The Last of Us, the HBO series based on the beloved video game, is often gruelling to watch. Imagine what it's like filming it.
"I would get to points where I'm bored of being dark and sad and deep all day. Like, I'm exhausted by it," star Bella Ramsey tells The National.
But this didn't bother Ramsey on a personal level. After all, this is what they signed up for. You can't exactly take the lead role in a post-apocalyptic series in which humanity is under threat from fungi that turn people into zombies and complain that it's too sad.
The problem for Ramsey was the artistic impact of all that darkness. If you're always feeling deep and sad, eventually, the effect wears off. Sooner or later, you become depressed, and then you just feel numb. And once you're bored, your performance starts to get boring as well.
Ramsey couldn't let that happen, especially during the filming of season two, which premieres on Monday on OSN+ in the Middle East. In season one, Ramsay played a child named Ellie, miraculously immune to the zombie fungi. Trying to find a cure for humanity, Ellie goes on a cross-country trip with a man named Joel (Pedro Pascal) to find the scientists who can study her ability and save the world.
But season one ended in tragedy, and Joel's controversial actions in the finale ensured dark consequences. And as The Last of Us's story evolves, it is Ellie, now an adult in season two, who will be the primary driver of where the story goes next.
With the weight now firmly on Ellie's shoulders, Ramsey had to find a way to give this story the performance it deserved. And to film the season's darkest twist, which fans of the game have been hotly debating for years, Ramsey turned to one of the silliest novelty songs of the 21st century for help: Peanut Butter Jelly Time.
"When I'm doing a super dark scene like that, I find it helpful, for some reason, to be in the completely opposite mindset for the whole day – right up until the moment of being really dark and traumatised," Ramsey explains.
"It's not a matter of cheering myself up. The juxtaposition is so helpful. I need to live in the opposite. So I listened to Peanut Butter Jelly Time in order to go to the depths that I have to go."
That wasn't the only song on Ramsey's feel-good playlist while shooting season two. Ramsey became enamoured with the work of American singer Dan Reeder, 70.
"There's a song called Fuzzyfalafelosophy – good luck spelling that – that I was introduced to this season. It was really sweet song that was completely outside the post-apocalyptic world and was wonderful," Ramsey says.
'Autism made me a better actor'
This isn't a trick that Ramsey picked up from an acting coach. In fact, Ramsey, who started acting at age 11 in Game of Thrones, "doesn't really have a process, necessarily".
Instead, Ramsey, who has recently become open about having autism, partially credits neurodiversity for their acting ability.
"I've been observing people so intensely for all of my life that I have all of this in my subconscious, and it comes to the surface when it needs to," Ramsay says.
"There are many really specific, nuanced emotions that I have picked up on by focusing on how that looks on someone. I've been able to absorb that information and then let it be known because of I'm highly perceptive as a result of being neurodiverse. That really comes out in my acting, and it's part of the reason that I'm able to do it like I do it."
'I'm so grateful to Game of Thrones for setting up my career'
Ramsey, 21, thinks back often to the early days of their career on the Game of Thrones set, as they struggled behind the scenes with the pressures of playing the steely and precocious noblewoman Lyanna Mormont.
"I'm so grateful for the opportunity in Game of Thrones. It set me up for a career I didn't even know I wanted until it started happening. But I think as an actor, I've become more self-assured," says Ramsey.
"I would beat myself up a lot more in the beginning if I had what I perceived to be a bad day on set. If I didn't do a scene quite as well as I thought I could have done, it would kind of ruin my week.
"I've gotten to a point where I understand the process of filmmaking a lot more than I did at 11. I'm able to give myself more grace. Now, if I'm at 95 percent instead of 100 per cent in one scene, it's OK. It's 20 seconds in an entire series. And that's an especially valuable lesson in a show like The Last of Us," Ramsay continues.
'I didn't know how I was going to get through the last few months'
But learning to treat yourself with kindness and listening to viral novelty songs can only get you so far. Season two was an incredibly difficult task for Ramsey – two months of training for the demanding physicality of the season followed by a seven-month shoot.
"It really becomes your life, and I love that part. The grind of it is part of the reason I love being on set so much," says Ramsey.
"By the end of it, I didn't know how I was going to get through the last few months, because the exhaustion was so deep set. But in the end, it pays off, and you get through it with the support of those around you.
"You just have to keep going. That's the trick, I suppose, to endure and survive. So that's what we did," Ramsey continues.
Perhaps another reason that Ellie's journey in season two feels so real is that it mirrors Ramsey's own. They've grown up together, established their independence, and through adversity come out the other side ready for anything.
"These have been formative years, for both of us," says Ramsey.
The Last of Us season two premieres on Monday on OSN+ in the Middle East
