Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie Williams on HBO’s The Last of Us, has revealed herself to be gender fluid and non-binary in a new interview and the fan reactions have been very healthy.
“I didn’t see Bella acting as Ellie, I saw Ellie,” The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann said of Ramsey’s audition for the role of the fearless and optimistic survivor. Unfortunately, Ramsey has struggled with backlash against casting her from a certain subset of fans. “I’ve only recently accepted that I’m Ellie, and I can do it, and I’m a good actor,” they said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “But this will last a few weeks and then I’ll go back to thinking I’m terrible. That’s just the process.”
“I guess my gender has always been very fluid,” they replied, adding that they are a non-binary individual. “Someone would call me ‘she’ or ‘she’ and I wouldn’t think about it, but I knew if someone called me ‘he’ it would be kind of exciting…I’m very much just one person. Being gendered isn’t something I particularly like, but in terms of pronouns, I really couldn’t care less.”
The Last of Us is receiving an immense amount of praise, earning a score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and 84% on Metacritic with many critics singling out Bella Ramsey’s performance as Ellie as the highlight of the series.
