Williams had a role in the television series Good Morning, Miami (2002–2004). Since then she has also appeared in episodes of How I Met Your Mother, E-Ring, Huff, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Side Order of Life. In May 2003, she had a guest starring role on American Dreams, playing singer Sandie Shaw and performing Shaw's 1964 hit (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me on American Bandstand.

Ashley recently took time out to answer questions about the ABC Family film, and about her career.

Question> This time around, your character, Sandy, has a larger role.  The first one, she was waiting to get her man and it was more about him, about Nick's quest I guess.  But this time it looks like it's more about Sandy.  So what is different about her this time around?

Ashley Williams> Well, I think the kind of cool thing about this sequel is that it's a complete reversal of roles from the first movie.  In the first movie, Nick is the one that knows all of the magical secrets and he's trying to get Sandy to believe in magic. And this time around, it's the complete opposite, because Nick has no memory of the magic of Santa Claus and his legacy.  So I'm trying to convince him of the magic this time and I think that's a really fun twist.

Question> Is that what drew you back for the sequel, or what is it that brought you back?

Ashley> Oh man, you know what, I got to be honest, I love to work, and I love Canada, and I did a movie called Montana Sky a couple of years ago, a movie of the week for Lifetime, and the same crew was put on Snow 2.  I was really excited to work with Tom Cavanaugh again.  He's really probably my most favorite actor I've ever worked in terms of fun and playfulness, creativity and stuff.  There was no, I mean I read the script as a formality to make sure that I understood it and there wasn't any nudity or anything.  But I was basically in as soon as I heard there was a sequel I was over the moon excited to participate.

Question> Since this is a sequel, did you find any new challenges or basically anything different about the experience?

Ashley> Well, yes, absolutely.  I mean we shot the first movie during the summertime and it was really hot and we were dealing with the reindeer, who were used to colder temperatures.  In the sequel, we were shooting in the dead of winter in Calgary and actually the temperatures got down to about 47 degrees below zero, which like flesh freezes at that temperature.  Flesh freezes, cameras freeze, cameras break.  So it was completely different.  It really kind of felt like we were in the North Pole sometimes.

 As opposed to in the first one, we were in Toronto in the summertime in shorts and wiping sweat off of our brows.  This was the complete opposite.  So that was probably the major difference.

Question> How did you get the part in the first movie?  Did you just audition?

Ashley> Yes, you know what, I think at the time I was considered like a little bit more famous than I am now; and I think they needed like a wholesome sweet girl and at the time I was probably at the top of the list and now I'm still, obviously, benefiting from that even though I've been doing recurring and pilots and little movies of the week ever since.  So I really got the lucky end of that stick, because I'm still sort of coasting from what worked for me from Good Morning Miami.

Question> How did you get your start as an actress?

Ashley> Yes, okay, so my sister was suddenly starting to like make money and do commercials when she was probably 14 or 15.  We had a very close friend who was the next door neighbor, who was on Another World, her name was Anna Holbrook, and she was like a role model for me and my sister and actually my brother.  And once my sister started making money, we all realized that we could make money and my parents were thrilled, because my dad's a writer and my mom's like a fundraiser.  So the idea of like income from something that made us happy was really exciting. Anyway, once she started working, then my mom would have to take her into auditions and then she was like, "Well if I have to make the car trip into New York City anyway, I should just take all the kids."  And so we all started auditioning, we all got agents, and then I did a couple of commercials and then I did As the World Turns for two years and then I just went to theatre school and everything sort of fell into place.

Question> Where did you go to theatre school?

Ashley> I went to Boston University, they have a theatre program, a theatre conservatory there.

Question> What advice would you give to any aspiring actresses out there?

Ashley> Run, I don't know.  Run far, far away.  I don't know, I've been so blessed, so lucky, I seriously can't really believe that I'm still working.  It's amazing and a miracle considering the amount of incredibly talented, way more talented than me, friends that I have that aren't getting hired.  And it's a really tough one and I would say, go get a liberal arts education, like go read, read and have a backup plan.  Because it's a really unfair system and the talented people are most of the time, aren't getting the jobs and that breaks my heart. Sorry, that was kind of a downer answer.

