October 1, 2025 • 62 mins
Aisha Dee isn’t afraid to speak her truth. On this epsiode of No Filter, guest hosted by Laura Brodnik, The Bold Type star opens up about stepping into her queerness on screen, the ways her iconic character helped her explore her own sexuality, and the struggles of being a young woman navigating Hollywood while staying true to herself.
She gets candid about her decade-long battle with endometriosis and PCOS - the chronic pain, the surgeries, and the fight to have her experiences taken seriously. Aisha also talks about her latest project, Watching You, an intense psychological thriller, and why she’s drawn to messy, morally gray characters that push her to take risks.
From the highs of red carpets to the quiet victories at home with family, Aisha shares the moments that shape her life, career, and identity, all with honesty, humour, and heart.
You can follow Aisha Dee here.
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CREDITS:
Guest: Aisha Dee
Host: Laura Brodnik
Executive Producer: Naima Brown
Senior Producer: Bree Player
Audio Producer: Jacob Round
Video Producer: Josh Green
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a MoMA Miya podcast. Mamma Maya acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Honestly, I don't even know what kind of podcast is this?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Is this all right?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That we're talking about my period?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I can say anything you want.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Too bad.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I probably would have talked about it anyway. I love
talking about periods.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Hello, and welcome to No Filter. I'm Laura Brodnick, and
today I'm speaking with an actress who has been in
our living rooms since she was a teenager. Asia d
grew up on the Gold Coast with a dream that
many told her was impossible to become an actress. From
scouring the phone book to find an agent as a child,
(00:54):
to starring in the Saddle Club, moving overseas, and eventually
landing the breakout role of Kat Edison on The Bold Type,
Asia has built a career defined by courage and persistence.
But her story isn't just about Hollywood. In this conversation,
Asha opens up about queerness, rejection, identity, chronic pain, endometriosis,
(01:18):
and how she fought to reclaim her body and her voice.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
This is Asha d Asha d. Welcome to No filter.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, fix love it ICs to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I don't know if you noticed as you.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Walked in the office all of the staff peeping up
over their desks like little meer cats to get a
glimpse of you. Did you feel that energy when you
came in? It completely shifted in the office.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm so excited to see you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh I think, I hope you're not.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We'll see by the end of the interview. I think
it's when.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I think it's seeing someone that you grew up watching
on screen. And I think a lot of your past
projects are those kind of shows that people watch with
their friends after school or watch with their girlfriends after work.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So just been warning when you step out of the room.
Oh no, I actually I had a lot of people
waiting for you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I sang the Sata Club theme song with someone yesterday
during the jun kit and I don't think i've sang
that since Bertie, but really really brought back some memories.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So I got it.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Okay, Well, memories is a good spot to be because
that's where we're sort of going to start from today.
So you grew up on the Gold Coast in the nineties,
is that right? And did you always dream of becoming
an actress.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, yes, but I think it was quite delusional if
I'm really honest.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But isn't any kids dreaming of that?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Like there's a bit of delusion there because it is
such a grand dream.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I think for a while. You know, when you're
in school, they say what's your favorite color?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And I said, oh, I want to be an actress,
And then people definitely let me know that that was
a really stupid thing to say. So I was like, Okay,
I want to be a spy.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Right, a much more solid career path. I would say, yeah,
imagine I'm doing both now. I would actually lot that
for you. I would too, I'm just your side project.
I mean, would you say if it was that's the
whole thing, right, You'll never know.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You'll have to throw us off.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
So a lot of kids, as I said, was we
all dream of being actress when we're young, but most
of us don't take the step to actually make that happened.
And correct me if I'm wrong. But I've heard the
story of you picking up a phone book when you
were a kid and looking for an agent's number.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Is that real?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I used to kind of just any resource I had, so,
like what I had was the Yellow Pages and the
newspaper yea, and the library. So I used to like
just look for any kind of keywords that jumped out
at me in the newspaper or like you know, a
little post like posted notes, and in the library, I
(03:40):
would just like go on the little catalog computer and
try to find any books that I could on acting
it's all like pretty cringe, but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It just it made sense to me in the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And I'm lucky that my mum, even though she kind
of fought me on it a little bit in the beginning,
she very quickly, I think, realized that I wasn't that
I was very stubborn, and so she decided.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
That you were going to go ahead and do it.
So it's best for her to sort of support you
in that dream.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I mean, now I think about it, I'm thirty two.
I just turned thirty two, and I would have, like
if I was my mum, I would have I would
have a ten year old And I think about myself
at ten on my mom's one day off, because she
was probably working like three jobs at the time, and
saying like, Hey, on your one day off, do you
mind driving me forty minutes in our shitty Reynold car
(04:30):
that the door's open when we're at a stop, Like,
can we like go forty minutes away so you can
take me to some random open call or whatever. And
I'm blessed that she did it because she, I think
understood because she's also a creative, even in a very
different field. Oh right, what field is she in? My
mum's an opera singer.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh wow, that's so impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So I think she was also kind of ridiculed, yes,
although she.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Knows what it's like to chase it a dream that's
hinged more being creative, not fame, Because what I'm picking
up from you is that you weren't dreaming of being famous.
You were dreaming of working on TV shows and movies
and more of the creative side. Yeah, what was it
about that? As a ci of like looking at TV
shows and movies and we were the kind of kid
who like imagined yourself in them instead of taking like
(05:15):
that joy of just watching them.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think they were like a really like intense and
beautiful escape for me as a kid. Specifically the movies
that were on the TV shows and the things that
were available again at the library, which is where I
spent like a lot of time as a kid.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It was where I was kind.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Of exposed to a lot of culture that I wasn't
really able to access through Australian television, especially at the time,
you know, I mean think even still it's like quite
hard to come by things that feel like for the culture.
And at the library there were Josephine Baker movies and
I used to hire Porgy and Bess. Oh yeah all
the time. I used to like I bring it home
(05:52):
and watch it and then like take it back to
the library and kind of wait for the library and
to put it out again and then I can take
it home again. Yeah, like all the old movies like that.
And I think they had like they had like essence
mags and oh yeah, cool kind of ways to connect
to a part of my self that I didn't really
have easy access to. And so I think because I
(06:15):
saw more of myself in those things, I just it
just made sense to me and my kid brain that
that was where I would go, That was.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
A place where you would feel welcome in a world.
Maybe on the Gold Coast. I didn't feel like that
at a time growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, it just seemed like fun.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't know, Yeah, well, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And then how do you go then again, from opening
the Yellow Pages and going online to finding an agent
and getting a role on The Saddle Club, which was
such a huge TV show at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, I think the first, the first job I actually
got was there was like a production of Annie, oh right,
And I'm pretty sure from memory, they like came to
my school oh and kind of said like, we're doing
an open call for Annie, and I was like, mom,
please stay, this is my moment, please and she was
(07:02):
like okay.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I think probably she had to take off work.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I think she was working at Muff and Break at
the time, but she took me and I auditioned and
there was like hundreds of kids and I got the
role of Molly, and my mum said that I couldn't
do it because she didn't know how I was going
to get to rehearsals.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
They were so fair, no way for us to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And I think she saw and realized how devastated I
was that she didn't let me do that, and she
promised me that she would let me do the next thing,
and the next thing just happened to be The Saddle Club.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And I mean it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Was many years later, but yeah, it was another thing
where I think the call was so huge, like Australia
wide they were rebooting The Saddle Club, which is huge,
Like I was a fan. Yeah, And I'm not sure
how I got that job because I really like didn't
I didn't know what I was doing at all.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And so you'd went in it was like an long
audition process and you went and read for the character
and that you and the rest of the cast just clicked.
I'm assuming I think so.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean I think I was just pretty like delusional
and proco and I mean I remember I didn't know
if I was supposed to. You know, like any script,
you have the character names, the lines that the characters read,
and then you have like the stage direction. And I
wasn't sure if I should read the stage direction.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Into the character as you're performing in the audition.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Ye do I say it?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah? I remember asking that and the casting director being
like no, no, But they were so sweet and like
really encouraging, and I think I don't know why or how,
but I'm really grateful because even those you know the
people from that show, like, MANI is still that's my girl.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That's like my sister is.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Still really close, right, yeah, yeah, that's really lovely. And
so so you had to move from the Gold Coast
to Melbourne to film that show, right.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
No, I was. I was.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Actually we had just moved from the Gold Coast down
to the western suburbs of Melbourne, right, And I think
I had done like a year and a half of
high school. And yeah, so I moved from Melbourne to
Dalesford where we filmed.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I haven't been to Dalsford, but I hear it's a
beautiful corner of the world. I do know what the
Gold Coaster is like, and I feel like those two places,
I feel like they should be in different countries.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
What was it like going from I guess the bright.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Lights of the Gold Coast with sofa surface paradise to
this beautiful Dalsford location that's known for its shops and
it's beauty and how calm it is.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it was a pretty big shift.
In some ways, they're kind of similar. They have that
kind of like touristy vibe to them. But I think
the thing that was most special about going to Dalesford
now from memory, actually I think it was the first
time that I was really exposed to like a lot
of queer community because really because Dalesford has a huge
(09:56):
like LGBTQ community there, and it was it was actually
a really kind of a special.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Moment for me to be immersed in that as a kid.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, and just to be I guess, so I removed
from a place that you've grown up where you're saying
that you didn't feel completely accepted or for different reasons,
and having your first job being a place that opened
those different ideas of guess of how people are in
Australia would have been a really beautiful experience.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It was also really cold and did you actually love that?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Because I'm from Queensland, not as fancy as the goldcos
I'm from Townsville and whenever i feel cold weather, I.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Feel like I'm on holiday. It feels so exotic I
have that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I cannot relate.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I just need you to know, I hope to never
ever find myself feeling that kind of cold again. I'm
a little bitch. I don't below me. I shouldn't be
in cold.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
They won't see you back there again.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I'll go, but I'll be in seventeen layers. Yeah,
all right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And after sort of dreaming of this and your mum
saying like, not this role, but I'll let you do this.
When you were on the set for that first day
and you were a professional actress, what was that like?
Did the dream live up to what you had imagined
all those years? The reality of being on that set?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I was terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I mean, I'm sure you weren't, but no, no, no, I
should be a little terrible at their first job, that's
the rule.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I really, I was so nervous and uh.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Like something so simple like just you know, they put
tape on the ground when I'm supposed to stand, and
even just the idea of like walking into the scene
and standing on the tape and saying like maybe one
line I think was my first scene, and I was like,
it was so difficult for me to land my feet
(11:40):
where they needed to land, speak the words that I
had to speak.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Remember how to walk, like my arms.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And legs suddenly like didn't make sense anymore. It was
it was I remember it being a really kind of
nerve wracking experience, but I still I loved it. I
probably fell in love with like the community before the
acting part.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I think you mean like being on a set with
like all those people and like being each other's live
and everything. Yeah, that's a really beautiful takeaway. I think
for being on a show like that and nicer fans,
you know, like the reality they were pitching on the
show was what we were, what you had behind the scenes,
is really lovely.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I think it's the beautiful thing about the film industry generally.
It's like, I don't play sports. I don't know if
you can tell, but it's like sports, we're fine.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I don't even know what a sport is.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think there's points.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I don't know football goalie till Taylors. We've started dating
a footballer, so.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
They totally yeah, we don't need to know anything else
about it. But being on set kind of is like
the closest thing that I've ever experienced to kind of
playing a team sport, because you're just a cog in
a wheel, and I actually love being a part of
executing a vision that is so much bigger than me
and everyone has a job to do.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It feels like almost like playing in a band.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It feels like jazz, you know, there's like the boom operator,
and there's the director, and there's the actors, and there's
the makeup artists, and everyone has like something really unique
to bring to the table, and everyone is coming. Everyone
finds the industry in such a bizarre way, you know,
like everyone comes from different worlds, but we're all kind
(13:20):
of uniting together to kind of create something. And I
think the thing that I love about it is the
fact that it's this kind of fast community that you
create was like a common goal.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Oh wow, I love hearing those stories of what it's
like behind the scenes like that. And so you found
this love fair both acting and the community around it.
And then at seventeen, if I'm right, you leave Australia
and go over to the United States to start acting.
Talk me through what was the catalyst for that, because
I know a lot of Australian actors do that, but
it always seems so daunting. And also, you were such
(13:53):
a recognizable face in Australian TV at that time. What
was the driving force to push you to go and
get jobs overseas?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I think there just wasn't much in the way of
opportunity for me here at the time, as crazy to
think how long ago that was. I think about how
much my back and knees hurt, and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I'm like, oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I am kind of old.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But yeah, it just there wasn't much for me here,
and I had been so blessed to work as much
as I did here, but I was still pretty delusional,
and I was like, well, madn I just go over
there and see what it's like. I didn't go over
with a huge amount of expectation. I think I was
supposed to be there for like two weeks and then
ended up staying because I was like testing for different shows,
(14:43):
movies and stuff, and ended up staying for a couple
of months and then and then I got a show
that filmed there, so it ended up just like moving.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
For months later. Was there when you were at that
moment we were about to leave Australia.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Was there anyone in sort of like agents or casting
directors or anything like that that was sort of saying
that they weren't roles here or was it just something
that you saw from like lived experience going to auditions
and seeing.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it was a bit of both.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think it was like I was noticing that friends
of mine who kind of fit the like, however problematic
it is, like the Australian mold. I saw that they
were having a different experience to me, and it was
also explicitly kind of said to me, people being like, well,
I don't know, I can't really help you, wow, because
that's just that's what the landscape was at the time.
