Ashby Gentry Talks Season 2 of My Life With the Walter Boys and Partnering with Invisalign – INTERVIEW

Ashby Gentry on constantly evolving Alex Walter, rodeos, and his own confidence journey.

Ashby Gentry returns to our TVs as Alex Walter in season 2 of Netflix‘s My Life With the Walter Boys, which premieres on Thursday, August 28. The upcoming season sees Jackie’s return to Silver Falls after a summer away in New York City following Alex’s love confession and her kiss with Cole. I had the chance to speak with the actor about the experience of growing with a character, the missing time between seasons, being a partner of Invisalign, and more.

On working with Invisalign

“Part of the journey my character goes on over the course of, in between season one and season two, is a journey about confidence, and with my Invisalign aligners, those really improved my own confidence, right, independent of Alex on Walter Boys. But on top of that, it’s almost like my teeth were an accent mark on the internal journey that the character goes on.

And so, in a way that I didn’t necessarily plan on, my Invisalign treatment sort of helped my process as an actor in the literal sense, because so much of what I had to do between season one and season two was a transformational thing and very much a physical transformation too, in addition to Invisalign, like there were other things I did in addition to Invisalign. But that, in a way that I didn’t plan on, kind of, I think, it was like a cherry on top of that whole sundae of experience.”

On revisiting and transforming with his role.

“I went to drama school and there’s a lot of… I’m ‘trained’ in a lot of ways, like I can do Shakespeare, I’ve read various plays throughout history, I’ve studied art movements, like Dada, Art Deco. There’s a lot of things I know about that don’t necessarily manifest directly, and I’ve always said with regards to shooting a TV show, there was no class in drama school where you learn how to be on TV, and yet ultimately, it’s all just one story. It’s all one big story,” Gentry commented. “When you’re working as an actor, you’re only really ever working scene to scene.

Even when you’re in a play, the best actors on stage are working moment to moment, and when you’re shooting a show, you’re only ever shooting one scene at a time. So, if you’re really aware of the story and have done your homework, that shouldn’t be an issue in my opinion. But in spite of that, it’s such a luxury to even do this at all, let alone to do it again, and to come back and revisit somebody, and have the agency to kind of transform with them because I’m not the one that’s manufacturing any changes, those all come from the writing, but I get to sort of ride that wave, and it’s a really enjoyable thing in part because I sort of get to vicariously relive my teenage years.”

On Reliving Teenage Moments Through Alex

He continued to express, “The experience Alex has, I mean, in the first season is a compilation and accumulation of experiences I had when I was a kid, and getting to relive those was super… was a very cathartic experience and yet, going into season two, which you will see when you watch it, he goes through a phase, and it’s like, I went through this phase, and that phase is fun. And it was nice, it was fun to go back into that phase and be like, ‘Man, I feel 16 again,’ and like, ‘I remember screwing up in this way and boy, is it awesome.’

And it’s like, it’s nice. So I don’t know, it’s just, I think the word to emphasize is gratitude because, like I said, I’m lucky to have done this once, to get to do it twice is crazy. I never, you know, it’s something I couldn’t have imagined.”

Watch my full interview below:

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