För någon vecka sedan fick IESB chansen att intervjua Ashley,
där hon pratar b.la om Skateland och jämför de olika Twilight regissörerna!

Q: Can you talk about Skateland? Did it hurt not to be able to be at Sundance for it?

Ashley: I did really want to be there. For anyone who doesn’t know, Skateland is an independent film I did, directly after Twilight. It’s a movie that takes place in the 1980's. It was directed by Tony Burns and, when it got into Sundance, I actually cried. I was in New York, doing press for New Moon, and that was the one thing I wanted and needed. We had Twilight, and I had just signed on to do The Apparition, and I was a lead in a studio film, which was incredible. And then, I said I would love for one of my films to go to Sundance. I will not go to Sundance unless I have a film there because sometimes it’s kind of a circus. So, it got in, I was ecstatic and then the snow ruined everything.

We were starting rehearsals for The Apparition, and I had to be there for the whole film. We had a lot to discuss and go over. And, it became a concern, at the last minute, that either I was going to get snowed in at Sundance, or I was going to get snowed out of Berlin, and I wasn’t going to be able to make a flight in. I also would have already been in Berlin for two day, have to go back to go to Sundance, and then go back to Berlin two days later. It just would have been exhausting and not a good way to start off a film. As much as I wanted to be there, and I was bummed that I wasn’t there, I was also excited to be a part of this and understood, if there was any other way, I would have been there. On both sides, as far as Skateland goes, and as far as the studio goes for The Apparition, everyone was working really hard to get me there. It was one of those things that didn’t work out, but I figured that it was in Sundance and it was going to do what it was going to do. It was still going to get press, and it has. And, I got to go to SXSW, so it all worked out.

Q: For The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, did David Slade give you a syllabus or mission statement, the way that Chris Weitz did for The Twilight Saga: New Moon?

Ashley: No, he definitely didn't give us that. But, each of the cast did sit down and have hour-long, sit-down conversations with him, probably two or three times, going over the whole script and us highlighting anything that we wanted to talk about. He went about it a different way, but he was also very open about forming some type of collaboration. The directors have their own vision. They don’t want to change our characters, but their vision may be a little different. Obviously, David Slade has a little darker spin on it than Chris Weitz may have had, so we had to find a way to mold them together.

Q: Have you read the new novella that Stephenie Meyer has coming out?

Ashley: Are you talking about the fifth book (Midnight Sun), that didn’t come out? I read some of it, probably during Twilight, before that whole thing happened and it got out.

Q: Not that book, but the novella that she’s coming out with, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, before the release of Eclipse?

Ashley: No, that I haven’t read.

Q: Coming off of Twilight and being concerned about being pigeonholed in this type of genre, is there another genre that you would really like to get the chance to explore next?

Ashley: Yeah. I have a very different story than most people, about how things happened for me. It happened very quickly, and so I'm getting all of this recognition and I really haven't done a lot. There are so many things I haven’t done yet. I love film. I love everything about the adventure of it, and I want to do it all. I’m like a kid in a candy shop right now. I want to do everything I haven’t done yet. I think I've covered drama. I definitely want to do a comedy. I think a musical would be really fun. I'm itching to do an action film. You do a movie and, even if it's not a comedy or it's not an action film, you get a little taste of it, and then I want to do it full force. So, we’re trying to choose the right projects that let me do things and create a career, rather than sticking to one thing.