Bella Ramsey may be known in recent years for her work in His Dark Materials, the currently-airing Becoming Elizabeth with its female point-of-view, and the upcoming The Last of Us adaptation opposite Pedro Pascal, but plenty of people undoubtedly remember her for her breakout role as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. Though young, Lyanna was a fierce leader and loyal to the Starks, and she quickly became a fan-favorite after debuting in Season 6. Now, more than six years after her first episode as the young Lady of Bear Island, Ramsey opened up about her feelings on typecasting.
Although Lyanna came to a tragic end in the quite literally very dark Game of Thrones episode that delivered the long-awaited Battle of Winterfell, Bella Ramsey’s career has taken her to various projects and lots of different genres. Speaking with CinemaBlend, the actress shared what it has been like to jump from genre to genre:
It's been cool. I like the fact that I've been able to be in lots of different shows, lots of different genres. It's nice not to be typecast as something. It's just been really cool to just experience all the different kinds of walks of life, I suppose, in all these different genres. Each project is a new experience and you learn from each one, especially when each project is a different genre. I feel like it keeps it interesting.
Bella Ramsey (now 18 years old) is still known for her role as Lyanna, but – like her fellow Game of Thrones alums who also chose very different follow-up projects –hasn’t been stuck playing one kind of character in one kind of genre. Most recently, she is appearing as Lady Jane Grey in Starz’s Becoming Elizabeth, tasked with portraying a dramatized version of a real-life historical figure. Next on HBO, viewers will see her as Ellie in The Last of Us, which teams her up with a fellow Game of Thrones alum in Pedro Pascal.
Even for those who haven’t played the video game on which The Last of Us is based and aren't familiar with the story, the first look at the show is proof that Ellie is not a carbon copy of Lyanna Mormont. The actress avoided being typecast, but was that something she worried about after becoming iconic in arguably the biggest show in television history? Ramsey explained:
Slightly, but I guess I was so young that I didn't really understand this idea of being typecast as something. To be honest, I was just so grateful to be in the film industry anyway. I didn't know what I was doing. [laughs] I was grateful just to be there. Typecasting wasn't really something that I was desperate to avoid. It just kind of happened that way. I've been very lucky that each project I've been able to be a part of has been so different, without me having to cherry pick them. It's just kind of happened that way, which has been really cool.
She may not have been aware of the potential problem of typecasting when playing Lyanna Mormont when she was “so young,” but the actress considers herself “lucky” now that she was able to join projects that allowed her to explore some different kinds of characters and stories. Plus, anybody who watched her break into showbiz as Lyanna might not have guessed that she didn’t really know what she was doing!
Fans of Game of Thrones (which you can revisit streaming in full with an HBO Max subscription during the final weeks of wait before spinoff House of the Dragon) know that Lyanna’s story – like so many others in the show – didn’t come to a happy ending, but it was only the beginning of Ramsey’s career.
The final episodes of Becoming Elizabeth will continue airing on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz. The Last of Us hasn’t received a premiere date yet, but is expected to debut on HBO in 2023. For some viewing options in the meantime, be sure to check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.
