In a sturdy, redbrick barn in rural Leicestershire, England, Bella Ramsey considers a 10-foot drop from the highest of a hay bale. It’s an icy, mid-winter morning and the lead of the zombie mega-hit The Final of Us has requested we meet at a family-run farm close to to the place they grew up, the place members of the general public can take pleasure in tractor rides and feed the animals (of which there are loads, together with an ornery-looking goat that Ramsey claims to have visited since they had been a baby).
The temper is instantly frolicsome. “I’m going to drop down,” they holler at me with that slight flick of a lisp you’ll acknowledge off the telly. At this, they leap from the bale, wrapping their legs round a rope swing. I’m momentarily gripped by visions of HBO executives screaming in concern because the principal actor on their reportedly $100 million-a-season post-apocalyptic thriller breaks an ankle. Fortunately, they stick the touchdown gracefully. “Enjoyable!” they enthuse breathlessly, fortunately brushing some errant hay off their pale black Adidas sweatshirt.
Granted, a muddy farmyard within the Midlands is just not probably the most celeb-y setting for a sit-down with Vogue, but it surely simply so occurs that that is one in every of Ramsey’s favourite locations. It definitely suits their vibe. The Ramsey household is a good unit: dinners at residence, household viewings of The Chase—Bella just lately entered a pub quiz with their dad and mom and acquired a wood spoon for coming in final.
We’d met earlier within the parking zone of the native practice station—I noticed Ramsey waving wildly at me, wearing a standard-issue black puffer and white Adidas trainers, trying to the untrained eye like each different British youth on a grey day. “Search for the tiny pink automobile,” they’d instructed me on textual content. The automobile is certainly pink and tiny, and after I squeezed in they cheerfully introduced that they failed their driving take a look at 4 occasions. “This,” they are saying drolly after by chance drifting into the fallacious lane, “is the roundabout I failed on.”
Though don’t be fully fooled. For all their approachability—they simply supplied me a pair of wellies—Ramsey ranks excessive among the many most profitable actors of their technology. In 2023, virtually 40 million individuals watched their first look in The Final of Us and it has since grow to be HBO’s most-viewed present ever in Europe. Within the public eye for slightly below half their life, their ascent from British baby actor to Hollywood title got here courtesy of one other streaming juggernaut, Recreation of Thrones, through which they starred, age 11, as flinty-eyed noblewoman Lyanna Mormont. But aside from a querulous baby in bottle glasses who asks if Ramsey is Mildred from CBBC’s The Worst Witch (they had been and, sure, they’re completely happy to take a photograph), the farm remains to be someplace they will go largely unrecognized. The bored petting zoo attendant who fingers over a white rabbit to Ramsey definitely doesn’t clock them from their front-row appearances at Dior. Ramsey likes it for that reason. “Hey, little man,” they whisper as they stroke the quivering bunny.
