Photo credit: Courtesy of NVCC
“My father actually has worked with the community college before, so he was the one that originally asked me if it was something I’d be interested in,” actress Ashley Dyke told Hollywood on the Potomac.
“I grew up in Virginia and I was educated in Virginia, so I was happy to do it.” she said referring to the deliverance of the keynote address at the 18th annual recognition dinner hosted by the Northern Virginia Community College Educational Foundation. “The community college there is incredible. I’ve known about it my whole life, so I was really honored to be asked.” Dyke is best known for her role as Anna in Steve McQueen’s Academy Award winning film “12 Years A Slave.”
Ashley Dyke
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring also gave remarks and was joined by more than a dozen state and local officials including Senators Chuck Colgan and Richard Saslaw, Delegate Thomas Davis Rust, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova, Alexandria Mayor William Euille and College President Robert G. Templin, Jr.
She was raised in Fairfax, Virginia and is the daughter of two lawyers, Ellen Dyke and the Honorable James W. Dyke, Jr., the first African-American Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia and immediate past Chairman of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.
Ashley Dyke with her dad Honorable James W. Dyke, Jr.
“I knew I wanted to be an actor so as soon as I graduated from the University of Virginia so I just moved out here to Los Angeles to work. I kind of debated at times maybe moving to New York because I had also gone to Tisch NYU for one summer semester and really love New York. It was a debate for me where I wanted to go, but a mentor of mine – one of my professors at UVA Richard Warner – told me, ‘If you’re a film actor, you should live in L.A.’ So that’s what I did.”
“I worked in a gym, in a clothing store, restaurant. I did it all. I did commercials for a bit, so that was kind of starting out. Then it was just auditioning. found representation, got an agent and worked with different people, different agents, managers. I guess my first thing I ever did was a film, a comedy, an independent film, but then also small roles on television and then doing workshops, meeting casting directors, meeting people in the business, and then that turned into jobs. It’s interesting. It’s a catch 22. I had done some stuff like a television show in college, so I had material. They saw that and took a chance on me, they choose to develop you and see how your career goes,” she noted describing the ‘process’ of getting represented.”
We asked Ashley to describe the path to 12 Years a Slave in more detail. “Oh, that was such a long path. I was sent the script by my manager at the time and loved it. I’ve always been a huge fan of Steve McQueen’s, so to know that he was doing this project I was thrilled. I sat at home one night and read the script and couldn’t put it down. There was so much difficult material which was hard to get through, hard to read, but by the end I was completely captivated and knew I needed to be a part of it in some way and jumped on board to auditioning for roles that I wanted in it; then casting suggested that maybe I audition for Anna, the character that I ended up playing.”
“I was absolutely terrified when originally asked,” she added, “just because it was such an emotional role and then it’s interesting because she doesn’t speak; so in terms of the script, it was just 2 pages of what happens between these peoples’ eyes. It was really frightening at the time. Could I do this? What would I do? How would I audition, this kind of thing? My coach and I, Iris Klein, my amazing coach, we put the audition on tape and sent it in, and then I had an audition with Steve over Skype. He was already in New Orleans doing the movie, and then I was hired.”
College President Robert G. Templin, Jr.
“I personally think the idea is really to follow your passion and what makes you happy,” she responded on advise to today’s youth. “You have to really focus on your own personal inner happiness and strength. I would say for young people that if acting is your passion, then do it and do it with all of your heart which means hustling, auditioning for this and that, and doing a class, and doing a workshop and all that kind of thing. I would just advise young people to trust your heart. I definitely would never trade in my undergraduate experience though. The beautiful thing that happened for me is, I got to spend my young life thinking about my future and working towards the betterment of my future, so I got to spend that time in college really studying, really understanding my craft and built up my passion for my craft in those 4 years.”
“I had taken the time to work on myself and to feel really like I had been set up for success, if that makes sense. I had actually done so much work towards my passion that I felt like I was set up for success, and that I’d really spent the time to really hone my craft. I think that was important to prepare myself in that way, because now when I go to work I feel there’s a strong confidence that comes with knowing you’ve done a lot of the work, and I did a lot of it in college. I have friends that are actors and are incredible, talented actors who didn’t go to college, that took a different path but I think for me personally though, it was a really smart decision and I would never change that.”
At the NVCC Gala at Hilton McLean Tysons Corner
The Northern Virginia Community College Educational Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1979 to raise private financial support to augment programs and existing services and to attract funds to develop new courses and programs at Northern Virginia Community College.
