Miscasting: seldom has the word been weaponised against an actor more than in the case of Bella Ramsey. When the British star was first cast in HBO’s lavish video game adaptation The Last of Us, it was a surprise – a commendably left-field choice, in defiance of many fans braying for more established actors. (Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever, perhaps the most commonly touted name, would subsequently join the series as her emergent nemesis.) Over the course of the first season, Ramsey won over all but the most virulent doubters, bringing grit, charm, and no small amount of depth to the role of 14-year-old apocalypse survivor Ellie. Then season two rolled around, and so too did the “miscasting” debate, again.
The objections here were slightly different. Season two, based on the 2020 game The Last of Us Part II, is set half a decade after the first; Ellie here is older, darker, and thoroughly un-childlike. Ramsey was 20 years old when the series was filmed, a year older than their character, but has not had the stark visual ageing-up that marked the character in the game. (The original Ellie was portrayed by Ashley Johnson, an actor then in her thirties; the character was constructed digitally to reflect the changing age.) Having Ramsey – relatively young-looking for their age, and with an attendant sweetness of spirit – go through the bleakness and adult trauma of the new season seems incongruous. But this is far from “miscasting” – it’s changed the weight and subtext of the series itself, in really quite interesting ways.
