The following is an interview with actor, writer, and producer Emily Hampshire regarding the release of her book, Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch. In this interview, Fanbase Press Contributor JC Ciesielski chats with Hampshire about her creative process in bringing the story to life, what she hopes that readers may take away from the book, and more!
JC Ciesielski, Fanbase Press Contributor: Back in the day, you were shooting 12 Monkeys at night, Schitt’s [Creek] during the day. When COVID hit, is that when you had time to find out who Amelia was?
Emily Hampshire: Gosh. Yeah, I guess that is when it ended. So weird, COVID time and so confusing, because it was actually like three years of COVID. Yeah, I guess it was, it was around then. It was in COVID. I can’t remember what wave, but it was when we were all home, and and that is when when kind of discovered Amelia.
JC – Who is Amelia to you?
EH – Um, I mean, she’s not not me. She’s definitely a lot of me. I would actually say she’s a lot of me and Jennifer Goines. [Ed. Note: Hampshire’s character on the Syfy series, 12 Monkeys]. Actually, I feel like I only say that just because there is a lot of me in Jennifer Goines, so maybe it’s just all me. She’s me if I had been born into a very famous family of super witches who had a reality show, and that is kind of where she was born, when I was watching the Kardashians. I was like, “What if I just happened to be born into this family?” I would be the worst Kardashian that ever lived, so that’s where Amelia was born. Just me imagining myself into that really difficult situation.
JC – Is the fact that Amelia being a pure-blooded witch who can’t do magic a comment on social expectations? I feel that might be something like one of the Kardashians feels it’s up to them to do. The secret “We Don’t Like that Kardashian” Kardashian. How do you feel about that?
EH – Oh, 100%. I think that a lot of this, Amelia and a lot of stuff in the book itself, is a comment on social expectations, on the expectations we put on ourselves. But especially now with social media and everything being kind of filtered and you’re expected to be something that no one else can even be. It’s all kind of fake. So, I think there’s a lot of of that in the book.
JC – I’m kind of jumping the gun with this, but I have to break the fourth wall, like you do in the book, and just jump back to Amelia for a second. But, you know, we’re talking about your career and just the expectations that come from it. I mean, honestly, more and more every day, you’re becoming an icon to the LGBTQ+ community. And I want to thank you for that. But, you brought it up in such a nice and easy way. You normalized it. With Neila. Tell me about Neila, please.
EH – Well, first of all, I don’t, I definitely don’t think of myself as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community.
JC – Metro Weekly cover equals icon.
EH – Ok, but honestly Neila is my real-life best friend. And that is Neila, she is a trans woman and and when we initially met, there is a scene in the book that just comes straight from my life, where I was like, “Oh, they’re such cool shoes!” Then she’s like, “Oh my god, thanks, it’s hard. I’m trans, so it’s hard to find shoes in my size,” and I since know a lot of trans people and that is a thing and it’s a normal thing and I think I just put a lot of my real life in this book, also realizing that I am privileged to be around so many different people of of the whole spectrum of gender and and careers, and just all kinds. I interact with a lot of different people. And I know that, you know, some people living in a smaller community who haven’t left there and have only been exposed to white straight people don’t have that experience, and therefore could be potentially afraid of the other. I think what I would love to do, or for to happen, is when people read Amelia [they] can can experience what I experience with having my best friend be a trans woman. It’s just like having any best friends, except maybe better. Because you get a much bigger, wider world view.
JC – Now, from your point of view, does the societal recognition of the word”‘trans” make it easier or more difficult for a trans person in today’s America?
EH – I mean, I can only say my opinion. I’m not a trans woman so I don’t want to speak for anyone. But I can say that I don’t love having to label myself in any way and I think it’s one of those things that’s important now because it’s the culture is shifting, and it’s new to the world and to normalize it. I think the pendulum sometimes has to swing from “everything needs to be labeled and identified.” So that one day, to me, that utopian world is that none of us have to label ourselves in any way that we don’t feel as necessary. We can just be human. I feel like that’s to me the utopian world, but I think it is inevitably a double-edged sword to put yourself in any kind of box.
