In 2023, Bella said in an interview that they had recently been diagnosed as neurodivergent. “I don’t know if I’d be an actor if it wasn’t for [being neurodivergent]. One of my things is I’m very perceptive, sometimes too perceptive. I get paralyzed because I just see everything — it takes me four hours to get round Tesco’s,” they explained, noting a sensitivity for “micro-expressions and social cues.”
In a new interview with British Vogue, Bella said that they, “for some reason,” had never wanted to specify what they had been diagnosed with. They then said, “I got diagnosed with autism when I was filming season one of The Last of Us.”
Though Bella had “always wondered” if they had been autistic, it took a crew member with an autistic child assuming that they were also autistic to spark a formal assessment. They described themself as a “weirdo” and a “loner” as a child, experiencing hyperawareness of people’s expressions and sensory issues. The latter included their reaction to the thermals and waterproofs that have to be worn on the show’s cold shoots, which they described as “too much stuff on my body.”
Bella described autism as an asset to acting, noting, “I’ve always been watching and learning from people. Having to learn more manually how to socialize and interact with the people around me has helped me with acting.” They further said that they enjoy the routines of set: “I have a call time, and I’m told what to wear, how to stand, where to stand and what to eat.”
As for the “freeing” diagnosis, Bella said, “It enables me to walk through the world with more grace towards myself about not being able to do the easy everyday tasks that everyone else seems to be able to do.”
When compared to labels surrounding their gender identity and sexuality, the 21-year-old explained, “The label of being autistic has been so helpful to me because that’s helped me to understand myself, but gender and sexuality-wise, labels do not feel comfy for me in any capacity, because I feel like I’m putting myself into a box. I feel trapped.”
Indeed, Bella is aware — and “a bit sad” — of their inability to explore their gender and sexual identity in private. Conversely, sharing their autism diagnosis allows them to “unmask immediately” when speaking to people. “My experience of moving through the world is as an autistic person,” they added. “There’s no reason for people not to know.”
You can read the full interview here.