“Katy Keene” Star Ashleigh Murray Is An Advocate Of Allowing Actors In The Writers’ Room
Ashleigh Murray, from the CW's “Katy Keene” and “Riverdale,” loves giving input in the “Katy Keene” writers’ room.
The actor explains why it’s so important to have the opportunity to make conscious choices and ensuring the content she stars in pushes boundaries in the right way.
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- I mean, do you get the opportunity to sort of self-advocate in a writers room like that?
Like, now this character's sort of a second skin, and-- ASHLEIGH MURRAY: Yeah.
- --you've played her for so many years now and now in different iteration, do you sort of get that chance to be like maybe she could go in this direction or be paired with this person or-- ASHLEIGH MURRAY: Yeah.
Well, thankfully, because not every writer's room is like that, from what I understand.
Again, I've only been on two TV shows.
But having the luxury of being on a show where I was working with a lot of vets before, they were very vocal about the fact that we are lucky to have show runners like Roberto and Michael.
They're very open, and they're very willing to listen.
And we also know that they may not have the final say.
They-- like, it-- I want to say, if I had to throw out a number, it's like 50/50.
But they really push and advocate for us and for themselves and what they feel like is going to be good for the show.
So even if it's something that we may not see come to fruition, they still welcome the conversation.
So I am a very outspoken person because I like to-- it's like-- this entire process is-- excuse me-- this entire process is a collective effort.
You know, I'm not in it just for my own advancement.
I'm thinking about the character and her relationship to the other characters and this show as a whole because I care about more than just her.
I care about all of it.
So we do have the room to share our thoughts, and they hear them and they listen.
And like, even that-- I don't want to take that away from Julia.
She's so clever.
That I did sex Saturday line, that's just something that she made up.
Like, she was just in the writers room and had just mentioned, she was like, maybe Pepper does sex Saturday.
And that's what ended up in the script.
So sometimes we can come up with really cool one-liners, either on the fly or through previous conversation.
And we can say, oh, it'd be nice if they did this.
You know, I definitely am an advocate of just having that open door policy.
It really helps, you know?
- It must be really meaningful, I'd imagine-- ASHLEIGH MURRAY: It does.
It is.
It's very meaningful.
- --to have that opportunity.
ASHLEIGH MURRAY: It's-- you know, I-- working in television can be very mechanical at times.
You know, it's this-- it is a machine that we have to just keep running.
We have a day to make.
But it's also about what we're making, and I like to be conscious of making the right choices so that the content that we're putting out isn't bad, you know?
Or isn't offensive.
It's tough because sometimes it's like you want to push the envelope but the right way, kind of like "Parasite." I don't know if y'all have seen it yet, but-- - Yes, we've seen that.
