02 November 2023 , 13:09
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Time star Bella Ramsey has shared the diagnosis that leaves them 'paralysed' following the premiere of their latest TV project.
The 20-year-old spoke candidly about their experience as a neurodivergent person in a recent interview, explaining that it significantly influences their career in showbiz and their approach to new roles. Bella, who plays Kelsey Morgan in the second series of the BBC drama anthology, admitted that the condition especially influences their strategy for learning lines ahead of filming.
The Game of Thrones star explained that they often rehearse lines "in the car on the way" to the studio, as their neurodivergence can delay them from familiarizing themselves with the script in time. They also said that the condition makes them extremely sensitive to "micro-expressions and social cues", admitting they may not have pursued a career in entertainment had they been born neurotypical.
Bella Ramsey in Time alongside Tamara Lawrance as Abi and Jodie Whittaker as Orla (BBC Studios/BBC. Photographer: Sally Mais)"I don’t know if I’d be an actor if it wasn’t for that," they told the Times. "One of my things is I’m very perceptive, sometimes too perceptive. I get paralysed because I just see everything – it takes me four hours to get round Tesco’s."
Bella, who was nominated for an Emmy for their role in The Last of Us, has also admitted that being cast in Time was a "scary" process. The Nottingham native portrays Kelsey, a heavily pregnant teenager with a drug addiction who has recently been imprisoned. After discovering that judges can be more lenient when sentencing expectant mothers, the 19-year-old decides to keep their baby.
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“Kelsey was a character that felt more external, that was terrifying. So to be given this opportunity, to be trusted with this character that I didn’t feel like it came naturally to me, it was scary,” Bella explained. The challenging role has the non-binary actor take on a number of violent scenes, one of which involves Kelsey being beaten up by one inmate and another which sees them being sexually assaulted. Bella has said they doesn't prepare for such graphic moments, arguing that overthinking it beforehand compromises the realism of the final take.
"If I prepare for them, they’re not for real,” they added, of how they develop their hard-hitting roles. “If I think about it too much, and if I prepare how I’m going to feel or what my face is going to do, like thinking about it too much so I don’t think about it. That’s the way I find I want to do it.
“I don’t even feel the fear in rehearsals, because it’s only when action is called that I feel it for the first time, because it’s real, or it feels real anyway and it’s coming from a place of instinct, rather than thought or intellect."
Time Series 2 starts on 29th October on BBC One.