JC – Well, I did want to ask you about a lot of the choices that you make as far as your acting roles. It’s just that I’ve noticed more and more you seem to be getting these more complex roles. Let’s say that. Now, that complexity of the human condition: Is that something you go after in a role, or is that something that finds you?
EH – Well, I mean that’s a great question. I”m not sure if it’s chicken or egg because on the one hand, it’s what I respond to. But what I respond to is usually the whole human condition, and badly written scripts are usually showing just, you know, one side of a person that isn’t a whole human, they’re just like a badly written character or a badly written script, and so I think I’ve been lucky to get great material sent my way, and I do look for that as something I want to do. So, it’s kind of both, but I also will take that as a compliment. My projects have been that way because I do choose things. Now that I have more choice because, you know, when you start out as an actor, you don’t really, you just want a job. To me, the ultimate success has always been choice. If I can get to choose exactly what I want to do and it’s getting more and more that I’m having more choice in stuff. And so I do look for human condition. That’s also all I kind of gravitate towards in terms of what I watch. I even have a hard time watching any scripted television, and very, I don’t know, I like documentaries and true crime and real life makes me laugh more than anything, so yeah.
JC – Well, that brings up the writers strike. Has that affected you at all?
EH – Yeah, I mean I think it affects everybody.
JC – Well, I’m meant in particular as far as shooting anything for you right now.
EH – Well, I’m about to go shoot on the second season of The Rig (Amazon Prime), which is a show that I did in the UK and it’s a completely British production. So, it doesn’t affect me in that sense, but projects I’m working on, everything has stopped again. I fully support the writer’s strike; I think it’s a necessary thing.
JC – I’m completely on board with… Why are you so agree-ant with me? I love it. Because I’m on board. All right, let’s jump back to Neila, because I do want to talk about her, and it’s also important to talk about family. So, let’s talk about the yeti in the room: Spaghetti.
EH – Oh my God, I love that so much. “Let’s talk about the yeti in the room.” I’ve never heard that. That’s amazing. So, Spaghetti is Amelia’s brother, and she accidentally turns into a yeti when she is trying to keep him warm. She uses magic and her magic usually malfunctions, and she accidentally turns him into a yeti. But ultimately, I think it’s benefited him. He’s into it. It also came from my life; I have a yeti. Who is, I mean some people say he’s stuffed, I say just playing stuffed when he’s around other people because he is real. So, I wanted, very badly, if I could to get a yeti in this book. When I was pitched doing a comic book, the thing that got me was the unlimited canvas that it is and that I could do anything. And so I’m like, if I can do anything, I want a Jell-o pool. I wanted a yeti and I want Sandwitch Heaven.
JC – Who created the look of Spaghetti? Was that you? Was that a collaboration? Was it one of your collaborators?
EH – That was Kristen Gudsnuk, and all the character designs. So, how that works is such a fun and fascinating process. It’s like, I showed her some pictures of yetis that I liked and know how I wanted him to look, and she would come back with a drawing and I love that I have all the stages of how Spaghetti got to become Spaghetti. I remember the first one, he had horns and these long fingers and his feet were smaller and I’m like, “He’s a yeti. They’re called ‘Bigfoot.’” So, his feet have to be so huge that when he puts them in the sneaker, like when, if he takes off his sneakers, they like puff out. Also, what I was telling Kristin that’s how yetis are real and that is how his t-shirt that says, “I’m real,” came about, because she just put that on a t-shirt. So yeah, it was definite collaboration, but Kristin did all the initial character designs, and once it got to the the signed, sealed, and approved character, then she did drawings of them kind of like as an actor when you do your slate. You do like forward-facing, side-facing, and so she she did like a 360 view of the characters. And then the other artists in the book would kind of go from those images.
