Ashley Lay Sophomore, film and media art, 19
What makes Ashley Lay your Spartan of the Week? Other than the fact that her email would be ALay, the 19 year old sophomore made it to the small screen two weeks ago. If you happened to see Modern Family on November 17th, the Film and Media Art major was there in the background as an extra. Read on to learn more about Ashley Lay’s experience.
The Minaret (M): Explain to us how you got onto Modern Family!
Ashley Lay (AL): I had jaw surgery over the summer and I think my dad felt really bad for me. My sister is a supercomp dragster driver and she was doing that all summer while I was stuck at home eating out of a syringe from the surgery. So he went on to this website called charitybuzz and won an auction to go out and see Modern Family.
M: And is Modern Family your favorite tv show?
AL: Yeah it’s my favorite comedy.
M: Did you get to meet any of the cast while you were there?
AL: I met most of the cast and a lot of the crew. They were shooting an on-location scene the day we visited at a mall near LAX. It was their most expensive episode yet. It was tons of fun. I met Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cameron; Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell; and Ty Burrell who plays Phil even though it wasn’t even his day to shoot. The next day I met Julie Bowen who plays Claire.
M: Who’s your favorite character on the show?
AL: My favorite character is Phil. I really like Cam and Mitchell but recently I’ve started to like Phil more. It was awesome to meet him because he wasn’t even supposed to show up that day but he was on set anyway.
M: What were they like?
AL: They’re so nice. The cast and crew are like one big, happy family.
M: What were the actors like in real life?
AL: Cam is very different off camera. They call cut and he switches to normal so fast. He’s such a guy.
M: “He’s such a guy.” What does that mean?
AL: He’s so funny. During filming he’ll be very flamboyant, then they call cut and he’s talking about sports.
M: It’s “guy” to talk about sports?
AL: Yeah, that’s guy.
M: Okay… Was there anyone from the show you were dying to meet but didn’t get the chance?
AL: Not really, I met all my favorites. We were paired up with this production assistant named Rachel who had just graduated from Northwestern. We kind of had the same interests and we still talk, so hopefully she’ll help me get an internship one day.
M: Would you want to be on Modern Family some day as a star?
AL: That’d be cool!
M: What’s the plan for the future? Is it in line with acting, or was this just a cool one-time thing?
AL: I want to write and act, direct and produce.
M: Oh wow, that’s a lot. So you want to do the whole gambit?
AL: Yeah, I’m the next Ron Howard.
M: Like Happy Days?
AL: I haven’t actually seen that, I’m just behind on stuff.
M: Okay, Happy Days is three decades old. Anyways, what are your favorite tv shows?
AL: Modern Family of course, and I like Greek. My cousin is on Greek actually. Her name is Spencer Grammar, she plays Casey Cartwright.
M: Speaking of tv, how many fingers would you cut off to be on Modern Family?
AL: None. I don’t want it that badly!
M: Clearly you don’t want it that badly then. What are you impressions from this whole experience?
AL: It was really cool to just meet everyone and get their feedback and experience. It was cool to see how it all comes together. The screenwriting and the cast and crew, lines of trucks.
M: What was your favorite episode of Modern Family?
AL: I really like the one I was there for. Not because I was there, but because it was really funny.
Richard Solomon can be reached at richard.solomon@spartans.ut.edu