Amber Nash, the voice actress who breathed hilariously absurd life into the animated, “sturdy bisexual” Pam Poovey on FX’s Archer, is now flexing her improv skills in the new 10-part web series Hart of America.
Created by members of the Atlanta based improvisation theater Dad’s Garage, the concept is a parody of detective shows mixed with raunchy humor and characters. The series took a week to shoot, with cameos from Colin Mochrie and Fred Willard, and with Nash playing all of the other characters—from an officer, a sweet, yet, hardcore grandmother and a hippie who finds companionship in a pot smoking Big Foot.
Nash tells Paste that she wanted the opportunity to showcase her acting abilities and fearless humor in front of the camera.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I’m an actress and nobody wants to put me in anything and I keep auditioning for stuff, so why don’t I make my own thing?’” Nash says.
Besides her heart’s desire to someday be Tim Burton’s muse and work alongside John Goodman in a comedy heist movie, Nash also wants to have her own sketch comedy television series. She’s hoping to gain the support to get Hart of America picked up as a show.
“My dream is to have my own show. I want my own show on Comedy Central, or on FX, or something. I still want to totally be doing voice work, because I love it and it’s so easy. I will have it one day,” Nash says.
A self-described “ham” growing up as a kid, Nash earned a degree in Psychology and worked as a counselor, but said she was in need of something new: improvisation. She credits it as the reason she’s an actress, saying, it’s the best thing she has ever done in her life.
“I was just missing something. I needed something creative in my life. so I went to see an improv show and was like, ‘Oh shit, this is awesome!’ So I signed up for classes that night and just kept doing that until I found Dad’s Garage, which is really the best improv theater in Atlanta,” Nash says. “I scrubbed toilets and bartended there, and took classes and they finally put me up on stage.”
Nash has come a long way from the list of odd jobs she took that led her to improvisation. From decorating ice cream cakes at Baskin Robbins, to wrestling strippers at strip clubs two nights a week for $75 (“Why is this happening? I don’t want to watch this,” Nash recalls some drunken men in the audience protesting).
By fate, it landed her the role on the Emmy nominated adult animated series, Archer, which is returning for its seventh season in March 2016 on the FXX Network.
With several episodes recorded so far, she promises fans another great season.
“The way Season Six ends, it’s just like Oh shit. What’s going to happen? What are these guys going to do? So I can tell you that it’s a little bit of a restart, but not like Season Five was,” she says. “They are all doing something different, but they’re all still working together, and they’re all still total assholes to each other, so it’s basically the same vibe.”
Nash goes on to talk about how voice acting is difficult to break into, and her advice to aspiring actors is to gain as much experience as possible, even if it means working for free.
“When I got Archer, when it became successful, I was like, ‘Oh, well now the money is just going to be rolling in, and my phone is going to be ringing off the hook’—and it’s just not like that,” she explains. “It’s tough. I audition for voice stuff three or four time a week, and I never book anything. I’m lucky I have a job, or I’d be like, shit!”
Still, one of the rewarding outcomes of playing a character who’s comfortable in her own full figure frame and sexuality is the impact it has had on women. To Nash’s surprise, the mixed reviews of Pam’s extreme weight loss from the infamous cocaine addiction during Season Five of Archer confirmed that.
Nash recalls a sweet moment from a fan at this year’s ComicCon during a Q&A with the cast, and how it moved the audience to applause.
“It made me realize, one of the things that is so great about Pam, is that she’s a body positive role model, which is so crazy. There was a line of people waiting to ask questions, and the very last person that asked a question was in Pam cosplay and she kind of got a little teary,” she says.
“It was this beautiful moment, because she was like, ‘I appreciate that there is a character now I can dress as, and not be fat Princess Leia or fat Cinderella. I just get to be Pam and be sexy and it’s awesome.’ It was such a great moment.”
And if there’s one quality Nash could took on, from her lovable, foul-mouthed, bear claw-eating alter ego, it’s her sex drive.
“I wish I had the libido of Pam Poovey. I don’t think anybody actually does. Nobody would have the actual time to have as much sex as Pam requires,” Nash says with a laugh.
Catch Amber Nash on the upcoming season of Archer. You can watch Hart of America on YouTube.