ABOUT ASHLEY...

When you first get into this business there are a lot of people that will tell you what you need to do, who you need to be, and what you need to change about yourself to be successful. My first ever acting teacher in college Tracey Copeland Halter (shoutout to you my Queen) told me I didn’t need to change anything about MYself to become an actor. I didn’t need to lose weight, I didn’t need to look different, I didn’t need to dye my hair, I didn’t need to lower my voice, I didn’t need to say ‘jam’ the right way phonetically, I didn’t need to learn placement of how to say words and Shakespeare, I could just be myself and be an actor. I myself was the character that God created. And in that, I Iearned that I was wonderfully unique and infinitely more interesting than any character I can ‘create’-I mean Stanislavski was kind of right about that. And plays, scripts, words, movies, dialogue could flow through ME. I’ll never forget that explosion of courage from her and more recently I have been thinking on that and how I have tried to stray from myself for a long time. And although that version of myself has changed throughout the years and sometimes I got lost in a not so right version of me - her telling me that has resurfaced. The fact I could be myself and I could be successful and I can be an actor just being me and showing different versions of me. There are different masks we wear and we are different people to different people on different days and in different places and it changes every day and part of the joy of acting to me is exploring those different facets of myself.  Filtering stories through my own personal and vulnerable human experience in an effort to connect more deeply to people and to the world. But, Tracey reminded me I didn’t have to change MYSELF and I am sticking to that. So, this is me not changing myself or molding myself into weird imaginary standards of what other’s idea of me should be. This is me just being me and showing you that. Everything is here and I hope you enjoy looking around and seeing what makes me. And hopefully it encourages you to be more you. And hopefully you like me and will go watch my movies and my work so we can connect through that beautiful human existence cinema creates.  I hope to keep creating so I can keep connecting with you. 

Love, 

Me