Ashley Hinshaw Talks Miley Cyrus & 'LOL'

Let us be the first to introduce you to Ashley Hinshaw, the 21-year-old rising star who plays Miley Cyrus’s best friend in the upcoming comedy LOL: Laughing Out Loud.

Ashley talks about many things including what it was like working with Miley Cyrus, Ashley Greene & Tanz Watson.

JJ: With LOL when did you start shooting? Are you finished and where is that?

AH: Yeah! I auditioned for LOL in April or May… They first said I didn’t fit the part but three weeks later, I got a phone call asking to screen test with Miley the next day. Immediately, it just felt right between us three: Me, Miley, and the other girl who’s the best friend in the trio whose name is Lina Esco. We came to Michigan to start filming about five week ago. And we’ve been here, we’ve got another ten days in Michigan and then we go to Chicago for three days and then we go over to Paris for a week and then we’ll be all finished.

JJ: Can you tell us more about your character?

AH: I play Emily and she’s Miley’s best friend. The movie is a coming of age one, not really a comedy or drama. It has a little of everything in it. Emily is the comedic relief — this high school girl with strict parents that goes crazy on her own. She just wants to explore everything but is feeling kind of repressed from her. She’s really great and funny and I get to work closely with Austin Nichols who plays one of my teachers and Nora Dunn is my mother who is just so fantastic.

JJ: What’s your favorite scene to shoot?

AH: We shot this scene yesterday where the kids take a class trip and of course craziness ensues. Adam Sevani and I are kind of a couple in the movie and there were no parents or chaperone around. So, we go crazy and have fun.

JJ: How does your friendship with Miley on-screen compare off-screen?

AH: I didn’t know Miley before I came onto this project. I was hoping that we’d really have a real connection and we absolutely do. She is so fun to be around it’s easy to forget that she’s 17 sometimes because she’s got this great energy and she’s so dedicated to the project and to making it something new and exciting. We really have gotten to be great, great friends and I think that translates on-screen.

JJ: Do you have a favorite memory off-set between you two?

AH: A couple of days ago in the hair and makeup trailer, we talked for 1.5 hours wondering if there are aliens out in the world. She told me stories of people she knows that think aliens exist. One time, I forgot my line and I looked at her and she brought up the alien comment. It sounded so weird and so out of context but it was so funny.

JJ: What was your first impression of Ashley Greene? Are you in any scenes with her?

AH: Our characters are not friends. She’s kind of the antagonist to Miley and my character. But Ashley is really, really fantastic, really down to earth.

JJ: Is it confusing having two Ashley’s on set?

AH: So confusing! What’s even more confusing is I am Ashley playing Emily and Ashley Greene is Ashley playing Ashley. So it is really confusing. Every time Ashley is called, five different people answer but it’s really funny.

JJ: Have you have any scenes with Tanz Watson?

AH: Yeah! Tanz is one of the group’s young friends and Tanz and I don’t have a lot of interactions between our characters but he’s such a great, great guy and again he’s down to earth. Tanz is this ripped dude and he goes gym three times a day. A little over the necessity level but we’ve been working out together, so I’ve gotten to know him well. He’s very talented I think that he’s got a big career ahead of him.

JJ: Awesome. Do you have a favorite prop from set?

AH: I have a least favorite prop! I have this red purse that is kind of… it’s Emily’s purse and she wears it everywhere and it is just… it’s not that it is just a cute purse, it’s a great bag but it’s so big and so kind of cumbersome and I’m always, always wearing it in almost every scene in the movie and as soon as I hear cut, the bag is dropped to the ground. I cannot, I never want to see that bag again in my entire life.

JJ: Obviously the title is an acronym ‘LOL’ are there like a whole bunch of acronyms used in the movie? Like ‘BRB’…

AH: No, you know, there aren’t. I kind of thought there was going to be and I wasn’t so sure how that would go but no. But Miley’s character’s name is Lola and so her nickname is Lol. So it kind of works for both things so it’s like laughing out loud but it also stands for Miley’s character. So we had to make sure that quite a few times in the movie instead of calling her Lola, we called her Lol so hopefully the audience could put two and two together.