The Last Of Us Star Bella Ramsey Was Told Not To Play Naughty Dog’s Game

One of the two stars of the upcoming The Last of Us television show, Bella Ramsey, was actually encouraged not to play the game while auditioning for the role.

Ramsey, who plays Ellie in HBO’s adaptation of Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed game and co-stars alongside Pedro Pascal as Joel, said in an interview with USA Today that when she auditioned for the role, she was explicitly asked whether or not she had played The Last of Us. When she said she hadn’t, she said she was encouraged not to.

“After my first audition, they asked me, ‘Have you played it?'” Ramsey said. “And I said ‘nope’, and they said, ‘Keep it that way.'”

Ramsey didn’t elaborate on why the show’s creators might want her to steer clear of seeing the game the show is based on, but Ramsey did say she later watched some gameplay on YouTube to “get a sense of it.” She goes on to say how excited she is for the show to premiere.

“But I’m so excited for it to come out–it was such a big part of my life,” Ramsey said. “I shot for a whole year, which is quite a long time when you’ve only lived for 19 years.”

It was another HBO show, Game of Thrones, that catapulted Bella Ramsey into the spotlight as the young Lady of Bear Island, Lyanna Mormont. She said she still gets questions about Game of Thrones, mostly about its controversial ending.

HBO recently revealed the first trailer for The Last of Us, and it looks to be a faithful adaptation of the original game (which was recently remade for PlayStation 5 as The Last of Us Part I). In the trailer, fans get a taste of Joel and Ellie’s trek across the country, a first-look at some of the show’s supporting cast of characters, and a terrifying glimpse at how the show is handling iconic enemies like Clickers. The show is set to premiere sometime in 2023.