Ashleigh LaThrop On the Importance of Daydreaming and Telling Stories Where Other's Feel Seen
Ashleigh LaThrop has been delighting audiences with her riveting performances in shows like The Handmaid’s Tale and The Kominsky Method. Now the Los Angeles-based actress stars in Amazon’s Utopia, a dystopian series that feels much like art intimidating life.
In ROSE & IVY’s first of two digital issues dedicated to fresh faces, Ashleigh talks about how she went from wanting to be a doctor to being in front of the camera, the importance of daydreaming and playing parts that make others feel seen.
Dress by Teatum Jones; jewelry by Misho Designs
I think it’s been good; I always thing it is really good to reset and recharge. Rest is a really important thing for anyone and oftentimes we don’t take time for that. I haven’t been acting right now, but I am the type of person who is a project starter. I love scrapbooking, learning languages and all of those things are always second to acting. Since I haven’t been acting these have been first, which is really nice.
I am spontaneous; I have a routine now, because I have a dog—he’s a Double Doodle puppy—a Labradoodle and a Golden Doodle mixed. I talk about this dog all of the time, I am obsessed with dogs. I have more routine than I have ever had even when I am working on set, it’s so much more structured around him.
I was 17 when I saw the play, Metamorphoses and I was like, I am going to be an actor. I had always been in school plays and I loved performing but for some reason, I never equated that with a career that I could have. It seemed far away. The movie stars on TV, those were movie stars, but I didn’t really want to do film initially. But when I saw that play, I realized I could do theater, which I loved, so I wanted to do that. I didn’t really think about the certainty or uncertainty—my parents definitely did—they were like, excuse me (laughs). You went from a sure thing, to this?
Dress by Brock Collection; earrings by Misho Designs
I care so much about what I audition for and I just want to have the best audition in the room and that is possible for myself. I just want to give the best performance. If I do that in an audition, I feel like it is a success. So weirdly, rejection doesn’t bother me. I know that it should and I know that for a lot of people it’s really hard but like in this career you get rejected all of the time. It’s one of those things where I am more upset if I get rejected when I had a bad audition—that upsets me because I could have been better and maybe have booked it.
Jacket, pants and shoes by Moschino; jewelry by Eriness Jewelry
The very first thing that I did was Fifty Shades of Grey, I don’t know if it cemented my career but it definitely confirmed that I liked film and television. I had never done film before, just a TV show. We shot that in Canada and I got to travel there. Acting is first but travel is second in terms of things that I love. I was like, I get to travel to?
I would say it all of the things you mentioned. I am really drawn to complex and interesting characters, which I would say is number one. Story is second, it needs to be a really good story that I am interested in. The last thing is when it’s a project like Utopia that has a message to them, they have a warning, these dystopian stories, so I love when it makes people think, to educate themselves or to see the world, other people or themselves in a different way. I love it when I feel like I am making a difference in people’s perceptions of their world or they feel seen. In Utopia, I play a nerd, there are not a lot of black female characters who play that, it’s not a standard thing.
I think each role is different and they need a lot of research. I spend a lot of time daydreaming. I think it’s really important for keeping your brain active. In my career, it’s necessary because without imagination, we don’t have anything. But in general, I think it’s good to dream of scenarios and keep your mind interesting and creative.
We started filming in April of 2019 and we finished last October. It was wild when covid hit and suddenly it’s like, oh, we just filmed this. I just lived this about a pandemic that is going to change the course of the world. It was also based on a show from 2013.
It’s about this group of nerds, who believe that there is one copy of this graphic novel called Utopia. It’s not out yet but it was coming out and they wanted to get their hands on it because they believe that within its pages, it predicts all of these disasters that have happened like MERS, and Zika. They also belive that it is going to predict how to solve problems and to heal the world. I play one of the nerds named Becky, who has this disease called Ziels, which is incurable. She’s dying from it rapidly and wants to get her hands on the graphic novel because she thinks it can cure it. But anyone who has laid their hands on Utopia is ceremoniously murdered. They find themselves hunted by this shadowy organization who is after them.
I love the organization because they are focused on mental health and trying to change laws for people who are suffering; they are trying to remove the stigma. There is such a stigma particularly in this country on mental illness. Their big thing is removing that and understanding that taking care of your mental health is so important—they provide resources to do that, which is why I really love their mission.
So The Kaminsky Method, the show that I have been on since the beginning, is starting season three in a few weeks. I am not sure how that will go because I haven’t been on a set at all yet, but things are slowly starting to resume. Life begins...
A special thank you to this team! Makeup by Kai Pritchard; Hair by Alexander Armand