Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey admits she was surprised to be cast in season 8

**Game of Thrones season 8 spoilers below**

Game of Thrones season eight is not without its faults, but one of the highlights is the excellent performance from 15-year-old Bella Ramsey who played powerhouse Lady Lyanna Mormont.

‘I don’t know how they did it,’ she said of her co-stars. ‘It was winter and filming in minus temperatures at midnight so it made your body clock go completely out of order.’

Despite the cold and miserable conditions, every the trooper Bella admits she got a buzz out if filming at night.

‘I enjoyed shooting at night, there’s a different energy on set,’ she said.

‘I got very cold one night, I got so cold I couldn’t speak – that’s Belfast at midnight!’

Fans will remember Lyanna had an encounter with Ser Jorah Mormont (played by Iain Glen) in the episode and Bella recalls it was ‘refreshing’.

‘That was the first scene that wasn’t a big scene in a horde which was nice – it was refreshing to have a scene like that.

‘It was an honour to be part of it,’ she said of the HBO juggernaut.

‘After I finished season six I didn’t know whether I was going to be back for season seven, then after seven I highly doubted that I’d be back for season eight.

‘So the fact that they asked me back, I’m very grateful.’

Having been catapulted into the spotlight at a young age, the rigorous filming schedule that comes with the acting profession does take its toll on Bella’s education.

‘Different projects have different strictness levels, some are really strict about tutoring and some aren’t,’ she explained.

‘So I’ve always just gone with it and done what I can. I’ve not pushed myself to burnout to the point where it’s exhausting because that’s not worth it.

‘I’ve kind of managed to balance it in a way where I can give an equal amount of energy to both.

‘I’ve always loved acting and I’ve also always loved learning, so trying to balance it has always been a challenge but InterHigh as always helped me be flexible with that.

‘It’s on online platform for learning but they’re really flexible, so if I miss a lesson I can just catch up.

‘Sometimes it’s hard to get the motivation to do it.’

Bella’s advice to young people who need to catch up on school work is simply just making a start.

‘My advice is to just start doing it because once you’ve got past that it just gets easier, so just do it.

‘Also what I find really hard is just making a schedule for myself so in the morning if I know I’ve got loads to catch up on, I often will struggle to do it unless I set out on paper what I’m going to do that day.

‘That way it kind of structures it like school in a way.’

Bella is about to go into Year 11 and is hoping to do her GCSEs this year but is keen to prioritise her acting commitments.