The Last Of Us Star, Bella Ramsey says she was told during one of her early interviews that she didn’t have ‘the right look’ to be an actress in Hollywood.
Isabella May Ramsey is a 19-year-old British actor who first rose to fame by playing the role of Lyanna Mormont in the iconic HBO fantasy TV drama, Game of Thrones.
In the new HBO series, Bella plays the role of Ellie, a teenager immune to cordyceps fungus – an outbreak that transforms the human host into an infected zombie-like creature.
Although Ramsey has become immensely popular among fans, everyone in Hollywood looks forward to working with her now. There was a time when a director told her she didn’t possess the ‘Hollywood look’ to be an actress.
In a now-viral clip shared on Twitter from one of her interviews with the British outlet GQ, Bella said,
“I was told in one of my first auditions ever… The director liked me but I didn’t get the part because I didn’t have the Hollywood look. ‘That’s something that I’ve always found very interesting.”
Last month, the 19-year-old teenager who identifies herself as non-binary and says she doesn’t care what pronouns people use for her spoke to the publication and revealed that after landing the role in The Last Of Us, she faced online criticism and mean comments from people about her ‘square head.’
“You’re looking for a comment that’s more painful than the last one, I’d kid myself that I was doing it in jest,” she said. “I wish I could say that I was confident enough [already] that it hasn’t affected me in any way, but it has.”
However, despite the negative comments, she is proud of her work in the HBO series.
“I’m just glad I could do that for them and for the show and for Ellie. I want to do her justice.”
The teen star also told GQ that she wore a chest binder during the shooting of her TLoU.
Bella said that wearing a binder helped her focus on the set as a gender-fluid person.
“Which probably isn’t healthy,” she said. “Like, please bind safely.”
She also said that her costar Pedro Pascal whose sister is also a Trans woman, was super supportive of her.
“The two would regularly have conversations about gender and sexuality,” she said. “They weren’t always deep: they could be funny and humorous, the whole spectrum. We were just very honest and open with each other.”
Speaking of her role in Catherine Called Birdy, a comedy film, Ramsey said she wore both dresses and corsets for her character and felt powerful.
“I felt super powerful in that. Playing these more feminine characters is a chance to be something so opposite to myself, and it’s really fun.”
In another interview with The New York Times, Ramsey said she doesn’t like being called a “young lady” or “young woman.”
“This is what bothers me more than pronouns: being called a ‘young woman’ or a ‘powerful young woman’, ‘young lady,’ but I’m just not [that].”
“I’m very much just a person,” she added. “Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less.”
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Sources: GQ – The New York Times – Twitter