JC – That was really cool that you got to do a lot of different collaborators. I mean, you kind of went the Harvey Pekar way of comics, just having different collaborators come in and do the character work, and do something to change the vibe without changing the context. So, who else did you get to work with? I wanted to ask as far as Z2 (Comics), how did you get connected with them?
EH – So, an agent of mine during COVID left agenting to follow his passion, which had always been comic books. And so he went to Z2, and Z2 is a company that primarily does musicians and helps them tell their stories through graphic novels. And so he was new there and he just thought, “You know, I feel like Emily could have a comic book in her.” He knew I was doing a lot more writing, and so he reached out to me and I would have. I’m so grateful to him because I would have never in a million years thought to do a comic book. My first questions to him were “I know I can write a story, but I don’t know how to write comic books in panels or/and I don’t draw.” And he was like, “No, we will connect you with collaborators,” and so that’s how that came about.
And then in terms of everyone I collaborated with, it is amazing. Now, to see what a gift it was to get to collaborate with so many people, but at the beginning, it was out of a timeline necessity. I thought I wanted just Kristen to do everything, but there wasn’t, it was too short of time for her to be able to do it all on her own, and so we needed other people, and I wanted to make that have a purpose. I didn’t want the characters just to change their look for no reason and so what ended up being so great was that Ames Liu (Z2Comics’ FREDDIE MERCURY: LOVER OF LIFE, SINGER OF SONGS), who did the cover and does inside the reality show. They were somebody who when I first saw their work, I was like, “They’re an AMAZING artist.” I just feel like their version of Amelia is so beautiful and perfect and glossy, and so that ended up being so perfect for inside the reality show. Then, there was Jerrett Williams [Super Pro K.O.! (Oni Press) and Hyper Force Neo (Z2 Comics)] and Fred Stresing [Swimmy and the Valley of the Last Song (Z2 Comics)], who did other later portions of the book. Steph Mided [Martian Ghost Centaur (Oni Press)] did all the flashbacks of when Amelia was younger. Then, there’s the a bunch of prints at the back of the book of artists who submitted to do the book, and I thought they were amazing, they just weren’t how I saw Amelia. So, I wanted to have their work in the book, too, because as an actor I know what it’s like to audition and not get the parts, so I just thought they did such great work that I wanted to have them in there, too.
JC- Now, I have to ask on the Spaghetti front. His real name is Daniel. Did you name him after Dan Levy?
EH – Oh wow, never even occurred to me. Never even, maybe, I mean I do see Dan as, we are very brother-sister in our relationship, so maybe subconsciously. Yes.
JC – Hmm, interesting. Now, other things popping out of your brain. I’m thinking this pop culture drop came from you. In the book, tell me why you chose the name of the absent chef to be Jareth and have them stuck in a goblin kingdom?
EH – You know that I believe that was fully Eliot [Rahal] who is somebody I need to mention. He is my co-writer on this, and I can’t believe that he was the first person I met because like I was saying, I saw so many artists and had a hard time finding my perfect person who was going to do the character design and stuff, but Elliot was the first writer I met and instantly, I mean, I’ve been telling people. He does have a 13-year-old girl inside of him that rivals my own, and Jareth was totally 100% Elliot’s brain.
JC – Ah, now are you a fan of The Labyrinth, though? That’s the big question.
EH – Uh…
JC – Now, don’t tell me you haven’t seen it?
EH – I’m not, okay, so I haven’t seen it.
It was such a collaboration like I can’t remember who did what except certain things. I know like Elliot came up with the, the, what’s it called? When Amelia burst out of the bathroom on a plunger. Yeah, that is everything. Um, and Jareth, the minute you said that I’m like, I definitely did not come up with that.
JC – Oh well, it’ll give you something to watch. I’ll give you that much. David Bowie in a cod piece. There’s nothing wrong with that.
EH – Oh, that sounds amazing.
JC – Plus Muppets. Come on.
EH – Oh, I love the Muppets. Why haven’t I seen that?
JC – I don’t know, but we can rectify that.
EH – Yes. Yes.
