The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey breaks down everything they did to become Ellie. The English actor talks through every step from their TLOU casting call from Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, to mastering Ellie’s American accent and mannerisms.----------Director: Cole EvelevDirector of Photography: Eric BrouseEditor: Brady JacksonTalent: Bella RamseySenior Producer: Lizzy HalberstadtLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesCamera Operator: Carlos AraujoGaffer: Niklas MollerAudio Engineer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Ashley VidalPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Stella ShortinoSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Billy Ward
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I met Pedro for the first time, stepping down out of the hair trailer.
00:03He was there, it was like lunch break, and it was like a brief,
00:05hello, we're going to be spending the rest of the year together conversation.
00:08And then the first time we properly hung out was on set filming.
00:15Hello, GQ. I'm Bella Ramsey.
00:18And today, I'm going to walk you through everything I did to become Ellie.
00:24Light on the reading, but it has some interesting pictures.
00:27No, no, no, no.
00:28Casting.
00:29I got an email with the description, the sides, and a deadline.
00:36There's like a little room in my house, childhood home,
00:40where I was still living because I was 17.
00:43Self-tapes are hard, but this one wasn't too hard.
00:48It was actually the first time you meet Ellie in the show, where I'm chained.
00:53And I had no idea what that actually was and what it was going to be like,
00:56so I really overacted with the chained stuff.
00:58I was like, ah, ah.
01:00I'm not supposed to be here!
01:02Learning lines isn't something that I find too difficult.
01:06Reading them on a page and hearing them out loud at the same time, like hearing myself say them out loud,
01:10then it's cemented in my brain for the time that it needs to be.
01:13I don't like remember the lines after.
01:15I try and learn my lines to a point where they still feel like fresh and like I'm thinking about it for the first time.
01:20Because in everyday life, I've got no idea what I'm going to say next, right?
01:23So, complete takes where I got everything right, probably like five times, and then selected like two.
01:29And then it was just a Zoom with Craig Mason and Neil Druckmann, the creators of the show.
01:35And we read those same scenes again, but they read in for me instead of my mum.
01:40I sprinted around just before that because I wanted to like, again, have that like energy and feel like fired up.
01:47And I positioned my guitar conveniently in the background of my Zoom frame just so they knew I could play guitar
01:53because I was aware that that was something that Ellie had to do.
01:56You've been playing much?
01:59Enough, yeah.
02:03It was like another few weeks before I knew that I'd got it.
02:06I was on another set at the time when I got the phone call, which I was very grateful for.
02:10It was really nice to be like filming when I got that news.
02:14It helped distract me from the how surreal it was.
02:19Research.
02:21I think I didn't like grow up in the industry.
02:23Every person that I meet is like a new friend rather than like a potential like collaborator.
02:29I don't really see meetings in that way.
02:31Obviously, I knew that Neil made the game, but that was it.
02:33I didn't, I didn't, yeah, didn't really know anything else.
02:36They asked if I had played the game and I said, no.
02:39And I was like, oh, no, I should have played the game.
02:42And they were like, no, that's great.
02:43Please don't play it.
02:44Put your seatbelt on, Ellie.
02:46What about the guy?
02:48He ain't even hurt.
02:51So they were very keen on it being like an adaptation and not like a replica.
02:54There's probably like Ashley Johnson in game Ellie.
02:56And there's like Bella in TV Ellie.
03:00And so that's the difference.
03:01It's just a different human being embodying this person.
03:04And so, of course, they're going to be like different, but they can still have the same like spirit.
03:07And I think that was sort of the case with Ellie.
03:11I made this like document of what was in her backpack.
03:14Flashlight, beef jerky, pun book.
03:17I guess the photo booth pictures, did they even print out?
03:20I don't know.
03:20There was something in there that I remember like was from Riley and little things that she's like collected.
03:25I think I put like random things like rocks.
03:29Oh, and I also did a list of favorite words.
03:31Basically, every curse word under the sun.
03:33I wasn't nervous about the actual filming.
03:37I got recognized from like Game of Thrones and whatever, but I don't know.
03:40I still felt very anonymous.
03:41And so the idea of having to like travel a lot and do press and have people like know who I am more or like treat me differently because of that.
03:51I think I was just scared of like, that's what I was scared about was this was the scale of it for sure.
03:56Didn't need to be scared.
03:57It's not that bad.