(15:30):
But I do think that, I mean clearly Australia's like
come a really long way, and I think it's really beautiful.
I'm glad that I had the experience of being able
to go away to find a different part of myself
and to cultivate that and to be able to bring
it home and now to be so I don't know,
(15:50):
I feel like I'm in a different like I'm more
settled and calmer place, especially now that I'm in my thirties. Yeah,
thirties like quite great.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I feel like all of a sudden, I just feel
calmer and things seem easier and not easier in a way,
but you just like you process things in a much
better way.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah across the Yeah, like you get kind of presented
with the same lessons over and over I think in life,
and you just choose to maybe approach them differently, But yeah,
I went, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So blessed that it.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
When I think about it, I'm like, wow, I really
was blessed with kind of like an easy transition into
being there. And I've always been really blessed to work
and to you know, pay my bills and get to
do what I love.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I mean, that's the end goal is No, you've got
to do what you love, but you've got to pay
bills at the end.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We love to pay bill We love that, especially in
this claim.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Everything So christ when you were in that audition circuit,
were there big movies or TV shows that you were
sort of in the running for that went on to
be like, you know, quite big, Like were you the
kind of actress who was going to a movie therough
and thinking like, oh, I was so close to that role.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What was that experience?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Like, I guess it comes it ebbs and it flows,
and you know, this industry and like this life, there's
like a lot of comparison and it's hard to stay
out of that frame of mind. But I think genuinely
at this point, like I feel so incredibly blessed in
my life to like have a body and beautiful friends
(17:23):
in community around me and anything that I've ever not gotten,
I've always kind of been like, oh, yeah, I don't
think that was That wasn't the me. No, And I
think that, you know, acting specifically is such a subjective
art form, like who's to say what's good and what's not?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Like why is someone good?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
We kind of don't really know, And so I just
feel like, well, I can only ever bring what I bring,
and what someone else is going to bring is going
to be totally unique and different, and so if I'm
not the one for that job, then it means I
wasn't the person to feel that puzzle piece. And again,
it's like you're a cog in a wheel. It's about
(18:02):
a vision that's so much bigger than me. So I
try to just just remember that, like what's meant for
me will find me my blessings and my blessings and
rejection is God's protection, So.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Like, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
And I also think that you did get the right
role when you got the job on the ball type,
which is what I want to talk to you about next,
because I do you think that's why you're being stalked
through out office because that show just became such a
worldwide hit. Tell me about the audition process for that
and reading those scripts and what was it about the
character of Kat that you just I'm assuming you had
some really strong affinity with her straight.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Away, Yeah, I mean it will yes.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
And also no, I I had done actually I had
done I think maybe two other shows for that same network.
It ended up being called Freeform, but before that it
was called ABC Family, and I had done another show
for them, so I kind of knew the executives there
and had like a you know, they felt like homies.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
To me, Like, Hi, you're doing this new show.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, Like, I guess I'll come in an audition for it.
But I felt, honestly when I read it, I remember
Kat being described as being like confident and like like
she's queer and she's cool, and I was like, I
didn't feel super confident, right. Any confidence that I was
(19:22):
kind of performing at that point very much felt like
a performance.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I was still very much in the closet.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So I was like, I don't know if I have
the confidence to play this queer character who's very confident,
and like, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
But I went in for the audition not thinking I
would get it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And then I did get it, and it was Honestly,
it was a pretty kind of scary thing to walk
into as someone who was, yeah, kind of like performing
the thing that I one day hoped to be.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yes, Yeah, that side of Cat, that where she is
in a way like so bold and outspoken on that,
but you also see her come to the realization of
who she is no sexuality through her friends. Do you
think a part of playing Cat helped you in that way?
Did you take any kind of, like I guess, strength
or ideas from her. I know she's a fictional character,
but I'm sure, like I'm just thinking that I know people.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Who have watched that show who have had that reaction to.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That character completely.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I think being like for lack of a little like
being forced to pretend to be this person that I admired. Honestly,
it did instill in me, I think a certain confidence
and a fearlessness that I I think I genuinely.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Carry with me now. Yeah, so for sure, I mean
she inspired me. And I remember like.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Kind of early on in the seasons, I would often
people would come to me in like the streets and
they would say, oh, Cat inspired me to tell this
girl that I love her, or to come out to
my parents or you know, whatever it might have been.
And I was always so inspired and I would always
have to kind of like check myself and not get
(21:04):
too emotional because I was like, wow, it inspired you
to do that. But like I haven't been brave enough
to come out to my mom yet, Like, yeah, what
I wonder if I'll ever feel brave enough. And for
that reason, I don't know. I mean she and I
know she's fictional, but I'm a bit woo. So I
like to believe she exists on some plane.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Oh I also I think that too, just so yeah,
like they exist, They're very real to me.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, so I you know, I like to think she
exists somewhere. And I think I'm very grateful to her
for what she's instilled in me and also in other people,
Like I'm endlessly inspired by the people who were inspired
by the show.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
After this short break, Asha recalls how she first discussed
her sexuality with the most important people in her life,
coming out to your friends and family and your mother,
And if you feel comfortable sharing, how did that conversation
go now that you sort of look back on it
with you know, older eyes and you're on the other
side of it. I sometimes think that, like those moments
in life are a bit always a bit easy to
(22:09):
process when you look back in them after a while
and you can sort of sit with how you feel
in that moment.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh for sure. I mean at the time it was
quite difficult.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I thought like, I'll just I'll just come out and
it'll be done. And it was like this slow constant
coming out again and again and again with different people
and in different ways. And sometimes it went well and
sometimes I didn't have a great time. And you know,
I never did the like press release, right, I'm a
(22:40):
little I just never did it because I was like,
I don't know, I don't know if I need.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
To, like maybe I'll just live.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And yeah, it was at times kind of difficult, and
I felt a lot of like imposter syndrome at times,
kind of playing this character who was so at home
in her queerness and I wasn't quite there yet. It
took me a long time and probably took me until
I don't know, maybe like maybe only like five years ago,
(23:12):
like recent, you know. But I'm grateful for that because
it's actually given me a lot of empathy for other
people who maybe it takes a minute. I'm jealous of
people that were like I came out at thirteen and
I'm like, that's so cool.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, yeah, to know that everyone's story goes in a
different way like that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And was it something about the culture.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Of the ball Type two that made you Maybe I'm
projecting here as a fan if you can't really of
the show, okay, because I just know how close you
and your co stars Katie and Meghan were through the
filming of that show. And I got to interview all
of you at some point during that show, and something
that always came through in those interviews, particularly from Katie
(23:53):
at one stage where I was finishing up an interview
with her once and she said, can I say one
more thing? And I thought, oh, have I missed something
she wanted to.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Talk about or anything?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And She's like, oh, I have an Australian accent that
I talked to Asia with, can I do for you?
And I was like, yes, please go ahead and please
tell her when you get back to set that you
were mocking her on our podcast Becca and yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, she had a character name and everything.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Does she met her?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Just oh good, great, but yeah, everything ever met your
relationship I thought was really special. Was that again you're
talking about how you love to build communities. What was
it like going to the show that you were feeling
a bit uncertain about and then you're on the set
and there's all this pressure to make the show a success.
What was it like meeting those two women and was
that bond quite instant?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, we kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, I think like the first night we met, we
were like.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Oh, yeah, this is gonna work.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, But you know, we always just kind of I
don't know, and we never felt like it was this
pressure from the outside because I think we were just like,
we're just making a show that maybe no one will watch,
so who cares. I guess we'll just like enjoy the
(25:02):
fact that we're paying our bills this year. Yeah, So yeah,
it was less about kind of like outside pressure. I
think the objective and goal for us when we were
filming was just to make sure that we were being
honest with each other and.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That we would support for each other in that process.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Becaues the schedule of a TV show is pretty nihily
and you kind of yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I hear like like twenty hour days something like that.
At all day craziness.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, the rest of your life it falls away, right,
So you have to you have to find something in
the community of the people that you work with, and
I think we were really lucky in that way.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah, it must be nice now to see the legacy
of that show because it's become this thing that I
think is very hard for a TV show to become,
is that it's become a lot of people's comfort watch,
where especially here in Australia, we so many women watch
it again and again and again and again, and there's
this beautiful familiarity to it and the characters and everything,
and I think that's a hard space for it to
(25:59):
be in, and that's why I don't love when it
first came out.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
There are a few and they're mostly like all the.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
White male critics, like, oh, this is you know, it's
a girly show. It's a bit silly, and I'm sorry
that it's a show about women not being raped murdered,
because if it was, you'd be calling it prestige drama
totally because it's women at work and it's.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All these other issues.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
But because they are, you know, and like their audience
as young women and everything that young women like I
feel gets very kind of dismissed. I feel like sometimes
that conversation went the other way, but the true fans
always knew what it was.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, I remember, actually remember a lot of the early
reviews were like, we can't believe we like this shit. Yeah,
I look and I understand like it. I think Megan
used to say that it's like Sesame Street for adults
because there's you know, there's a there's a lesson.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Of the day.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, and I love that totally. I mean, I think
when something has like a formula like that, you can
watch it and you can know that there's going to
be an ending that's satisfying to you.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I think it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And I love that the show has been a comfort
for people, especially thinking about everything that's happening now, and
it has happened especially in the last five years. Knowing
that the show has existed in that way for people
is really quite special.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I don't know if I'll ever get to experience that
again in my life. I mean, I hope so, but yeah,
it's very special.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yeah, And I want to ask you about a moment
in I think it was twenty twenty when the show
is like very much at its height worldwide, It's found
this huge fan base. We're all waiting each week for
the new episodes to drop. And at the time, you
put a very moving statement up on your Instagram where
you were highlighting some issues behind the scenes and some
issues with the storylines. And I thought it was done
(27:40):
in a really beautiful, elegant way while also highlighting some
very real world issues. What was the catalyst for you
to put that statement? And I know you were having
those conversations behind the scenes with the team long before
it was made public.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
What was the driving force behind that?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I think, honestly, I didn't do it with like the
intention of kind of trying to change anything in the
workplace or change anything about the industry.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Like it was actually.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
More of a I was trying to reach and give
voice to the fans that I knew were feeling the
way that I was feeling about it because someone like
as someone who also like I got comfort from the show.
Kat was an inspiration to me, and she meant a
lot to me, and so I was like, well, if
(28:31):
I'm feeling this way, I know that I'm not alone,
and so it meant a lot to me to speak
to the people who had really advocated for the show,
and the reason why the show was a success is
because of the people that championed the show, and so
it felt important to me to give voice to things
that I had a feeling they were feeling in kind
(28:54):
of a silo, and I just wanted them to know
that they weren't crazy, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
That they were seen at least by me.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
But yeah, my intention was really always it was a
love letter to the fans of the show.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, and it did really come across that way, because
it was also highlighting things that some of the fans
or people who were just watching the show with their
friends at home, they were loving these characters, of these
women of color and queer characters finding love. But then
we at the time wouldn't have known as an audience
unless we were going back through the credits, that those
women weren't represented in the writer's room at the time,
(29:29):
and they weren't directing episodes. And that idea of seeing
stories on screen is important, but the people behind the
scenes need to also be allowed to tell their stories
and have that in place. So I thought that was
really powerful, and the storyline I think you're talking about.
The one that the fans were upset about was when
your character starts a relationship with a white Republican woman
(29:50):
and it kind of becomes a bit of a bit
about her character development and strays away from the cat
that we all knew. And I thought it was very
lovely that you were sort of with the fans being like, yeah,
I'm uncomfortable, like we're all sitting in the same space
with this.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah. I mean I think like.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
At the end of the day, it almost it was
like she felt not like herself. Yeah, she wasn't the
cat that I knew and loved, and it felt like
just a side step to something completely foreign and again
like as someone who loves her wherever she exists.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Yeah, girl running her empire. She totally edited of ten
magazines by now.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I hope in the alternate universe she actually won that election.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Upset me as well.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Had a really hard time for a few seasons there.
