The Last of Us: Teen actress honoured to land lead role

Bella Ramsey will play Ellie in a series adaptation of video game The Last of Us

A teenage actress has said it is a "privilege and honour" to land a lead role in a new HBO adaptation of hit video game The Last of Us.

Bella Ramsey is currently filming the series, based on the highly acclaimed Sony PlayStation games, in Canada.

The 18-year-old will play Ellie alongside fellow Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal, who has been cast as joint main character Joel.

She said the role "definitely feels like the biggest thing" in her career.

The 18-year-old is filming in Canada for 10 months

Speaking from Canada, where she is filming for 10 months, Bella - from Leicestershire - said she was on a different set when she heard she got the role.

"I was quite glad I was busy and working because it is a big thing. It can be quite overwhelming.

"The fact I had work to keep me semi-distracted from it was a good thing. But it is a complete privilege and an honour.

"Game of Thrones was the first thing I ever did and that was HBO. The same exec Carolyn Strauss on that is also producing this, so it feels like it's come full circle - it's really nice," she added.

The actress has also starred in BBC series The Worst Witch

The actress, who also starred in series The Worst Witch, added: "It [The Last of Us] does definitely feel like the biggest thing I have done and I have to not think about that too much as it freaks me out a little bit."

She added: "When I got over here I had two weeks' quarantine alone with my thoughts and I had to not think about the scale of it.

"But when you are on set it's like anything else - the same environment, the same crew."

The video game's sequel, The Last of Us 2, was released in 2020

The game is set 20 years after the destruction of society and most of the population has been infected by a mind-controlling fungus that turns its hosts hostile and cannibalistic.

Characters Joel and Ellie are tasked with escaping a pandemic in post-apocalyptic America.

The video game sequel was released last year and won six awards at the Golden Joysticks, including best storytelling and game of the year.

Without giving too much away about the series, the actress added: "There are quite a few fans of the game in the crew and they've said lots of things are very, very similar to the game, lots of the sets feel like they are walking into the video game, so that's good I guess. Apart from that I have to keep a lot of it pretty quiet."