Question> What do you think it is that's giving you such success then?

Ashley> I think honestly like as I said before I think by some magical miracle I got Good Morning Miami, and unfortunately wasn't a hundred percent prepared for that job and I don't think I totally used it to the best of its promise.  If that makes any sense. So once that was over, people knew my name, and because of that I was able to continue to maintain amazing representation and still continue to get into runs and stuff and honesty I think I've probably coasted.  I'm not even joking.  I'm just being totally frank.  Like it is people know my name from that and I use it and use it and use it, and so far I'm not waiting tables yet.  So it's a miracle.  I seriously feel so blessed.

Question> What's up ahead for you in 2009?  What other things are you working on?

Ashley> You're talking to me on the morning after, yesterday, I spent all day testing for a show.  And so the testing process is like you do an audition, and then you get a couple call backs, and then a work session, and then you negotiate your rates; and if they're still interested, then you've got to go in, in front of like 30 scary well-dressed people who sort of look you up and down, and then you act for them, and then they pick one out of like three girls to play the part.  And the process usually takes like all day.  And I've done it six times in the last eight weeks.  And I just got the news yesterday that I, again, did not get the job.  Somehow I keep on getting into these rooms and getting really far and then they go with somebody else, which is totally fine.  I'm meeting great people.  I'm practicing and stuff like that.  It's all good.  But right now I got nothing.  I got nothing.  I got a dream.  I got a hope and a dream. I did this Web series called Novel Adventures on cbs.com and that was a ball, and I actually got to do a bunch of behind the scenes on that as well which I had so much fun doing.

 But yes, that's it.  So, that’s the only thing, I’ve got Snow and then I’ve got a bottle of vodka in the freezer.  I'll be fine.  I'll be fine.

Question> So you mentioned going to auditions with your sister and you siblings, have you done any projects with them and would you like to do that?

Ashley> Yes, you know what, we were all at dinner one night, my brother and my sister and I and all of our significant others, and we came up with this idea for this short film about a guy that has to go to the bathroom really badly and he can't find the toilet and we made it into a short film and we went to like three different festivals, and it was amazing.  My brother acted in it and "I helped produce," which really meant I like jumped around the set making everybody happy, and my sister directed and my sister wrote it, yes, and we all just basically laughed very hard.

Question> For Snow 2, from where do you draw your inspiration for your character?

Ashley> That's an interesting question.  I have a real passion for kids, for like the childhood medium, what am I trying to say?  I don't know.  I love children stories.  My dad, as I said is a writer and has been telling me stories since I was born.  So I love the demographic being towards children.  That's something that's really important to me. And I'm also, one of the things that really inspires me about the Snow movies are that it's a re-invention of an old fairy tale or an old tradition.  It's like a re-invention of that, and that's really exciting to me.  It's starting to get specific about exactly what it's like in Santa Clauses house.  Does he drink coffee in the morning?  How many pairs of socks does he have to wear when it's really cold?  Specifics like that I think really bring a legend to life and I think allow kids to continue to get more creative when it comes to magic.  And that to me is what story telling is all about.

Question> Building on that then, if you could like pick any role you wanted and have your dream job, would it involve like that kind of show?  I mean what would you want to do?

Ashley> Gosh, this world is so rough for actors.  If I could have a steady job that I'd know would always be there, and I had a preference as to what kind of job, it would definitely be something aimed towards kids with lots of humor, lots of sort of messy improv moments.  So in a lot of ways, Snow is my ideal genre.  I also just love comedy.  The trickiest thing is amazing ideas come along and amazing projects and amazing actors come along and then they're gone so quickly sometimes because of ratings or politics.  And that kind of thing is really hard, because the business ends up not being about what you want to do.  It ends up being about how you could figure out how to sustain it, which is something that I don't think actors are naturally built for.  I think we're built for real moments not figuring out if a project has legs. 

Question> I think a lot of actors just go where the money is or whatever, and I think a lot of times they don't necessarily care about those types of things.

Ashley> Right.  Well I guarantee you like in the beginning of every actor’s life, it didn't start like that.  I bet in the beginning they loved the storytelling and then sort of like after a while the business forced them into making decisions based on money, because that was the only way that they were really able benefit.