She was getting fired left and right, losing election.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, she was attacked online and it was just yeah,
she went through the ringer with that. When you went
to put that statement out, I know you maybe you
didn't expect it to blow up the weight didn't get
picked up by all these outlets, But were there people
in your life who were sort of telling you not
to do whatever? They were supportive? Just coming from my
parasocial moment as a fan. When I saw that statement, after,
(31:07):
I thought about like how important it was and how
like how like I hope it an act to change.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
In that moment, I did feel like a.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Little stab of fear for you, because I was thinking,
I really love this actress and I just want to
keep watching her and things. But I know that this
every industry, but particularly some parts of this industry, she
could maybe not get jobs in the future, or people
could take things away from her, And I had that
little fear for you, and there would be fallout with
other people in your life saying that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, I was definitely warned about that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, and it's valid, you know, Yeah, But I think
in the end I was kind of like, well, those
people probably wouldn't like me very much anyway. Yeah, So
that's okay. Yeah, at least I'm like being saying authentically
what's on my mind.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, I don't know. That was so long ago, and.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I think I've thought about that recently and wondered, like,
would I do it differently now, how would I approach
it now?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Who would I have maybe included in the conversation.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I do think that I would have approached it differently,
but I would never take back doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And I'm sure there's you know.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm sure there's people out there who because of that
letter don't want to work with me.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
But I'm also saw there's people out there who really
wanted to work with you after that. Sure, And yeah,
I know, I'm sure it was It did feel like
a watershed moment. I mean, it was a long time ago,
but it's always stuck in my head now watching shows
and like thinking to myself, like but also like who's
in the writer's room and who's doing this? And I
think it just it just opened up that conversation because
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
People it's bigger than just the show.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Of course, you're pointing out an industry wid Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It's an industry wide, worldwide problem.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Really, I mean a lot of industries.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are kind of really populated and kind of like the
people at the top seem to be the same kind
of person.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, and I don't it.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Does feel a little bit like we've taken step backwards recently, Yes,
but you know, I still have like hope in my
heart and I still feel optimistic because I see such
incredible work that so many people are doing at the moment.
I'm like endlessly inspired and feel like very honored to
(33:23):
even just be like again a Cogginer wheel a part
of the movement that's happening. Es.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, so the ball type comes to an end with
a really emotional finale. I won't I won't spoil it
for the two people listening who haven't watched aful moment.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I loved the ending. I don't think I remember what happened.
Kat became the editor of Scarlet magazine. That was huge.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
You know what, You're right, I said before she's editing
all these nights.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Okay, no, no, no, I actually forgot about that. And
you're right because and I remember when we were filming
that scene actually, because it's a scene with like with
Katie and Malura, right, yes, yes, yeah, And I remember
we were filming that scene and you know there's directions
like we do it a couple of times, and I
remember her being like, and you're the editor. That wasn't
(34:07):
a line, but like you're gonna be the magazine girl.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
That day I was kind of checked out emotionally.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I was that sick.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Sure that was like my reaction in the scene. And
the director came over and she was like, do.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You think she'd be a little more emotional?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I was like, and she was one so much It's fine.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I was like, Oh, I guess, I guess this is
the finale of the show.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I don't know what it says about me that my.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Big plot twist, because we all thought it was going
to be Jane traveling and then it's Kat and who
actually had the better business brain not to out myself
to the fance.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I did think she was the better choice of the
show important.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That means a lot. Cat really did make some missteps though.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Because that she had vision. She was like debating the
show that years ago. Let me get a season.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I think I was apologizing about the tweet.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
About the tweet, that was a lot of that as well.
So the ball type ends and where is your sadly
for me? And I've watched it ten times since. I
oh so, And then you're at the stage of you
you wanting to jump straight into other big projects, are
you wanting to take a break. It's a phone ringing,
like what does it look like as an actress when
this really cult TV show ends and you're deciding what
(35:18):
to do next.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I think at that point I knew that it would
take I needed to take some time, multiple years, and
it still has been years. I don't know if I
feel ready to sign on to another long running TV show.
At that point, I really wanted to do more independent film.
I wanted to work with like more emerging directors and
(35:41):
challenge myself in different ways. And I also knew that
I wanted to come home. Yes, that those were like
kind of the big objectives for me.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Post the show, talk to me about coming back to
Australia and because we're we've been so lucky to have
you and all these amazing projects to see and Safe
Home and Apple Sided Vinegar and all these amazing, amazing
projects that you've been working on. Was that a conscious
choice too, that you wanted to be back home in
Australia or was the projects that brought you back.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I think initially it was wanting to be home, you know, honestly,
like the bold type is the reason why I was
able to come home and honestly shout out to Stan
for putting the bold type on their platform.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, I mean that's where we all got to access
and that's completely in love with it.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And like I had been doing shows in America before
that for like almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
And like no one here watched them.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You know, my little baby cousins would be like, how
come you don't act anymore?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Are you're acting? But we don't see it.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I am, And they just don't make it to Australia unfortunately.
And so I'm incredibly grateful to Stand because, you know,
obviously not intentionally, but because they put the bold type
on their platform, it kind of reintroduced me to Australia
and has enabled me to come home. They've been so
supportive over the years. And you know, initially, I think
(36:59):
that choice to come home was more about my little
sister than anything else. Right, she's seventeen now, Oh she's seventeen. Well, yes,
she's just a baby.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Yeah, no, no, that is Look, my little sister's turned
thirty and I'm like, you're still a baby.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Once say your little sister, they're always a baby.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Too, Yeah, And there's a big age difference between us.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So She's very important to me, and I kind of
had this moment where I realized as the bold type
was coming to an end, I realized that she was
just going to grow up and I was going to
miss it. And before that, I had I would usually
come because I was so busy. I would come home
for a week at Christmas and then I would have
to leave again, and I every time i'd come home,
(37:39):
she'd be like this much taller, and I was like,
I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss all
of it and we won't know each other. And so
it was really for her. And then I don't know.
I came back and I did Sissy, and I was like, Wow,
this is kind of cool. I kind of like I
(38:00):
like the process of filmmaking in Australia. I like that
we have less resources and less money because I think
and that's not always the case, but I like the
creativity that it.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
It's kind of cultivated from a lot of Australian actresses
who go and work overseas and then come back and
do projects here. They say the vibe on set is different.
It's some smaller but not in a bad way. More
and like people are close in it. It feels more
community based. It is, yeah, something about a strain sets.
It's so interesting. I hear that from so many people.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
It's a cowboy filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, we got together shot, we got five setups and
two minutes to do it.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Can we do it?
Speaker 1 (38:37):
And everyone has to like kind of bub the build
of their way through it.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
And I, I just I loved it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I had it was exhausting, but I loved filming that movie.
And you know, every experience since then, I've I've been
kind of chasing that that feeling of like, uh, yeah,
I don't know, just trying to make the best of something.
And I truly believe that we have some of the
best crews in the world, some of the best technicians
(39:05):
and creatives, and it's really because we have to be
created in order to make the great thing. And I
also believe that as an industry in Australia, we're kind
of coming into our own.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
In this really special way.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
And then also audiences like we want to watch Australian
stuff now, and growing up I hated what I was like,
I don't want to watch Australian stuff like we all did.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But now I think it's really changing.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Right, well, I think that as well.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
That's what I see is like, there's so many more
when I go to sets of visits now. I used
to have to fly overseas to different countries and that
sort of stuff to see TV shows being made, but
now there's so many happening in Australia, both international and
the sort of more homegrown ones. And it seems like
a lot of the shows that are coming out to
the streamers in particular, are the shows that people are
talking about and buzzing about, and getting those big stars
(39:50):
who want to come over and work on those projects
just seems huge. It's like working at it from a
film journalism perspective. I do feel I've been doing this
for like seven or eight years now and I've seen the
shift and then the interviews I used to do to
what I do now of how it's changing.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
There's some amazing Australian television and film out there. Like
I when I was recovering from surgery recently, I just
watched all of Justin Cazell's movies, Yes, back to back,
just I loved it, and I also watched Thou Shalt
Not Steal That is so good.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
I went to the set in the premiere for that
and I was just like so blown away by everything
about that production and how they filmed it.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And the storytelling is so good.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
The storytelling elements are incredible, all of the performances are incredible, cinematography,
the music, like the vision was so deeply inspiring to me.
I finished that show. I like wept. I cried when
I finished that show. It was like, it's so cool
that a show like that exists here.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Next, Asia discusses how living with Enjamit Tros's has affected
her life in every way. When I look at your
resume Instagram, what you're doing, you look like the busiest
person in the world, you know, filming all these TV
shows and movies, and you're flying between a story in
la and with you want red carpets. We're seeing you
(41:10):
do all these things. But something I've heard you talk
a lot about is your endometriosis and how that has
been like quite a crippling thing.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Over the years.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
When did you first start to I guess, when did
you first start to realize that this was going to
be a health issue that would affect, I guess, affect
your life in such a huge way.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, I mean, I kind of have always had like
weird stuff with my uterus and my ovaries, and like
it's kind of always since I was a teenager. I
didn't actually get my period until I was twenty oh.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Right, And at the time, is that like because I
feel like there's some information, particularly for young girls in
high school at that time, there's just not a lot
of information around what your body's doing or what you
should expect. Like you maybe watch one video and a
health class and then it's kind of it. So was
there anyone sort of telling you, like, hey, you should
go to the doctor, or were you just like this
is just normal.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Honestly, I don't even know what kind of podcast is this.
This is all right that we're.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Talking about my period and say anything.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's just for the too bad.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
I probably would have talked about it anyway. I loved
talking about periods.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
We have podcasts dedicated to this. You're good to create.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yeah, I kind of like always had a little bit
of kind of an issue. I lied for a while
and said I had my period when I didn't, because.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I just you just want to do things. You want
to be like your friends and be like everyone else.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Absolutely, But yeah, yeah, I didn't get it till late,
and then when I did, it was kind of like
almost immediately I started to get chronic pain. And I
had surgery when I was twenty two, I think, and
they had found like a cyst that was quite large
and discovered I had PCOS. So I had like a laparotomy,
(42:58):
which is some open abdominal surgery. And after that surgery,
they told me you have PCOS. That's it, and you know,
there's no cures, there's not really any even treatment for that.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
But they also told me that I didn't have.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
ENDO right right, And I was like, Okay, no Endo,
that's crazy because it seemed like I had ENDO symptoms.
So then I spent the next ten years almost with
my chronic pain, kind of getting worse and worse and
worse every year, and kind of coming to the point where, really,
(43:34):
while I was filming this most recent show, while I
was filming Watching You, it took a turn to where
it started to almost kind of scare me how much
pain I was in, and I was actually really blessed.
One of the other girls on the show, Olivia Vasquez,
she was a huge support for me, and she was like,
I don't know but it sounds like you got ENDO,
(43:54):
And I was like, I had surgery. They told me
I don't. They told me I don't have it, So
I don't know. I keep getting, you know, different information
from doctors, and the pain kind of just didn't let up,
and then it got progressively worse worse again. When I
started doing press for Apple side of vinegar, it was
pretty unbearable, and I like woke up out of my
(44:21):
sleep in the middle of the night one night. It
was like a cramp that I don't know anyone with
ENDO will understand this. It was like a cramp that
kind of started in my stomach and shot up into
my heart and then into my hips and down my legs,
and I like shot up in bed, couldn't breathe, and
then like rolled out of bed and had to crawl
(44:42):
to my bathroom.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
To throw up.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
And I remember I was like laying on the tiles
of my bathroom floor, and I was like, I.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
This just can't be normal.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I think I have to do something about this, Like
this can't be my life.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I can't keep living like this.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And so I looked up a public floor therapist who
was specialized in kind of pain management and she pointed
me in the direction of an amazing surgeon who has
honestly changed my life, Like I will be forever grateful.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
And yeah, it was like that night.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
On the floor of my bathroom that I kind of
decided that it was time.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
It was time to change things. Because that's the thing
that you hear from so many women with endometriosis or
ZOS is that they keep getting told this is normal,
it's a normal part of being a woman. You're fine,
and they get dismissed for so many different reasons, Like
people get dismissed because of age, they get dismissed because
of the color of their skin, they get dismissed for
the size of their body.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Thing like oh, if you lost weight it or go away, Yeah, all.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
These sorts of things, Like it just feels like it
feels like it's been talked about more now, but by
women like you who are sharing these stories. But it
just feels like so many women are just being told
to as you were, kind of being told like it's
not a thing, just live with it.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
And also, I mean, on average, I'm pretty sure I
have this statistic correct, but I think on average, it
takes about ten years to get a diagnosis for endometriosis.
And I mean, it's crazy. Is that first surgery they
didn't check.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
They didn't actually check for ender. It's not in the
surgical report.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
So I woke up, I said, you don't have ender,
but actually it's not. They they couldn't have checked with
that particular surgery, they were removing a cyst and I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I didn't know enough to know.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Well, how do you know?
Speaker 4 (46:29):
That's the thing, Like, it's like you trust the medical
professionals to keep that information. I know a lot of
them do now, especially, but it's like women's health is
just very underfunded and very underspoken about.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Yes, And also like I don't want to shoot on
those medical professionals who did that surgery. Also, like they
helped me a lot. I needed to get those cysts removed.
