Before landing a role next to Pedro Pascal in HBO’s The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey became well-known as a child actor in Game of Thrones. However, there was one thing she really disliked about her time on Game of Thrones..
Bella Ramsey hated being treated as a child on Game of Thrones Set
In 2016, Ramsey made their debut in the sixth season of Game of Thrones as Lyanna Mormont, a 10-year-old leader of House Mormont. Despite her young age, Lyanna quickly became one of the most fearless characters in the series and had a heroic death in the final season. According to The Independent, Ramsey shared their experience as a child actor at that time, expressing how they didn’t like being “patronized” while on set.
“Being a kid actor, I didn’t like the separation,” Ramsey explained. “The thing I hated the most was being patronized. 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 hours protections for child actors are phenomenally important – but I hated feeling like I was lesser or separate from the adult cast.”
At just 12 years old, Ramsey traded traditional school for online classes and tutoring. They found themselves relating more to adults than to kids their own age, which only fueled their frustration during those isolating moments on set.
“I wasn’t intimidated by going onto a set with a load of people twice, three times my age,” as Ramsey put it. “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!”
Bella Ramsey is Neurodivergent
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Ramsey was diagnosed as neurodivergent at 18, while they were filming the HBO series The Last of Us. “I’ve been thinking for years that maybe I was, and then to find that out whilst filming this show was super special,” they recalled during an interview with Elle in January.
The star mentioned that they are highly attuned to “micro-expressions and social cues,” but they noted that their neurodivergence doesn’t motivate them to memorize their lines promptly, as they frequently find themselves reciting them “in the car on the way” to the studio.
She told The Times, “I don’t know if I’d be an actor if it wasn’t for that,” Ramsey said. “One of my things is I’m very perceptive, sometimes too perceptive. I get paralyzed because I just see everything – it takes me four hours to get round [supermarket] Tesco’s.”
Ramsey has also noted how crucial their neurodivergence is to working on set:
“It’s just a part of me and it’s incredibly helpful in terms of acting. One of my things is that I have insane levels of visual perception compared to all the other things. I’ve been watching people and absorbing everything since I was really young… all these characters that I play, there’s an element of them that’s already inside me because I’ve seen someone be that before.”