The Last of Us S2 is finally here, and we can finally reveal that we got to talk to Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie in the show, about what their character is like this season – post-getting “saved(?)” by Joel in S1 and after the five-year time jump. Here’s what they had to say:
Bella Ramsey Shares What Playing Ellie Was Like in The Last of Us S2
Photo from HBO
Obviously, Ellie is older in The Last of Us S2.
“Ellie’s obviously older in S2, but I also am older filming S2 than I was filming S1. I was 17 when I started S1 and 20 when I started S2, so I naturally grew up, and so did Ellie. I was older in my body and in my mind, so that obviously informed how I played Ellie, also matching her to the same age that I was. Nothing specifically changed. It was all there in the writing: the way that she speaks and thinks and approaches things. She’s still Ellie. It’s still the same. She just has a hardened heart and is a little bit tougher than she was in S1 and more weathered by the world.”
Ellie isn’t so much a hero in The Last of Us S2.
“Ellie isn’t so much a hero this season. What’s so great about The Last of Us and the world and the characters is that they’re so well-rounded that no one is really a hero or a villain, or maybe each character is both at the same time. You’re the hero in someone’s story and the villain in someone else’s. That was really interesting to play and to delve into these deeper and darker sides of Ellie, which we got a glimpse of in S1, but definitely gets explored more in S2.”
The Last of Us S2 is generally very different than S1.
“S2 was very different because in S1, there was this consistency of it was me and Pedro [Pascal] all the time. It was mostly just the two of us. People dipped in and dipped out, but it was seeing that familiar face on set every single day and knowing what the dynamic was going to be and knowing each other so well.
In S2, it wasn’t that. It was different. It was more challenging in a way. It was less comfortable, which I think was a good thing to challenge me for sure. It was definitely more of a challenge this season.
The filming process was a lot harder in many ways than S1, and I think a big part of that was because there was that consistent familiarity and safety and comfort with Pedro in S1. S2 with the new cast members was really exciting to get to do. I think that in a similar way, we carried each other through the second season just in a different way to S1.”
Ellie has a new “partner” in The Last of Us S2.
“Dina and Ellie are yin and yang. They’re light and dark. They’re both the light in certain instances and both the dark. They definitely balance each other out in that way. Dina definitely softens Ellie, and that relationship the two of them have will continue to blossom and grow and change and develop, which I’m looking forward for people to see.”
Ellie feels unfulfilled in The Last of Us S2.
“In some ways, [Ellie’s immunity] is this sort of superpower that she has, and in other ways, it’s really inconvenient for her to have to keep this secret and to know this information and to feel like her purpose in life is being this cure, which she thought was gonna happen in S1.
For that to have been taken away from her, whether she knows that it was taken away from her by Joel or not, just the unfulfillment of what she feels is her purpose in life, I think plays on her mind a lot and is actually quite detrimental to her mental health and mindset and the way that she walks through the world.
I think that it is this incredible thing, but it would be more incredible for her if she actually did get to fulfil that purpose. I think she would happily die to save the world, but that choice was taken away from her by Joel.”
The Last of Us’ new seven-episode season can be watched on HBO and is available to stream on Max. New episodes will debut subsequent Mondays. Have you started watching The Last of Us S2 yet? Let us know what you think of it so far in the comments!
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