It just goes to show how low, how far we've
come in the ten years between that surgery and my
most recent one. You know, the medical events are crazy
and we're still so far behind. We're still so much
(46:59):
that we don't know. But yeah, I think I think
community is really important and it's really important for us
to share our stories with each other. Like I was
so blessed, you know, on the set of Watching You
to have Olivia with me, who was like we were
giving each other advice. I was telling her about the
tens machine that I use, and she was telling me
(47:20):
about all the things that she does. We're talking about
castor oil packs, and like, I mean, look, you, it's
a full time job, yeah, dealing with this thing. But like,
honest to God, every day that I wake up and
I don't feel like I want to die and I
can't walk down the street, I like, I'm like a
crier right now, Like thinking about it, I'm so grateful,
(47:42):
Like I walk down the street and my like legs
work and I have my life back. And surgery is
not always the answer for everyone. It was for me.
But I think it's important to let people know that
it's not normal to be in pain every day.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yes, it's actually not normal.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Yes, yeah, And then you have to be advocating for
yourself if you're saying calling doctors, calling people, tasting up
those answers to get an outcome that will help you.
So I think it's really important for sharing that. And
I'm sure there's so many young women in particular that
followed you from your work and maybe getting information that
they might not have got anywhere else, or seeing that
and going in and talking to their own doctors. I mean,
(48:25):
they are the stories that we always hear from people
as we sort of put o a lott of content
around that is that you do need to sort of
know almost know that someone else has done it to
go and ask those same questions.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Yeah. Also like my scars. I love my scars.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Yeah, get do they symbol I guess like a painful time,
but they symbol, as you're saying, like this moment now
where you have your body back in a way and
you can keep on this path.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah, I feel like a little bionic woman. Yeah, like
very strong.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Yeah, you know, and you know again, I was just
I was so blessed. I had great surgeons, and I
have health insurance, which is a blessing.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
And I had my mum come and look after me.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
Oh she did that must have been really lovely.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, she came.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
She brought me an air fryer. It's important, had important
step of recovery.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
So you don't have an air fryer.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I said, no, she's I'm gonna go get you one today.
She came home most excited I've ever seen unpacking this hairry.
Speaker 4 (49:23):
This individual thing I can do to help my daughter
on her recovery. I'm going to make her delicious air
fried food, which is as we all know, that's the
place to go for cooking.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
So, yeah, she's sweety, so, you know, very lovely.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
And so coming to watching You your new show. Filming
that and have and have and haven't been in so
much pain from the end of Metrosist, I'm sure would
have been an incredibly difficult thing. On top of the
fact that it is, like I've watched the first episode,
it is.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Very intense watch and very intense subject.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
But if you can explain to the listeners, because I
haven't had the sneak peak that I have, what the
show was about before we get into the craziness of
making it.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yeah, watching You, it's like a it's a very intense, psychological,
erotic thriller. I think, yeah, you got to kind of
tread lightly go going into it. The first half of
the show. It's six episodes. I think the first half
is more erotic thriller, and then the second half of
the show is really thriller thriller. But it has the
(50:19):
most beautiful cast of people, and it's on stan When
is it October? Yes, October third, I know my stuff. Yeah,
it's a it's a great show. I'm very I'm very
proud of it, and I think, genuinely there's not been
another show that I can think of like it on
Ossie TV, So I'm very excited to be back.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:41):
And so Elena is your character, and she has a
bit of an erotic night with a new person, only
to find out later that it is being filmed and
this kind of and she has to sort of, I guess,
deal with the fallout of that in her real life,
but it also becomes quite a tense sort of situation
tracking down the person that is doing this to her.
(51:02):
So it's very kind of a high stake show and
a lot of different thoughts there around this world we
live in where everything because ither thingk what like this
is terrifying, but it could easily happen in real life,
which makes it all the more terrifying to watch.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, I think it invites a lot of really interesting
conversation around surveillance and course of control and toxic relationships
and what is love really. Yeah, I think I'm very
curious and excited to see the kinds of conversation that
it brings up, because it definitely, like I remember being
(51:36):
on set, our crew would they would all get into
like arguments with each other over the morality of different
characters and whether they think this person's a good person
or a bad person, and whether they agree with the
choices that they are making. So yeah, for that reason,
I'm most excited to kind of to hear the conversation
that it inspires in people.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, And I guess it does bring up a lot
of different things, man, because there's characters and are sure
I don't give you too much away, because I feel
like you have to just watch it without even knowing
what's going to happen. So you appreciate the twists and turns,
but it's real life people sometimes acting in a very
intense way, but it's because something's been done to them.
And then like your characters put in this impossible situation
and you sort of understand why she does the things
(52:19):
she does as she goes through the show. So it's
a really very interesting watch. So in that moment to
go from that adult club, which I have a memory
of everyone rushing home from school to watch that show
and people having the merchandise and people wanting to ride
horses because of that show and it being such a success.
To go from that to then go into casting rooms
and hear people say we don't think we have the
(52:42):
jobs for you there, or to have other networks not calling,
or what happened at the time. Did that feel like
a little bit of whiplash for the industry that had
brought you in for your first job to then say
at this moment, we don't know if there's a spot
fore you.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
I think I always knew that. Yeah, I think I
always knew that. It was kind of a crazy thing
that I even got a TV show to begin with.
So I think that I think that if anything was shocking,
it was the fact that I was able to do
this show. And I'm a virgo, so when someone tells
(53:21):
me no, I was like, oh, okay, well, I guess
I'll just find a way. I don't know the delusional
child in me, I think. I don't think I really
felt disheartened by that. I really admire the younger version
of myself, to be honest, because I don't know if
I'm as strong as her, but I try to channel
(53:41):
her now.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Yeah, I'd have that bravery just to jump on a
plane and say I'm going to make this work. I'm
going to find a job in a different country.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, and the bravery to say when someone told me
there was not a place for me, I said, Okay,
I'll find one.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
I don't know most of some different bitch said that,
not me.
Speaker 4 (53:56):
I'm like, God, was there a tiring part of you
when The Bold Type became such a worldwide success like
so many people in different countries. I know we're watching it,
and maybe you're a better person than me, But I
would have been a little bit like, look at what
I did, Look at what you guys missed on, Because
it's like that. It's like the end of a book
or a movie. It's like the hero, the heroine of
(54:16):
the book gets turned away and then she goes and
becomes so successful. A little part of me would have
been like, look what I did.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
I think I just assume no one watches.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
At that moment. Now, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I just think I think, oh, crazy, another job.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
An, I guess I'm.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Paying my rent again. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
I think there's like my mom watches my shows and
some one of my friends and like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yeah, I don't. I guess I don't.
Speaker 3 (54:50):
You're a much nicer person, I think is what we're
getting from there.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
No, I think I just live under a rock. I like,
don't check anything.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
I think I'm just a silly dilly dally and bitch.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
And that better make it into the podcast, don't We.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
Would never doare.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
So You're talking about the version of yourself and I
know you say that you don't know that girl, but
I still see her in her new now, in the
choices that you're making, in the projects that you're picking.
It feels very much like there's something about you that
even from a young age of opening the phone book
and saying like I'm going to find an agent, I'm
going to get this role, and being very particular about
the issues you speak on, the people you want to
(55:28):
work with, and the projects that you put your name to.
It seems like you're a very decisive person who really grows.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
After what they want.
Speaker 4 (55:36):
Oh thanks, that's my takeaway, right, That is that how
you see yourself going through life.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
That's very kind. Uh yeah, I think so. I think
I just I have a hard time standing still. Uh,
you know, I have a hard time just kind of
chilling out, like I like to be busy and yeah,
I mean, I guess I just a type of person
(56:04):
who needs to stay on the move. And I like
to feel scared, like maybe I'm a little bit of
a Maybe I like the fear of, like the thrill
of not knowing if something's going to work or taking
a risk.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
Yeah, I think that's the draw of it.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
I also think that's the draw of why I love
the film industry and I love if we're running behind,
you know, we have twenty minutes to get the impossible shot.
Like I really, it's like the most exciting thing in
the world to me to know that we have to
get this before the sun goes down, or you know,
(56:39):
I have to make this move work, or you know,
I have to get a job by this time, or
I'm not going to eat.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:47):
I like those challenges. I like feeling like I'm kind
of on the edge of my seat in that way.
Speaker 4 (56:51):
What is it about when you're going through scripts and
you're getting off at different roles? Is there one thing
you look for when you're choosing them, Like are you
looking for what the conversation will be or are you
looking for. I want to do something different to what
I've done before, Like, what is that kind of turning
point for you?
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Definitely, I want to try to do something different. But
I love strong, messy characters. Yes, I like when they
do stuff that makes me go like, oh, I wish
you didn't do that. Yeah. Yeah, I like playing characters
with kind of that exists in a gray moral area.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
I think. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
The other thing that kind of pulls me in when
I'm thinking about a job is really who I'm working with. Yes,
going back to the community thing, I would like to
work with people that I think are kind of nice,
because like, I don't really want to get bullied or
like I or I have a bad experience in the
workplace because I love my work. So yeah, I just
want to feel inspired and hopefully tell a story that
(57:50):
feels interesting and new. But yeah, I also want to
feel a little bit scared, like maybe I'm a little
bit out of my depth.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
Right because this has been built as your first lead role,
is that right? Or the movie done recently or I've
seen a lot of things people talking about like it's
a leading role in a different way.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Oh, it's definitely very, very different.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
I've done probably the most.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
It required a lot of me just in terms of
like the width and like the breadth of the show.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
It's definitely like not a slow burn.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
It really it moves quickly and it takes you on
a journey that is like so vast and I've definitely
not done anything that's required quite that much from me before.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
Yes, Oh, okay, that's really interesting.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
Yeah, when you people talk about this different like way
you're going as an actress, it's like we've seen you
in like all these different roles, but this is kind
of taking it in a different way, which I loved.
Kind of seeing like that evolution of someone on screen
is always really interesting. Yeah, it's cool, and it's talking
as we've gone through this interview, like you're so open
about sharing so much of your life and your childhood
(59:03):
and your medical situation and your friendships, and it does
feel like you were such an open book to the world.
You stand for a lot of things. As you go
through your career and you keep getting these big roles
and you keep doing these press tours and talking to people,
does that ever take a toll of being the person
who always shares and always because I just can imagine,
(59:23):
like putting yourself out there almost like having like raw
nerves exploded to the public all the time must be
a lot. And is there anything that you're just like,
I won't share that part of my life with you.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Oh, there's a lot that I don't share. Yeah, but
I like, I think the things that I choose to share.
The intention I have is always that like, Okay, what
was it that made me feel really alone? And so
if I can share about growing up on the Gold
Coast and feeling kind of isolated, there, maybe a little
(59:54):
brown girl on the Gold Coast will feel less alone or.
Speaker 2 (59:58):
Wherever that person is.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
If I can share about my experience of kind of
not just you know, the experience of like playing a
queer character and and like being this queer like rainbow
flag totally confident girl and like not feeling that way
in my life. If I can share about these things,
(01:00:21):
then hopefully it can help people feel less alone. But
there's still a lot that I keep pretty private, and like,
I don't know, I've always I've been blessed to feel
really like embraced and safe in these kinds of environments.
Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
That's a lovely way to look at it, and so
obviously Watching is coming out October third. We've all got
that marked and I diaris to watch it. And I
know you've got another movie. But where do you sort
of when you kind of map out the if you're
the person who does map out the next five or
so years of your life for ten years, or think
about the characters you want to play, where you want
to live, what your legacy will be on screen.
Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
What does that look like to you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
I think, honestly, I am so deeply grateful to have
my body and not be in pain every day. The
thing that's on my mind most at the moment is
just enjoying that I'm going to after this week of
press is done. I'm going to go hang out with
my mum and my little sister and my nana and
(01:01:20):
my great nana and my aunties and my cousins, and
I'm going to sit there in the dumb dressing gown
that my mom's gonna make me wear, and the stupid
socks that I hate, but I'm going to put them
on and we're going to sit on the couch.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
And that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
I just I want to spend the rest of my
life hopefully playing make believe and telling cool stories and
then getting to balance that with community and family.
Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
Yeah, that's so beautiful. I al what you say about
going home. I think the best thing about growing up
and going off to have an adventure is like when
you start to appreciate going home is like the true
little moments of bliss in like a big, exciting life
that you're living.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
So that's really lovely.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Well, Ash, I could talk to you for so long.
Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
I don't know how long we've been talking, Sorry, guys,
but it's just been so lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
And I can't wait for ho and see watching you
and everything else you do in the future.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
I was lovely, Chad, that was the incredible Asha d
And what struck me most about our conversation and just
the way she lives her life is the way she
balances vulnerability with strength. Whether she's talking about the characters
she plays, the rejection she's faced, or the reality of
living with chronic pain.
Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
She's someone who has quietly.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Pushed open doors for others while still figuring herself out
along the way. And you can now see Asha in
watching you on stand and I have no doubt you'll
be watching her for many, many years to come. I'm
Laura Brodnek, and thank you so much for listening to
No Filter. The executive producer of No Filter is Naima Brown,
the senior producer is Bree Player. Audio production is by
(01:02:55):
Jacob Brown and video editing is by Josh Green
You're listening to a MoMA Miya podcast. Mamma Maya acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Honestly, I don't even know what kind of podcast is this?
