living: our people

Out of the blue

SOME YEARS AGO, Ashley McCall Scott was cast in the role of the Huntress, the result of a liaison between Batman and Catwoman in the short-lived series Birds of Prey—probably the first time New Zealanders had seen her on the screen. These days Scott can be seen in Jericho, on TV3.

She has that sort of beauty that makes you look twice, and a sense that we are merely in the prelude of her career before her name really hits the headlines.

Scott had a minor role in Artificial Intelligence: AI in 2001, playing Gigolo Jane, and a larger role in Dark Angel with Jessica Alba. In 2005, she featured in Into the Blue, also with Alba, as the movie’s supporting actress. Most recently, she featured in the comedy Strange Wilderness, which features Oscar winner Ernest Borgnine, Harry Hamlin and Robert Patrick.

Scott was born in Metairie, La., but hastened to add that she was ‘brought up in Charleston, South Carolina,’ a city of which she is clearly proud.

‘It is a charming little city,’ she told Lucire. ‘I urge all who I meet to take a sweetheart there. It’s a great place for smooching. Cobblestone streets, old homes and good ol’ fatty foods.’ She still rates the city as her ‘favourite place in the world.

‘Charleston is so spectacular!’

Despite having Charleston as the backdrop to her childhood, it had some frustrations for Scott. ‘I am dyslexic,’ she wrote in one follow-up email to Lucire. ‘Thanks for reminding me—to never type an interview again! This is brutal!’ To Scott’s credit she did not have a single typo, which is more than can be said for many who do not suffer from the condition.

‘I was very frustrated in school,’ she recalled. ‘I couldn’t stand to go. I didn’t understand why I was so much slower than everyone else: it is horrible as a child.’

She continues to challenge her dyslexia and is grateful that modern teachers and parents can spot the signs earlier. ‘Once it’s detected, you can find little tricks within yourself to work around it.’

This may explain why Scott says she would like to be a middle-school teacher if she were not an actress. ‘Those kids are going through such a hard time at that age. I think I would really enjoy that.’

Essentially, Scott is a down-home girl with traditional family values. She did venture out to modelling in her teens, enjoying the travel: ‘Travelling didn’t really take its toll like it does nowadays. Drink water: lots of water,’ she joked.

The experiences have led Scott to be a positive person, ready to break out with the jokes. ‘Life makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. I honestly love life. I love that we can feel all that we can: the good, the bad, the sad. I love that every day we wake up we have the choice [of] how we are going to live that day. Sometimes you want to walk around pissed off. Go for it: it’s your choice!’

So does that make Scott a glass-half-full kind of girl? Yes, she told us, ‘unless it’s beer. Then it is definitely empty!’

The beer-drinking might be slightly at odds with Scott’s newfound interest in yoga (‘I just went to my first yoga class—it was awesome. I walked out feeling so good’) and her phoenix tattoo on her lower back with the Chinese ideographs for ‘strength, destiny, love and courage’.

Without commenting in depth, Scott said she went through a ‘life-changing experience a while back,’ and the phoenix ‘rising out of the ashes’ is an important symbol.

We didn’t pry, but we did wonder if she could comment on her marriage to producer Anthony Rhulen (The Rum Diary, with Johnny Depp, was released in 2006; younger audiences may recall Raise Your Voice, starring Hilary Duff). ‘Of course we can talk about him: that’s my favourite thing to do!’

Scott is clearly in love, jokingly saying, ‘I am in love with a dashing man. I am married as well. I am kidding. … He really is my sunshine.’ The couple married in the Napa Valley, Calif. two and a half years ago. Scott described herself as ‘a rocking romancer,’ disliking house music.

Their Los Angeles home is not quite of the white picket-fence variety found in the Carolinas, nor are the animals there. ‘I have two dogs: Pork Chop the pug and Ozzy the chihuahua. We have two tortoises, a chameleon named Morty and a bearded dragon named Spike. Our house is like a zoo.’

The future is bright for Scott. Still looking like she’s in her early 20s, she can tackle a variety of roles with the discipline of someone who has had some solid acting experience on the small and silver screens. ‘There are so many roles I am dying to get,’ she said. ‘I am just in the beginning.’

She doesn’t seek the “fame” associated with some of Hollywood’s tabloid fodder. ‘I am enticed by the “big league” of acting. I am petrified of “fame”. I love my job. I love that I have the opportunity to create on a daily basis.

‘I have met so many different types of women in my life. I am thrilled to hopefully be able to continue honouring the different characters that real life has shared with me.

‘But the fame thing, someone hanging outside of your house with a camera or following you to dinner—that I have no interest in. It is a thin line, staying under the radar. I think ducking and weaving helps.’

To balance her career, she would like to be a Mom at some stage. Those family values are clearly still there: ‘I want to live. I want to have a lot of babies one day. I want to be a good wife. I want to always be there for my family. I want lots of laugh lines.

‘I guess what I am most passionate in life about is family. I really want to be a wrinkly old lady playing with her great-grandkids in a big back yard in the south. I definitely want my wrinkly old husband cooking on the barbecue.’

And if we weren’t thinking that Rhulen was blessed with a wife who seems to be the best the south can offer, Scott added that she loves to cook. ‘I find it extremely calming. I love food.

‘How do I like to unwind? Did I mention I love beer? Kidding.’ •

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‘Life makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. I honestly love life. I love that we can feel all that we can: the good, the bad, the sad. I love that every day we wake up we have the choice [of] how we are going to live that day. Sometimes you want to walk around pissed off. Go for it: it’s your choice!’