04:01Training.
04:03I'd had about two months of training for season two of The Last of Us in Vancouver before we started filming.
04:08I went over like a couple of months early to do that and did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training, which is fun, which is Ellie's fighting style.
04:15You don't have to be like big and tall.
04:17You can be little and mighty.
04:19Knowing that you're capable of like fighting if you need to.
04:22I loved that feeling.
04:24I sort of was obsessed with looking like Game Ellie because she's got like really cool defined muscles and stuff.
04:31I didn't and Craig was like, it's about like your stance.
04:33It's about how you carry yourself differently when you're strong.
04:36I don't know.
04:36You just like walk in differently.
04:37I think if you've got this physical strength and capabilities.
04:41So it was sort of about that.
04:43I had like an hour like personal training session in the morning in like a gym and then a full afternoon of like stunt rehearsals and just like boxing, weapons training, general combat.
04:55So it was pretty full on.
04:57I was pretty tired.
04:58I ate a bunch.
04:59It was great.
05:00I realized how little protein I did have before because I'm vegan-ish, but I'm allergic to peas and pea protein is like the best like vegan source of protein and I couldn't have that.
05:12I started eating eggs to sort of supplement.
05:14I'm really exposing myself.
05:15I did also have like some whey protein for a while, which was very anti-vegan of me.
05:19I've stopped doing that now.
05:22The horse riding was less frequent.
05:25The like horse strangler on set was a guy called Danny Virtue.
05:29He has a whole ranch an hour drive outside of Vancouver.
05:32We did some like technical stuff and then we also just like went for a wander like up the mountains.
05:40For costumes, we did have to have multiple of everything because there was a lot of stunt work and a lot of work in the rain.
05:47And I had to have dry things.
05:49I get dirty quite fast.
05:51I spill things also.
05:53One of the on-set costumers always made a joke that you could tell what I'd had for lunch by looking at my shirt.
05:59I got better at that.
06:01Anne Foley, who designed the costumes for this season, really liked input.
06:04Always like wanted it to be a collaboration.
06:06I tried on so many pairs of jeans before this season to like find the perfect Ellie jeans.
06:11They were Levi's and they actually made a specific size for me because I was like between sizes.
06:16So they made like a whole batch and then they got like over dyed and washed and broken down.
06:22It's an incredible process.
06:24I didn't keep a pair of Levi's.
06:26I went out and bought my own Levi's.
06:28Costume designer was like, why did you could have just, I could have just given you some.
06:32I don't know. I just felt a bit shy asking.
06:34Where are you from?
06:38Texas.
06:40What about Tess?
06:41Detroit. It's in Michigan.
06:43I go to school. I know where Detroit is.
06:46I was doing all of the sounds right, but there's such a physical element to an American accent, funnily enough.
06:51I had a dialect coach, Naomi Todd, who worked with me on that.
06:54And she sort of figured out that that was what it was.
06:56You just like take up more space with your voice and your body, like with an American accent.
07:01And so to me, it was like, as soon as I embodied that, then that clicked.
07:06And then I was like, oh, now I feel comfortable in this.
07:09Now this feels right, I suppose.
07:11Cause I'm quite, I feel like the British actions and like the way that I'd acted before was like much more small and like inward and more subtle.
07:19It was just a challenge for me to like be bigger and take up more space and be louder.
07:24Tell them that Ellie is a little girl who broke her fucking finger!
07:30We didn't have any rehearsals season one or season two.
07:32We just went straight in, which I really liked.
07:35I'm not a big fan of rehearsals.
07:37I think it's like the line learning thing.
07:39I like learning something just enough so that it still feels like new and like you're discovering it on the day in the moment.
07:45Like you do in like real life.
07:46Sometimes a couple of takes in, I'd suddenly like something would unlock.
07:50I'd be like, oh man, there's a whole other like layer to this that I didn't think about before.
07:57The first scene that we shot was walking down the corridor into Joel's and Tessa's apartment.
08:03And then being in there for the first time and like looking at the book of like 80s music.
08:09In my self tape, I went, 80s means trouble, 80s.
08:13And I remember that was the thing that Craig and Neil said.
08:15Even in the Zoom audition, they were like, it's 80s.
08:17Gotcha.
08:1880s means trouble.
08:21You don't do the teen.
08:2200!
08:2300!
08:2400!
08:2500!