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Is this all right?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
That we're talking about my period?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I can say anything you want.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Too bad.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I probably would have talked about it anyway. I love
talking about periods.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Hello, and welcome to No Filter. I'm Laura Brodnick, and
today I'm speaking with an actress who has been in
our living rooms since she was a teenager. Asia d
grew up on the Gold Coast with a dream that
many told her was impossible to become an actress. From
scouring the phone book to find an agent as a child,
(00:54):
to starring in the Saddle Club, moving overseas, and eventually
landing the breakout role of Kat Edison on The Bold Type,
Asia has built a career defined by courage and persistence.
But her story isn't just about Hollywood. In this conversation,
Asha opens up about queerness, rejection, identity, chronic pain, endometriosis,
(01:18):
and how she fought to reclaim her body and her voice.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
This is Asha d Asha d. Welcome to No filter.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah, fix love it ICs to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
I don't know if you noticed as you.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Walked in the office all of the staff peeping up
over their desks like little meer cats to get a
glimpse of you. Did you feel that energy when you
came in? It completely shifted in the office.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I'm so excited to see you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh I think, I hope you're not.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
We'll see by the end of the interview. I think
it's when.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I think it's seeing someone that you grew up watching
on screen. And I think a lot of your past
projects are those kind of shows that people watch with
their friends after school or watch with their girlfriends after work.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
So just been warning when you step out of the room.
Oh no, I actually I had a lot of people
waiting for you.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I sang the Sata Club theme song with someone yesterday
during the jun kit and I don't think i've sang
that since Bertie, but really really brought back some memories.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So I got it.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Okay, Well, memories is a good spot to be because
that's where we're sort of going to start from today.
So you grew up on the Gold Coast in the nineties,
is that right? And did you always dream of becoming
an actress.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yes, yes, but I think it was quite delusional if
I'm really honest.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
But isn't any kids dreaming of that?
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Like there's a bit of delusion there because it is
such a grand dream.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Yeah, I think for a while. You know, when you're
in school, they say what's your favorite color?
Speaker 2 (02:40):
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
And I said, oh, I want to be an actress,
And then people definitely let me know that that was
a really stupid thing to say. So I was like, Okay,
I want to be a spy.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Right, a much more solid career path. I would say, yeah,
imagine I'm doing both now. I would actually lot that
for you. I would too, I'm just your side project.
I mean, would you say if it was that's the
whole thing, right, You'll never know.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
You'll have to throw us off.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
So a lot of kids, as I said, was we
all dream of being actress when we're young, but most
of us don't take the step to actually make that happened.
And correct me if I'm wrong. But I've heard the
story of you picking up a phone book when you
were a kid and looking for an agent's number.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Is that real?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I used to kind of just any resource I had, so,
like what I had was the Yellow Pages and the
newspaper yea, and the library. So I used to like
just look for any kind of keywords that jumped out
at me in the newspaper or like you know, a
little post like posted notes, and in the library, I
(03:40):
would just like go on the little catalog computer and
try to find any books that I could on acting
it's all like pretty cringe, but I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
It just it made sense to me in the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And I'm lucky that my mum, even though she kind
of fought me on it a little bit in the beginning,
she very quickly, I think, realized that I wasn't that
I was very stubborn, and so she decided.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
That you were going to go ahead and do it.
So it's best for her to sort of support you
in that dream.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, I mean, now I think about it, I'm thirty two.
I just turned thirty two, and I would have, like
if I was my mum, I would have I would
have a ten year old And I think about myself
at ten on my mom's one day off, because she
was probably working like three jobs at the time, and
saying like, Hey, on your one day off, do you
mind driving me forty minutes in our shitty Reynold car
(04:30):
that the door's open when we're at a stop, Like,
can we like go forty minutes away so you can
take me to some random open call or whatever. And
I'm blessed that she did it because she, I think
understood because she's also a creative, even in a very
different field. Oh right, what field is she in? My
mum's an opera singer.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Oh wow, that's so impressive.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So I think she was also kind of ridiculed, yes,
although she.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Knows what it's like to chase it a dream that's
hinged more being creative, not fame, Because what I'm picking
up from you is that you weren't dreaming of being famous.
You were dreaming of working on TV shows and movies
and more of the creative side. Yeah, what was it
about that? As a ci of like looking at TV
shows and movies and we were the kind of kid
who like imagined yourself in them instead of taking like
(05:15):
that joy of just watching them.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think they were like a really like intense and
beautiful escape for me as a kid. Specifically the movies
that were on the TV shows and the things that
were available again at the library, which is where I
spent like a lot of time as a kid.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It was where I was kind.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Of exposed to a lot of culture that I wasn't
really able to access through Australian television, especially at the time,
you know, I mean think even still it's like quite
hard to come by things that feel like for the culture.
And at the library there were Josephine Baker movies and
I used to hire Porgy and Bess. Oh yeah all
the time. I used to like I bring it home
(05:52):
and watch it and then like take it back to
the library and kind of wait for the library and
to put it out again and then I can take
it home again. Yeah, like all the old movies like that.
And I think they had like they had like essence
mags and oh yeah, cool kind of ways to connect
to a part of my self that I didn't really
have easy access to. And so I think because I
(06:15):
saw more of myself in those things, I just it
just made sense to me and my kid brain that
that was where I would go, That was.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
A place where you would feel welcome in a world.
Maybe on the Gold Coast. I didn't feel like that
at a time growing up.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, it just seemed like fun.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I don't know, Yeah, well, yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
And then how do you go then again, from opening
the Yellow Pages and going online to finding an agent
and getting a role on The Saddle Club, which was
such a huge TV show at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Well, I think the first, the first job I actually
got was there was like a production of Annie, oh right,
And I'm pretty sure from memory, they like came to
my school oh and kind of said like, we're doing
an open call for Annie, and I was like, mom,
please stay, this is my moment, please and she was
(07:02):
like okay.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I think probably she had to take off work.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I think she was working at Muff and Break at
the time, but she took me and I auditioned and
there was like hundreds of kids and I got the
role of Molly, and my mum said that I couldn't
do it because she didn't know how I was going
to get to rehearsals.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
They were so fair, no way for us to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And I think she saw and realized how devastated I
was that she didn't let me do that, and she
promised me that she would let me do the next thing,
and the next thing just happened to be The Saddle Club.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And I mean it.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Was many years later, but yeah, it was another thing
where I think the call was so huge, like Australia
wide they were rebooting The Saddle Club, which is huge,
Like I was a fan. Yeah, And I'm not sure
how I got that job because I really like didn't
I didn't know what I was doing at all.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And so you'd went in it was like an long
audition process and you went and read for the character
and that you and the rest of the cast just clicked.
I'm assuming I think so.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I mean I think I was just pretty like delusional
and proco and I mean I remember I didn't know
if I was supposed to. You know, like any script,
you have the character names, the lines that the characters read,
and then you have like the stage direction. And I
wasn't sure if I should read the stage direction.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Into the character as you're performing in the audition.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Ye do I say it?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah? I remember asking that and the casting director being
like no, no, But they were so sweet and like
really encouraging, and I think I don't know why or how,
but I'm really grateful because even those you know the
people from that show, like, MANI is still that's my girl.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That's like my sister is.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
Still really close, right, yeah, yeah, that's really lovely. And
so so you had to move from the Gold Coast
to Melbourne to film that show, right.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
No, I was. I was.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Actually we had just moved from the Gold Coast down
to the western suburbs of Melbourne, right, And I think
I had done like a year and a half of
high school. And yeah, so I moved from Melbourne to
Dalesford where we filmed.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
I haven't been to Dalsford, but I hear it's a
beautiful corner of the world. I do know what the
Gold Coaster is like, and I feel like those two places,
I feel like they should be in different countries.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
What was it like going from I guess the bright.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
Lights of the Gold Coast with sofa surface paradise to
this beautiful Dalsford location that's known for its shops and
it's beauty and how calm it is.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, I mean, I guess it was a pretty big shift.
In some ways, they're kind of similar. They have that
kind of like touristy vibe to them. But I think
the thing that was most special about going to Dalesford
now from memory, actually I think it was the first
time that I was really exposed to like a lot
of queer community because really because Dalesford has a huge
(09:56):
like LGBTQ community there, and it was it was actually
a really kind of a special.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Moment for me to be immersed in that as a kid.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yeah, and just to be I guess, so I removed
from a place that you've grown up where you're saying
that you didn't feel completely accepted or for different reasons,
and having your first job being a place that opened
those different ideas of guess of how people are in
Australia would have been a really beautiful experience.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It was also really cold and did you actually love that?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Because I'm from Queensland, not as fancy as the goldcos
I'm from Townsville and whenever i feel cold weather, I.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Feel like I'm on holiday. It feels so exotic I
have that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I cannot relate.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I just need you to know, I hope to never
ever find myself feeling that kind of cold again. I'm
a little bitch. I don't below me. I shouldn't be
in cold.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
They won't see you back there again.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, I'll go, but I'll be in seventeen layers. Yeah,
all right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
And after sort of dreaming of this and your mum
saying like, not this role, but I'll let you do this.
When you were on the set for that first day
and you were a professional actress, what was that like?
Did the dream live up to what you had imagined
all those years? The reality of being on that set?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I was terrible.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I mean, I'm sure you weren't, but no, no, no, I
should be a little terrible at their first job, that's
the rule.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I really, I was so nervous and uh.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Like something so simple like just you know, they put
tape on the ground when I'm supposed to stand, and
even just the idea of like walking into the scene
and standing on the tape and saying like maybe one
line I think was my first scene, and I was like,
it was so difficult for me to land my feet
(11:40):
where they needed to land, speak the words that I
had to speak.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Remember how to walk, like my arms.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And legs suddenly like didn't make sense anymore. It was
it was I remember it being a really kind of
nerve wracking experience, but I still I loved it. I
probably fell in love with like the community before the
acting part.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I think you mean like being on a set with
like all those people and like being each other's live
and everything. Yeah, that's a really beautiful takeaway. I think
for being on a show like that and nicer fans,
you know, like the reality they were pitching on the
show was what we were, what you had behind the scenes,
is really lovely.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
I think it's the beautiful thing about the film industry generally.
It's like, I don't play sports. I don't know if
you can tell, but it's like sports, we're fine.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I don't even know what a sport is.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Really.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think there's points.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I don't know football goalie till Taylors. We've started dating
a footballer, so.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
They totally yeah, we don't need to know anything else
about it. But being on set kind of is like
the closest thing that I've ever experienced to kind of
playing a team sport, because you're just a cog in
a wheel, and I actually love being a part of
executing a vision that is so much bigger than me
and everyone has a job to do.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
It feels like almost like playing in a band.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
It feels like jazz, you know, there's like the boom operator,
and there's the director, and there's the actors, and there's
the makeup artists, and everyone has like something really unique
to bring to the table, and everyone is coming. Everyone
finds the industry in such a bizarre way, you know,
like everyone comes from different worlds, but we're all kind
(13:20):
of uniting together to kind of create something. And I
think the thing that I love about it is the
fact that it's this kind of fast community that you
create was like a common goal.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Oh wow, I love hearing those stories of what it's
like behind the scenes like that. And so you found
this love fair both acting and the community around it.
And then at seventeen, if I'm right, you leave Australia
and go over to the United States to start acting.
Talk me through what was the catalyst for that, because
I know a lot of Australian actors do that, but
it always seems so daunting. And also, you were such
(13:53):
a recognizable face in Australian TV at that time. What
was the driving force to push you to go and
get jobs overseas?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I think there just wasn't much in the way of
opportunity for me here at the time, as crazy to
think how long ago that was. I think about how
much my back and knees hurt, and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I'm like, oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I am kind of old.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But yeah, it just there wasn't much for me here,
and I had been so blessed to work as much
as I did here, but I was still pretty delusional,
and I was like, well, madn I just go over
there and see what it's like. I didn't go over
with a huge amount of expectation. I think I was
supposed to be there for like two weeks and then
ended up staying because I was like testing for different shows,
(14:43):
movies and stuff, and ended up staying for a couple
of months and then and then I got a show
that filmed there, so it ended up just like moving.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
For months later. Was there when you were at that
moment we were about to leave Australia.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Was there anyone in sort of like agents or casting
directors or anything like that that was sort of saying
that they weren't roles here or was it just something
that you saw from like lived experience going to auditions
and seeing.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it was a bit of both.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
I think it was like I was noticing that friends
of mine who kind of fit the like, however problematic
it is, like the Australian mold. I saw that they
were having a different experience to me, and it was
also explicitly kind of said to me, people being like, well,
I don't know, I can't really help you, wow, because
that's just that's what the landscape was at the time.
(15:30):
But I do think that, I mean clearly Australia's like
come a really long way, and I think it's really beautiful.
