Ashley Johnson, who portrays Ellie in the video games, remembers her first encounter with Bella Ramsey from HBO’s The Last of Us live action adaptation.
Both Last of Us video games and the ‘Left Alone’ DLC featured Ashley Johnson in the role of Ellie, and in the Season 1 series finale, “Look For The Light,” Ashley Johnson unexpectedly appeared as Ellie’s mother, Anna.
At the beginning of the episode, we learn how Anna gave birth to Ellie while getting bit and how Ellie contracted Anna’s infection, somehow making her immune to the fungi.
Given that Bella Ramsey and the character of Ellie are now interchangeable, it only makes sense to hear Johnson’s account of their first encounter.
Ashley Johnson appeared as a much anticipated guest on The Last of Us podcast, where she discussed her meeting Bella Ramsey and how it all felt, getting to meet the real-life Ellie.
The actress mentioned that “It is interesting being sort of attached and also a part of a character for so long, and so the lines get blurred. When it was discussed about this was being turned into a movie or into a TV show… not that we really have any say in who was cast in it, but something did not ever feel right until Bella. There’s something so similar the both of us have. And, instantly, when I first met Bella, there was this feeling of just wanting to protect them.”
She went on to share how it felt meeting the other Ellie for the first time, saying that “The first time that I met Bella, I was a little bit taken aback because it felt like I was actually meeting the real Ellie, like the character coming out of the games. Obviously, we played these parts, but it is a strange thing. There is a little bit of it where Ellie kind of feels like my kid. And we have really similar mannerisms, and she gets it.”