Part two of Hypable’s exclusive interview with Ashley Clements, star of hit web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Check out part 1 of our interview with Ashley Clements to catch Ashley’s thoughts on Monday’s controversial episode, how she landed the role of Lizzie, and what she thinks about comparisons to other Pride and Prejudice adaptations. In part 2, Ashley discusses the Lizzie and Darcy relationship, transmedia elements of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and more.

Earlier in the week, we also interviewed Mary Kate Wiles, who plays Lydia Bennet in The LBD and spin-off series The Lydia Bennet. You can read that entire interview in two pars (one, two).

Hypable’s exclusive interview with Ashley Clements

Hypable: While Pride and Prejudice is usually a love story, it seems that your story is not really about romantic love. Yes, that is a thing that happens, but if Lizzie got with Darcy now, she would not be happy because she us still working on this family love – if she hadn’t fixed what was happening with Charlotte she wouldn’t have that friendship love.

Was that the idea from the start – that it was going to be more about the bond between these girls? Obviously Darcy Day introduced a new element, but the show still seems to be based on these four girls.

Ashley Clements: You would have to ask the creators if that was the intention. I honestly don’t think that when the series started that they knew that this is what would be happening now. We all knew sex-tape from the beginning, sex-tape was one of the first things I learned.

Before I even had the part, I did an interview with Bernie [Su, head writer, director, executive producer, co-creator] because it’s an unusual project, you’re getting on board for a long time with something like this and there’s not a lot of parallels to working like this in Hollywood, short of booking a show, but we shoot once a month typically. Anyway, it’s a very unique thing and so we had this interview. I was like, “How are you adapting George and Lydia, because that doesn’t make any sense in the modern time, and please don’t just knock her up,” and he was like, “No, no, we’re thinking sex-tape,” and I was like, “YES! Sex-tape, amazing.”

But at that point no one knew exactly what the series was going to become, no one knew who Lydia was going to become or who Lizzie was going to become. A lot of things were decided from the beginning but at the same time, you make things and they have a life of their own and they grow. Lizzie has said these videos have become bigger than her, she says that on Darcy Day actually, episode 60. She says, “The videos have become bigger than me,” and I think in a way they have become bigger than all of us at this point.

It is clear that when they started, it was the four girls, that’s who was cast. At the beginning it was the four girls, and there was the first 25 or so episodes before you saw a man – Vidcon with Mr Collins was the first time. That was three months of shooting that we did before we had any male characters on the set, three months of episodes.

It was definitely always going to be very female-centric, and it was definitely always about the journey that Lizzie is on. I think this style of the show, and because we have told it in real time, that has allowed a lot of exploration into all the relationships in her life, and made a lot of ‘secondary characters’ into very important characters with strong arcs of their own.

In the book we see there’s a little development for Jane when she’s finally able to say unkind things about Caroline, and she says she doesn’t think that she is at risk of falling in love with Bingley again. There’s growth, but we have really given her a very strong arc, and she is going to continue to become a very strong young woman, while maintaining all of those qualities about Jane that everyone loves so much. That’s just one example, all of our characters have a a lot going on.

But also at the core of the story is Lizzie’s growth. If I had to come up with one line about The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, it would be about Lizzie overcoming her prejudices and her preconceived ideas about people and herself. I think everything else is very important, but that is a departure from Pride and Prejudice. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Pride and Prejudice is mostly about Lizzie.

Fans are going to yell at me for this. Darcy is important, I like the Darcy stuff, don’t yell at me. Honestly I love the Darcy stuff. I love it, I was really excited for it to get going, it’s some of my favourite stuff to film, I love working with Daniel [Gordh, plays Darcy]. I’m a huge romantic, I love that stuff, but I also think the reason that this romance is so powerful and has transcended all these generations is because it’s about two people who affect each other and change each other for the better. They are neither of them where they need to be at the beginning.

It’s not about people who are like, “Oh I think I hate you but it turns out you’re just the right person for me,” which is what so many contemporary romantic comedies do.

