On HBO's The Last of Us, actor Bella Ramsey plays Ellie, a character that may quite literally hold the answer to saving the world inside of her. In real life, Ramsey doesn't have the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she does contain multitudes. In a new interview with GQ, Ramsey talks about identifying as nonbinary, the power of playing women on screen, and how she stopped listening to the haters.
Ramsey said she identifies as nonbinary in a January New York Times interview, and told GQ she uses any pronouns (she opted for she/her in GQ). While what pronouns people use to describe Ramsey doesn't so much bother her, she said she wishes viewers would stop calling her a “young woman” because of how she appears on screen.
In The Last of Us, Ramsey plays a queer teen surviving the apocalypse, for which she said she used a chest binder “90%” of the time. Past roles, however, like Catherine Called Birdy required a more feminine appearance.
"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],” Ramsey said. “Catherine Called Birdy, I was in dresses. Young Elizabeth, I was in a corset. And 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.”
Speaking to the Times, Ramsey said she identifies first as a person, rather than a gender. “I’m very much just a person,” she said. “Being gendered isn’t something that I particularly like."
When she was first cast as Ellie, Ramsey told GQ that she would obsessively scroll through social media, looking at all the criticism about her playing the role. Now, however, Ramsey said she's not afraid of the critics — even as they descend on the show for a recent and wildly popular gay storyline.
“I know people will think what they want to think. But they’re gonna have to get used to it," she said. "If you don’t want to watch the show because it has gay storylines, because it has a trans character, that’s on you, and you’re missing out.”
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Related: Why The Last of Us Star Bella Ramsey Almost Didn't Take the Role of Ellie
