Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Colleen Wit and today we have very special guest actress, writer, filmmaker, director. I didn't want to add all those titles. I'm sorry. Ashley Versa is in the building.
Hello, Hello, Hello, how are you doing? I'm good?
How are you good? I'm hungry? Really yeah, okay, even though I did have like a bagel with lockspread.
You're hungry.
That was earlier. That was earlier.
Okay, that's fair, that's fair.
But yeah, semi hungry. Well, you had virtually one of the cheapest dishes on the show, so it was very easy. It was just like walk in, walk out. Why don't you tell our listeners and our audience what are you gonna have me eating today?
I'm going to be having you eat some eggs.
Eggs, plain and simple like eggs, salt, and pepper. And you said olive oil, which you know we're gonna find out what it's like to eat eggs and olive oil today. You never did it. I don't think I've ever done it.
Okay, this is good. And the pepper is optional.
The pepper is optional? Sure, okay, she didn't even ask for Lorry's guys, No start passing judgment eggs, you know what, Believe it or not, there are some black folks out there that have never seen regular salt. I truly believe this.
I have a lot of respect for Lorry's, though, so I'm here for it. Yeah.
Yeah, Well, why don't you get in the kitchen start cooking these eggs. What kind of eggs are you gonna make today?
I'm just gonna make scrambled eggs.
Scrambled you can't miss it up?
Good? You can, but you can't.
We don't judge these eggs. Now.
How do you like your eggs?
I like them over medium?
Oh interesting? Okay, But I eat eggs.
Any which hard? No? I I to running sometimes it depends what if I want a gooy mish a guy. You know, if we got ash browns, do it running. You know, if it's just like some sausage and eggs, do it hard.
You know we're gonna make some eggs. That's gonna be exciting. Go ahead, little nervous.
This simple dish. So I have a saying, the broker the dish, the better the story. Oh okay. Now being an actress, yeah, you know, give us some insight that I'm sure. I'm sure it can't be.
You got it like it's getting, it's getting. It's the stress is coming to me now.
Yeah, I just turned it off.
I know, I know later to go off. It needs to go off. I was like, it's too much stress. So we're gonna start slow. So we're cracking eggs. I'm gonna just bang it on the counter, go for it. Do we need a lesson in that? I don't think so.
No.
I've heard things though. People drop eggs. They drop them on the counter to crack them perfectly.
Really, Yeah, from like a low height like.
They do that. Let's see and apparently it cracks nice. Really, it's pretty nice. That's pretty nice.
I just like to do a nice crack, real hard on the side of the pot of.
The Oh, you just like to It's that feels like so like an emotional way of picking.
I like it.
You know, we don't have a rag, but I'll just see a napkin.
Yeah you need a napkin.
Yeah, she's a napkin and white my hands off. So this is part of the broken aspect, is getting all the you're hilarious, Yeah, it's it might be breaking.
These eggs are like a dollar in egg.
I'm cooking for eggs. We're cooking all the eggs. It's protein, it's proteins, fats, that's a whole meal.
Back in the day, actually living on how much How much was the eggs back in the.
Day, I don't know, but they were super cheap because I have a fond memory of the giant cart from Costco of white eggs, white eggs.
Can you tell our listeners that little joke you made about the brown eggs versus the white?
Oh, I don't know.
I told you it was so funny, she said. She had said, so like I forbid we eat a white egg or so something like that. Just so true because when Moore shopping, I said, there's white eggs and brown eggs just gonna look like real cheap eggs.
Everybody's freaking out about the eggs. It's getting real like the soy and the eggs it's corn. You know. I emailed some farms.
No, you did it, I did.
I emailed some farms because I was really curious about this because everybody really started freaking out about the eggs. So I was like, okay, what's up. We want eggs with no soy with no corn. So I emailed some farms and the farm said, listen, we do our best, but it's really impossible to our next to impossible to grow what we need or not grow I mean their eggs. I guess they're being birth or whatever whatever, who knows
what that's called. But to get what we need, get the amount that we need, it's impossible to just feed them things that don't include any corn or soy. So they do do some corn and soy substitutions. Yeah, I emo two farms. They were so nice and they responded some eggs okay, I thought about it. So there's one in San Diego, but I was just too far to drive from LA.
I have a girlfriend that goes online and she purchases her eggs directly from the farms. And if you thought seven dollars a carton or ten dollars a car was expensive, good lord, she's spending like fifteen twenty dollars a carton. Yeah, she's like, but they real I'm like, you might as well just get some chickens for that. You know.
It's it's sad because eggs used to be really affordable, and I think you're just.
Not now what are you gonna do if? Like, well, I guess hopefully you never have to go back in time to the eggs. But could you imagine being overoil broke right now? And then you're like, damn, I don't know what I'm gonna eat?
Who would you eat for breakfast? What do you do?
What would I do with my daughter? Every day?
What do you do? Cru But what kind of cereal?
The well we buy the expensive on name brand fruity pebbles and all that, but a good we don't buy her to knockoffs.
The goods, the good, fun tasting cereal.
When you grow up off the knockoffs, you never ever ever want to go back. That's fair, you know. So all right, take me back to what was going on in this I need to survive on.