And it is by meeting each other and working and realizing things that they become better. We have just really expanded on Lizzie growing in a number of ways – not just in regards to how she sees Darcy, but how she sees herself, how she sees her place in the world, how she sees her sisters, Charlotte, Mr Collins. She’s had a lot of perspective shifts, and that’s really fun to play.

You were talking about getting inside Lizzie’s head and finding it difficult to separate yourself. Do you find the extra transmedia elements on a project like this help you as an actor, in that particular way?

Honestly, in that way it’s weird, because I don’t write Lizzie’s tweets and they don’t usually tell me that she is going to tweet things. So I read tweets next to a picture of my face and I’m like “What? What are you talking about? Oh, okay, I guess that’s what I’m thinking right now?” So that is actually very strange.

It’s very cool how the transmedia is used, mostly it gets used for characters other than Lizzie because Lizzie is the most active on camera so she needs the least supplemental stuff. Mostly she tweets the episodes, so it’s not a big thing.

But it’s strange. Sometimes she is going through a thing, and I didn’t know she was going through that thing at the time, and I’m like, “Wait. I didn’t know that.” Which is fine, but it’s funny. Because I think, “I didnt experience that! Oh, wait. I’m not actually Lizzie, I don’t have to experience everything, that’s fine.”

She’s not real, it’s okay.

She’s real in here. [Points at head]

I saw that you were nominated for the Streamy Audience Choice Award, Personality of the Year. What does that mean?

I don’t know. It’s very nice, I’m very flattered to be on that list but I don’t know. Go vote for The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.

Yes, more importantly for Series of the Year. How did that feel?

That feels so great. We were already nominated for Best Comedy which was pretty exciting, so I guess now here’s an opportunity for the very powerful, very enthusiastic fandom of Lizzie Bennet to engage and use their powers, if they so choose to. I’m not sure when voting ends?

Soon, I think. [Authors note: voting has now closed]

Soon, because the awards are on Sunday. But it’s very flattering of course, very nice. I’m very excited for all the things we’re nominated for.

Best Ensemble Cast?

Best Ensemble Cast is actually the thing I’m most excited about, because I love our cast so much. If we only won one award and I got to pick which one, it would be that one. That would be what I want us to get, because the show wouldn’t be what it is without its whole ensemble. And the cast is so great, and I really just love them all so much and I love working with them, so I would ideally like to give them this award. We’re up for Best Comedy, Bernie’s up for Writing, Julia [Cho, plays Charlotte] and I are both up for Best Female Performance, Best Comedy, and Interactive is the sixth.

I wonder if the people deciding these awards have been watching the recent episodes? Comedy might be a slightly erroneous label.

People get very upset about genre, but the fact is we submitted for comedy, we chose which genre to submit for. And also we submitted for the awards in either October of November, it was a long time ago. It was pre-Darcy Day when we submitted for these awards.

And it really was a comedy in the earlier days, or more so than now.

Yes!

I would say it still is.

I think genre is a tricky thing. I would hate for us not to deal with serious issues because we’re a comedy and we’re not allowed to talk about serious stuff. A lot of comedies have had episodes that have made me cry, and I love that. It was actually really, really exciting for us to do episode 42, “Friends Forever”, which is the Lizzie/Charlotte fight, because that was the first really serious episode.

It was 42 episodes in, of basically straight silliness up to that point. Well, not straight silliness, but very light-hearted stuff, and it was the first time that we had a serious, not funny episode, and we really felt like we’d earned it at that point. The fans were invested in these characters enough that they would sit through an unpleasant few minutes and not get to laugh, and maybe to cry.

I think ultimately I am much more invested in shows like that. I can think of a bunch of half-hour comedies that have made me cry, so if we’re doing any of that then I am very proud. It’s a strange few weeks right now. Because of the format of our show, there’s all this waiting, so I think it feels kind of torturous to be going through the sex-tape scandal right now, which will be over soon – sorry guys. It’s slow, when does it get better?

