Be true to yourself. Keep finding new things about yourself, keep going. When you feel like giving up, DONT.
From my elementary life through High School, I did a few plays here and there, but it wasn’t until I got to college where I performed my biggest production that made me feel alive and where I was meant to be. I performed in the play “Hair” the musical. Not “Hair Spray”, but the off broadway, love, rock musical “Hair”. My cast and crew mates all became a family and part of something beautiful and meaningful. We evoked emotion throughout the audience and touched lives.
Did you study acting
Growing up, I went to a private elementary school in denver where each class performed a play every year. I knew i liked acting, but at that time, I had a different dream. It wasn’t until I saw the movie Tombstone where I realized i was meant to act. I realized that I love to feel my emotions and when people escape their own reality, they love to feel emotions as well. I wanted to help others feel emotions, escape reality and dive into another world even if it was just for a few hours. I was maybe in 5th grade when I saw that movie, but since then I knew I wanted to act so, I started to study TV/Film acting with this group called Kid Skits. My coach was this amazing lady with red hair. She was never afraid to do things or show things and she wanted her students to be the same. In society, a lot of emotions are private or embarrassing or deemed inappropriate. When acting, you have to use those emotions, you have to feel them and bring them. Holding back created a help actor. As I got to high school, I joined an acting group called CRUNK at the Shadow Theatre Company. My coach there was also a willing person. Someone who wasn’t afraid to be silly or to be a big kid and use his imagination. There is where I learned to let go and be loose, be free and fun. People grow up thinking they have to be realistic and be an adult, but you can still be fun, adventurous, creative, and let your kid inside take the reins for a little bit. Getting into college and where I am today, I study at AEC Studios with my Coaches being Brian McCulley and John Crockett. They teach me how and when to use my emotions. How to use my authority and my presents. How to become a better me and not apologize for who I am. They give me techniques and tools to put in my actor’s toolbox and provide me with opportunities to represent myself. Every day is an acting lesson.
Amber Lynn Ashley’s Reel: http://t.co/sOqE5rhJHE via @YouTube
— Amber Lynn Ashley (@MissAmberAshley) July 4, 2015
What acting technique do you use
There are many techniques and tools that I get and put in my actor’s toolbox. I use different ones for different project or characters. The biggest tool that I learned and use for everything are called “Archetypes”. For every person or character, there is an archetype. Knowing what archetype your character and role is, helps bring that character’s persona/qualities out to life. Sense memory is also something I like to use because it helps bring realness to the character. When the character is experiencing something, it helps knowing how that experience really felt so you can bring that part of you to the character, however, this can backfire if you have never experienced something. That is why having many techniques and tools in your actor’s toolbox is important. not everything works for every actor, but it’s better to have a tool that doesn’t work than to have nothing at all.
What wrong impressions do actors hold about acting
There is a saying “acting is reacting” and it is, but it only works when its true, real, authentic, and coming from some place in you. Acting isn’t just reading lines or saying words. It’s knowing what you are saying, feeling what you are saying, and why. Its not just telling a story, its showing a story. When an actor isn’t true or authentic, the audience can feel that, can tell, and won’t give into it. Acting isn’t telling the emotion, it’s showing, feeling, giving the emotion.
Do you take courses to improve your craft
I am still taking classes. Acting classes for actors is like the gym to body builders. You guild muscle memory and you grow and you keep building. Taking a short break for yourself is ok. Everyone needs breaks, but then you go back in it to re-build and keep learning. Every coach, classmate etc. can teach something to someone. The world can be the teacher. I take the bus sometimes and just people watch and learn from every person and character around me. Animals can be teachers as well. How they move, act, interact, feel and more.
What acting books do you read
There are a lot of good books to read from that can help with acting. Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen is a classic. Acting for the Camera by Tony Barr. Acting in Film by Michael Caine is one of my favorites. I believe it also can come with a video of him teaching. What I also like to use is not an acting book, but something that helps me learn about qualities, personalities, and myself. This book is called The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler. It gives every emotional qualities a personality and brings them to life. It’s really cool and can put some emotions into perspective that can be used throughout acting.