I'm glad that I had the experience of being able
to go away to find a different part of myself
and to cultivate that and to be able to bring
it home and now to be so I don't know,
(15:50):
I feel like I'm in a different like I'm more
settled and calmer place, especially now that I'm in my thirties. Yeah,
thirties like quite great.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
I feel like all of a sudden, I just feel
calmer and things seem easier and not easier in a way,
but you just like you process things in a much
better way.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah across the Yeah, like you get kind of presented
with the same lessons over and over I think in life,
and you just choose to maybe approach them differently, But yeah,
I went, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So blessed that it.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
When I think about it, I'm like, wow, I really
was blessed with kind of like an easy transition into
being there. And I've always been really blessed to work
and to you know, pay my bills and get to
do what I love.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
I mean, that's the end goal is No, you've got
to do what you love, but you've got to pay
bills at the end.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
We love to pay bill We love that, especially in
this claim.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Everything So christ when you were in that audition circuit,
were there big movies or TV shows that you were
sort of in the running for that went on to
be like, you know, quite big, Like were you the
kind of actress who was going to a movie therough
and thinking like, oh, I was so close to that role.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What was that experience?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Like, I guess it comes it ebbs and it flows,
and you know, this industry and like this life, there's
like a lot of comparison and it's hard to stay
out of that frame of mind. But I think genuinely
at this point, like I feel so incredibly blessed in
my life to like have a body and beautiful friends
(17:23):
in community around me and anything that I've ever not gotten,
I've always kind of been like, oh, yeah, I don't
think that was That wasn't the me. No, And I
think that, you know, acting specifically is such a subjective
art form, like who's to say what's good and what's not?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Like why is someone good?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
We kind of don't really know, And so I just
feel like, well, I can only ever bring what I bring,
and what someone else is going to bring is going
to be totally unique and different, and so if I'm
not the one for that job, then it means I
wasn't the person to feel that puzzle piece. And again,
it's like you're a cog in a wheel. It's about
(18:02):
a vision that's so much bigger than me. So I
try to just just remember that, like what's meant for
me will find me my blessings and my blessings and
rejection is God's protection, So.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Like, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
And I also think that you did get the right
role when you got the job on the ball type,
which is what I want to talk to you about next,
because I do you think that's why you're being stalked
through out office because that show just became such a
worldwide hit. Tell me about the audition process for that
and reading those scripts and what was it about the
character of Kat that you just I'm assuming you had
some really strong affinity with her straight.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Away, Yeah, I mean it will yes.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
And also no, I I had done actually I had
done I think maybe two other shows for that same network.
It ended up being called Freeform, but before that it
was called ABC Family, and I had done another show
for them, so I kind of knew the executives there
and had like a you know, they felt like homies.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
To me, Like, Hi, you're doing this new show.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, Like, I guess I'll come in an audition for it.
But I felt, honestly when I read it, I remember
Kat being described as being like confident and like like
she's queer and she's cool, and I was like, I
didn't feel super confident, right. Any confidence that I was
(19:22):
kind of performing at that point very much felt like
a performance.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
And I was still very much in the closet.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So I was like, I don't know if I have
the confidence to play this queer character who's very confident,
and like, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 2 (19:38):
But I went in for the audition not thinking I
would get it.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And then I did get it, and it was Honestly,
it was a pretty kind of scary thing to walk
into as someone who was, yeah, kind of like performing
the thing that I one day hoped to be.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yes, Yeah, that side of Cat, that where she is
in a way like so bold and outspoken on that,
but you also see her come to the realization of
who she is no sexuality through her friends. Do you
think a part of playing Cat helped you in that way?
Did you take any kind of, like I guess, strength
or ideas from her. I know she's a fictional character,
but I'm sure, like I'm just thinking that I know people.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Who have watched that show who have had that reaction to.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That character completely.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I think being like for lack of a little like
being forced to pretend to be this person that I admired. Honestly,
it did instill in me, I think a certain confidence
and a fearlessness that I I think I genuinely.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Carry with me now. Yeah, so for sure, I mean
she inspired me. And I remember like.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Kind of early on in the seasons, I would often
people would come to me in like the streets and
they would say, oh, Cat inspired me to tell this
girl that I love her, or to come out to
my parents or you know, whatever it might have been.
And I was always so inspired and I would always
have to kind of like check myself and not get
(21:04):
too emotional because I was like, wow, it inspired you
to do that. But like I haven't been brave enough
to come out to my mom yet, Like, yeah, what
I wonder if I'll ever feel brave enough. And for
that reason, I don't know. I mean she and I
know she's fictional, but I'm a bit woo. So I
like to believe she exists on some plane.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Oh I also I think that too, just so yeah,
like they exist, They're very real to me.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, so I you know, I like to think she
exists somewhere. And I think I'm very grateful to her
for what she's instilled in me and also in other people,
Like I'm endlessly inspired by the people who were inspired
by the show.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
After this short break, Asha recalls how she first discussed
her sexuality with the most important people in her life,
coming out to your friends and family and your mother,
And if you feel comfortable sharing, how did that conversation
go now that you sort of look back on it
with you know, older eyes and you're on the other
side of it. I sometimes think that, like those moments
in life are a bit always a bit easy to
(22:09):
process when you look back in them after a while
and you can sort of sit with how you feel
in that moment.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Oh for sure. I mean at the time it was
quite difficult.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
It's funny.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I thought like, I'll just I'll just come out and
it'll be done. And it was like this slow constant
coming out again and again and again with different people
and in different ways. And sometimes it went well and
sometimes I didn't have a great time. And you know,
I never did the like press release, right, I'm a
(22:40):
little I just never did it because I was like,
I don't know, I don't know if I need.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
To, like maybe I'll just live.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And yeah, it was at times kind of difficult, and
I felt a lot of like imposter syndrome at times,
kind of playing this character who was so at home
in her queerness and I wasn't quite there yet. It
took me a long time and probably took me until
I don't know, maybe like maybe only like five years ago,
(23:12):
like recent, you know. But I'm grateful for that because
it's actually given me a lot of empathy for other
people who maybe it takes a minute. I'm jealous of
people that were like I came out at thirteen and
I'm like, that's so cool.
Speaker 4 (23:27):
Yeah, yeah, to know that everyone's story goes in a
different way like that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
And was it something about the culture.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Of the ball Type two that made you Maybe I'm
projecting here as a fan if you can't really of
the show, okay, because I just know how close you
and your co stars Katie and Meghan were through the
filming of that show. And I got to interview all
of you at some point during that show, and something
that always came through in those interviews, particularly from Katie
(23:53):
at one stage where I was finishing up an interview
with her once and she said, can I say one
more thing? And I thought, oh, have I missed something
she wanted to.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Talk about or anything?
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And She's like, oh, I have an Australian accent that
I talked to Asia with, can I do for you?
And I was like, yes, please go ahead and please
tell her when you get back to set that you
were mocking her on our podcast Becca and yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, she had a character name and everything.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Does she met her?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Just oh good, great, but yeah, everything ever met your
relationship I thought was really special. Was that again you're
talking about how you love to build communities. What was
it like going to the show that you were feeling
a bit uncertain about and then you're on the set
and there's all this pressure to make the show a success.
What was it like meeting those two women and was
that bond quite instant?
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah, we kind of.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, I think like the first night we met, we
were like.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
Oh, yeah, this is gonna work.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, But you know, we always just kind of I
don't know, and we never felt like it was this
pressure from the outside because I think we were just like,
we're just making a show that maybe no one will watch,
so who cares. I guess we'll just like enjoy the
(25:02):
fact that we're paying our bills this year. Yeah, So yeah,
it was less about kind of like outside pressure. I
think the objective and goal for us when we were
filming was just to make sure that we were being
honest with each other and.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
That we would support for each other in that process.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Becaues the schedule of a TV show is pretty nihily
and you kind of yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:25):
I hear like like twenty hour days something like that.
At all day craziness.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, the rest of your life it falls away, right,
So you have to you have to find something in
the community of the people that you work with, and
I think we were really lucky in that way.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Yeah, it must be nice now to see the legacy
of that show because it's become this thing that I
think is very hard for a TV show to become,
is that it's become a lot of people's comfort watch,
where especially here in Australia, we so many women watch
it again and again and again and again, and there's
this beautiful familiarity to it and the characters and everything,
and I think that's a hard space for it to
(25:59):
be in, and that's why I don't love when it
first came out.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
There are a few and they're mostly like all the.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
White male critics, like, oh, this is you know, it's
a girly show. It's a bit silly, and I'm sorry
that it's a show about women not being raped murdered,
because if it was, you'd be calling it prestige drama
totally because it's women at work and it's.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
All these other issues.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
But because they are, you know, and like their audience
as young women and everything that young women like I
feel gets very kind of dismissed. I feel like sometimes
that conversation went the other way, but the true fans
always knew what it was.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, I remember, actually remember a lot of the early
reviews were like, we can't believe we like this shit. Yeah,
I look and I understand like it. I think Megan
used to say that it's like Sesame Street for adults
because there's you know, there's a there's a lesson.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Of the day.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, and I love that totally. I mean, I think
when something has like a formula like that, you can
watch it and you can know that there's going to
be an ending that's satisfying to you.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I think it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
And I love that the show has been a comfort
for people, especially thinking about everything that's happening now, and
it has happened especially in the last five years. Knowing
that the show has existed in that way for people
is really quite special.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
I don't know if I'll ever get to experience that
again in my life. I mean, I hope so, but yeah,
it's very special.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yeah, And I want to ask you about a moment
in I think it was twenty twenty when the show
is like very much at its height worldwide, It's found
this huge fan base. We're all waiting each week for
the new episodes to drop. And at the time, you
put a very moving statement up on your Instagram where
you were highlighting some issues behind the scenes and some
issues with the storylines. And I thought it was done
(27:40):
in a really beautiful, elegant way while also highlighting some
very real world issues. What was the catalyst for you
to put that statement? And I know you were having
those conversations behind the scenes with the team long before
it was made public.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
What was the driving force behind that?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I think, honestly, I didn't do it with like the
intention of kind of trying to change anything in the
workplace or change anything about the industry.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Like it was actually.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
More of a I was trying to reach and give
voice to the fans that I knew were feeling the
way that I was feeling about it because someone like
as someone who also like I got comfort from the show.
Kat was an inspiration to me, and she meant a
lot to me, and so I was like, well, if
(28:31):
I'm feeling this way, I know that I'm not alone,
and so it meant a lot to me to speak
to the people who had really advocated for the show,
and the reason why the show was a success is
because of the people that championed the show, and so
it felt important to me to give voice to things
that I had a feeling they were feeling in kind
(28:54):
of a silo, and I just wanted them to know
that they weren't crazy, yes, and.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
That they were seen at least by me.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
But yeah, my intention was really always it was a
love letter to the fans of the show.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
Yeah, and it did really come across that way, because
it was also highlighting things that some of the fans
or people who were just watching the show with their
friends at home, they were loving these characters, of these
women of color and queer characters finding love. But then
we at the time wouldn't have known as an audience
unless we were going back through the credits, that those
women weren't represented in the writer's room at the time,
(29:29):
and they weren't directing episodes. And that idea of seeing
stories on screen is important, but the people behind the
scenes need to also be allowed to tell their stories
and have that in place. So I thought that was
really powerful, and the storyline I think you're talking about.
The one that the fans were upset about was when
your character starts a relationship with a white Republican woman
(29:50):
and it kind of becomes a bit of a bit
about her character development and strays away from the cat
that we all knew. And I thought it was very
lovely that you were sort of with the fans being like, yeah,
I'm uncomfortable, like we're all sitting in the same space
with this.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah. I mean I think like.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
At the end of the day, it almost it was
like she felt not like herself. Yeah, she wasn't the
cat that I knew and loved, and it felt like
just a side step to something completely foreign and again
like as someone who loves her wherever she exists.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Yeah, girl running her empire. She totally edited of ten
magazines by now.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
I hope in the alternate universe she actually won that election.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
Upset me as well.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Had a really hard time for a few seasons there.
She was getting fired left and right, losing election.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yeah, she was attacked online and it was just yeah,
she went through the ringer with that. When you went
to put that statement out, I know you maybe you
didn't expect it to blow up the weight didn't get
picked up by all these outlets, But were there people
in your life who were sort of telling you not
to do whatever? They were supportive? Just coming from my
parasocial moment as a fan. When I saw that statement, after,
(31:07):
I thought about like how important it was and how
like how like I hope it an act to change.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
In that moment, I did feel like a.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Little stab of fear for you, because I was thinking,
I really love this actress and I just want to
keep watching her and things. But I know that this
every industry, but particularly some parts of this industry, she
could maybe not get jobs in the future, or people
could take things away from her, And I had that
little fear for you, and there would be fallout with
other people in your life saying that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah, I was definitely warned about that.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah, and it's valid, you know, Yeah, But I think
in the end I was kind of like, well, those
people probably wouldn't like me very much anyway. Yeah, So
that's okay. Yeah, at least I'm like being saying authentically
what's on my mind.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Yeah, I don't know. That was so long ago, and.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I think I've thought about that recently and wondered, like,
would I do it differently now, how would I approach
it now?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Who would I have maybe included in the conversation.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I do think that I would have approached it differently,
but I would never take back doing it.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
And I'm sure there's you know.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm sure there's people out there who because of that
letter don't want to work with me.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
But that's okay.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
But I'm also saw there's people out there who really
wanted to work with you after that. Sure, And yeah,
I know, I'm sure it was It did feel like
a watershed moment. I mean, it was a long time ago,
but it's always stuck in my head now watching shows
and like thinking to myself, like but also like who's
in the writer's room and who's doing this? And I
think it just it just opened up that conversation because
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
People it's bigger than just the show.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Of course, you're pointing out an industry wid Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
It's an industry wide, worldwide problem.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Really, I mean a lot of industries.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are kind of really populated and kind of like the
people at the top seem to be the same kind
of person.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, and I don't it.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Does feel a little bit like we've taken step backwards recently, Yes,
but you know, I still have like hope in my
heart and I still feel optimistic because I see such
incredible work that so many people are doing at the moment.
