Bella Ramsey has discussed the “hardest” scene to film in HBO’s The Last of Us, and it was a moment that even led to a camera operator crying behind the lens as well. Ramsey said they were “really worried” about filming this scene. This story contains spoilers.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Ramsey said the most challenging scene to film was in Season 2, Episode 3, when Ellie goes into Joel’s closet and smells one of his jackets. Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, died in the previous episode. Ellie begins sobbing in this scene, and Ramsey’s performance is crushing and memorable. It was difficult to film, Ramsey said, because they have a hard time crying on command.
“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,” Ramsey said. “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.”
Ramsey went on to say that in the past, they tried to think about something very sad in their own life to bring about the waterworks. But that’s not the approach Ramsey took for this scene.
“I was remembering the happiest of memories that I have with Pedro,” Ramsey said. “The thing that is always the saddest for me is remembering the happy things. 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.”
Viewers might have shed a tear during this sequence, too, and even the director of photography for the episode, Ksenia Sereda, cried while the camera was rolling.
“I was operating that shot and I was crying with [Ramsey] because it was so strong,” Sereda said in a behind-the-scenes video.
Although Joel is dead, The Last of Us will feature a lot more Joel in Season 2. New episodes of The Last of Us air Sunday nights at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET on HBO and Max. The next episode of The Last of Us will introduce Jeffrey Wright’s character, Isaac.
