Ashley Johnson

The Last of Us video game star Ashley Johnson was blown away by Bella Ramsey's portrayal of Ellie in the HBO series.

"It’s heartbreaking because I know that life doesn’t get better for them, and she is just so beautiful to watch because even in just these subtle moments there’s so much going on. "Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it [won't] be fairly different at all, but it's going to be different. So ride along as we go through all of the biggest video game releases you’ll be able to play on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC in March 2023.Also, you can browse the IGN Playlist of all the biggest titles launching in March. "She was exploring sides of her that will make sense for Season 2 because where the second game goes is even darker and heavier," Johnson said. "I’m sure there’s pressure for anybody to take on a character that people know well, and I think she’s killed it." "It has been such a joy to watch her because she’s so good.

Bella Ramsey was stepping into some incredibly big shoes when she was cast as Ellie in HBO's The Last of Us. In the games, the character is played by Ashley ...

Ramsey nailed her performance in the first season, but anyone that’s played The Last of Us Part II will know that she’ll have to step it up another notch for where Ellie’s story goes. Johnson has played Ellie over multiple games now and would be a lock for any future The Last of Us Part II sequel so she’s understandably protective of her. One of the first scenes we shot is the truck ambush and in the game you get pulled out of the truck and you’re wrestling with this guy until Joel comes and saves you.

The Last of Us' Ellie game actor Ashley Johnson has admitted it was a "surprise" to be asked to appear in the HBO series. Johnson, who plays Ellie's mom ...

For more from the series, check out our guide to the major "And so [Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann] came to me and was like, ‘Hey man, I got a role for you.’ I'm like, ‘Oh dude, thank you.’ And I thought it was looking to be like a clicker or something. And he goes, ‘I want you to play James.’ And I went, ‘Oh my God, thank you, man... "Because I'm sure you all know that, most of the time with a video game adaptation to screen, generally the video game voice actors or motion capture artists, they don't also go into the fold." I didn't expect it. I really wasn't anticipating it.

Co-creator Neil Druckmann reveals why original Ellie actor Ashley Johnson was nervous about her role as Ellie's mother on HBO's The Last Of Us.

Part of the brilliance of The Last of Us' finale is that it presents a genuinely confounding moral dilemma to which there is no easy answer. Spoilers ahead for The Last Of Us season 1 finale.](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) [](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) [The Last of Us](https://screenrant.com/tag/the-last-of-us/) co-creator Neil Druckmann explains why Ashley Johnson, who voiced Ellie in the video games, was nervous about appearing in the hit HBO adaptation. Joel acts as an interesting flip side to this coin, essentially willing to doom the future of humanity in order to keep Ellie alive. [The Last Of Us' season 1 finale](https://screenrant.com/last-us-finale-ending-joel-choices-showrunner-explained/), with the former explaining that Johnson was initially nervous about her role. Joel quickly realizes, however, that making a cure from Ellie's blood will involve killing her in the process, something that eventually leads him to go on a rampage through the hospital. I think that kind of gave her some ease to say, 'Okay, someone else is watching me, someone else who really loves and cares about these characters,' and I told her, 'Just do what you do, which is collaborate.'

Following their performances in The Last of Us on HBO and HBO Max, many are wondering if Ashley Johnson and Bella Ramsey are related.

No, Ashley Johnson and Bella Ramsey are not related to one another in real life. Audiences noted just how great a job the casting team had done with Johnson and Ramsey, saying that they were similar in both their mannerisms and looks, even down to their voices. [The Last of Us](/tag/the-last-of-us/) concluded its first season on [HBO](/tag/hbo/) with Episode 9, which introduced Ellie’s mother Anna Williams, played by renowned voice actor Ashley Johnson.

Ashley Johnson gave us a brilliant performance as Ellie's mom in The Last of Us, and it acted as an emotional full circle moment for the actor.

Ellie's voice actress from the original game returned to pay respect to the heroine in her own special way, and she was ecstatic to do it.

The layers of being able to play Ellie's mom and the metaphor of bringing her into the world and being the first person to fight to keep her alive," says Johnson. Laura Bailey, who was the motion capture and voice actor for Abby in The Last of Us Part II, also appeared as one of the nurses at the Salt Lake City hospital. Not only that, she was given an opportunity that voice actors rarely ever have, to fill the shoes of essentially a new character that directly impacts the life of the character she originally played. On top of that, the finale revealed the origin of Ellie's birth and her mysterious immunity to the cordyceps fungal infection. Anna was a character that did not appear in the original game, only briefly referenced, mostly by Marlene in audio recordings near the end of the game. Yet another record number of viewers tuned in to watch the end of Joel and Ellie's painstaking journey to Salt Lake City, where some impossibly heavy personal choices were made between the two of them upon meeting Marlene and The Fireflies at the city hospital.