TBN.com: We know you studied at Pepperdine University in Malibu and then you went to Florence, Italy. How did that all work out? Was that just a semester abroad? Ashley: Yes, that's exactly what it was it was, through Pepperdine. TBN.com: Did you get to act there? Ashley: No, I did not. That would be such a dream to get something over there. I did act a little bit at Pepperdine, but not overseas. I studied art and art history and a little Italian while I was there. TBN.com: Great! Art and art history. Well that adds a whole new dimension. So who is your favorite painter? Ashley: I have quite a few. I was recently in Italy and got inside the basilica, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. Seeing Michelangelo's work all over again is absolutely fascinating. I was able to read up a little bit more and refresh my memory on how he did does work and how he was able to do it all in seven days. It was just overwhelming. TBN.com: If you didn't act over there, were you acting in college? Ashley: I did a little bit, not a ton. I grew up in theater and I wanted to do more. I was able to do a little bit. I did Harold Sisters Trail in college which was very ambitious of me but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to do it again. I was on The Young and the Restless while I was in school, and a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie and a Lifetime movie. I started out on The Young and the Restless which was pretty much how I was able to pay for Pepperdine. I got the a chance on Spring Break to portray the character Megan Dinnerson and I learned a lot there. My goal was to do more theater. It's nice to do everything, but just not everything all at once. Hopefully life is long enough to get them all done. Hopefully. Lord Willing. TBN.com: What was your first performance? Ashley: My very first was a play called The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold. Laurel was the character's name. I don't know if I was 10 or 11 but thinking I was that young just blows my mind. Laurel rarely ever left the stage. She was a very precocious girl that lived with her grandmother in England. I happened to have an English accent and the whole nine yards. I really did learn so much with that fabulous director. When I was doing theater growing up, I worked with amazing people and that's really where I learned almost everything. It was a theater group run by a Broadway actress - her name was Chris Wilson. Anyone that knows or has worked in Texas would know Chris Wilson and the Alley Theater. Brandon Smith, her son, has done a lot of work in Hollywood. TBN.com: So you've done a lot of plays, and you've done TV ... Have you done any movies? Ashley: I have. Nothing that's uncharted territory for me. I was in Old School I'm proud to say because I worked with fabulous comedians and actors. Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Todd Phillips - who is a very talented studio writer. I had a small part in that. It was actually bigger when I worked on the show for two and a half to three weeks with Will Ferrell mainly, and Craig Kilborn. I played Tracy the caterer, who was having an affair with Craig Kilborn. Luke Wilson caught us and it kind of enabled the plot device so that Luke could realize that he could get the girl that Craig Kilborn was supposedly with and Craig didn't really love her. I was basically a plot device but it was wonderful and fun. I was in a movie called Extreme Dating; it was a comedy. I've done a few independent movies that went straight to video or they haven't actually been released. Like everybody kind of forgot. TNB.com: So do you have a favorite medium then? Do you prefer TV, movies, plays? Ashley: Really for me at least, where I am in my life, I don't have children yet but if I have kids, I kind of imagine film would be a great place to be because if you could work it out to do one or two films a year, you could possibly take your young children with you. But a one-hour drama on television ... you could do it but it would be a little harder. Especially if you're starring in a one-hour drama. I kind of equate the genre or the medium based on where I would be in my life and right now, I seem to be doing more television. I'm extremely happy doing it so whatever comes my way, I'm going to embrace. If a film comes up, that's great. I have learned a lot; I have been blessed on the soap operas. We call them developmental soap operas. The Bold and the Beautiful and the Young and the Restless….so I'll answer the question and stop talking. Sorry! 