Question> Can you run us through what a typical day on the set was?

Ashley> Okay, a typical day, wake up about 4:40, brush my teeth really quickly, throw on clothes; a car picking me up at 5:00 taking me to the set, which is usually about an hour away; arrive on set at 6:00; hair and makeup until about 7:30; hitting the set at 7:30 and doing a rehearsal of the first scene, which usually was like 20 minutes probably, which was outside most of time and really cold.  So at this point I've got like 18 huge coats on and we do a rehearsal and then I run back and I change clothes and I put those what I call hot pockets all over my body.  Those little things that you put in your pocket when you go skiing and stuff.  I would put those in my shoes and I would strap them around my legs and in my underwear and in my bra and on the back of my neck and in my pockets and everywhere so that I could stay warm.  And that was like a little process, it took a little while. And then, yes, and then basically it's a day of, bear in mind, it's like negative 45, like 45 degrees below zero.  I put my mitten hands over my face before every take and exhale so that I would be warm and then they would say, "Sound speed," they would say, "Rolling," they would say, "Action," and I would like open my fingers so that my eye showed and I'd be like, "Are you sure?"  Because the problem is as soon as I would take my hands away and start the scene, I had like a minute and a half before my face stopped working.  And it's basically that balance throughout the day of like figuring out like how long that my cheeks are going to be exposed to the, what's that word?

Question> That's got to be really hard.

Ashley> Yes, it was really hard, but I got to say, I've never laughed so hard.  It was a set full of laughter and togetherness and community and if I've got an extra coat, I put it over your shoulders if I don't need to be outside and I run inside the van, and it was a lot of like sitting in the van waiting for the last possible second. I had people from the crew coming into my trailer and warming up their hands under the hot water, which it allowed this sort of togetherness and the survival mode which had a levity and it's very possible that it could have been a set which had no levity when it came to that.  People weren't angry, people were laughing, and that was awesome.

Question> Well even if you froze, it sounded like a lot of fun.

Ashley> It was a blast.  It was an absolute blast.  I loved it.

Question> Do you have a favorite holiday memory you can share with us?

Ashley> I remember when my sister suddenly had a lot of money.  She had done Father of the Bride, and then I think she had done the sequel and she had money and it was a really big deal in our house.  And she bought my parents a car for Christmas.And what she did was, she went out and she got like a little mini car, like a little model, what's that called?  A little like model little car and she ran out into the driveway and she put it in the driveway with a huge bow over it and then she did a treasure hunt for my parents all over the house.  So they had to go into the bathtub and get a note, and then they had to go into the cupboard and get another note, and then she took them all over the house, and then she finally sent them into the driveway, and there was this huge bow covering this tiny little car.  They took the bow off and then they saw the car and she was like, "I got you a car."  And it was a car that ended up taking me to college every year and camp and drove my brother to college and I think we had that car for like 15 years or something.  No, it was like 11 years.  It was awesome.  I'll never forget that.

Question> Do you have any New Year's resolutions yet or is it too early for that?

Ashley> My New Year's resolution.  Drink more water.  Isn't that stupid.  Drink more water, do my laundry more often, that will be awesome.  Remember to take my multivitamin.

Question> What’s been your favorite role so far?  I know you like this movie, so not including the Snow movies.  Besides that, what's been your favorite role to play?

Ashley> Interesting question.  I played, I did an episode of Monk where I played a murderess killer bride, like a black widow, and I had a lot of fun with that.  I was wearing like this big wedding dress and I ended up like having to pull a knife on a guy and scream like, "Give me a chopper out to roof or else he's going to be dead," and I had so much fun doing that.  That was hysterical. I also, I have to say in this show, Novel Adventures, I basically play like the kind of clueless one who's full of life and full hope and promise, but is just a little bit a step behind sometimes.  And I ended up being able to like laugh like out loud for a lot of it which usually just gets cut, but I usually do it on set anyway but they kept it and that was kind of exciting to see those moments were kept in like very real moments where I was actually really laughing.  So that was fun. And I also did, I also played my first mom last year.  I played the mom of two little kids in a pilot that I did with Zack Braff and David Denman, and I loved the mom role which probably when I said, "That will be the end of my career," but I loved it.  I felt so at home.  I felt like I understood in a way that I never had before like what my purpose was in the project, and it was warming.  I really enjoyed that.

