‘You don’t have to watch it’: Bella Ramsey hits out at Last of Us critics

Bella Ramsey has told critics of The Last of Us not to watch it if they’re not happy.

Bella Ramsey has told critics of The Last of Us not to watch it.

The 21-year-old star – who identifies as non-binary and uses gender neutral pronouns – plays Ellie in the HBO drama, and while the first season of the programme was a huge success with viewers, some were less satisfied by the second set of episodes because of the way it deviated from the video game of the same name which it is based on.

Bella told Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast: “You don’t have to watch it if you hate it that much. The game exists. Like, you can just play the game again. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do wanna watch it, then I hope you enjoy it.”

But Bella tries not to pay too much attention to the response of viewers because nothing can be changed.

They explained: “I tried to steer clear as much as I could, to be honest, because there’s nothing that I can do about it anyway.

“I mean, the show is out. There’s nothing that can be changed or altered. So I’m like, there’s not really any point in reading or looking at anything.

“People are, of course, entitled to their opinions, but it doesn’t affect the show. It doesn’t affect how the show continues or anything in any way…. They’re very separate things to me.”

And when it comes to the depiction of Ellie on the show versus The Last of Us Part II game, Bella insisted details such as her alter ego’s excitement over being “the dad” to girlfriend Dina (Isabela Merced)’s baby wasn’t “deep or thought out too much.”

They said: “Stuff like that, I think Craig [Mazin, showrunner] just threw in.

“In the dynamic of her and Dina, she definitely sees herself as more of, I guess, stereotypically the guy, I suppose, And so the idea that she would be the dad was just a funny one that was in there.

“But, yeah, I think there’s those specific deviations from the game sometimes. They’re really thought about and really detailed, and sometimes it’s just for the fun of it.”