Ashleigh Cummings is a breath of fresh air. While the actress is currently holding her own alongside heavyweights Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden in the action-packed Prime Video series Citadel — a runaway success for the streaming service — she is sure to express her gratitude for her chance to bring such storytelling to life while also enjoying a private life away from Hollywood where the pressures and demands of “making it big” just doesn't hold superior importance to her.
This is mainly due to the 30-year-old's international upbringing, which has allowed her to acknowledge the privilege of being a “white woman with access to the entertainment industry” and champion the voices of filmmakers and visionaries across the globe, which Citadel does with its first-of-its-kind global spin-off format. At the same time, she has utilised her voice to challenge the idea of traditional beauty norms while also enriching her worldly views by prioritising travel during her time off.
Here, she talks exclusively to GLAMOUR about how all her life experiences helped her bring her character of Abby Conroy to life in Citadel…
GLAMOUR: You're working alongside Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden, who have headed up their own action-packed series. Did you feel pressure to meet expectations while filming Citadel?
ASHLEIGH: It wasn't serving my brain to be conscious of how large a scale it was. I had to put that to the side. When I met them (Priyanka and Richard], they were just such beautiful humans that it didn't feel like they were anything but friends. The 'celebrity' just disintegrated.
I remember the first day on set, I wasn't filming that day. I got there, and it was the big snow sequence. There were large blue screens, hundreds of crew, stunts... And in the centre of it, Richard. I was like, this is too much! It can't revolve around one person. But, of course, it doesn't revolve around one person. Everyone has to do their job. But it felt like pressure, so I had to disconnect. And honestly, when you're shooting, the scope of the world doesn't sink in because you're just trying to be present with your scene partner. It feels like every indie job you've ever done.
Were there any empowering traits you loved about your character or some you wish you had?
It sounds like a stereotypical response, but I was surprised at how empowered I felt from the stunt training. It was something I'd initially resisted because I grew up in an environment that, for some time, was violent. There was chaos going on politically.
So, for me, bombs and shootings had real-world ramifications and trauma. So I wanted to steer clear of that in storytelling. But when it came time to partake in stunt training, the team did an incredible job educating me about how fighting isn't necessarily about combat. It can be about grounding and being rooted in the earth. So that was more empowering than I thought and cracked open parts of me I didn't realise I had.
On stunt training, did it tie into your character's instinctual desperation to keep her child safe? Also, what other external factors and influences did you draw on to highlight the stark realities of motherhood?
My bond with Caoilinn, who plays [her character's daughter] Hendrix, is very real. I would turn into a lioness if anything came near that child or her sister on set. There would've been no stunt training necessary for me to fight someone. I mean, sometimes I hear about their school politics, and it takes all my strength not to be like, "What's her mother's number? I'm going to call!"
She was eight when we started filming and surrounded by an adult environment, so I was passionate about making sure that she remained a child.
Citadel is part of a global spinoff series. Why do you think bringing this new format into the mix is essential, especially in a world of streaming services?
It hasn't been done on television, so it's a first. We live in a globalised world, and many franchises are painted through the Western lens. We've seen a lot of improvement in the diversity of the superhero palette. However, we have yet to see local language productions and local filmmakers empowered and bolstered by Hollywood's money and visibility.
It'll be great to have authentic voices at the helm of storytelling that will reach a broad global audience. It's baffling that it hasn't taken place already if you think about it. But it's time, and it's here. And it's wonderful that it's being presented in this genre because it's so accessible and exciting for many people.
You were born and raised in Saudi Arabia but also spent time in Australia. If we look at Australian actresses such as Margot Robbie and Samara Weaving and see the success they have achieved now, is that something you long for too, or compare yourself to?
I wouldn't say I compare myself to them. I firmly believe that external manifestations of what those journeys look like are less important than the steps taken and the internal experience of that.
It's inspiring to see these women who are so talented. I don't know them personally, but they seem like such beautiful humans out there sharing their creativity on a global scale. But I haven't considered them a pinnacle of something I'm trying to achieve. What matters to me is the integrity of the storytelling and the artistry behind it. And then, outside of that, it's my worm garden and just day-to-day life with my partner and my dog.
Other than Citadel, you have many impressive projects under your belt. During your time in the industry, have you had to navigate any major challenges, especially since issues such as the Me Too Movement and gender and race inequality have been brought to light in recent years?
It's important to acknowledge that I have a level of privilege being a white woman who had access to the entertainment industry, and I want to use that privilege to the best of my ability.
In terms of challenges, when I'm not working in the industry, I take myself out of it swiftly. I end up, much to my agent's and manager's horror, going off-grid where they can't contact me. I go to places that embody the opposite or the antithesis of Hollywood. So I've been lucky to avoid some of the politics. Saying that, definitely, there have been challenges. I have spent much of my career rallying against the traditional notions of celebrity and beauty. Whenever we do publicity, I sublimate the focus from looking glamorous and channel it into sustainability. Sometimes that has been met with some friction.
For example, there was one job where I didn't want to wear makeup, and the studio wanted me to wear makeup. But I had an incredible female showrunner who supported the decision. So those sorts of things I'm proud of. I'm grateful that I've been empowered enough by my mom, my Nan, to feel strong enough to make those choices. My challenges have been more being away from loved ones. There's been a lot of illness in my family, so I've taken breaks to be with them, which might've slowed my career progression, but it's very second to me.
Priyanka said recently that Citadel was the first show where she received equal pay to her male costar. Meanwhile, other actors have come forward to reveal how little they take home at the end of the day. Do you have to be hyper-aware of your financial standing in an industry known traditionally for pay disparity between the sexes?
It's an interesting question, especially as we're in the midst of the writers' strike, and we're talking about how artists can financially support themselves because there's an illusion that those working in Hollywood are flushed with cash. It's not true, especially in a fickle and unstable industry. So I fully support the writers' endeavour to be fairly compensated for their work.
I had a thriving babysitting business from 12 and left home with my own money when I was 15. My dad educated me early and helped me try and invest properly. But we didn't have much growing up, so I was acutely aware of financial struggles from a young age.
It's just been about learning to come into a relationship with money differently as I've gotten older. We calculated it [the salary from an acting job] after I'd paid all the international taxes and all the people we owed, it was something like 21% or 30% of the original fee that actually ended up in the bank account. So you have to make that money last when you're not working.
There are challenges, of course, financially. I also acknowledge that I'm lucky. But we need to support others to ensure they are also receiving the money they need to survive in an industry where there are a lot of costs involved in staying afloat.
What do you hope is the main takeaway from Citadel, especially for young female viewers?
What this show does is it flips expectations on its head. You start with a traditionally high-octane action thriller, and by the end, you end up with deep questions about conscience, morality, and identity.
What I hope people take away from it is a sense of empathy because we start to explore the unlikable parts of our heroes and the likeable parts of our villains. These emotions come from extreme vulnerability, fragility, and trauma. We live in a world that is happy to exist in a dualistic environment. Left-wing, right-wing. Right, wrong. Good, bad. There are a lot of shades of grey. There are a lot of places where if we start to peel back the layers of the human that we are dealing with, there's something universal about us all.
As for female viewers, I hope they take away that their strengths aren't just masculine traits, as we've often seen in our superheroines. What I love about what Priyanka has done is that she has imbued her character with vulnerability and femininity. She was the perfect person for that role because she also embodies that in her own life.
Catch Ashleigh Cummings on Citadel, which currently has new episodes released every Friday on Prime Video. The final episode will air on 26 May.
