'Last of Us' guest star Storm Reid on Riley-Bella relationship: 'Love is beautiful'

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- A Wrinkle in Time and The Suicide Squad alum Storm Reid guest starred on Sunday's episode of the post-apocalyptic drama, The Last of Us, playing Riley, the best friend and love interest of teen heroine Ellie (Bella Ramsey.)

The episode showed in flashback the pair having a fun night out exploring an abandoned shopping mall and sharing their first kiss before getting attacked by fungi-infested monsters called clickers.

"It's 2023. If you're concerned about who I love, then I need you to get your priorities straight," Reid told Entertainment Weekly about any viewers upset by the girls' relationship in the video-game adaptation, which also co-stars Pedro Pascal.

"There's so many other things to worry about in life. Why are you concerned that these young people -- or anybody -- love each other? Love is beautiful, and the fact that people have things to say about it, it's just nonsense."

Ramsey told Variety the romance is relatable.

"When you have a crush on somebody, you're like: 'I don't know whether they like me back! I don't know how I feel!' So, I think the way that that is shown and translated into a story like this is so cool, and especially unexpected for a post-apocalyptic show," Ramsey explained.

"Who would have thought that we would be zooming in on two teenagers figuring out an awkward friendship-crush situation? It's something that was very much just there in the script. I'd seen quite a lot of gameplay of 'Left Behind,' so I sort of felt it from that, too."

Ramsey tweeted Monday morning: "I was fast asleep when the episode came out last night so I missed my weekly tweet. Rip. Normally I'm accidentally still awake at 2am. Bigger rip. So anyway I have no idea how the episode went down, but I hope you liked it?"