Eggs, you know. I don't know. I think I have just general fun memories of breakfast. I grew up in a house where my dad used to make breakfast for us on like Saturday mornings. So he'd make pancakes, apples, cinnamon like apples, like with cinnamon and sugar, like a whole, like little compount kind of thing. He would do real apples, yeahh he like slice them and everything. Yeah, in the morning. I would just be like, he'd be like.
Yeah, but what do you put them into pancakes?
No, so you put them on top, so like a whole separate thing. He'd make like the apples and cinnamon and sugar and make a whole thing. So you have like pancakes, apples, bacon, and then we'd have eggs.
And you came on this show and presented us with just eggs. Got it. We had to live the full broke experience. We couldn't live the daddy experience.
My parents weren't broke, okay, clearly, not clearly.
So you come from a two parent house.
I come from a two parent household where your daddy makes good breakfast. My daddy is the cook in the house.
Oh he's the cook.
Yeah, he's the cook in the household.
How can we only cooked on the weekends the.
No, No, this is just like our weekend thing. So Saturday mornings when I was a kid, he would make like a fool like breakfast, like a full breakfast for us, and we'd all like go downstairs and have breakfast, and he'd like call up to us when breakfast was ready, and then we'd go downstairs.
For breakfast and what was your mama doing during this sleeping?
Mom My mom worked really hard. They both worked really hard, but she I think they had a really good I think they had a really good balance in terms of like.
Like there was never a discussion about it, was just like no.
Because I think, you know, my mom did like a lot of like the pickups school, the school pickups and like the after school activities because my dad couldn't do it because of his job. And so I think like also like cooking was like a way for him to express his love for us too. So yeah, that's like she'd be sleeping, we'd all he'd be like, breakfast is ready, and we'd all like get up and go downstairs. It's important you go downstairs right away though.
Yeah that was Anyone who cooks feels that way.
Yeah, dinner's ready, it's ready two minutes arrive.
Alrive, wash the hands, and it comes. Y. I can't stand when I cook something and someone take thirty minutes to get up off the couch, Like I just just mad.
Right, Yes I'm saying I'm not okay with it.
So all right, so what's going on during this egg's ear?
Okay, so that's like my beginner of that. And then I think, honestly, I think probably when I first moved back to Los Angeles, this is before I decided I wanted to be an actor. I moved to Los Angeles. I got a job at Kaiser Permanente, and I didn't have any money.
What were you doing at Kaiser?
I worked in medical education at Kaiser Permanente on the Kaiser on sunset, and I had no money, so I used to buy I used to bit buy the soup from the cafeteria with bread because it was super cheap, like the I know it was cafeteria food, but whatever, it was super cheap and and yeah, I would.
Eat evener even with a day job.
You were still broke, Yeah, I mean I was. I was like young, and I was like trying to figure it out, and and I didn't. I mean, I moved here, so I didn't have money, like you know, when you first, especially when you first get a job, you don't have any money, Like you're like, can you please, just like, can I get advance on the paycheck? Like that would have been really great to get an advance of the paycheck.
I would love to see you do an actual ask on that.
Yeah, yeah, that would have been I mean I did ask for some things later and they were like maybe not but and so that's I think that's probably like when this really happened because I used to I used to have an ex for breakfast.
And during this stay job, you said you didn't know you were going to be an access to No.
I did not. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I went to college, I did, I did.
What did you go to college for?
I don't know what I went to college for? But I did major in psychology. Why I went to college is the strong There's so many questions, I guess because you're supposed.
To did you did you complete?
Yes? Yes, I gratus.
Did you do it to make your parents happy?
No? I mean I think I always knew I would go to college, but I was. I was so I had been in the arts since from a very young age, and I'm turn this off and I the artist is really strange and challenging in a different way, and so I think it was really hard to figure out where I was gonna go. I was a musician for a very long time, so what kind of musician violinist.
You're a violinist.
Yeah, for a really long time.
Damn, I wish I would have done that.
Okay, I think these eggs are done. Okay, are you having violent?
Yes, I'm judging your eggs.
Eggs.
She cooked them. She was like folding.
You're judging my eggs.
She was folding. I don't know if the inside is gonna even be cooked.
It's gonna be a little runny. You said you like it a little creamy.
I've never had you.
We see do you see these? No? You can see them now.
We judging a cooking. Do you cook now?
Yeah?
Cooking?
Okay, I really can cook.
Okay, we're gonna She didn't put salt or pepper.
No, because you can't taste it if you put it in that while you're cooking it. So you put it in afterwards and you can do it on your own. How very much you like? Eggs are done?
I'm actually did you eat?
I had some turkey? Turkey and a baby bell.
A baby bell.
Yeah, you know me, those little cheese things. Yeah? Oh my god, are you on an actress type diet? No? No, I was just like pulling my life together this morning.
All right, let's do a taste test. I added salt and pepper. She just added salt. Guys, really good action.
Thanks. I'd be okay if you didn't like them. I've never actually had fluffy eggs like this. You know that's not this fluffy. I will say, I think butter would be better because it adds more to the flavor, as you know, because you cooked with so much butter, which is amazing. But I do think the technique is the fluffy.
