\u2019t talk about what is coming up in The Last of Us, not because of any restrictions, but because they have yet to see the scripts. During season one, their friendship with Pascal became a fan favourite. Ramsey called Pascal \u201cPedge\u201d. Pascal called Ramsey \u201cBellie\u201d. For plot purposes, he was barely in season two. Are they still in touch? \u201cYeah. But, like, yes, loosely in touch, yeah. But it feels like an entirely separate thing.\u201d Their friendship has been endlessly clipped and memed \u2013 him calling Ramsey his \u201cblessing\u201d; Ramsey talking of their \u201cdeep-rooted connection\u201d \u2013 and when the topic comes up, Ramsey has the look of someone who has been asked about it several thousand times before. \u201cPeople get invested in the characters,\u201d they say, but now seems weary of the fuss and won\u2019t go any deeper. \u201cI\u2019m not sure. It\u2019s sort of weird to talk about it \u2026 Let\u2019s move on to a different topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Last of Us finale review: A nerve-shredding, bloody conclusion that leaves us wanting more, and soonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It is still wet outside, but it feels like we need a change of scene. \u201cI\u2019m like a dog: I need to be walked,\u201d says Ramsey. \u201cIf I don\u2019t walk in a day, I feel it. I have to move my body somehow.\u201d They have sturdy boots and an outdoorsy jacket, so we decide to go for a stroll through the rain. Ramsey turned 18 while making the first season of The Last of Us. It sounds as if that time was a transformative one. It was when they realised that they were neurodivergent. It was when they talked about their gender identity. In 2023, they told The New York Times that their gender \u201chas always been very fluid\u201d and that they would tick a box marked \u201cnon\u2011binary\u201d, if asked.<\/p>\n

\"BellaBella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal on the red carpet in 2023. Photograph: David Swanson\/EPA \"TheThe Last of Us: Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Photograph: HBO <\/p>\n

Ramsey has always talked about this with sensitivity and nuance, but they say now that they feel they weren\u2019t given enough warning about how much of a talking point it might become. Just before press for The Last of Us began, they were asked which pronouns they would be using. \u201cI\u2019d expressed being in the middle.\u201d For Ramsey, it was just a \u201chelpful descriptor. And then suddenly it became a huge thing, where it\u2019s, like, this is your identity and it\u2019s who you are. I wasn\u2019t aware of the impact of that, both positively and negatively. But I think the positive impact outweighs the negative, in terms of being visible or giving a name to an experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

They remain relaxed about pronouns. \u201cLike, people will see me and they\u2019re going to go \u2018she\u2019 because, of course, I would. I accidentally misgender people. It\u2019s a thing that even I have to learn. There\u2019s a misconception that if you get someone\u2019s pronouns wrong, they\u2019re going to be offended and it\u2019s a big thing. It\u2019s just not a big deal as long as you\u2019re respectful, and I think if somebody does correct you, then you respect that and you try your best. And so I\u2019m pretty chill about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is different now is that their family also uses they\/them pronouns for them. \u201cI just think it feels the most accurate, is all that it is. They\u2019ve been lovely about it. They always got a free pass, but it started to be weird because everyone in my life was calling me \u2018they\u2019 except them, and they know me the best. They were, like, maybe we can just try. And so it\u2019s very sweet, hearing them try.\u201d Again, they say, they are very laid\u2011back about it. \u201cI understand why it has become such a thing that people want to talk about and talk to me about, but it really is just a descriptive word for part of my experience of being in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same interview, Ramsey also said that they were not 100 per cent straight. \u201cI said something about being a bit wavy,\u201d they laugh. \u201cI mean, I think most people are, slightly. Like, who knows who you\u2019re falling in love with, you know? You just meet a person and you fall in love with them, and that\u2019s kind of all there is to it.\u201d What has your experience of that been, so far? \u201cI\u2019ve experienced it and I just think it\u2019s a beautiful part of life.\u201d I ask if they\u2019re in love now. \u201cI\u2019m not talking about that,\u201d they say, squirming a little, like the teenager that they have only recently been.<\/p>\n

Ramsey may have enjoyed some time off recently, but managed to fit in filming the second series of The Celebrity Traitors, alongside a pleasantly eccentric cast, including Miranda Hart, Richard E Grant, Maya Jama and Ross Kemp. They said yes to doing it because they love the party game Mafia, on which the show is loosely based. \u201cI started playing it in the Television Workshop, so I\u2019ve been playing it since I was 11. I love it so much. I\u2019ve done Mafia nights at my flat. So fun. In my head, it was just, like, I\u2019m going to go to this castle and play this game for two weeks.\u201d Had they seen the first series? \u201cYeah. So I\u2019m, like, you just go and you do that. But I\u2019m too naive. I should know, after doing this for so many years, that what you see on screen isn\u2019t actually what it is,\u201d they say, with a smile.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0From Game of Thrones to Star Wars: Pedro Pascal\u2019s slow road to the Hollywood blockbusterOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Are they nervous about it coming out? \u201cNo, not really.\u201d A pause. \u201cWell, actually, I might try to be out of the country,\u201d they say, laughing. They are aware that it will bring them attention, and for the most part, right now, they can wander around the park, with the old men and the dogs, without many second glances coming their way. \u201cSo the idea that I\u2019m going to be more famous for a bit \u2026 \u201d they say, and taper off.<\/p>\n

Ramsey has learned, over the past decade, that fame is fleeting and it comes and goes. \u201cSuddenly everyone recognises you and you\u2019re famous for two weeks, and then there\u2019s somebody else. So it will be a bit of a thing for a few weeks and then people will move on, you know?\u201d They say this with the wisdom of an old hand, someone who has been at this for a long time already. \u201cSo I\u2019m not too worried,\u201d they say, sweetly, and set off home, to unpack more boxes. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n