TBN.com: Oh, that's okay. We like these kind of answers. Ashley: My heart would totally say the thing I would want to do the most is to work in Neil Simons theater or a theater on Broadway. That would probably be my favorite. But I would take any of them. I am so grateful to be able to be doing what I love doing that I would take anything. ~laughs~ TBN.com: You were recently at EyeCon. What is your impression of conventions in general? Ashley: It's a lot of work to be honest and you have to be "on" a lot. You know - you were there when I was doing the question and answer. Clearly, I discovered that I really liked being able to talk to people in the audience and was honored people were coming to hear our questions. I really enjoy that and to experience that people actually really watching what you're doing and that the people who are really watching are really in to it. It was such a good experience for me. Overall I would do it again. The fans were really gracious and intelligent and lovely people. And I get to hang out with who I was there with. I love Allan and Sam. TBN.com: You were certainly the life of the party at EyeCon and it was wonderful. It was great of you to get the other actors involved with the audience at certain points and we all certainly appreciated your presence there. Ashley: Well that is so kind of you. Thank you. It's really been a pleasure. TBN.com: Well I think you're absolutely amazing. When you were at EyeCon, you were talking about both doing the soap opera exactly the same days you were doing True Blood ... Ashley: If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change a thing considering I was able to do both at the same time. Sometimes it was a bit nutty but I worked on The Bold and the Beautiful in the day time and on True Blood, we work vampire hours so I would work nights on that. There were probably a half a dozen days or nights that I would be on a ranch in Malibu working on True Blood pretty much till like 7:30 in the morning and I would have an 8:30 call at CBS, which was about an hour away in traffic so I wouldn't even go home. I would go from Malibu to CBS and there was one day I got there they thought, "Well, you still got your make up on, we don't even need to redo your make up, just a touch up." I would always get the scars off my back that they would do for True Blood, and then I would go straight to The Bold and the Beautiful and they would fluff and puff me up a little bit and I'd go straight to work. Unfortunately, for me, I was on medications and I don't like medications. I was on a round of antibiotics though because you have to take care of yourself. If that ever happens again, I know now that I have to eat a little better and take a few more vitamins. You just kind of do what you can but for the most part, the two production companies were amazing and I was able to do The Bold and the Beautiful on one day and True Blood on another so that they didn't cross over. Daphne and Bridget couldn't possibly be two more different characters. TBN.com: Did you start to feel like you had a dual personality going on? Ashley: At times, yeah, I have to say. There were times when I would get on The Bold and the Beautiful and the actors would ask how was True Blood was going, and I just naturally just lunged into a Louisiana accent or an East Texas accent. Everyone would laugh and I'd be like, let's not talk about it now because we don't want the accent coming through. There is a dichotomy between Bridget and Daphne because one is a Beverly Hills born blue blood and the other is, you know, she's a Southern hick. I can say that because I'm from the South. ~laughs~ I always loved telling Alan, "I know these people. I'm related to quite a few of them." They come to Thanksgiving - they absolutely do and we love every single one of them. They are, in a lot of ways, much more enjoyable than some of the motley crew I hang out with in LA, but I kind of imagine Daphne living in maybe a step up from a trailer...And she's still fine bare foot but she has to put shoes on when she goes to work and she tries to make herself look cute but that doesn't always mean a shower. You know - things like that. 
TBN.com: Alan Ball understands and shows respect to that region and to those people. He shows respect because throughout all the craziness, he goes on with their lives. You know, Maenads and shape shifters and vampires and soon to be werewolves throughout all of that, he makes them real and genuine. I mean, Tara says these horrible things to every person that happens to disagree with her and she says, "you're a racist" and that kind of thing but he respects her, she's still a good person … Ashley: Oh, absolutely. Respect is a good word. I always thought it was authenticity too. It's just he its as if, when we're on that set saying the dialogue that he has written or one of the other writers has written, you're transported to the swamps of Louisiana. The fog machines come out and you feel the humidity and it's amazing how the team works together to make it feel so authentic. It stems from a deep respect for different ways of living and different areas that people come from and how it can change your perspective on the world. TBN.com: Would you be open to returning to True Blood? Ashley: Of course I would be touched and honored - especially because I've never been able to play a character like this. You become so attached and you become attached. I thought I was going to do a job and it was for a limited time and everything would go back to normal, but it really did change me in a lot of ways. It opened up a lot of doors for me. You don't expect to fall in love with the production people and the fans and the cast. The fans are just wonderful and they're really loyal. I really wish and I hope for them that we get to see a little of Daphne and Sam together again. I think that the chemistry was really great. A couple of people have said to me that what was so disappointing was that Sam really found some form of love and it was ripped away from him again. Total acceptance - that's really been the problem. People may have loved him here and there but not all sides of him. And they told me, at least on Facebook and different mail I've received, that this showed them a new side to him. He was more vulnerable. I'm sure there's a Team Sam out there that absolutely finds him irresistible and all of that but certain people said he never seemed like someone they found extremely sexy but he became sexy when he became so open and fun. Of course after watching season one, there was just so much turmoil surrounding him and a lot of people on the show that he didn't get a lot of light. There wasn't a lot of time and opportunity to see those sides of him. The way that they grow together ... they're very few, but the moments were so real I think that they stuck in the memories of fans. I have to say I don't take any credit for that. It was the writing and the way the directors staged it - the pool table scene and the scenes where they got to run and shift together, the way they would just discover each other and the intimacy. Setting the scenes in the swamp swimming and talking ... there's a certain intimacy there in the way they were shot that you felt that you were right there with them. TBN.com: Because this is a fantasy show; it's possible that you could come back as a completely different character. With all the make up, you could not look like Daphne at all. Ashley: You're totally right and of course anyone who has been with the show would want to come back I would think because it's such a great opportunity. With that said, it's Alan Ball and it's a fantasy. So really between those two forces, anything could happen. Ghosts, flashbacks, a different character entirely. If nothing else, it could be something to really kind of mess with Sam and it seems like that kind of happens to him. Poor Sam, he gets messed with a lot. It wouldn't be shocking if I found out I was going back just to tease him. TBN.com: Well we are looking forward to that possibility! Ashley: Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you very much. Just the fact that anyone ever thought of that kind of validates the work that I was able to do on the show. 
