Cable-movie role convenient, timely for busy actress
The top priority for any actor isn’t much different from that of a baker, traffic cop or TV critic.
The key is simply finding a way to keep working.
In Ashley Jones’ case, steady employment has been accomplished through regular roles on the daytime dramas “General Hospital,” “The Young and the Restless” and “The Bold and the Beautiful,” combined with parts in movies, particularly productions for the Lifetime Movie Network.
Her most-recent venture with the cable network known for making movies focusing on women is the thriller “You Killed My Mother.”
Jones plays a doctor who has to make a tough decision regarding a patient needing a liver transplant. The decision enrages an emotionally disturbed teenager (Carlena Britch), who attacks a hospital nurse.
After her release from a mental institution years later, the young woman plots an elaborate revenge against those she blames for her mother’s death.
Working on the cable movie appealed to Jones.
“They have roles that I’m drawn to,”said Jones, 41. “When I talk to women — and men — who are in a similar age bracket, they tell me they often have the same problems as the people in the films.”
Granted, Jones doesn’t hear from a lot of people who have been targeted for revenge by an emotionally disturbed woman. But there’s more to her role in “You Killed My Mother” than that.
In the drama, Jones plays a professional who has found success in her field while still finding time at home to be a loving and caring mother. There is a little sleuthing going on as the scheme begins to unfold.
The cable network films its movies very quickly — which was a good fit for Jones.
“A Lifetime movie shoots in about three to four weeks,” she said. “That’s another plus about getting to do these movies because you can do it on your hiatus from your series. Also, if you have a child (Jones has two), it makes it a little easier because you can make the movie and then stay at home with your kids for weeks at a time after the filming is done.”
Beyond the shooting schedule, Jones liked that her character is very complicated — even if the audience won’t see all of the complications.
“They needed to shorten the movie, and a lot of the scenes between my character and her boyfriend that really showed their relationship aren’t in the film.” Jones said. “You still learn that she was in love with a man who passed away, and she’s been trying to raise her son on her own, plus be a medical professional.
“It’s an interesting journey seeing how your choices have so many consequences on so many people.”