Bella Ramsey is talking candidly about the difficulties she encountered being a young actor in Hollywood.
In an online interview published on Saturday, the star of The Last of Us stated to The Independent that they "didn't like the separation" they saw between children and adult performers.
“The thing I hated the most was being patronized,” Ramsey explained. “I didn’t like the fact that I could only be on set for a certain amount of time, and had to go and do tutoring. I get why the hour's protections for child actors are phenomenally important – but I hated feeling like I was lesser or separate from the adult cast.”
Ramsey touched 20 earlier this year, yet despite this, they continue to be cast as younger teens in shows like The Last of Us, where they play Ellie Williams opposite Pedro Pascal, Game of Thrones' Lyanna Mormont, and Catherine Called Birdy's Birdy.
Ramsey acknowledged that when they were younger, they always "got along better" with grownups. particularly considering that they opted to attend online lessons after leaving school at the age of twelve and spending a lot of time on film sets.
“I wasn’t intimidated by going onto a set with a load of people twice, three times my age,” Ramsey said.
“As I’ve grown up, I’ve learnt that I have autonomy to stand up for myself and for other younger people that I work with now. I want to enable them to advocate for themselves in the way that people older than me taught me to advocate for myself!”