How do you keep fit as an actor
Acting can be really hard. Because you are using your own emotions for characters, sometimes working an emotion can spike what you are dealing or feeling with personally. i find that because acting is an art, when times get tough with acting, I like to keep my creative mind active in a secondary art form. Having a secondary art form keeps artists sane. I studies photography in college and so now I love taking photographs of almost everything I see. I also love doing mixed media art. Painting on top of some of my photographs, adding dirt to a painting. Things like that. Physically, I keep myself active at the gym. It helps that my sister is now a personal trainer, but even a walk around a park while listening to music helps keep me moving and clears my mind.
When you’re offered a role, what do you do next
Reading the script many times helps find the character within the scrip. Then I start breaking down the script scene or section by section. This helps me find motives, character traits, emotions, etc. for my character. This also helps me understand the story deeper and deeper, that way the lines will start to flow more natural. That world starts to become for real. Rehearsing is good, but I don’t like to over rehearse because then things can become unnatural and robotic.
How do you take a character in a script to a honest, believable and breathing person
Breaking down a script and understanding the character until it becomes second nature. Giving the character emotional qualities. Give the character an archetype and a persona. Giving the character movement and thoughts. Then putting a little of myself into the character, makes my character a breathing person.
How do you stay fresh on set
Some actors stay in character till the character becomes them. Depending on the character, ill do that, however, sometimes I like to check myself back in while letting the character take a nap. Staying in character can be tiring, can be fun or can be dangerous. It all depends on the actor and who they are as a person themselves. I like to stay centered with myself and let the character stay in the world the character lives in. I don’t let myself get distracted. Just simply taking a break and refreshing myself between cuts is all that’s needed.
Describe a memorable character you played
I did a one act play in college called Two Truths and a Lie and my character was called Claire. iIt was about a women, Claire, and her ex-boyfriend playing a game called Two Truths and a Lie every time they met each other at the same time at the door of their apartment. The reason they played was because they no longer were together, but they still lived in the same apartment. Who ever got to the apartment first, after work, would get to stay the night there and the other would have to crash somewhere else. However, if they got there at the same times, they would play the game and whoever won, got to stay. Throughout the play, the audience starts to realize, they still love each other, but the game keeps them apart. Eventually one is going to get tired of playing games and will be gone forever. it reminded me that one day in life, you are going to have to stop playing games or you could lose everything.
Explain one creative choice you took on set
I can’t really think of one specific direction. Usually when a director gives a direction, the actor should take direction literally. What some people don’t realize is that there is more freedom in that that it sounds like. Thinking outside the box sometimes helps a direction stand out more.
What do you want most from a director
Directors always have a vision and know what they want to see or have. Most times directors don’t know what its like to be an actor. The emotions or the challenges that are faced. I guess what a lot of actors want most from directors is direction. Don’t just throw me in a project and say “action”. Gives me the vision you see so I can put that into my character.
What actors do you long to work with
Wow there are so many. Helena Bonham Carter is one of my favorite actors today. She is a chameleon and you don’t see that in a lot of female actors. Viola Davis is just so inspiring and powerful in her performances. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Christian Bale, Colin Firth, Taraji P. Henson. The list goes on.
Why
I want to work with actors who challenge themselves, make classics, change history, and are just powerful actors. I want this because that’s what I consider who I am and what kind of actor I am. They are great actors and make great art and one day I want a young actor to feel the same way about me.
What advice would you give to actors
Be true to who you are. Don’t apologize. keep finding new things about yourself and just keep going. When you feel like giving up, don’t.
Briefly write about your career
I have done many student films and many plays in my life. Sentences and Words, Two Truths and a Lie, Hair the Musical, The Heidi Chronicles, Getting in Cars with boys, The Locals, Words, and more. To be honest, as an African American Woman, getting into the business is that much harder to find roles. Leading roles more or less. It’s very hard and sometimes can get to my head, but we have a black president now, anything is possible, everything is out there. To help keep a lookout for my success, find photos or see my reel, my website and my photography website.