Do you know what's crazy is that I always think you have to like overcook the eggs. This is pretty good. I'm actually impressed with your I was judging. I was like, oh lord, I'm not eating these. Oh one, don't. I'm in a breakfast at your house. This is the most fluffiest restaurant style scrambled eggs I've had. Thank you. Yeah.
Oops, that's makes stuck.
Yeah. So okay. So you're at g Eyser, you're working.
Yeah?
Are you doing roommates?
No? So okay, okay. Yes. So I had a friend of mine who let me live in her living room.
I love LA. When I first moved there, I did the same thing. I was living in someone's squatting in the living room.
Yeah, I was living there. She had like a twin size bed in the living room. Yeah, I got a bed.
I got a bed.
She had a twin saxes bed in living room. And she let me live there for like a while, Like she didn't really actually like tell me I had to leave. But eventually I was in traffic coming home from Hollywood to Westchester and it was Christmas time and it took me like two hours to get home, and I was like, I have to move.
Where in LA?
Did she live Westchester by the airport. It shouldn't have taken it long, but it was Christmas time, and you know, especially like at this this is pre pandemic. So like the traffic was just like remarkable.
Did you drive during the pandemic? Wasn't it nice? So like so everywhere where'd you go?
I was in New York at first, and then I was in I lived in New York for a one time, and then I was in Hollywood, No, no, New York. I was in New Orleans, and then I was in South Carolina and then and then La.
All during the pandemic. I know New York. I had met like people were terrified in New York.
Yeah, it was rough.
They were like, there's dead buddies. It was not. They'd be like pizza, drop it and drop it by the door, you know. I like the trackway.
We did the clapping at seven o'clock, like you go to the window and you clap to feel like, you know, like community and in unity. It was bad. It was such a bad time. It was so bad. I had COVID early on. My husband and I both had COVID at the beginning. Dang, yeah, it was not people were being in the afterwards. My friends were like, we we didn't want to tell you how bad you guys look. We were deeply concerned. It was hard. It was so hard.
You know what's fucked is that if you got COVID, you had to live in like quarantine, live.
In a New York SIDS apartment. I didn't know how small my apartment was until I moved to Los Angeles, but it was incredibly small. I found myself standing on like the fake fire escape balcony, like yelling to people. I didn't know, just to say hi to people. I just really like I need I'm not an extrovert, but I really needed some alternate human.
All right. So going back to Kaiser. You're chilling on this twin match tw twin bed in this living room. You're working a day job. I'm guessing you're making probably like ten dollars an hour at this point because you're struggling still.
No, I made I made pretty good money. I will say that it wasn't that bad.
What were you spending your money on?
I mean I literally know, Okay, when I was when I was first on the twin I was like just like saving money to put money together. So so like maybe I spent my probably you know, actually I think I spent a lot of money on food, like ordering out. I think I ordered out a lot.
And then in addition to your soup.
Yeah, yeah, that was real. I really ate that soup. And then maybe six months later, I think, or something like that is when Christmas came, and then I was like, okay, I'm going to move, and then I had money to go and be like okay, great, I'm going to move into my own apartment. And I think that's when real struggle entered. I'm trying to remember the timeline. No, I had a roommate. Oh my god, forgot about that. So I had a roommate. I went and moved into another
apartment with a roommate. And then that was that was
so strange. But then around that timeframe is when I was like I wanted to pursue I wanted to become an actor on that time and what started that, I was taking classes that you say like extension, and I was really like interested in communication because I was just it's such a nightmare when you're trying to figure out what you want to do and there's a lot of there's so many outside voices I think, just throughout your whole life about what you're going to do career wise.
And this woman came in there. I saw her like a month ago. Actually, this woman came in there who is an actress, and it was like a mock interview that they were trying to teach us, and she just like told a little bit of her story and like I don't know, the inside of my body just like caught fire, and I was like, oh my god, I gotta go talk to her. I have to go talk to her. So like she left the class and I like ran after her and I was like, hey, can you tell me like how to do what you're doing?
Like what do I do? And that was kind of the real like beginning of like that of me taking action towards that, and then like the pursuit of acting is incredibly expensive, so it's like you're taking classes, you get headshots, and you're just kind of trying to figure the whole thing out. So I think, like I wasn't making a lot of money, So yeah, I think that's
kind of where it was going a bit. Eventually. Eventually, like a lot of my money that was making was going to like me taking acting classes and that sort of thing.
And did you tell your family right away that that's what you were going to pursue.
So I decided that I was going to pursue that, and then I took I signed up for an intro to Acting class. I took the class. The last class, we did that scene from Love and Basketball where it's Annihilathan and Alfre Witter in the kitchen when she's when she's an adult, and there was a casting director in there from CBS who I don't I have no idea who that man is, but he I did the scene. We did the scene with my scene partner, and he was like, she was a seasoned, older black actress and
she was amazing. And he was like, have you acted before? And I was like no, and he was like, so it was your first time doing this thing? And I was like yeah, and he was like okay, and you like it? And I was like yeah, and he was like I'm here, aren't I And it was like okay, keep doing it. Oh, And I was like okay. And then I left class and I called my mom.