Well there’s still quite a lot to happen in the book.

There’s still quite a lot to happen and lots of things, and some of them are going to be happy and light-hearted, and some of them aren’t.

That’s life.

Yeah, that’s life. We want to be true to these stories, so I don’t worry about the genre. It will be funny if I win Best Performance in a Comedy right after an episode where I cry a bunch. I also don’t think that I am going to win, and that’s fine. It’s an honour to be nominated, and really fun to go. I think it’s going to be a blast to go. We’re all going to get dressed up and go hang out at the Streamys.

Why not!

Why not! I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to hang out.

What happens at the Streamys?

I actually have no idea. I don’t know, I have no idea what they are going to be like.

I think it will be an interesting group of people. Looking at the nominations list, it’s very wide ranging.

Yeah. I know some people – I know Grace Helbig, I know Hannah Hart, they’re great people. And then I don’t know a lot of people. I don’t know most people. And fans are going to be in attendance at the Streamys, so I know that they are going to be screaming over people and I’m going to be like, “I don’t know who that is.” But I think that’s great! I think the fact that the web is creating people who have fans who are screaming about them like they’re One Direction is phenomenal. And it means they can probably still live a normal life and walk down the street, and not be stopped.

Unless they’re at the Streamys.

Unless they’re at the Streamys! In which case, crazy. So actually I have no idea what it’s going to be like at the Streamys. I didn’t even really think about that fact until right now.

Well you’re welcome. While we’re talking general industry – how has The Lizzie Bennet Diaries impacted your work as an actor – do you find you’re getting more auditions? Or is it this very niche thing that we think is very exciting but no one else really knows about?

Hollywood is definitely not as on top of the web. There’s starting to be more recognition of it, starting to be more respect for it. For me, it has helped me get better representation, which probably doesn’t mean that much to most people but an actor lives and dies by their reps, so that’s really, really great. I am going on better auditions, it’s pilot season in L.A. right now so we are all going out for pilots and things like that.

It’s a great experience to have been the anchor of a show. Confidence boosting-wise, that’s a really powerful experience to have for an actor, and to have gotten to live in the character for this long, and really grow with her, that’s been a really interesting experience as an actor. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. There have been times when characters have gone through emotional things and it’s not like, “Oh, now I have to act sad.” It’s very sad.

I have strong relationships with the actors playing these parts, 87 is an episode in which Mary Kate [Wiles, plays Lydia] and I both shed real tears, and we did it several times, and we kept shedding real tears. Part of the reason that that wasn’t hard – and not to say that it wasn’t hard, but I was surprised how easily tears came – because we are so invested in these characters, and I’m not an actor who can make myself cry. I can’t be like, “Now I’m going to cry in this scene,” it happens or it doesn’t happen. It’s been a really interesting and a very rewarding experience for it to happen.

Our [most recent] shoot day was very emotional for a number of reasons. When people go back and see [the episodes], it was an interesting day when people reflect on it all being one day.

So what you need are a few nice comedy episodes to fill up your next shooting day?

Well, I imagine that there will be some light-hearted things.

To wrap up, how do you feel about the show ending? You’ve been doing this for over a year.

Weird, so weird. In some ways, it feels right to end it. I know some people were really hoping that we would continue beyond Pride and Prejudice, and make up our own story or try to adapt one of the many sequels to Pride and Prejudice, which are of course under copyright. But ultimately I’m glad that we are not. It doesn’t necessarily do these characters justice. I feel like we are going to leave Lizzie in the right place.

As much as I’m going to miss this character, as much as I’m going to miss our show – it’s such a part of my life now, I hear from fans on a daily basis and I’m so used to that – it’ll be strange when all of that starts to die down. But I wouldn’t want to continue just for the sake of continuing. I want Lizzie to get the right sort of end to her story, and then she’ll live on in however our viewers decide she lives on, but then we’ll put it in their hands, at that point.