Check out the beautiful portraits that Ashley Tisdale posed for at the Hollywood Life studios!
1 of 6Ashley Tisdale Visits HollywoodLife.com
American actress Ashley Tisdale visited HollywoodLife.com to promote her latest TV series, Merry, Happy, Whatever on Netflix. The 34-year-old actress shows off her acting chops as Kayla in the holiday-themed sitcom, opposite of Dennis Quaid, who plays her tough-loving, strong-willed father, Don. The series, which is currently available to binge on Netflix, follows the Quinn family’s four grown kids and their widowed patriarch as they navigate their way through the holidays. Each Quinn child is enduring their own struggle, with Ashley’s Kayla going through a full moment of self-discovery following her sudden divorce. While filled to the brim with comedic relief, Merry, Happy Whatever also features beautiful and deep moments of emotion, especially between Ashley and Dennis as father and daughter. The series also stars Bridgit Mendler as Emmy Quinn, Brent Morin as Matt, Elizabeth Ho as Joy Quinn and Hayes MacArthur as Sean Quinn.
Click through our gallery to see more pictures of Ashley Tisdale from her visit to HollywoodLife!
On Playing Kayla In ‘Merry, Happy, Whatever’
“It was one of the most fulfilling acting roles that I’ve really ever gotten to do because I think a lot of the roles that I have done in the past have been very strong characters and they know who they are and there isn’t this, “Who am I?” That’s what I usually bring to a role ,because I’m pretty confident person and I really know what I like, I know what I want. With Kayla, it was just such a different situation where I got to really add things in there.”
On Going Into Kayla’s Storyline Blindly
“I did not know the journey of Kayla; I didn’t know the arc and where she was going to go. I only knew the first episode because Tucker [Cawley] wouldn’t let us in on what was going to happen with our characters, which is really cool because sometimes if you know the arc of the character, you’re almost a couple steps ahead. I got to be in the moment with her trying to figure it out. She’s trying to figure out who she is and she’s in a self-identity crisis. I was trying to figure out who she was at the same time — so it was kind of like we did it together.”
On Kayla’s Major Coming Out Moment
“It just means so much to me. Acting is all about being someone else and getting into someone else’s shoes, so to jump into Kayla’s shoes and to go through something I’ve never gone through in my life was really inspiring and beautiful and I really was excited to share that.”
How Taking Classes Helped Her As An Actress
“I’ve taken classes for the last three years when I was not acting and more so doing stuff on the production side and my branding side. It was cool because the classes were all based off of playwrights and not movies or TV, so it was just something that I was so uncomfortable with but, that’s the best part is to get out of your comfort zone, and I think I’ve definitely have grown as an actor since then.”
On Working With Dennis Quaid
“He’s so great. I think what I learned with Dennis is that he can turn on the emotions so quickly. For me, I can get emotional, but after take after take after take, you’re trying to still get to that point and sometimes, it doesn’t come as much as it did the take before, where he literally brings it every single take and you’re just like, “How do you do that?” It’s so wild!’
