Soroff On
Ashley Williams
The TV and film actress talks about crazy theater people, body image and cockroaches in ice cream.
 Photo Credit: Cheyenne Ellis
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Actress Ashley Williams, 32, was born and raised in Westchester County and studied acting at Boston University before joining the prestigious Williamstown Theater Festival. The sister of actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, her TV credits include As the World Turns, How I Met Your Mother, Monk, Saving Grace, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Love Bites, among numerous others. In films, she starred opposite Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons in Margin Call, which premiered at Sundance this past winter, and currently stars alongside Kate Hudson in Something Borrowed. In addition to acting, she is a doula, or birthing coach. She lives in Los Angeles with her fiancé and several dogs.
Do people ever mistake you for your sister?
That would never happen. Have you met my sister? I’m the messy, larger, less organized version.
[Laughs.] No. And no one has confused me with one of the Williams sisters, either.
It’s funny. Entertainment Weekly once did a thing on how Kim and I are different from Serena and Venus. It was pretty mean. “Less athletic, less successful.”
I think that’s the question on everybody’s mind right now. But he’s the best, and he’s totally not single. He has the cutest guy, and he’s a chef, and I’ve eaten his food. It’s delightful.
This may sound cheesy because I’m promoting this movie, but working with the cast of Something Borrowed was a dream come true.
There’s so many. At this point, as soon as it starts to tank, the only thing going through my mind is, “OK, how many minutes away from having a glass of wine am I?” I had an audition the other day, and I was nervous, and the casting director said to me, “Do you have to pee?” It’s just nonstop.
For a while, on IMDB, it said I’d been on Dawson’s Creek, which is a total lie. One true thing that should be on my résumé is that I’m allergic to horses, and yet I’ve been cast three times as “horseback riding girl.” That meant I had to be doped up on Claritin the whole time and have no recollection of shooting.
Theater’s the hardest because of the schedule. But if you’re super, super famous, everything is a lot easier. For someone like me, it’s all work.
I played a one-legged detective named Stump for a Lifetime movie of the week.
I was an ice cream scooper at one of those places in Boston for three years. It was the home of the famous mix-in’s, and it had a little cockroach problem. So one time, I was mixing something into a woman’s ice cream and a cockroach crawled up onto the bar, and I smashed it. I looked at the woman and said, “I’m so sorry.”
I also got fired from the Bombay Company because I got “secret shopped” and I got a score of 11 out of 100. That’s pretty pathetic, too.
Jack Black. I’m getting married in May, and my fiancé and I have our “hall pass” people, and mine’s Jack Black. [Laughs.]
About 35.
No. But I’ve taught childbirth education to celebrities.
Amy Adams. She’s actually a friend.
Top Chef.
The Real Soon-to-Be-Wives of Producers With Too Many Dogs and Hobbies. I’m a doula. I’m an actress. I’m getting certified as a dog trainer. It’s sort of a disaster.
Oh, yes, I do! That was bad! My boob is hanging out, and I can’t get rid of those pictures!
Yeah. My nipple looks good, too. [Laughs.]
For our honeymoon, we’re going to backpack in Europe with a nice budget, as opposed to the measly one I had in college.
I’ve read that I have an annoying face, and I think they might be right. Also, I’m a size 6, and it’s kind of unusual for actresses who are working to be that big, so I get described as fat a lot. But I actually kind of feel like it’s a badge of honor.
No. It puts me back in the underdog position, which is what I want. Chubby little Ashley. She’s harmless. She’s no threat to Halle Berry.
Taking on odd personas. I was a crazy theater person, so I played into the weirdo stereotype and had a ball with it. I’d wear bathrobes and crazy hats. I played it to the hilt.
The soap opera fans were the best. They loved me! But on the flip side, there was the time I was being followed by paparazzi, and I was walking my dog, wearing curlers because I had an audition, and I was like, “You guys, come on!” And they said, “Nicole Richie’s right behind you.” So that was humiliating.
I do now. And he has no choice but to watch me in bad movies of the week. [Laughs.] I think my brother-in-law’s writing is really smart, and he puts on a great show. But when my sister said she was going to marry a country music star, we were like, “What? You voted for Dukakis.”
I never slept with him!
Something like, Ashley stole two grand from an old lady because she has to pay rent.
Credits: Photographed by Cheyenne Ellis; wardrobe: Melinda Tarbell; hair: Louise Moon/Exclusive Artists; makeup: Agostina/Exclusive Artists. Clothes: Aurelio Costarella dress, Pasotti Ombrelli parasol.