Oh and that's when you told me.
That's when I told my mom, Yeah, okay. Yeah.
So then what does the next year look like for you? Is it all roses and tulips? No?
I mean, I think because I had a job, I was a little fortunate in that regard that I didn't feel I didn't feel like deeply destitute. But I think it was incredibly challenging because I think my my my want to pursue acting was something that was always it was always there my whole life. But then over the next year it just really I keep saying this, but
it really caught fire. And so I ended up like taking classes out of conservatory, you know, so then that's a whole thing, and then you then I started to meet like other actors and like found myself in this community where I felt like, oh my god, I belong here, like I just belong. And I think a lot of my life I didn't feel like that. And then learning so much about the craft and just learning to and then falling in love with it because I think that's
an important part. And then I think once that happened, it was really hard to have my job. It was really hard to.
Have my dayta it sounds like you're about to quit.
Yeah, so did you? Well, So what happened was I got to this place where I met my Actually it's so crazy, he's like currently my acting coach. Where I met him and I went to him for some advice and I was like, you know, I'm really interested in going to New York and like doing like the full
on conservatory program and like what do you think? And we had like a conversation about it, and he was like, yeah, you know, I think I think this is the right step for you based on X, Y and Z and knowing me and my work at that moment in time.
And so I like was auditioning lightly, right, So I've done like these weird little random things and then I got this audition to do a show Buddy the Buddy Holly Story, which is kind of like a musical presentation show, and you needed they needed someone who could act, sing and dance.
Oh well, I was gonna say, luckily you have that musician background and play the violin is okay.
So I was like, all right. So I had to do three tapes for my audition. I think I had to sing, I had to play the violin, and then I had to do a scene I think in my audition. So I sent it in and I, you know, I'm still working at Kaiser in my cubicle and crying in the whole way. And then I booked it and it was I was like, holy shit, that's crazy.
But it was in New York.
It was in Rock Island, Illinois.
Oh yeah, how long would you have to be there?
For a couple of months?
Gosh, I can only imagine how great that feeling was also probably surrounded by oh, how am I going to do this?
Right? Yeah? Yeah, oh for sure? And so I was like okay, And I think I told my mom and I was like, I'm just going to ask them. She was like, just ask them if they'll give you like a leave, like a leave of like a I don't know, like a leave of asking or something like that, right when I was like, okay, cool. So at the same time I'm there, I was also so I interviewed for this really this job at Kaiser to be the internal medicine actually just as residency coordinator, which is which is
a big job. It's a big job because it's heavily regulated in terms of like what you need to make sure happens, and it's really about like the residence and then going through their residency program. And I'm sure I paid more, right, Yes, it paid more money, and it was a big job. And so I interviewed for the job. I got the job, and then I also got it for internal medicine, which was the hardest and the biggest one to do, and like you know high like you know, high value or whatever, right, And I.
Got the job before you got the audition.
I think I got the job. It all happened kind of at the same time. So I got the job, and so then and I guess so I like booked it and I got the job, right, And so let's say like Friday, I got the job and I was like, okay, shit, I don't know if I can curse you okay. So I got the job and then I like took the weekend and then I came to work on Monday, and then I went to the director and I was like, hey, I can't take this job.
You can't thought you were going to do a little stall. No.
I was like, I don't. I can't teach this job because I don't want to do this. I just really want to be an actor. And so anyway, like I asked them for a leave and they were like, we'll think about it, give us a minute, and then I came to work. This was a little time after I came to work, and then they were like okay. They pulled me into a meeting and they were like, listen, we're not going to give you the leave and I said okay, and they were like okay, well what are
you going to do? And I was like, oh, this is my two week notice.
Did you do it like that too?
Yeah?
Oh surprise bitch.
As I'm out, probably I was like, oh, this is my two weeks.
Not They probably thought they were going to like game check you and then you gain.
I do think it was a little bit like that. I think it was a bit much like and now that I'm remembering more acurate. These things happened over a period of months, so I so I got like the job offer was first, and then there was some months in between that, and then this happened, and so yeah, I think they really thought that I was going to say, Okay, hey, I won't go, and I was like, no, no, like I'm gonna go one hundred percent. Yeah, And that was really like the kickoff.
I want to know, like, did you you already prepared for the possibility of walking obviously? Yeah.
I think I was just like was always that person a bit in a good way.
I love your personality though, like, oh yeah, what's my I'm out?
Simple?
So you go to New York, well Rochester, Rocky, Illinois. Sorry sorry no, I So you go over there and you're doing this and at some point, do you what are the motions saying to you? I mean, you risked a lot to be there, and did you pack up your apartment or you.
Just oh yeah. So I sublet my apartment to this writer, a TV writer. I sublet my apartment. I sold like my TV and some of the stuff in it to him, and then I went to my parents' house for because it was around Christmas time. I went to my parents' house around Chrismas time and they I was there. I did Christmas, and then January like first or something. I took a plane. They had a ticket, so I took a plane to Illinois.