JC – I did want to ask about creating younger formats for children. You did a lot of voice work for cartoons. Does that contribute to working in the comic format for you?
EH – I think so, especially because I even got in trouble a bit at the beginning, calling it a cartoon and people were like, “No, it’s not. It’s a graphic novel,” but yeah, just because to me there was a lot of it that needed to come alive off the page to be able to be on the page. So, I needed to know how these people spoke and what their mannerisms were to be able to know how to write them, and also it turned out to be very helpful for Kristen. She would ask me something about Amelia like, “How do you think she’d say this?” and then I would just act it out for her. And I think a lot of my past as a performer and actor/voice actor came to good use here. Also, I now think my not knowing anything about how to make a comic was ultimately a bit helpful in a way that I think the book breaks some some boundaries that I was told you can’t do in a comic and because I didn’t know any better, I did it, and I think it’s special because of that.
JC – I don’t disagree. I read it three times already. I’m serious, I loved it. I poured over it with my cell phone on zoom just to read like some of the pop culture references that the artist dropped in there, like the Easter eggs. So much, so much stuff. When you were in Pittsburgh, I asked you, “Who do you think Amelia’s favorite band would be?”
EH – Oh yeah.
JC – Who do you think it really is? I said the Pixies. But I got it. You gotta pick your own.
EH – I forgot, because all those Easter eggs are totally Kristen coming up with stuff, except I did say I needed a Justin Bieber. So, she put “Justin Beaver,” but yeah, somebody in the audience was like there’s a Pixies reference in there, so I was 100% right.
JC – What’s your opinion? What would be her second-favorite band? Who was your favorite band growing up in your teenage years.
EH – Oh gosh. Oh my gosh. This is really, I liked Annie De Franco. I don’t know if you know that is.
JC – Ice cream. I know it’s up.
EH – Yeah, yeah. I liked the Indigo Girls. Okay, what else? I mean, when I was really young, it was like New Kids on the Block era like –
JC – Okay. NKOTB, nice.
EH – Yeah. But I would say those were my two favorites.
JC – During your Pittsburgh book signing, there was a little girl that held everybody’s attention for like two minutes. She was explaining to you what her witch book was about. Do you feel like it’s competition? Is that too much competition for you?
EH – I was so excited for her to read my witch book, because it sounded very similar. But yeah, nothing makes me happier. And I’ve met a few of them now, kids that age who are inspired to write their own stories. Honestly, I think they have some of the greatest ideas at that age. My friends’ kid read Amelia and had so many ideas for the next book and one of them was, “So, if they ever go to sandwich heaven, they should go there in a ‘sub’way and like a ‘sub’ sandwich.’” I was like, that is genius, that is amazing. It’s all exciting to me to hear kids’ ideas and books and stuff.
JC – How’s it feel to know that you’re impacting their lives? I mean, your book is introducing people – young people – to a word that not many people know: empathy.
EH – Oh, oh. Oh, that’s interesting. I never thought of that. It’s one of the greatest words of all time. I never thought, oh, I would love if a kid sees that and asks their parent what that word means. That is, that’s amazing.
What’s really amazing is the amount of times I’ve poured through Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch. Usually, I don’t go scouring through a book again and again to catch little in-jokes and pop culture references I may have missed the first 3 times I’ve read a book. AA: BW is often a game of Where’s Waldo meets Guess Who (the ’90s Band edition). The band t-shirt reference Easter eggs are on point, and as someone who remembers when those bands first came out, I¸¸¸ may have, on occasion, pulled out a hipster-esque “I listened to them before they became popular.” When you read the book (and you should), you’ll be opened to more than just the machinations of a group of people who had some free time due to an epic pandemic. Emily Hampshire and others brought Amelia to life, turned a boy into a yeti, and made you a bit peckish for a sandwitch. Indulge in that urge. Hop on your plunger and grab a sammich on your way to your local bookstore to pick up your copy of Amelia Aierwood: Basic Witch. Fly, my pretties, FLY!
You can thank me later…
