Spoilers below for The Last of Us’ fifth episode, so be warned and wary if you haven’t yet watched!
HBO’s The Last of Us is barrelling ahead towards what will no doubt be a gobsmacking Season 1 finale, with viewers having the comfort of knowing more chaos is coming via a second season. Presumably by then, star Bella Ramsey will be ready to once again put their bodily safety on the line in bringing Ellie to TV audiences. Okay, so the risks aren’t quite so high, but the Game of Thrones vet did reveal a metaphorical battle scar they were proud to walk away with after filming Episode 5’s massive final act sequence that introduced the first behemoth Bloater creature.
Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s adaptation of The Last of Us changed things up quite a bit from the game for “Endure and Survive,” by way of a sinkhole turning a Kansas City cul-de-sac into an open-field slaughterhouse, with a seemingly endless assortment of Runners and Clickers being unearthed. The chaos that ensued, which brutally toppled Kathleen’s resistance squad, was no doubt quite a challenge to bring together on the set. But for an IGN Fan Fest interview, Ramsey sounded like they had the best time, despite any and all minor injuries, saying:
I mean, it was incredibly stressful, but in a way that felt amazing. I got so many bruises. I actually got a real black eye at one point. The Clickers are dragging Lamar and Kevin's Sam and Henry out from under the car, and I stab him, the Clicker, and he dies. At one point, as he was flailing around dying during a take, he accidentally - the poor guy - whacked me in the eye. I was so proud of it. It was just... I had a great time.
One might have expected to hear that Bella Ramsey got hurt while filming the moments where Ellie was momentarily trapped in a vehicle with a child Clicker, given the minimal room to move around. But according to the Last of Us star, it was another Clicker actor whose physical performance became a bit too unwieldy, leading to Ramsey apparently sporting a shiner.
In the scheme of things, getting bopped in the face by a Clicker’s hand is easily a best-case scenario during such a horrific ordeal, at least in terms of if the show’s events happened in real life. (Which isn’t necessarily so dissimilar to what’s happening out there.) Another purely optimistic outcome would be “a Bloater spilling his coffee on me,” and that’s taking into account it being hot coffee.
During that same interview, which touched upon Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey sharing a Game of Thrones history, the Mandalorian star talked about one of the biggest joys while filming the show was when he and Ramsey were able to go off on their own together to ride horses amidst the gorgeous filming locations in Alberta, Canada. One of the animals made things a little less predictable, though, by way of having a lot of energy that needed to be burned off before filming scenes. Thankfully, though, there were no issues involved there where Ramsey took an accidental horse hoof to the face.
Even though Ellie may be immune to the Cordyceps infection within the world of The Last of Us, she’s certainly not immortal, so let’s hope the character and her portrayer are able to stay safe and far from the clutches of Clickers and Runners in upcoming episodes hitting HBO, which are also available to stream with an HBO Max subscription.
One can only imagine how badly things will go during the flashbacks that lay out Ellie and Riley’s time together, with actress Storm Reid telling CinemaBlend that it’ll be a big heartbreaker of an installment. But first, we'll have to reconnect with Gabriel Luna's Tommy!