And they put you up and everything.
Yeah, they put us up all in the house and stuff like that.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah. So it was the paid good No, no, but it was it was fine for what it was like, Yeah, my you know, my job was being here and just like doing this show. It was dinner theater. This theater called I think it's called circa circa twenty one. I think it's what it's called dinner theater type of thing. It's just such a really great place to like have that introduction for me, like someone like me who was like, I don't know what this is.
But the reason why I ask about the pay and all that is because you walked away from oh money, yeah, stability right, oh yeah, and then you close down your apartment. Yes, so after wraps and top of little pay, what's your next play?
I took my little four one care I took it.
I'm gambling at all I did. I gambled it all on this career. I took it k the tour wraps. Then what I moved to New York? Then you moved to Oh you up the anti suicide she said. So she said, Oh if I thought La was hard, because no disrespect to La, but New York has got to be ten times harder.
Yeah, it is.
It's fair. Everyone there lives in a cracker box. I make jokes all the time. You can't really move to New York broke because like, there's not a lot of people that are gonna put you up for a long period of time. No, not in a place that you could touch the wall.
Yes, so my I have. I had a lot of family who lived in New York at the time. My Ti La Grain lived in New York. I did not even recall meeting her, but my my mom called and I was like. She was like, you can live your tea And I was like, okay, great, And so I talked to her and she was like, okay, this is what you do when you get in a taxi. You tell them to go here, don't let them trick you,
and you come here and then you're good. And I walked in her house with my two giant suitcases, and she was like, Hi, this is your room.
That's your mom's sister.
No, it's my mom cousin. So my I'm my part of my family's frum indoors and so a lot of that part of my family lived and grew up in New York. So it is my like, my mom's probably like second or second cousin, I think, or something like that.
Because you said ta, I thought that meant like she's she's it is she's she's at that point in that age difference, she's she's my aunt.
Oh good god, yeah, like respect, that's funny.
Yeah, so surprised she's solely solely supportive, like.
She's yeah, she she passed away like during COVID but she sorry, I'm going to pull myself together.
Go ahead.
But she incredibly supportive, Like I couldn't have done any of it without her.
Wow, how long did you get to stay with her?
I stayed with her probably for like two years something like that, around probably around two years. I think that feels like like a right number. Yeah.
And then during this whole New York trial, you're doing the conservative.
Ships in the territory. Yeah, I'm doing the like again, Yeah, I know, I'm fine. Sorry, I don't haven't pulled to this story.
No. Like, yeah, so during the two years you're you're pursuing the conservative.
Yeah, I'm in the conservatory program, which is like super rigorous.
Can you explain what that is exactly?
Yeah. So it's like and it's it's it's an alternative to grad school essentially, and basically, so if you're doing like the whole shebang, you probably are doing like and your general like acting class and whatever that method is that's taught at that conservatory, and then you're doing probably a movement, voice speech, Shakespeare, probably script analysis, theater history,
film history, those kinds of things. It is. That's why it's really is like the conservatory word is like really perfect because it's it's a heavily concentrated thing that you're doing. It runs just like a school year runs, so you have like the summers off and then in the summers if you want to do something you can. Yeah, it's a lot.
It was hard after going through a conservatory. Do you look at actors that say, I didn't do acting class and I just did it a do you look at them a little different?
No? No, I think I think maybe you could or I could have right after, but at this point, no, like, oh my god, this job is so hard. The career is just so hard. And I think if you find it however, it comes to you. You know, there's people who are like who are like, I've never done an acting class, but it's acting saved my life. Like I don't have no judgment in any of that.
And then when you watch movies, do you look at movies differently?
I think that that someone that came with just like training and you know, being being an actor and then becoming a filmmaker like that. But I like at them differently and just in a really fun way. Like so I think I just like engage a little bit differently, Like I'm so curious about like like I had.
In my head.
There's like tiny, tiny moments of movies or TV shows that like sit there because I just think they're phenomenal. Okay, Like what there's this, Okay, there's this scene in this
show Downton Abbey. There's a scene in the beginning of the show where one of the this guy is becoming a butler for this new guy, and the new guy is very like I don't like any of this, and they have this back and forth and he the new guy, says like something like to him like, I don't like, you know, something like what kind of what kind of man has a job where he has addressed another man for a living. And the reaction.
That the butler has is just phenomenal.
Oh my god. I was like, that's just like he had because he's you can see he's he has he's holding all of this and he's also like like experiencing this moment of being oh like you know, demoralized. But he and it just all shows up in his face. It's such a beautiful, tiny moment and stuff like that.
Shout out to him. Yeah, a great acting job. Going back to your story, though, you complete the Conservative Tours, Conservative Conservatory, Conservatory yeah ship no no, yeah, yeah, yeah, you complete it. Yes, you kill it within under two years as a year two years. Yeah, and then you come back to l A.
No. I stayed in New York and then I was like, I'm gonna do this, ah, and I just like auditioned for everything.
But now you said you're you're well, I guess I don't know the timeline because your auntie you said, pastor in COVID. Yeah, so did she? So she there must have been a big gap between when you moved.
There and yeah covid, yes, yes there was.