TBN.com: We all loved you on the red carpet and you're just ... you're Bridget Forrester and fashion is in your blood. Is it in Ashley Jones' blood and if so, who gave you your fashion sense? You are the belle of the ball on every red carpet. Ashley: Well thank you. That's so sweet. I don't quite have the accessibility or the finances really to wear everything I would want to wear. But to answer to your question, because people are fans of the show, they want to help you out and there are ways they can get you a designer that you couldn't normally get on your own. They will let you borrow an outfit and that's just super fun. But my mom's always been privy to trends and has a phenomenal eye for interior design and style and fashion. I am sure there were times I was just not interested in it and the form of expression. It changes how you feel, your mood, and lifts your spirits. It's not something that is expensive - that's kind of what's so fun - but you get invited to funny things and I have to be creative. I love to find something that's really inexpensive but it's priceless because it's one of a kind for me at least and you get that with a great pair of shoes or something like that. I think it's a melting pot for all sorts of different ways to put it together. It's fun to explore … TBN.com: So I have some goofy questions that we ask everybody … Has True Blood reshaped the way you think about good and evil? Ashley: Sure, yeah actually. Well, I can see that Daphne is an inherently a good person and if I were just an outsider looking in and didn't know the story line, I would think what deeply evil person she is. She's soulless. She doesn't have a soul, but knowing Daphne, I feel like evil was able to penetrate her almost like a poison and that's my take on her. You know I've never spoken to the writers so I don't know. TBN.com: You seemed to play Daphne as if she was very innocent. Did you do this on purpose? Ashley: All I have to say is I think it was the brilliance of Alan Ball because I was literally unaware when I did the first couple of episodes. I didn't know she was a pig. I didn't know where the scratches came from; a lot of it I didn't know, so I just created the character in my head and I did put a lot of innocence into her because I didn't want her to come across as stupid, or dumb or a total ditz. It was more of an authentic weakness and innocence that she wasn't the greatest waitress. But that didn't mean she was dumb. And then the more and more I found out about her, she was more layered which automatically shows the complexity of her character. But I think [the innocence] was more Alan not letting me know every thing right at the beginning. TBN.com: And do you have a favorite charity? Ashley: Yes I do. I work closely with a charity in LA that's called Step Up Woman's Network. TBN.com: Can you tell us a little bit about it? 
Ashley: It connects women with other women in different professions and helps them open the line of communication but most importantly, it connects professional women and underprivileged teens and young women with very young children to so they can see the reality of what they can become. For instance, I just met mine and hopefully she's going to be coming here because she wants to become an actress. We can stay together, getting to know each other. It was phenomenal. She really hasn't been out of her world, which is limited, so she gets to show her that anything is possible. It's a great organization. TBN.com: Very nice, you get personal contact it's not just something you send a check off to and forget about nine months out of the year ... Ashley: No. I do that. I have an orphanage that I am hoping and I believe in it that if it works in Africa and I am hoping some day to go and visit it but that isn't solidified yet. TBN.com: Would you like to include that too? TBN.com: Thank you so much Ashley for your generous time! (Photo credits: Kasandra Rose) http://truebloodnet.com http://truebloodnet.com/community http://truebloodnet.com/forums
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