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 Erica
Dasher stars in the hit ABC Family show Jane By Design.
This is her first professional job as an actress, but she
does a phenomenal job! You'd never know!
Erica plays Jane Quinby, a not-so-popular high school girl,
whose dreams lie in the fashion world. When she tries to
apply for an internship at the high-end design company Donovan
Decker, they mistake her as much older and give her an actual
job. She now has to juggle living in high school and working
in high fashion.
Both of her worlds bring drama, boys, best friends and
not-so-good friends that she has to manage. Besides all
of this, she is living with her adult brother who has raised
her since their mother left them. Her best friend since
they were children is Billy, who has his own problems with
girls and jail for the duo to tackle. Life for Jane is never
easy, but always fun and you can tell how much Erica Dasher
enjoys playing the role.
Check out everything Erica had to share with us about the
upcoming summer season of one of our favorite shows! There's
some wonderful things she has to tease about what's to come.
Tune in for new episodes of Jane by
Design Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC Family.
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Why do you think Billy didn't tell Jane about his feelings
in episode 11?
I think Billy was confused. I think it's a scary thing
to completely change the dynamic of the very long relationship
and friendship. He had been away for two months in a juvenile
detention center and I think maybe even there he learned
to be more guarded. So I think it's a combination of things.
Do you think that Jane has romantic feelings for him
at all?
I think there is a lot of love between those two characters
and you never know what that love could possibly turn into.
So I think it makes sense, now that they're growing up,
to reexamine that. I think she certainly thinks about it.
What's it like to play Jane, and how do you go about
bringing her to life?
Well, I love playing Jane. I think she's an incredibly
passionate and vulnerable character and she has a great
sense of humor about herself and the world. I was not a
popular girl in high school, so it's not a difficult thing
for me to tap into. And I'm also at a point in my life where
I am going through what she's going through.
She's pursuing her dream and it's starting to be realized
and I feel like that very much in the acting world and with
this job, it's my first real professional job, and so it's
all very exciting. In terms of the work I do, the scripts
are great and I love working with comedy because it forces
you to be on your toes. There's a certain music to comedy,
I think, and finding that is very fun, and also the cast
is so wonderful and they give me so much. It's just great.
We have a blast.
What's been your favorite episode or scene so far?
Oh, that is difficult. One of my favorite scenes from this
season hasn't happened yet, but Billy and I are home alone,
my mother and Ben are both gone, for different reasons,
and we have basically completely trashed the house, we've
watched scary movies and we have pizza everywhere, and it
was just a really fun scene to shoot. I love working with
Nick. We always have a blast.
And then, what else this season, oh, well we shot in New
York over a weekend, Brian Depard and I, who plays Eli,
and that episode aired last night, where we did a big montage
around the city and it was super fun shooting all of that
stuff. I love being in New York.
Has there been anything that's been difficult for you
to do so far on the show?
Running in heels. No, I think the most difficult thing
about this show is the very long hours we do, and we move
very quickly. Sometimes I'll get a script and we'll start
shooting it the next day, but I will have been in every
scene the day before, so just the sheer nature of the beast
makes it difficult to just get the lines down. But really
we're so fortunate, it's such a positive set and a cast
that's so supportive and we all have such great chemistry.
I think in the rehearsal process before they start lighting
we really are able to find it rather quickly, which is nice.
In what ways are you most and least like Jane?
I am most like Jane in that I think I have a goofy sense
of humor, the way that she does and hopefully I have infused
that a little bit. I think the writers write to that, which
is really fun. I'm least like Jane in the boy department.
She is magical. There are always a lot of boys after her,
and I need to learn.
Are you happy with the direction that your character
is headed this season?
Absolutely. For me it's been very fun to read the scripts
and watch the other character stories develop, and I think
... created really three dimensional characters and it's
fun to become invested in them and work with so many different
people. And now that there are new characters on the show
that are really shaking things up it forces Jane into some
different and difficult situations, and with the return
of her mother, with the introduction of Zoey and her shifting
dynamic with Billy, it's been a fun and different thing
for me to explore. I really like it.
Is there a time that's going to come, maybe this season
or hopefully the following seasons, that Jane's going to
have to come to terms with losing something or someone because
of the double life she's living?
Absolutely. It's a very tenuous situation. Certainly with
Eli he doesn't know that she's in high school. I'm not sure
how long she can keep that up. And yes, at any moment, and
I think that's what makes the show so fun, at any moment
everything can come crashing down.
Did you have an interest in fashion before working
on the show, and what's it like to beinto the high fashion
environment?
I always admired fashion from afar, but I've learned so
much from the show. It's really depressing to come home
to my own closet, but it's really been fascinating to immerse
myself in this world. Andie MacDowell just was in Paris
and she brought me back a history of fashion book and a
 biography
of Prada and Schiaparelli, and it's fun to learn about the
history of all of it and just wearing the clothes and seeing
the time and the craftsmanship that designers put in.
Obviously our costume designer, Olivia Miles-Payne is a
genius and I really love watching her work because she's
created such a beautiful palette for all of these characters
and such distinct personalities that are expressed through
the clothes and the fashion for all of us, and I think it
really does the show right.
We've been talking about Billy a lot, with his new
girlfriend how are things between Jane and Billy going to
change in the relationship?
It's interesting, Jane has tried to confront him about
what happened last season and he doesn't want to deal with
it. And with the introduction of this new girl, Jane really
has to feel things out rather slowly, and I think she's
figuring out what her own feelings are for Billy as well.
But it certainly shifts the dynamic, I think.
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