SINGAPORE – Bella Ramsey has received critical praise for playing teen protagonist Ellie in the hit HBO series The Last Of Us (2023 to present).

This despite its producers receiving online flak from fans of the video game franchise of the same name on which the acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama is based, for not casting someone with a closer physical resemblance to the Ellie from the source material.

In previous interviews, the 21-year-old admitted to “doom-scrolling” the negative comments, but has since grown to accept that it was a good fit after all.

With the much-awaited Season 2 premiering on HBO and Max on April 14, the five-year time jump between the seasons resembles the one in real life – Ellie has matured, as has Ramsey by three years. That made playing an older Ellie much easier.

Speaking to journalists at an online press event earlier in April, the English performer, who identifies as non-binary, says: “I was 17 when I started Season 1, and 20 when I started Season 2. I grew up, and so did Ellie, so it felt just like I was older in my body and my mind. That informed how I played Ellie, just matching her to the same age that I was. She’s still Ellie, (but) maybe she’s got a slightly hardened heart and is a little bit tougher than she was in Season 1. She’s more weathered by the world.”

The Last Of Us’ first season was based on the best-selling 2013 action-adventure game. Set decades after a fungal infection caused social collapse around the world, it follows Ellie and tough survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) as they navigate their way across the United States, fighting predatory humans as well as the zombie-like infected.

They hope to reach a secret laboratory that will extract the factor that makes Ellie immune to the fungus in the hope of finding a cure.

At the end of the season, they reach the lab, but Joel, discovering that the research will kill his young protege, fights his way out and escapes with her. 

Being immune to the fungus that has devastated the world is not the gift that most might think it is, says Ramsey. 

“In some ways, it is a superpower. But in other ways, it’s inconvenient to have to keep this secret. For her to know thi...