Aisha Dee plays the BFF of protagonist April Carver (Italia Ricci) on Chasing Life, but that isn’t the only ABC Family show she’s worked on. We chatted with her about her upcoming appearance on Baby Daddy, what’s next for her character Beth on Chasing Life, and where exactly her unique accent comes from. Read on for our full interview with Aisha Dee!
You’ll be playing the college girlfriend slash ex-wife of Tucker in the next episode of Baby Daddy – tell me a little bit more about your character and what we can look forward to on the show.
I play Olivia, who is Tucker’s ex-girlfriend. She’s kind of out of the picture for a while because they get divorced, and as far as Tucker’s concerned, it’s over, but when the guys hear about this, they try to reignite the flame between them. The way that Tucker tells the story, he leaves out a lot of details, so they come out later in the episode. It’s kind of a misunderstanding that starts off the whole thing and brings her back into Tucker’s world, which is maybe not something that he would’ve wanted.
Were you a fan of Baby Daddy before you got the chance to work on it?
Actually, I had met the cast from Baby Daddy last year at a party that ABC Family was throwing for their clothing line, and I remember meeting them all and we just got along so well. I loved them all and I was gonna come and watch their show sometime, then this role came up that fit me because it was an Australian girl. I said I’d go in and do it for the week, and I just had the best time. I haven’t watched that much of the show, but I’m such a fan of the actors and of the people who are on the show that now I think I might have to do that!
We’ve heard that Tahj Mowry in particular is very funny and fun to work with – would you agree with that, and do you have any stories?
I mean, he’s pretty amazing. Every day, he would come into work dressed to the nines. He has the best fashion for a guy that I have ever seen in my life. I don’t know if that’s something people know about, but his hat collection is just, like, on point. I love Tahj; he’s such a sweetheart. I loved working with him, and actually all the cast. They’re all really, really cool people, like on Chasing Life. I feel like ABC Family is a network for cool people, not including myself – I’m very uncool.
That actually ties into one of my other questions: Obviously, you’re a regular on Chasing Life, so this wasn’t the first ABC Family show you’ve worked on – how did your experience on Baby Daddy compare?
I had worked on a multi-cam [a show produced with several cameras recording simultaneously] years ago, so I kind of had an idea of what it would be like working with an audience and several cameras, but every show is so different no matter what. Baby Daddy is so special because they’ve been going for so many years now – they’re such a cute little family and they have their little routine and everyone knows each other so well. It’s really a huge honor to step into something like that that’s been going for so long. Obviously it’s different to Chasing Life, but the family vibe that we have on the show is exactly the same over at Baby Daddy, so that was really nice. It wasn’t too much of a step out of my comfort zone.
You mentioned that your character on Baby Daddy is Australian, and you use your accent on Chasing Life as well. Is that a limitation for you, or can you switch into American on demand?
Before Chasing Life, any job that I had done, I was pretty much exclusively using an American accent for a while. Beth in Chasing Life was originally American, and then because I’d worked with [producer] Aaron Kaplan on Terra Nova years ago, he knew that I was Australian and we’d spent time in Australia together, so he asked me just to try it. Everyone really loved it and thought it suited Beth as a character really well, so that’s been really fun for me to get to be myself, because honestly, Beth is very close to my own personality anyway; I get to be my own goofy self and it’s actually great. I love speaking with my own accent in jobs because I don’t get to do it that often. I don’t think anyone really does. I’ve had tweets from people saying I have a nice fake Australian accent and I’m like “No, no, no, I promise you, it’s definitely real!” My accent now is like a mix. I had two roommates from Louisiana for years, I grew up in Australia, I live in California, and I have a lot of friends from Texas, so it’s like Deep South mixed with a lot of different things. I also have a lot of European friends and family, so it’s just a mix of the whole world at this point, with an Australian twang.
The accent actually suits Beth because if you have an accent that isn’t quote-unquote normal, it’s kind of quirky, and her character is quirky anyway.
Yeah, and we all decided that it would be more fun to make her a more well-traveled kind of character and someone who’s lived a more gypsy life, as opposed to April, who’s so career-focused. It’s nice to balance that with someone who’s not that way at all, although as the series goes on, I think people are going to see a change in Beth and April, and maybe a switching of places a little in the way that they look at life. It’s already kind of started, but there’s definitely more on the way. I’m excited for people to see it and hear what they think.
Speaking of Chasing Life and accents, the show is set in Boston, and Bostonians have interesting accents.
Yeah, they definitely do. And even different areas of Boston, too. I think I might have picked up some Boston things when I was there; I’m very impressionable when it comes to my speaking. I’ve been to Boston a bunch of times. I love Boston.
I bonded with Italia over all the food in the North End.
Oh my God, it’s so good. They torture us by putting us in a hotel in the North End!
Catch Aisha Dee on Chasing Life tonight at 9/8c on ABC Family, and check out her Baby Daddy cameo at 8:30/7:30c on Wednesday! You can keep up with her on Twitter and Instagram.
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