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Time star Bella Ramsey on the impact being neurodivergent has had on their acting career

Bella doubts they would be an actor without it...

Actor Bella Ramsey is currently impressing TV viewers in the new gritty BBC drama Time.

Season two of the series stars Bella as Kelsey Morgan alongside former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker as Orla O’Riordan and Tamara Lawrance as Abi Cochrane. Set in an all-female prison, the second outing of the show follows on from season one, which was set in an all-male prison.

The first series starred acting talent such as Stephen Graham and Sean Bean.

At only 20 years of age, Bella has already had an impressive career. Bella was recently diagnosed as neurodivergent, something that the star believes helps them as an actor.

Actor Bella Ramsey standing and smiling at a press event
The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey has spoken about being a neurodivergent actor (Credit: SplashNews)

Time star Bella Ramsey on acting

Talking to The Times, the star opened up about their “process” when it comes to acting and how their diagnosis as being neurodivergent is helping to create a name as an actor.

When asked about being neurodivergent and if it fed into their acting, Bella told the publication: “Massively. I don’t know if I’d be an actor if it wasn’t for that.”

Bella continued: “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.”

When it comes to research and learning lines, Bella takes a somewhat relaxed approach.

“I learn them in the car on the way,” Bella responsed to being asked about learning lines.

Bella plays Kelsey in the show, a heroin addict expecting a baby with her abusive boyfriend, Adam.

Actor Bella Ramsey in character of Kelsey for the BBC One show Time
Bella Ramsey has had an impressive career and can be seen in Time on BBC iPlayer (Credit: BBC/Sally Mais)

Trusting the process

Like many of their previous acting roles, Bella doesn’t have the same life experience as their characters. However, in practice for the role they tried not to prepare too much,

Bella said: “I knew nothing about drug misuse, so I was quite naive coming into it.”

They added that they visited HMP Styal in Cheshire. It was there they spoke to “a lady who has been in and out of the prison system from quite a young age. She had children she had to leave behind, and when she came out they were her reason for getting clean. The way she spoke about addiction, that every cell of your body needs the hit — that really helped”.

Bella added that apart from that, they try not to prepare. They said: “I don’t really do prep. That is sort of my ‘process’ — please put that in inverted commas.”

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Other work credits

Fans might be wondering where they recognise Bella from and it could be from a number of shows. This includes the recent HBO hit The Last of Us where Bella played Ellie Williams.

Bella also starred as Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch and Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. Not to mention their voiceover roles in Hilda on Netflix and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.

Read more: First look at Time series 2 cast, including Doctor Who star

Time continues on Sunday night from 9pm on BBC One. Time series 1 and 2 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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What do you think of the cast of Time series 2? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.


Jamie Body
Freelance Writer

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