I'm like endlessly inspired and feel like very honored to
(33:23):
even just be like again a Cogginer wheel a part
of the movement that's happening. Es.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, so the ball type comes to an end with
a really emotional finale. I won't I won't spoil it
for the two people listening who haven't watched aful moment.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I loved the ending. I don't think I remember what happened.
Kat became the editor of Scarlet magazine. That was huge.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
You know what, You're right, I said before she's editing
all these nights.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Okay, no, no, no, I actually forgot about that. And
you're right because and I remember when we were filming
that scene actually, because it's a scene with like with
Katie and Malura, right, yes, yes, yeah, And I remember
we were filming that scene and you know there's directions
like we do it a couple of times, and I
remember her being like, and you're the editor. That wasn't
(34:07):
a line, but like you're gonna be the magazine girl.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
That day I was kind of checked out emotionally.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I was that sick.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Sure that was like my reaction in the scene. And
the director came over and she was like, do.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
You think she'd be a little more emotional?
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I was like, and she was one so much It's fine.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I was like, Oh, I guess, I guess this is
the finale of the show.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I don't know what it says about me that my.
Speaker 4 (34:35):
Big plot twist, because we all thought it was going
to be Jane traveling and then it's Kat and who
actually had the better business brain not to out myself
to the fance.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
I did think she was the better choice of the
show important.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That means a lot. Cat really did make some missteps though.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
Because that she had vision. She was like debating the
show that years ago. Let me get a season.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I think I was apologizing about the tweet.
Speaker 4 (34:57):
About the tweet, that was a lot of that as well.
So the ball type ends and where is your sadly
for me? And I've watched it ten times since. I
oh so, And then you're at the stage of you
you wanting to jump straight into other big projects, are
you wanting to take a break. It's a phone ringing,
like what does it look like as an actress when
this really cult TV show ends and you're deciding what
(35:18):
to do next.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
I think at that point I knew that it would
take I needed to take some time, multiple years, and
it still has been years. I don't know if I
feel ready to sign on to another long running TV show.
At that point, I really wanted to do more independent film.
I wanted to work with like more emerging directors and
(35:41):
challenge myself in different ways. And I also knew that
I wanted to come home. Yes, that those were like
kind of the big objectives for me.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Post the show, talk to me about coming back to
Australia and because we're we've been so lucky to have
you and all these amazing projects to see and Safe
Home and Apple Sided Vinegar and all these amazing, amazing
projects that you've been working on. Was that a conscious
choice too, that you wanted to be back home in
Australia or was the projects that brought you back.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
I think initially it was wanting to be home, you know, honestly,
like the bold type is the reason why I was
able to come home and honestly shout out to Stan
for putting the bold type on their platform.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, I mean that's where we all got to access
and that's completely in love with it.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
And like I had been doing shows in America before
that for like almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
And like no one here watched them.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
You know, my little baby cousins would be like, how
come you don't act anymore?
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Are you're acting? But we don't see it.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I am, And they just don't make it to Australia unfortunately.
And so I'm incredibly grateful to Stand because, you know,
obviously not intentionally, but because they put the bold type
on their platform, it kind of reintroduced me to Australia
and has enabled me to come home. They've been so
supportive over the years. And you know, initially, I think
(36:59):
that choice to come home was more about my little
sister than anything else. Right, she's seventeen now, Oh she's seventeen. Well, yes,
she's just a baby.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Yeah, no, no, that is Look, my little sister's turned
thirty and I'm like, you're still a baby.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Once say your little sister, they're always a baby.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
Too, Yeah, And there's a big age difference between us.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So She's very important to me, and I kind of
had this moment where I realized as the bold type
was coming to an end, I realized that she was
just going to grow up and I was going to
miss it. And before that, I had I would usually
come because I was so busy. I would come home
for a week at Christmas and then I would have
to leave again, and I every time i'd come home,
(37:39):
she'd be like this much taller, and I was like,
I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss all
of it and we won't know each other. And so
it was really for her. And then I don't know.
I came back and I did Sissy, and I was like, Wow,
this is kind of cool. I kind of like I
(38:00):
like the process of filmmaking in Australia. I like that
we have less resources and less money because I think
and that's not always the case, but I like the
creativity that it.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
It's kind of cultivated from a lot of Australian actresses
who go and work overseas and then come back and
do projects here. They say the vibe on set is different.
It's some smaller but not in a bad way. More
and like people are close in it. It feels more
community based. It is, yeah, something about a strain sets.
It's so interesting. I hear that from so many people.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
It's a cowboy filmmaking.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Yeah, we got together shot, we got five setups and
two minutes to do it.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Can we do it?
Speaker 1 (38:37):
And everyone has to like kind of bub the build
of their way through it.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
And I, I just I loved it.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I had it was exhausting, but I loved filming that movie.
And you know, every experience since then, I've I've been
kind of chasing that that feeling of like, uh, yeah,
I don't know, just trying to make the best of something.
And I truly believe that we have some of the
best crews in the world, some of the best technicians
(39:05):
and creatives, and it's really because we have to be
created in order to make the great thing. And I
also believe that as an industry in Australia, we're kind
of coming into our own.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
In this really special way.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
And then also audiences like we want to watch Australian
stuff now, and growing up I hated what I was like,
I don't want to watch Australian stuff like we all did.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
But now I think it's really changing.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Right, well, I think that as well.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
That's what I see is like, there's so many more
when I go to sets of visits now. I used
to have to fly overseas to different countries and that
sort of stuff to see TV shows being made, but
now there's so many happening in Australia, both international and
the sort of more homegrown ones. And it seems like
a lot of the shows that are coming out to
the streamers in particular, are the shows that people are
talking about and buzzing about, and getting those big stars
(39:50):
who want to come over and work on those projects
just seems huge. It's like working at it from a
film journalism perspective. I do feel I've been doing this
for like seven or eight years now and I've seen the
shift and then the interviews I used to do to
what I do now of how it's changing.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
There's some amazing Australian television and film out there. Like
I when I was recovering from surgery recently, I just
watched all of Justin Cazell's movies, Yes, back to back,
just I loved it, and I also watched Thou Shalt
Not Steal That is so good.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
I went to the set in the premiere for that
and I was just like so blown away by everything
about that production and how they filmed it.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
And the storytelling is so good.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
The storytelling elements are incredible, all of the performances are incredible, cinematography,
the music, like the vision was so deeply inspiring to me.
I finished that show. I like wept. I cried when
I finished that show. It was like, it's so cool
that a show like that exists here.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Next, Asia discusses how living with Enjamit Tros's has affected
her life in every way. When I look at your
resume Instagram, what you're doing, you look like the busiest
person in the world, you know, filming all these TV
shows and movies, and you're flying between a story in
la and with you want red carpets. We're seeing you
(41:10):
do all these things. But something I've heard you talk
a lot about is your endometriosis and how that has
been like quite a crippling thing.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Over the years.
Speaker 4 (41:21):
When did you first start to I guess, when did
you first start to realize that this was going to
be a health issue that would affect, I guess, affect
your life in such a huge way.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, I mean, I kind of have always had like
weird stuff with my uterus and my ovaries, and like
it's kind of always since I was a teenager. I
didn't actually get my period until I was twenty oh.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Right, And at the time, is that like because I
feel like there's some information, particularly for young girls in
high school at that time, there's just not a lot
of information around what your body's doing or what you
should expect. Like you maybe watch one video and a
health class and then it's kind of it. So was
there anyone sort of telling you, like, hey, you should
go to the doctor, or were you just like this
is just normal.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Honestly, I don't even know what kind of podcast is this.
This is all right that we're.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Talking about my period and say anything.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
It's just for the too bad.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
I probably would have talked about it anyway. I loved
talking about periods.
Speaker 3 (42:19):
We have podcasts dedicated to this. You're good to create.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
Yeah, I kind of like always had a little bit
of kind of an issue. I lied for a while
and said I had my period when I didn't, because.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I just you just want to do things. You want
to be like your friends and be like everyone else.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Absolutely, But yeah, yeah, I didn't get it till late,
and then when I did, it was kind of like
almost immediately I started to get chronic pain. And I
had surgery when I was twenty two, I think, and
they had found like a cyst that was quite large
and discovered I had PCOS. So I had like a laparotomy,
(42:58):
which is some open abdominal surgery. And after that surgery,
they told me you have PCOS. That's it, and you know,
there's no cures, there's not really any even treatment for that.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
But they also told me that I didn't have.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
ENDO right right, And I was like, Okay, no Endo,
that's crazy because it seemed like I had ENDO symptoms.
So then I spent the next ten years almost with
my chronic pain, kind of getting worse and worse and
worse every year, and kind of coming to the point where, really,
(43:34):
while I was filming this most recent show, while I
was filming Watching You, it took a turn to where
it started to almost kind of scare me how much
pain I was in, and I was actually really blessed.
One of the other girls on the show, Olivia Vasquez,
she was a huge support for me, and she was like,
I don't know but it sounds like you got ENDO,
(43:54):
And I was like, I had surgery. They told me
I don't. They told me I don't have it, So
I don't know. I keep getting, you know, different information
from doctors, and the pain kind of just didn't let up,
and then it got progressively worse worse again. When I
started doing press for Apple side of vinegar, it was
pretty unbearable, and I like woke up out of my
(44:21):
sleep in the middle of the night one night. It
was like a cramp that I don't know anyone with
ENDO will understand this. It was like a cramp that
kind of started in my stomach and shot up into
my heart and then into my hips and down my legs,
and I like shot up in bed, couldn't breathe, and
then like rolled out of bed and had to crawl
(44:42):
to my bathroom.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
To throw up.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
And I remember I was like laying on the tiles
of my bathroom floor, and I was like, I.
Speaker 3 (44:48):
This just can't be normal.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I think I have to do something about this, Like
this can't be my life.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
I can't keep living like this.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
And so I looked up a public floor therapist who
was specialized in kind of pain management and she pointed
me in the direction of an amazing surgeon who has
honestly changed my life, Like I will be forever grateful.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
And yeah, it was like that night.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
On the floor of my bathroom that I kind of
decided that it was time.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
It was time to change things. Because that's the thing
that you hear from so many women with endometriosis or
ZOS is that they keep getting told this is normal,
it's a normal part of being a woman. You're fine,
and they get dismissed for so many different reasons, Like
people get dismissed because of age, they get dismissed because
of the color of their skin, they get dismissed for
the size of their body.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Thing like oh, if you lost weight it or go away, Yeah, all.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
These sorts of things, Like it just feels like it
feels like it's been talked about more now, but by
women like you who are sharing these stories. But it
just feels like so many women are just being told
to as you were, kind of being told like it's
not a thing, just live with it.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
And also, I mean, on average, I'm pretty sure I
have this statistic correct, but I think on average, it
takes about ten years to get a diagnosis for endometriosis.
And I mean, it's crazy. Is that first surgery they
didn't check.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
They didn't actually check for ender. It's not in the
surgical report.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
So I woke up, I said, you don't have ender,
but actually it's not. They they couldn't have checked with
that particular surgery, they were removing a cyst and I
didn't know.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I didn't know enough to know.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Well, how do you know?
Speaker 4 (46:29):
That's the thing, Like, it's like you trust the medical
professionals to keep that information. I know a lot of
them do now, especially, but it's like women's health is
just very underfunded and very underspoken about.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
Yes, And also like I don't want to shoot on
those medical professionals who did that surgery. Also, like they
helped me a lot. I needed to get those cysts removed.
It just goes to show how low, how far we've
come in the ten years between that surgery and my
most recent one. You know, the medical events are crazy
and we're still so far behind. We're still so much
(46:59):
that we don't know. But yeah, I think I think
community is really important and it's really important for us
to share our stories with each other. Like I was
so blessed, you know, on the set of Watching You
to have Olivia with me, who was like we were
giving each other advice. I was telling her about the
tens machine that I use, and she was telling me
(47:20):
about all the things that she does. We're talking about
castor oil packs, and like, I mean, look, you, it's
a full time job, yeah, dealing with this thing. But like,
honest to God, every day that I wake up and
I don't feel like I want to die and I
can't walk down the street, I like, I'm like a
crier right now, Like thinking about it, I'm so grateful,
(47:42):
Like I walk down the street and my like legs
work and I have my life back. And surgery is
not always the answer for everyone. It was for me.
