Bella Ramsey‘s Ellie experiences quite a bit of action, heartbreak and turmoil in the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us.
But a quiet scene from Sunday’s third episode was actually the toughest for them to shoot.
Ramsey recalled that the scene where Ellie weeps over the loss of Joel (Pedro Pascal) while smelling one of his jackets in the closet was the scene they were most worried about pulling off.
“Oh God, in the closet, that was the hardest [scene],” the 21-year-old Emmy nominee said. “So I really struggle with crying in scenes. I can get a tear out, but that’s different to crying. And even getting the tear, it doesn’t come easy for me. I don’t cry in front of people in my everyday life. A very, very limited amount of people in my life will see me cry. And so having to do that on a set full of people with the monitor and then more people watching the monitors … it’s virtually impossible for me. So I was really worried about that scene, and that was the toughest one for me to shoot.”
But Ramsey eventually pulled it off, and what worked was rather ironic.
“I’ve tried [before in crying scenes] to think about something really sad in my own life and try and evoke emotions that way,” Ramsey said. “That doesn’t really work for me because it takes me out of the truth of the situation for Ellie. So I was remembering the happiest of memories that I have with Pedro.”
“The thing that is always the saddest for me is remembering the happy things,” they continued. “I was remembering us the first few times that we met and the whole of shooting season one together, and the funniest moments. I was remembering all of that and through the lens of losing him — not just Joel and Ellie, but like me and Pedro — because the memories of me and Pedro and Joel and Ellie are so intertwined for me.”
During last week’s The Hollywood Reporter cover story, Ramsey elaborated on their feelings about parting ways (in the workplace, at least) with Pascal.
“Understanding [from the show’s outset] the limited time me and Pedro have together has made us really cherish each other more,” Ramsey says. “It was something that we got quite emotional about while we were shooting. We’ll be in each other’s lives forever, and we’ll be in each other’s hearts forever.”
Ramsey also discussed what it was like ascending to become the HBO hit’s sole lead now that Pascal’s character was killed off.
“I would never consider myself a leader,” Ramsey says. “But there’s something that happens when I’m given responsibility where I really like the feeling and I take the responsibility very seriously. I’m very happy to lead a set and have a lot of influence over the tone and dynamic, especially given there’s preconceived ideas about a young person who’s No. 1 on the call sheet … Everybody should know they’re valued as a crewmember, as a castmember, and that we’re all equals.”
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