Last of Us TV show’s Ellie hasn’t played the game, was ‘encouraged not to’

Bella Ramsey, the actor who plays Ellie in the upcoming TV adaptation of The Last of Us, has said she was “encouraged not to (play)” the video game the show is based on.

“After my first audition, they asked me, ‘have you played it?'” Ramsey told USA Today.  “And I said ‘nope,’ and they said, ‘keep it that way’.

The actor, who is known for her work in Games of Thrones and the new film, Catherine Called Birdy, did say that she watched some of the game online.

“I did watch some of the gameplay on YouTube just to get a sense of it,” she explained. “But I’m so excited for it to come out – it was such a big part of my life. I shot for a whole year, which is quite a long time when you’ve only lived for 19 years.

“Pedro [Pascal] wrote a little card to me at the end, saying, “How interesting that something so huge and life-changing should happen so early in your life and so late in mine.” I thought it was a really sweet observation and I just had the best time. ”

Her co-star, Pedro Pascal, kept a similar distance from the source material, only briefly watching his nephew play the game. “I watched for as long as I was able to that day, and then I had to leave Florida,” he recalled in an interview earlier this year.

“I found Joel so impressive – I found the whole of it such a visually impressive experience. And then I got worried that I would want to imitate too much, which I think could be right in some circumstances, and then a mistake in others.”

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Here’s the first trailer for HBO’s The Last of Us show

The adaptation is the first television series from PlayStation Productions

The series will air on HBO Max in the US (and Sky in the UK) and covers the events of the first game, as well as potentially including some content based on The Last of Us Part 2.

Pascal and Ramsey are portraying the show’s lead characters, Joel and Ellie. Nico Parker (Dumbo), the daughter of actress Thandie Newton, is playing Joel’s daughter Sarah, while Gabriel Luna (Agents of Shield) stars as Joel’s brother Tommy.