Simone Ashley is back on our screens this week ahead of Bridgerton season four with new Prime Video rom-com Picture This.
The movie marks not only Ashley's first rom-com role, but also her first movie as executive producer. It sees her play Pia, who receives a prediction that true love and career success await her in the next five dates she goes on.
Talking to Digital Spy ahead of the release of Picture This tomorrow, she shared the biggest lesson she learnt from her first rom-com role.
"I learnt loads about just bringing joy and making people laugh and not overthinking something, and it just being like, 'This is a fun scene, it's a scene that's conveying happiness'," Ashley reflected.
Related: First trailer for Simone Ashley's rom-com Picture This
"I learned more about my comedy and how that feels authentic to me. I also learned a lot from my co-stars around me because everyone was just so thoughtful with their characters and what they brought to them."
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Ashley had previously told Digital Spy about what she wanted to change in the script in her new role as executive producer.
She expanded on that by saying the changes were to ensure that Pia was "as humanised as possible".
"I love characters like her that are very passionate, very fiery, really ambitious because it just gives them such a long way to go in the film and their story. It's that underlying thing, 'What is it that they really want?' I really liked that about her," Ashley explained.
Related: Simone Ashley addresses career change for new British rom-com
"The obstacles that came in her way were kind of herself in a way. I wanted to bring that and I think also some of my softness to that character as well, her love for her family and her friends and her desire to find love even though she may not recognise it at the time."
Ashley will be seen later this year in summer blockbuster F1, alongside Damson Idris and Brad Pitt.
Picture This is released on Prime Video on March 6.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
Isabella is a freelance journalist who has written on young women's issues, entertainment, TV and film, South Asian representation, mental health, dating and so much more. She has bylines in ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Prima, Digital Spy, Women's Health, and Harper's Bazaar, and was named 30 Under 30 by MediaWeek, PPA and We Are The City. She was also shortlisted for Workplace Hero at the Investing In Ethnicity Awards and Hero of the Year at the European Diversity Awards. Follow Isabella on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