Okay, So were you staying with her the whole time?
No, I was with her for two years, and then at the point my apartment, my partner and I moved in together. And so that that's.
You were like a New Yorker.
No, not a New Yorker. But but he's in New Yorker at heart?
Where is he from?
A bit all over?
But did you meet in New York?
Oh?
Okay, okay, so y'all move in?
So you fell in love, fell in love, fell in love in New York.
Yeah, and then you move in together. You complete it and both y'all are you're still not working a real job?
No? So okay. So throughout the conservatory program, I worked as a waitress. I was a server.
I think that's the hardest job in the world.
It was so hard. I have so much respect. It was so hard.
So fast food gets all the respects in my book. I'm sorry, God, fast food jobs I can do.
Yeah, so I was. I was a cocktail waitress, and then I was also a server. I worked at like a hotel lobby, bar, I worked at another lobby bar I worked at STK Meatpacking, which was crazy. I worked all at the places all during all this, so I worked at all these different places. And then towards the end of my be finishing the conservatory program is when I went to babysitting. I used to babysit years before. I loved it. Though I loved it, I never had
a bad day, you know. I just felt like I never had a day where it ended, and I thought it was horrible.
Really with babysitting. How old were the kids?
So my preference was like two and up. Okay, the family I was with the longest, they were four and I think seven when I started welcome and they were amazing. Okay, all right, So that's what I did. I mean, not a lot of money because it's babysitting.
But babysitters, by the way, make good money.
No they do, they do? They do. I mean I was making I was making not terrible money. But it was also the beginning of that me read you know, starting that again. And so I wasn't making bad money, but it wasn't I wasn't full time, you know. And but there there are the jobs that are like great full time benefits and everything, but I wasn't full time. It was part time babysitter. And that's how that's how live.
And then you're auditioning the whole time.
Yes, and then auditioning the whole time booking like I was doing, like like off off off Broadway theater, like so like black Box Theater and that type of stuff, web series and you know, just the feilt short film, anything like that you could do, which I learned a lot of lessons in. Maybe not everything you can do you should or could do, but yeah, that's what I was doing.
That was the most intriguing lesson you learned during that era.
Hmmm. I think it was when you when you I don't know if it's intriguing, but when you finish, when you finish, school, conservatory, whatever.
Right.
There's a lot of rhetoric of like, you know, audition for everything, hmm, and to some degree I agree with that, But I also found myself in situations that were not healthy and that were dangerous, and so I think maybe not audition for everything, auditioned maybe for most things, and you know, stantinto's down while you think that something's out on line and.
Walk away what's an example of like a situation you put yourself into that was like unhealthy or not safe. Yeah.
I had I had booked this play and I had gone to the first rehearsal, which was more of like just kind of read through type of like vibes, and I remember that the character I was going to play was in a very abusive relationship. And I had asked the director, Hey, so there's some physical violence that happens to the character in the play. Are we going to like fight choreo this, you know, and walk through this
and da da da da. And the director was like, no, no, he's just gonna grab you and pull you across stage. It's like, okay, sh that seems like a bad plan and really dangerous like physically and emotionally and mentally and everything. And that was a show. I was like went home and I was like I'm out, thank you so much. You know. I've also like shown up for an audition and audition in a hallway, which was shocking to me that I left my job early to audition in a hallway,
So things like that could happen, you know. That's like these are real stories. So I think that there is some of like you kind of got to learn the ropes of like what's what and what is and like, you know, learn how to read like a breakdown, research the people, and then sometimes you do all that, but then you show up and you're like, m this seems not okay. You know, You're like, oh, I've had friends show up and the director hits on them and I'm like, no,
that's not okay, it's not okay. So that's a we're walking away from this situation. Thank you, no, thank you. Yeah, And that's very hard to do.
I was gonna get it. That's got to be really tough, very hard to do. You're like, this could be my first real break.
And you just want to work. You just want to work, even if you know you want to work, you want to learn, you want to work, you want to practice. So yeah, so after.
You work in a pustle and bustle of jobs, I want to get closer to you and your real big like, well, I'm quitting these jobs. You do quit the jobs?
Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, we're watching you on Netflix. So what's the big play that kind of like says I can do the thing?
Yeah, you know, I think I was working for Okay, so we're fast forwarding. Like I was working for a nonprofit which I have a door and I've still work with them now. And that's when like things start moving, right, That's when you I'm like, oh gosh, I think the ship is like sailing okay, and and it really around booking Beauty and Black and so. But I didn't quit right away.
Yeah, I waited shout out to the nonprofit. It's made in.
So I've worked with nating her Image. But the nonprofit is now known as Education Action and Alliance, and it's a nonprofit that focuses on supporting LGBT plus youth in the state of Arizona. And so that is who I was working with. Now I'm a board member on that nonprofit. It's just it's exciting. But yeah, so I like it was like a slow crawl to that and then and
then booking Straw. I think was kind of the moment where it was like, okay, I think actually and it was a lot less about like two we know, it's a lot more about like I actually don't have the capacity to do all of these things at the level which they need to be done.
Yeah.
