In Season 6 of The Bay, he had the opportunity to work more with Emmy-nominated actress Terri Ivens. “Terri is just wonderful,” he said. “Our characters were together two or three years ago. I love working with her. She’s a consummate professional. She’s so open, very giving, and very aware of what you bring in the scene, she’s a real actor. I would love to work with her more.”
The show just celebrated its 10th anniversary in mid-September. “I came on after Mary Beth Evans and a few others. It has been a while,” he said.
This past summer, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Digital Drama Series” as a producer on The Bay. “That was nice. It was good. The show has won a number of them. It’s a nice thing but it’s a young industry,” he said.
He is known for playing Jack Deveraux in the hit NBC soap opera Days of our Lives, and he complimented the actors that play his on-screen children, Marci Miller (Abigail), Casey Moss (JJ), and Billy Flynn (son-in-law Chad). “Marci is really amazing, she’s very simple and comfortable and she makes it real,” he said. “Billy is a sweetheart and he plays my son-in-law. Casey is just great, he is such a heartfelt person. I have grown-up kids on the show now, and they have the immature problems of little kids. Now, I am doing all the parenting stories.”
When asked how he handles being dialogue-heavy in daytime dramas, he said, “Sometimes, I need to go out and walk to learn my scripts. I try to walk, memorize the lines and get into what it is I’m saying, and get that into me. The brain is like a muscle sometimes.”
He opened up about doing a Zoom fan event in November for Cedars CanSupport, hosted by Star Image Entertainment. “It was different but interesting. The fans had all of their questions prepared for the Zoom. It shows that we were all quarantined together, where everyone is dealing with the same thing, and that’s a comfort. We are all in this together,” he said.
Ashford defined the word success as “working a lot, being happy with your work, and the people that you are around, and them, being happy with you.” “Always having something to look forward to and being able to put bread on the table, and a roof over your head, and healthcare. That’s kind of a success,” he explained.
To learn more about veteran actor Matthew Ashford, follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
