“Ok daddy, see you soon”, are the first words to come out of Fresh Meat’s coolest kid.  “Oh god, don’t put that I still call my dad ‘daddy’ in the article.”  Not believing that the recently named “coolest person” could be any cooler, I am soon proven wrong. After discussing how our names are basically the same, I still haven’t fully wiped off my star-struck expression.  An actress since the age of six, Zawe Ashton exudes confidence and experience but, having heard her speak at the Cambridge Union a few moments ago, she also displays many qualities of a role model, promoting women in her industry and striving for equality.

After confessing that she too watches Fresh Meat in her ‘down-time’, I ask her whether she felt like a student herself on set. “Massively!  I was also a student in Manchester, so when we got there, as soon as my hair and make-up was done and the transformation was complete, I really felt like a student.  And the house as well, which is a set, but the most intricate set, looked a lot like houses that I lived in when I was a student.  Occasionally we even behaved like students too!” Ashton was cast late in the process and therefore had little time to put her own spin on Vod, a character given to her with no outline, a blank canvas.  Ashton says she channelled some of herself into Vod because she was “a character I had to create from instinct, so I think I just called on a lot of things that I was into as a student”.  The two main aspects are, of course, music and clothes.  “She’s really experimental but not in a self-conscious way. She dresses the way that she feels and I think I was definitely like that at that age, a grungy girl. It was great to dress in a way that wasn’t for the male gaze, in a way that was so subversive, so I could wear a short skirt but it had a whole different attitude to it, it had that punk vibe. You could dress and do whatever you want and that’s definitely something that I put into Vod.”

Ashton has appeared in many television programmes but also, as a literature lover, she has done a lot of theatre work.  When asked how different the two were, she replies that when working on a show for television, especially Fresh Meat, “it definitely felt different because I was part of the ensemble. A lot of the time you’re going into something maybe as a guest lead and you literally have a few days to make your character work, which can be quite terrifying!”  She says her favourite aspect was being able to “influence the work” because it was “so thrilling”.  In terms of theatre, Ashton loves the creative process of “watching something change and grow”.

I talk to Ashton about the production company she’s set up, and her own work. As well as an actress, she is an avid writer. She won the Poetry Grand Slam in 2000 and had her first play, Harm’s Way, shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award in 2007. In her talk at the Union she spoke a lot about women in the industry and I ask her how this interest filters into her work.  “I’d say my work was definitely female-centric in every element – oh god, come down off the soapbox Zawe!” For her, it’s not a conversation – well, it shouldn’t be one.  “When I write, I love writing and forming complex characters full stop. I happen to be drawn to the complexities of women and their roles within society.  We should say ‘I love this play, it just so happens every single character is female’”.

Ashton carries on to explain how her desire to rehabilitate women in prisons will grow out of this and become a big part of her future.  “If there’s an epidemic you can’t just gloss over it.  If you are someone with a virus you have to undergo treatment to rebalance you.  I feel like this is how I view the problems within my industry.  I believe in theatre and verse as a means for rehabilitation. It’s about art and helping people express themselves in this way.”  Ashton expresses her worries about the current cuts to the arts, saying it’s “baffling and dangerous” as there will be many young people who will be deprived of this outlet “and that’s really scary”.  She talks to me about “one of the most outstanding moments of my life” when she did some readings with children and refugees at Hampstead theatre. “They were two of the best days of acting – the children are so creative and to hear them talk about art is so refreshing to get out your own head as an actor and re-fall in love with what you do. The refugees couldn’t write drama because it’s too much for them and that was an amazing eye-opening but how much pleasure and release they got from these plays was immense.”

Sadly at this point I have to bring our conversation to an end, but I have a final burning question to ask.  “Zawe, what’s been your favourite moment on and off screen during your filming of Fresh Meat?” She laughs, explaining that there are so many from which to choose.  It was a close call but Ashton says her favourite on set moment “was probably a laughing fit between myself and Greg McHugh, who plays Howard, in the episode where I pretend he’s my boyfriend at a party.”  Even now, Ashton can’t stifle the giggles. “I don’t know what came over us, it was the most intense laughter and I had to be so close to him, to look right into his face and there was no way we could suddenly play it with me not looking at him to get through the scene.  It was just pure abandonment within comedy and it was probably the first moment I thought, I’m actually doing comedy.  Also, I was just looking at him thinking, you’re really good! Everyone just made me laugh!” Now, turning to the off screen moment, it was clear she knew exactly the defining moment.  “It has to be the first birthday I had…epic seriously doesn’t even cover it.  The next day I had to film the scene when Vod is in the hospital after an overdose; I never have or will do drugs but I channelled the hangover.  Thinking about it now makes me feel really sick!  I didn’t need make up at all – in fact, I was in my gown in a real hospital and genuinely ill people were looking at me thinking, ‘I’m so glad I don’t have what she has!’”

Although parts of Ashton are clear in the character of Vod, she is not really “that kind of girl”. It’s clear she takes her job very seriously and also the responsibility that comes with her “profile”, as she calls it.  Ashton is a role model and a pioneer for women in the industry and has the courage of her convictions to talk openly about these issues and, although it might be draining as she admits, to continue to work hard to achieve equality and fairness in her workplace and in her life.  We part company, me to go back to college and her to meet her “daddy” for dinner.  I am still star-struck, but for a different reason. She is without a doubt worthy of her “coolest person” title, but not just because of her role as Vod; her action off screen, and off stage, qualifies her not simply as cool, but as a truly admirable role model.