But I think it's important to let people know that
it's not normal to be in pain every day.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yes, it's actually not normal.
Speaker 4 (48:03):
Yes, yeah, And then you have to be advocating for
yourself if you're saying calling doctors, calling people, tasting up
those answers to get an outcome that will help you.
So I think it's really important for sharing that. And
I'm sure there's so many young women in particular that
followed you from your work and maybe getting information that
they might not have got anywhere else, or seeing that
and going in and talking to their own doctors. I mean,
(48:25):
they are the stories that we always hear from people
as we sort of put o a lott of content
around that is that you do need to sort of
know almost know that someone else has done it to
go and ask those same questions.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Yeah. Also like my scars. I love my scars.
Speaker 4 (48:37):
Yeah, get do they symbol I guess like a painful time,
but they symbol, as you're saying, like this moment now
where you have your body back in a way and
you can keep on this path.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah, I feel like a little bionic woman. Yeah, like
very strong.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
Yeah, you know, and you know again, I was just
I was so blessed. I had great surgeons, and I
have health insurance, which is a blessing.
Speaker 2 (49:01):
And I had my mum come and look after me.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
Oh she did that must have been really lovely.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Yeah, she came.
Speaker 4 (49:08):
She brought me an air fryer. It's important, had important
step of recovery.
Speaker 2 (49:12):
So you don't have an air fryer.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I said, no, she's I'm gonna go get you one today.
She came home most excited I've ever seen unpacking this hairry.
Speaker 4 (49:23):
This individual thing I can do to help my daughter
on her recovery. I'm going to make her delicious air
fried food, which is as we all know, that's the
place to go for cooking.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
So, yeah, she's sweety, so, you know, very lovely.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
And so coming to watching You your new show. Filming
that and have and have and haven't been in so
much pain from the end of Metrosist, I'm sure would
have been an incredibly difficult thing. On top of the
fact that it is, like I've watched the first episode,
it is.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Very intense watch and very intense subject.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
But if you can explain to the listeners, because I
haven't had the sneak peak that I have, what the
show was about before we get into the craziness of
making it.
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yeah, watching You, it's like a it's a very intense, psychological,
erotic thriller. I think, yeah, you got to kind of
tread lightly go going into it. The first half of
the show. It's six episodes. I think the first half
is more erotic thriller, and then the second half of
the show is really thriller thriller. But it has the
(50:19):
most beautiful cast of people, and it's on stan When
is it October? Yes, October third, I know my stuff. Yeah,
it's a it's a great show. I'm very I'm very
proud of it, and I think, genuinely there's not been
another show that I can think of like it on
Ossie TV, So I'm very excited to be back.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:41):
And so Elena is your character, and she has a
bit of an erotic night with a new person, only
to find out later that it is being filmed and
this kind of and she has to sort of, I guess,
deal with the fallout of that in her real life,
but it also becomes quite a tense sort of situation
tracking down the person that is doing this to her.
(51:02):
So it's very kind of a high stake show and
a lot of different thoughts there around this world we
live in where everything because ither thingk what like this
is terrifying, but it could easily happen in real life,
which makes it all the more terrifying to watch.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Yeah, I think it invites a lot of really interesting
conversation around surveillance and course of control and toxic relationships
and what is love really. Yeah, I think I'm very
curious and excited to see the kinds of conversation that
it brings up, because it definitely, like I remember being
(51:36):
on set, our crew would they would all get into
like arguments with each other over the morality of different
characters and whether they think this person's a good person
or a bad person, and whether they agree with the
choices that they are making. So yeah, for that reason,
I'm most excited to kind of to hear the conversation
that it inspires in people.
Speaker 4 (51:58):
Yeah, And I guess it does bring up a lot
of different things, man, because there's characters and are sure
I don't give you too much away, because I feel
like you have to just watch it without even knowing
what's going to happen. So you appreciate the twists and turns,
but it's real life people sometimes acting in a very
intense way, but it's because something's been done to them.
And then like your characters put in this impossible situation
and you sort of understand why she does the things
(52:19):
she does as she goes through the show. So it's
a really very interesting watch. So in that moment to
go from that adult club, which I have a memory
of everyone rushing home from school to watch that show
and people having the merchandise and people wanting to ride
horses because of that show and it being such a success.
To go from that to then go into casting rooms
and hear people say we don't think we have the
(52:42):
jobs for you there, or to have other networks not calling,
or what happened at the time. Did that feel like
a little bit of whiplash for the industry that had
brought you in for your first job to then say
at this moment, we don't know if there's a spot
fore you.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
I think I always knew that. Yeah, I think I
always knew that. It was kind of a crazy thing
that I even got a TV show to begin with.
So I think that I think that if anything was shocking,
it was the fact that I was able to do
this show. And I'm a virgo, so when someone tells
(53:21):
me no, I was like, oh, okay, well, I guess
I'll just find a way. I don't know the delusional
child in me, I think. I don't think I really
felt disheartened by that. I really admire the younger version
of myself, to be honest, because I don't know if
I'm as strong as her, but I try to channel
(53:41):
her now.
Speaker 4 (53:42):
Yeah, I'd have that bravery just to jump on a
plane and say I'm going to make this work. I'm
going to find a job in a different country.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, and the bravery to say when someone told me
there was not a place for me, I said, Okay,
I'll find one.
Speaker 3 (53:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
I don't know most of some different bitch said that,
not me.
Speaker 4 (53:56):
I'm like, God, was there a tiring part of you
when The Bold Type became such a worldwide success like
so many people in different countries. I know we're watching it,
and maybe you're a better person than me, But I
would have been a little bit like, look at what
I did, Look at what you guys missed on, Because
it's like that. It's like the end of a book
or a movie. It's like the hero, the heroine of
(54:16):
the book gets turned away and then she goes and
becomes so successful. A little part of me would have
been like, look what I did.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
I think I just assume no one watches.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
At that moment. Now, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
I just think I think, oh, crazy, another job.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
An, I guess I'm.
Speaker 2 (54:34):
Paying my rent again. But I don't.
Speaker 3 (54:37):
No.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
I think there's like my mom watches my shows and
some one of my friends and like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
Yeah, I don't. I guess I don't.
Speaker 3 (54:50):
You're a much nicer person, I think is what we're
getting from there.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
No, I think I just live under a rock. I like,
don't check anything.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
I think I'm just a silly dilly dally and bitch.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
And that better make it into the podcast, don't We.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
Would never doare.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
So You're talking about the version of yourself and I
know you say that you don't know that girl, but
I still see her in her new now, in the
choices that you're making, in the projects that you're picking.
It feels very much like there's something about you that
even from a young age of opening the phone book
and saying like I'm going to find an agent, I'm
going to get this role, and being very particular about
the issues you speak on, the people you want to
(55:28):
work with, and the projects that you put your name to.
It seems like you're a very decisive person who really grows.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
After what they want.
Speaker 4 (55:36):
Oh thanks, that's my takeaway, right, That is that how
you see yourself going through life.
Speaker 1 (55:41):
That's very kind. Uh yeah, I think so. I think
I just I have a hard time standing still. Uh,
you know, I have a hard time just kind of
chilling out, like I like to be busy and yeah,
I mean, I guess I just a type of person
(56:04):
who needs to stay on the move. And I like
to feel scared, like maybe I'm a little bit of
a Maybe I like the fear of, like the thrill
of not knowing if something's going to work or taking
a risk.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
Yeah, I think that's the draw of it.
Speaker 1 (56:19):
I also think that's the draw of why I love
the film industry and I love if we're running behind,
you know, we have twenty minutes to get the impossible shot.
Like I really, it's like the most exciting thing in
the world to me to know that we have to
get this before the sun goes down, or you know,
(56:39):
I have to make this move work, or you know,
I have to get a job by this time, or
I'm not going to eat.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:47):
I like those challenges. I like feeling like I'm kind
of on the edge of my seat in that way.
Speaker 4 (56:51):
What is it about when you're going through scripts and
you're getting off at different roles? Is there one thing
you look for when you're choosing them, Like are you
looking for what the conversation will be or are you
looking for. I want to do something different to what
I've done before, Like, what is that kind of turning
point for you?
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Definitely, I want to try to do something different. But
I love strong, messy characters. Yes, I like when they
do stuff that makes me go like, oh, I wish
you didn't do that. Yeah. Yeah, I like playing characters
with kind of that exists in a gray moral area.
Speaker 2 (57:27):
I think. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
The other thing that kind of pulls me in when
I'm thinking about a job is really who I'm working with. Yes,
going back to the community thing, I would like to
work with people that I think are kind of nice,
because like, I don't really want to get bullied or
like I or I have a bad experience in the
workplace because I love my work. So yeah, I just
want to feel inspired and hopefully tell a story that
(57:50):
feels interesting and new. But yeah, I also want to
feel a little bit scared, like maybe I'm a little
bit out of my depth.
Speaker 4 (57:59):
Right because this has been built as your first lead role,
is that right? Or the movie done recently or I've
seen a lot of things people talking about like it's
a leading role in a different way.
Speaker 1 (58:09):
Oh, it's definitely very, very different.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
I've done probably the most.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
It required a lot of me just in terms of
like the width and like the breadth of the show.
Speaker 2 (58:25):
It's definitely like not a slow burn.
Speaker 1 (58:28):
It really it moves quickly and it takes you on
a journey that is like so vast and I've definitely
not done anything that's required quite that much from me before.
Speaker 3 (58:40):
Yes, Oh, okay, that's really interesting.
Speaker 4 (58:42):
Yeah, when you people talk about this different like way
you're going as an actress, it's like we've seen you
in like all these different roles, but this is kind
of taking it in a different way, which I loved.
Kind of seeing like that evolution of someone on screen
is always really interesting. Yeah, it's cool, and it's talking
as we've gone through this interview, like you're so open
about sharing so much of your life and your childhood
(59:03):
and your medical situation and your friendships, and it does
feel like you were such an open book to the world.
You stand for a lot of things. As you go
through your career and you keep getting these big roles
and you keep doing these press tours and talking to people,
does that ever take a toll of being the person
who always shares and always because I just can imagine,
(59:23):
like putting yourself out there almost like having like raw
nerves exploded to the public all the time must be
a lot. And is there anything that you're just like,
I won't share that part of my life with you.
Speaker 1 (59:33):
Oh, there's a lot that I don't share. Yeah, but
I like, I think the things that I choose to share.
The intention I have is always that like, Okay, what
was it that made me feel really alone? And so
if I can share about growing up on the Gold
Coast and feeling kind of isolated, there, maybe a little
(59:54):
brown girl on the Gold Coast will feel less alone or.
Speaker 2 (59:58):
Wherever that person is.
Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
If I can share about my experience of kind of
not just you know, the experience of like playing a
queer character and and like being this queer like rainbow
flag totally confident girl and like not feeling that way
in my life. If I can share about these things,
(01:00:21):
then hopefully it can help people feel less alone. But
there's still a lot that I keep pretty private, and like,
I don't know, I've always I've been blessed to feel
really like embraced and safe in these kinds of environments.
Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
That's a lovely way to look at it, and so
obviously Watching is coming out October third. We've all got
that marked and I diaris to watch it. And I
know you've got another movie. But where do you sort
of when you kind of map out the if you're
the person who does map out the next five or
so years of your life for ten years, or think
about the characters you want to play, where you want
to live, what your legacy will be on screen.
Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
What does that look like to you?
Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
I think, honestly, I am so deeply grateful to have
my body and not be in pain every day. The
thing that's on my mind most at the moment is
just enjoying that I'm going to after this week of
press is done. I'm going to go hang out with
my mum and my little sister and my nana and
(01:01:20):
my great nana and my aunties and my cousins, and
I'm going to sit there in the dumb dressing gown
that my mom's gonna make me wear, and the stupid
socks that I hate, but I'm going to put them
on and we're going to sit on the couch.
Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
And that's what I want to do.
Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
I just I want to spend the rest of my
life hopefully playing make believe and telling cool stories and
then getting to balance that with community and family.
Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
Yeah, that's so beautiful. I al what you say about
going home. I think the best thing about growing up
and going off to have an adventure is like when
you start to appreciate going home is like the true
little moments of bliss in like a big, exciting life
that you're living.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
So that's really lovely.
Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Well, Ash, I could talk to you for so long.
Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
I don't know how long we've been talking, Sorry, guys,
but it's just been so lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
And I can't wait for ho and see watching you
and everything else you do in the future.
Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
I was lovely, Chad, that was the incredible Asha d
And what struck me most about our conversation and just
the way she lives her life is the way she
balances vulnerability with strength. Whether she's talking about the characters
she plays, the rejection she's faced, or the reality of
living with chronic pain.
Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
She's someone who has quietly.
Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
Pushed open doors for others while still figuring herself out
along the way. And you can now see Asha in
watching you on stand and I have no doubt you'll
be watching her for many, many years to come. I'm
Laura Brodnek, and thank you so much for listening to
No Filter. The executive producer of No Filter is Naima Brown,
the senior producer is Bree Player. Audio production is by
(01:02:55):
Jacob Brown and video editing is by Josh Green
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