Question> Do you have a preference for doing movies or television series?

Ashley> Again, it's like if I could get a show on the air that I know wouldn't get cancelled within the first season or something that would be awesome.  I really loved the movies of the week that I've done.  Those have been great.  So it's sort of hard to say.  It's like if I can keep this all up and rolling and keeping my career going that would be awesome. I mean I think the idea schedule in terms of like kids and stuff is a sitcom, then again it's always been my major goal to just try to go get back on a soap opera and just have that life, which is so steady and so loving and familiar and you can have your kids on set with you and you understand exactly your job and it's very relaxed.  I loved being on As the World Turns, and I've always thought, gosh, I can't wait until I just go back to a soap.

Question> What’s your most memorable moment working on any show?

Ashley> Well okay.  Yes, I mean I did this pilot, it's so sad, you guys don't even like you probably aren't able to see the pilots that we do.  But there's this pilot a couple years ago called Amy Coin, and we shot in the middle of the Staples Center right on the Lakers, like where the Lakers play.  And it was so cool, there was nobody in the seats and it was just us doing a scene where I got to like walk across the basketball court.  And it was amazing to be like in the middle of the Staples Center and to have it all be for us.  I mean I think we only had it for like an hour or something, but that was awesome. And yes, the times doing Snow has been really fun, like doing a special effect even though you never really do it.  Tom and I had a bunch of stuff that we had to do in the sleigh together and we're up in this real sleigh that they built, but it's in front of a green screen and we're just up there in this sleigh for like three hours just chatting and it's sort of this amazing just a position between fantasy and talking about like what we're going to do tomorrow on our day off.  So that kind of thing is always amazing and fun.

Question> You said that you liked working a lot with Tom.  What other actors or directors, producers did you enjoy working with?

Ashley> I worked with this director named Mike Burnett recently and he was such a hoot.  He's a guy that directs for an online Web series called Turkey Neck, and it's basically a comedy Web site.  And he made me laugh way more than I made anybody else laugh and he was the director.  He was a blast. I loved working with Suzanne Pleshette, she was awe inspiring and had an incredible energy.  I loved hearing her stories.  She was totally awesome. Yes, Jason Priestley, that was a fun one.  Super fun.  He is such a nice guy and had just had a baby when we were doing, The Side Order of Life, and that was really fun talking to him about like how it was going and lack of sleep and he had this really great sense of humor about it.

Question> How about, on this show, Snow 2, you seemed to have laughed a lot.  What was kind the funniest thing that happened either during filming or behind the scenes?

Ashley> Oh, oh, one time, this is funny, one time I was supposed to come out of this magic mirror with Tom, and we arrive and we were trying to do this thing where we slid across the floor and like we jumped out of the mirror and we slid across the floor as if do like an amazing, fantastical entrance onto a stage.  And it was slippery and I didn't know it and I totally fell.  So what ended up happening was we came out, we arrived, and we were like "Hey," and then I kept sliding and basically fell back on my butt and he picked me up right away.  But I made them play it for me afterwards and play back over and over and over again and then in slow motion.  That was amazing.

Question> Yes, I think in DVD, they'll probably put it on.

Ashley> I hope so.  I totally hope so.  It was awesome.

Question> So is there one part about the set that was hard about filming this movie?

Ashley> Yes, honestly the hardest thing was the cold. Yes, and it was funny and it was fun and it was good spirited, but we did have to shut down the set one day because there was imminent danger of frost bite and stuff like that.  So stuff like that, that was kind of scary because there was so much money on the line.  It's a really big deal if you have to cancel shooting for a day, that could end up costing a lot of money and really doesn't bode well for the wrap being on time and stuff.  So stuff like that was kind of scary. So that was tough.  The cold was tough.  I was totally alone.  I mean if not for Patrick and Tom, I probably would have gone crazy. 

Question> Do you think that they'll do another sequel.  I'm assuming if they do you'll be in it.

Ashley> Oh my gosh, I totally hope so.  I would love, love, love to do a third.  It would be awesome.