ATTENTION SPOILER: This interview contains spoilers for the finale of season 2 of “Euphoria”, which aired on HBO on February 27.
Played by 15-year-old Javon Walton, Ashtray is both the sweetest and scariest thing in Euphoria. Fesco’s unofficially adopted brother (Angus Cloud) is a kid when it comes to selling drugs, converting cryptocurrencies on the black market and predicting the movements of shadowy figures chasing his suburbs. No character in “Euphoria” goes through an episode without inflicting new trauma, but Ashtray is even tougher than Fez and Ryu (Zendaya) because he was stolen as a child. After a mixture of drugs, abandonment, and violence forced Fes to raise Ash’s baby at an early school age, Ash grew up with deep anger and fearlessness. Twice in the show’s second season, this manifests itself in his split-second decisions to brutally kill people. When Ash stabs Custer (Tyler Chase) in the neck for working with the police to bring him down and Fez, Fes begs his little brother to let him handle it, determined to fall alone. But Ash refuses to surrender and ends up in a shootout with a SWAT team. He inevitably loses. We hear the impact of his body hitting the floor. (Although it may be important to note that never see then.)
But Walton doesn’t just define his character by his line of violence. “He is really hardworking. He is very loyal to the people he loves. And he’s smart and very, very confident, “he said. After a long school day, the young actor entered Zoom to tell a story Diversity about his hopes for Ashtray’s future and how his boxing career brought him a role in the hottest teenage drama on television.
In which grade you are? And how was school today?
I’m in ninth grade. And school today is school at the end of the day. Mathematics is a struggle. I’m not the biggest fan of math. And overall, I’m not a big fan of school. But I like my sixth cycle. It’s called team sports, and you basically just mess around and play basketball. This is a great way to get your energy out. So I love this!
Do your classmates watch the show? Do you feel weird being in class while you have this whole other life?
Sometimes he does it a little, but people are usually super respectful of him. It’s usually not something. Some do, no doubt, but they don’t really tell me too much about it. Because they know – I’m really a private person.
Let’s get into the episode. It seems unlikely, but some people believe that Ashtray may still be alive. Is there hope?
There is definitely hope that Ashtray is still alive. Because if there’s anyone who can carry a bullet in the show, it’s Ashtray. Ashtray is a nasty kid. He doesn’t play around. I believe he has a chance to be available for season 3.
The origins of Ashtray are such a mystery. Have you spent a lot of time thinking about where it comes from?
I was definitely thinking about what his background could be, the character and everything behind him. His family, his father, his mother, because we can’t really see any of that. But the anger comes from him, so it definitely comes from a really angry side. This is the main thing for him. He is just an angry child.
Some of the things I imagined [are] when he was really young, how his parents would treat him. Because he is much angrier than Fesco. There is definitely a story behind all this. I may not be very aware of what exactly this may be, but it is definitely something super deep.
How do you prepare for your more intense scenes, such as the SWAT team shootout?
Honestly, especially for the finale, you have to really improve and have your own space for a minute to really get there. Because this is the deep space you need to connect with. Ashtray, he doesn’t have much dialogue, does he? But you can tell what he’s saying just by looking through his eyes. You can see the story behind them without him having to talk.
It was pretty sad to shoot the last scene because I knew it was going to be my last time on set, which sucks. I knew I would miss everyone there. But during the shootout, when I was in the bathtub, it was pretty crazy because I was dusted. They had to pour the dust to make it look super realistic from the flying bullets. It was a sad day, but also a good day. Because I knew I would make a strong last impression.
Fess tries so hard to get Ash to take over for Custer’s murder, but Ash still takes on the SWAT team. What do you think about their relationship in this scene?
He really just wanted to protect me and he wanted to die for me. Either you go to jail or you die the moment SWAT teams scatter bullets all over the place; you can’t do much. And he really just wanted to protect me, as I wanted to protect him.
Ashtray decided to do his thing because she wanted the best for him at the time. And that was selfish of him. After all, he’s a kid, you know? Many people see him as this adult, but he is very vulnerable. And we really see that at the end of the last episode. And he doesn’t want to go to a foster home. This is something else.
Interestingly, in Ashtray’s big moments, he always acts on instinct. He decides to kill Mouse and Custer right now.
He grew up in a world full of violence. They don’t teach him better than to kill. Although I can almost see where it comes from [I know] how confused it is. All he knows is to defend Fes.
Angus said Diversity earlier today that you originally had lines in the script, although Ash remains completely silent in the final version of the episode. Do you remember some of the things you said?
That was so long ago, exactly six months ago, so I don’t remember the exact dialogue. But there were a few times when Ashtray had to have a certain dialogue and Sam just decided to interrupt it because he liked it. [that with] Ashtray, there is a lot of mystery behind it.
What do you think about silence?
Honestly, I liked it to some extent. But at the same time, I want to have more dialogue in certain parts. But I was really just following Sam’s vision. I just wanted to follow him because he thought that was the best. And I thought it worked, too.
If you could write about Ashtray, what would he say?
If I could write about Ashtray … it would be something like super gangster shit. Like when he hit Cal in the head, it was going to be something super G all the time. [In the finale], I don’t think he can say much. “I won’t leave you like that.” Such things. Storytelling [Fezco] he regrets what he intends to do.
There has been a lot of talk throughout the season about rewriting scripts. What changes have happened to your character?
How much more violent he really was. This season he became much more violent because last season he was younger. But when he grew up, he really changed for the worse.
And Ashtray should not have been shot. That was something else. He shouldn’t have been shot! Initially, Fes had to be shot, which is crazy. And then, as the day before, they changed the plot to shoot me.
What about when Ash accidentally shot Fes? Was that originally in the script?
I don’t think it’s always been there. It was written – the whole thing – like the day before.
Let’s end with a happier note. What was your favorite scene to shoot?
My favorite scene was until Season 1. The first scene I shot. I talked to Ryu, she was buying drugs, and I was trying to sort out my money, pay off my mortgage. This was the first scene I shot. And that was with Zendaya! Just a really cool moment. It was like, “Oh, is that true?” Because I didn’t understand it then!
Tell me more about the first days of Euphoria. I know this was your first acting project. Have you been auditioning for things for a long time?
Oh, no, not at all. I’m a boxer. I’ve done this almost my whole life and I was on Steve Harvey’s boxing show. And this casting director named Jennifer Wenditi, she saw me and said, “Hey, do you want to try playing? There’s this role called “Euphoria.” I was like, of course. I didn’t even think it was something I would even think of.
I finally tried it and got it right away. [Levinson] I liked the look. He wanted an older child, but he liked that I was younger. And then I was such a gangster with that. And I was one of the only children who pronounced the names of the medicines correctly!
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