Bella Ramsey, the actress playing Elle in the upcoming The Last of Us television series revealed she hasn’t played the video game it’s based on.

Ramsey said she was also encouraged by the show’s producers to avoid playing the games in a new interview.

“After my first audition, they asked me, ‘have you played it?'” Ramsey said to USA Today. Ramsey admitted she hasn’t played the games and they told her to “keep it that way.”

That said, she isn’t fully ignorant on what The Last of Us is like. Ramsey said “I did watch some of the gameplay on YouTube just to get a sense of it.”

Her co-star, Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel in The Last of Us TV show, has also maintained what he says to be a “healthy distance” from the source material. He admitted he only watched his nephew play the game briefly, before he left for filming earlier this year.

“I found Joel so impressive – I found the whole of it such a visually impressive experience.” He said.

Pascal then explained his reasoning for wanting to not follow the game closely: “I got worried that I would want to imitate too much, which I think could be right in some circumstances, and then a mistake in others.”

Recently the TV series has shared its first full trailer staring the 2 leads in their roles as the 2 main characters from the game. A premiere date for HBO’s The Last of Us TV show is set for sometime in 2023.

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