I think that's really kind of what happened for me. Things came to a head in that way.
Yeah, so when you can you take me through Beauty and Black, like what the whole feelings vibes calls the whole big shebang behind that moment.
Yeah, you know, it was I just I fondly, fondly would deeply remember the audition because I just remember me really. I was like, oh, this scene is the scene is long, and I want to make sure that like it's it's active and interesting and keeps people watch, keeps the viewer watching and trying to like curate just like dynamic choices throughout the whole scene that keep changing and changing and changing.
So that was really fun. But yeah, I mean I did that and then my my agents called and they were like, hey, like, so you booked this, And I was like, what.
Does that mean?
I think I'm a freezer. The show in Atlanta, okay, and you at the time in La.
Oh it was in La.
Yeah, it was in La.
Yeah.
I was like, I think I just froze a bit, like I think frozen like processing cause it's just.
Especially you're still there.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I think I Like I told I told my husband and he was very exciting, and I was just like because the pressure, you know, of wanting to just do a good job and that whole thing, and also just like dynamically like what does it mean and what is this mean for my career and all those other things. But then you had to call the job and be like, well, I kept my job throughout that whole.
Thing, But did you did you tell them remote?
What was I told them, Well, I was remote already, I worked remotely, and I just told them like, hey, this is what's happening in my schedule might be a little funky. I had an intern at the time I was doing I did communications, so it's still very like, you know, a home type thing and just like really like setting expectations and that sort of thing, and they knew and it was just so incredibly supported. I've just been very blessed to be supportive people that I've worked with or for.
But that's also in testaments to your integrity, right because they wouldn't have been that way if you didn't have a lot of integrity in your way.
Yeah, I guess so, yeah, Yeah, So that was it was just shocking, you know, I was really you don't know what it's going to be, you know, and this is like this is like a funny little thing. But my mom, like years ago, years ago, my mom was like, I'm going to write a letter to Tyler, Perry and Oprah. Okay, I'm going to write this letter. And I was like, Mom, like you need to chill, like this is not how
this business works. And She's like, I'm going to write a letter and I'm going to send them this let about you. And I was like, all right, I don't know, go forth, go forth, like do what you need to do?
Did no?
She did.
They wrote the.
Letter though her my like my aunt wrote the letter, but they never said it. And so like calling my mom to tell her that was hilarious.
I love that. Ye, and that's met a part of manifestation right to some degree.
Yeah, I mean that lady manifested. Give it to her, She'll give it to God.
Okay, I'm gonna mail my Christmas list to her. So take me to Straw now.
Yeah. So Straw was like it was like I had just come off of Beauty and Black, which is really just just really invigorating experience.
And just like what are the hours?
By the way, long and short Oka mix back mixed back like eight to twelve hours. Yeah, sometimes I think it was it could be longer, but not not bad, not for me. But and then Straw was like a month afterwards.
I got a call.
From my agent was like, hey, you know, you're an audition for this and I was like, okay, great, and it was like it was it was something to do, I would say, the audition. So I called my one of my coaches and I was like, yo, like I need to I need some help one like how to how to throw myself into this headspace like like high energy and things like that, and so we kind of worked on that and then did the audition, and then and then again the same thing. Just got a call
but it was so fast. It was so fast. And then I went to Atlanta and I thought I was going to be there for a while. I was not. I was like, oh, we're doing this, Like okay, how long are you there for? For?
How long did it take?
I was there for I think two weeks maybe not very long at all, and a little bit yeah, a little bit. Yeah, it's I'm trying to think what I can't say.
It's gonna drop June six, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, no, it's a story. It's a story about a how do I say this in a more meaningful way, It's really a story that's just reflective on how hard Black women are hit on a day to day basis, which is really difficult stuff, difficult situations in all avenues of their lives lives, and and what happens when that is magnified and really comes to a head. Yeah, it's it's I would it's a bit sad in a way because it's a real reality. But that that is what
it's about. It's about seeing how that how that can function at its worst and its highest, and how that functionality like affects black women. For me, like being a black woman living in New York City, you know, it's interesting like realizing that in a day that I could have like five interactions that were just like trash because
I was because I am a black woman. So this, this this film really just like shines like a really good like light on that and really amplifies it in an extreme way because it is film and cinema, but a way that I think is really relevant and understandable and and a relatable.
And and the in Taraji, she plays a single parent, right and then everyone else are they single parents? In No, you get to see everyone getting hit from all different You.
Get to see the results of her being hit like that. You get to receive the results of what what the constant like it's you know, just like imagine somebody just being punched, punch punched, you know every.
Day of my life.
Guys, the ones with lotion, we don't want that dry ship. Yeah all right, but no, but yeah, that's what it's. It's her being like, you know, hit in all these different in all these different areas of her life, all at the same time. And what that what that can do, like what that can do to a person, and where that can lead us?
And this is a Netflix original right now, it's not is any relation to Tyler Perry.
Yeah it is Tyler Perry.
Sounds like Tayler Perry written all over it.
It's Tyler Perry.
Did you get to work with him up close? And I did? I did. How was that experience? Oh?
It's so great?
