Famous VA confirmed for not having herpes!

So we did an interview with this incredible women who does some of the voices from that one pony show that has all the seasons and spin-offs and stuff. Also an upcoming movie, which we got some little insight about!

Picture from BABS'14 as we forgot to take one. Too hungover. But so was she as far as we could tell, so it's probably for the better that we forgot.

Find the full interview after the break, awkward stumbling included!

HN: We are a terrible news site. So yesterday the first episode of the new season aired, but you probably recorded that at least a year ago.

A.B.: At least yeah, I haven’t seen it. How was it?

HN: It was okay, it had like three Applejack lines, which makes him [second HN reporter] very sad.

HN #2: I’ll take what I can get.

HN:  So for you it’s like, correct me if I’m wrong, but you record the episode and there is a break of about a year before you come back.

A.B.: Yeah, around about that.

HN: So compared to the people who go to the conventions and watch the show, it’s a completely different rhythm. Does it ever put you on the spot when someone approaches you about something that was way back for you?

A.B.: Most of the time I am a little bit, I don’t always get a chance to watch the episodes. I try to watch the ones I am in at least, but even then I am sometimes still behind. I don’t know how many of season six I’ve seen, but I haven’t seen that many of season six. So that’s what people know most right now, so I just need to do my homework watching more episodes.

HN: So going to conventions is actually work?

A.B.: Yeah well, I should watch my cartoons.

HN: And with all the movies now and the teaser material for the channel and stuff. Is that more work or does it happen in the same timeframe?

A.B.: A lot of that is overlapping, it was very strange with the movie because we recorded over about six months or so, the script was constantly changing and all these different versions of the script were coming in. And meanwhile we were doing Equestria Girls episodes and Pony episodes, so there were all kinds of different storylines happening and I do other work on other series as well, so it definitely got confusing. Like “wait what is part of the movie and what is part of Equestria Girls - what version of ponies am I doing right now? So there were some questions regarding the movie that an interviewer came in and asked us and I was like, “I don’t remember, I don’t know. Do you know about the movie, can you tell me?” Because I just can’t recall. I kind of know some loose storylines but we needed him to prompt us for the answers.

"The script was constantly changing and all these different versions of the script were coming in."

HN: So you need to be told if you are human or pony Applejack or Rainbow Dash?

A.B.: Exactly, it gets confusing.

HN: Does that mean it dominates all the other voicework with all the different shows and spinoffs, or is it still a small part of what you do?

A.B.: I guess it sort of- it does dominate a little bit. Because of Equestria Girls, and there was a small point where everything I did had something to do with ponies, but now it has kind of mellowed down a bit. There are some episodes that Rainbow Dash and Applejack aren’t even in; whats up with that? Some of season 7 I think things thinned out a little bit. There are other characters they are focusing on or whatever. It’s always nice being in the script, especially seeing as I have two characters it’s kind of weird when one of them is not. But it’s always a balance between ponies and the other stuff that I work on.

HN: The show went on for way longer than anyone expected. How do you keep it interesting for yourself do to the same voices and characters all the time?

A.B.: I think you just have to keep the energy in the character. There is only so much you can do as a voice actor to keep things interesting, it’s kind of up to the writers to keep things interesting for the fans. We just try and do our best. There’s lots of great songs coming up in season 7, lots of cool plot lines that are starting to unfold. So I think it’s just showing up for work, hopefully having your voice and doing your job.

HN: As far as conventions go you are kind of a rare sight, you used to not show up that often so people were like, “uuueueeagh Ashley is never coming, whyyy?”.

A.B.: You sound so sad.

HN: I’m a good actor myself when it comes to whining... but not anything else. Is that because it clashes with your Hey Ocean! schedule or is it because you don’t like conventions so much?

A.B.: Yeah-no-<yawn> - It’s been tricky with schedules. There was a time when I was touring quite a lot with Hey Ocean! and I wasn’t able to do cons. There was one con in Houston where the offer was good enough for Hey Ocean! to play the convention, because we were in that area as it were. We were playing all around the States and we ended up playing Houston at this Brony convention and it was... it was a trip for the boys; “What on Earth?” So that was pretty funny. I just kind of go to places that I want to go to, you know and I do love the fans.

HN: But they didn’t get traumatized, the band? Entirely? A little bit?

A.B.: Eeeh no, they were genuinely excited.

HN: So you’re going to Germany this year, to GalaCon. For other VAs and show staff I know this is a rare opportunity to get out of work and do some vacationing. But you’ve had the touring already, so will you be vacationing to or is it just the con and then back home?

A.B.: In Germany? I’m going to be four days in France, then the con, and then I have five full days in Italy, so I will be hopping around.

HN: But I know you toured Germany, probably Great Britain too?

A.B.: Yeah, we did some touring. We spent a lot of time in Hamburg, we did Stuttgart and a bunch different cities in Germany. I feel like I’ve seen quite a bit of Germany, never been there during Summer though. We went there during the beginning of December, but it was awesome because it had so many Christmas markets. Every city we went to there were huge Christmas markets happening, so much good food and mulled wine. It wasn’t even that close to Christmas.

HN: Yeah, Germans do that as soon as possible.

HN: So you also did this one Brony Documentary a while ago - did that turn out how you expected it or would you have done something different looking back?

A.B.: It was sort of out of my hands. I basically just sat down for a drink with my friend Brent, who is a documentary maker, and it was just when Bronies were coming into the light. And we just discussed it, and he was like “Wait -what? You were invited to a Brony convention?” and my agent was kind of like, “You’re not going, I don’t know who these people are, did Hasbro approve? You’re not doing it.” And then I told Brent and he was like “We should try and go, I should film it and I would love to document this.” I kind of went back to Vancouver and kep doing my job, doing Hey Ocean stuff and he (Brent) delved into the world of Bronies. He got so in it, he’s a very hard working guy, he’s done so much stuff since then.

A.B.: If I were to do anything different. There are some weird scenes in that movie where I have- during the filming, right before I went to the con, I split my lip open on a boat. And it looks like I have herpes or something, there’s like this weird cut on my lip, and we can’t hide it, no makeup was going to hide the fact that I had this giant wound on my lip. I fell on a boat in mexico and I split my lip open, so there’s a bunch of scenes where I’m looking really gnarly and I have this split lip.

If I could change anything I would go back in time and not fall on that boat.

Other than that, really cool things came out of it for Brent. He got picked up by Morgan Spurlock who is a great documentary film maker in the states and he has basically launched Brent’s career. So I’m really proud of him. And if anybody asks me about the fandom, or like “What are Bronies?” I can tell them to watch the documentary, it explains everything.

<A.B. yawns>

<HN yawns>

HN: I know how you feel.

A.B.: You guys tired?

HN: <to HN #2> How many hours of sleep did we have?

HN #2: Not many hours.

HN: I want to die.

A.B.: <stifled giggle>

HN: We ran all out of questions, which is a good thing because then you can rest. Thank you for the interview!



 Also, we didn't ask about her solo album because it wasn't announced back then yet.