http://www.hamiltonmagazine.com/
Hamilton Magazine
December 21, 2011


(See the full article here, this is just Ashley's part.)

Others prefer to keep L.A. at a distance, and enjoy the struggle in a more familiar setting. Ashley Leggat, currently playing Baby in the Royal Alex production of Dirty Dancing, found herself in Los Angeles as a natural extension of her career. After Disney picked up her hit television program Life With Derek, she spent some time in Los Angeles, but was not beguiled enough to remain. “I would work and stay in L.A. but I would never call it home,” Leggat says. “I love Toronto and Hamilton. That’s my home and that’s where I’m going to live.”

Even for someone who had done their share of acting and auditioning in Canada, Los Angeles seemed frenetic and fanciful. “It’s true, you do meet a lot of producers, and everybody wants to put you in something,” Leggat says. “The hardest part is deciphering who’s BS and who isn’t. One time, my mom and I went to a screening and this fifty-something man came up said ‘I’d love to take you on a date.’ In front of my mom! You always need to be skeptical, anywhere you are, but especially in L.A..” Leggat doesn’t harbour undue disdain for Los Angeles. Like many, she recognizes its geographical beauty and its opportunities, however difficult to take. “It’s not all bad,” she says, “which some people do assume it is.”