Are you ever going to say anything bad about anybody? I'm joking. I'm joking, Ashley.
I you know, I I think I've been very blessed, very Yeah, I think I've had very positive situations. I've heard lots of things from people about lots of people or whatever, but I don't know. I I think I've been really blessed, Like I feel very protected. I feel like I work when I need to be working. I feel like I've been forced into states of rest when I need to rest. And I I've had really good experiences, like I've I've looked up to Traji forever.
Yeah, she's very strong, forever.
She's she's an incredible actress, like incredible.
And then you get to work with, you know, one of the godfathers in the industry exactly.
And so I think he came from theater too, yes, yes, right and so and I think like the two then they they're so playful, you know, they're very found. I found him to be very kind person. I think it was really nice to be on that set because a lot of I think what you get as an actor, like obviously, like you're always trying to get to set right, And I think it's so funny because we're trying to get somewhere that we've never been, Like I'm just trying
to get there. I don't know if I like it when I get there, but I'm trying to get there and I and I end up being on this film and being on this set with two people who, like I said, are very playful. But so it's really interesting to watch like dynamic black people do this work. But they are they're living in it, you know, they're living in it. It's today, it is. It's so easy to
feel so precious about the work. And I understand that because I have that, because there's so much anxiety about really wanting to give what you've got to give your best. But to watch her just be so seamless and to like, like just I looked at her and I'm like, oh, she's a person, and you know, not that she's not a person, right, but I'm like, no, no, I think she's like a normally normal size whatever that happen.
You know sometimes you're in this industry. You see people there.
Yeah, she's like normal size. But just to see like her like living her life, like doing her job and then being freaking amazing. Like at one point, I swear we're shooting something and I was just like staring at her and I was like, girl, you gotta get back in the scene in the moment because I just was like it's just so in awe of her ability and
her capacity, and it was really like it. I just felt like I walked away feeling like I can't wait for the for the point in my career and in my life as an artist when I when I when I can harness that.
I love that.
It was really nice. Yeah.
Have you seen the then result of straw it?
I don't. I don't. I don't know if what I saw is the end.
But you do get a like sneak peek it I had a tiny peak. What are you excited?
I'm very exciting.
Was is it weird watching yourself?
I hate watching myself?
Do you critique yourself?
I try not to. It's so hard, you know because like you know, as you have to, like in some dereay, we naturally do because you do an audition. You gotta watch the tape, wash the tape. Okay, that's the takee Okay, we'll send that one. You know, but you watch it tape. You know what happened my hair, you know, like all these things. So it's hard not to do that. But
but maybe maybe a little bit. But I but I think in the end, I just in one sense success to me is like doing your best, and I did my best, So like I think I try to always like separate a little bit when I'm like, you know, I don't know what that is is my best on that day, in that moment.
So now that you see a lot of success also in Atlanta, do you feel like there's a part of you that's gonna move over there?
No?
No, no, she said, no, firm, firm, keeping your feet in La.
I you know, I don't know. I like to think of myself as a bit of a vagabond on the inside, so I like to I do like to move around. So every time I move somewhere, I don't really decorate because I think I'm.
Leaving and your husband's with all of this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're nice support, We're so together on this. Yeah we're the vagupond thing. Like I think we're two piece like in a pot on that. But no, I mean i'd love to I'd love to, you know, La is fine. I'd love to live somewhere else. But yeah, I'm very open. I'm very open, you know. I think I think that the pandemic also like showed me that that, like I could live anywhere for a period of time, you know, I mean, I live in South Carolina. There's
just a strong choice. So my in laws lived there, my in law's lived there, and it was really nice to be with family during such a difficult time.
But yeah, okay, all right, well everybody, you can keep up with Ashley? Where can I keep up with you?
Go ahead? I'm like yeah, oh la, oh no, I'm just kidding. I'm I'm a little already only on Instagram?
That is?
That? Is it? So at Ashley versure with the v's.
Sure that Ashley version no, no space, nothing, nothing, nothing else. And then tell us where we can watch Straw and all the updates on Straw.
Yes, Straw on Netflix.
It'd be great, It'll be great. It's a Tyler Perry production, it is, yes, And oh, by the way, last question, but how was his lot? Was it phenomenal?
It's fire for real?
Yeah, it is.
I it is fire. I remember, it's huge. I was on one side one night and I was like, hey, guys, I'm just gonna walk back and they're like, no, like you're you're You're way way away from where you think you are. It's huge.
And did you get to tour it?
I didn't tour, but I've been around a lot of it. I don't even know you could tour that. You could tour it though, you know, it's just pund My thoughts were like happy to be here possibly, so I was like, I need nothing with water maybe, but happy to be here. Yeah. Yeah, it's nice.
I can see I can see you being like that.
Oh yeah, I'm just like, can I just have coffee and eggs?
Yes? And they don't even have to be brown.
I'll take the white. I'll take a hard boiled. That's what that was what I wanted.
Wow, I did okay well, staying true to eggs. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciated your eggs. They were really good.
It's too much.
I think it was fine. It was like perfectly fluffy, like restaurant style. Thanks for tuning in, y'all. Peace out piece For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.