Is Ashley Johnson The Original Ellie Of The Last Of Us? Comprehensive Information

Is Ashley Johnson the original Ellie of The Last Of Us? Here is some interesting information about the actress and her role in The Last Of Us.
On March 3rd, HBO unveiled a preview image of a pregnant and visibly stressed-out woman in advance of The Last Of Us Season 1 finale. This woman is no other than Anna Williams, Ellie's mother.
The actress who takes of the role of Anna Williams is Ashley Johnson. Beside her brilliant performance in the TV series, Ashley is also receiving a lot of attention all over the Internet as she is said to be "the original Ellie" of The Last Of Us. So, what does "the original Ellie" mean?

 

#1. Is Ashley Johnson The Original Ellie Of The Last Of Us?

Source: Twitter @chrisdadeviant

Yes, Ashley Johnson is the original Ellie of The Last Of Us. Ashley Johnson provided the voice and motion capture for Ellie in the original games which are The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind and The Last of Us Part II. Thanks to her amazing performance, she received a video game BAFTA for Best Performer and a VGX Award for Best Voice Actress. On March 12, 2015, she won another BAFTA for Best Performer for the same role.

 

#2. Is Anna An Important Role In The Last Of Us?

Source: HBO

As we all know, The Last Of Us is based on the 2013 video game of the same name. According to the synopsis, The Last Of Us takes place "after modern society has been destroyed". The show revolves around Ellie and Joel, who survived through the "brutal circumstances and ruthless killers" with their father-daugher like relationship.
Anna actually never appears in the game. She was a friend of Marlene's. She left behind a note and her trusty switchblade for Ellie. That was everything we used to know about her.

Source: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Due to Anna's minor appearance in the game, the majority of original fans don't remember seeing her in it. But it's already confirmed that the HBO series will go deeper into her persona to bring out a more captivating background. As Anna's touching story comes to the screen, the viewers would be able to learn more about the secrets and mysteries related to Ellie. Now we know that during the terrifying Cordyceps brain infection epidemic, Anna gave birth to Ellie. However, she passed away just hours later.
“It does hint at and give some theories as to why Ellie immune, even though we don’t answer that conclusively,” creator and showrunner Neil Druckman noted.

ASHLEY JOHNSON #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/vVXOiMoFf8

— camila (@elliewatchbken) March 6, 2023

#3. Ashley Johnson's Experience With The Last Of Us

Source: The Independent

Ashley Johnson got the role of Ellie in the original game after doing a few auditions. The Last Of Us was not her first voiceover, but it was indeed her first video game project and first motion-capture.
"It’s very weird. I think if you were voicing a character and then you see that person walking around with your body movements, you’d think it was weird too. Weird and exciting. Mostly I’m just so excited that it’s done and I can’t wait for people to play it, knowing where the story goes. It’s going to be good!", the actress shared about her experience in an interview with PlayStation.Blog.
She also talked about the advantage of doing motion capture. “It's a really great process because you have so much more time to experiment - you don't have to wait on lighting, or the set up of having to change some of the set design, or having to change your clothes,” she said.

god she’s so talented like there’s a reason she won two BAFTAs for playing ellie. she’s just an absolutely incredible actress pic.twitter.com/KhPdQKehnY

— marissa (@fearneyasha) February 20, 2023

Here's an interesting trivia: Ashley Johnson nearly got into a fight during the process of The Last Of Us. To be more specific, she had a conflict with one of the actors who was initially considered for the role of Joel. Apparently, there were "a heated push during acting and subsequent push back". This almost resulted in fists flying. Later on, Troy Baker took on the role of Joel and he did an incredible job.
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