By bucking norms, Ashley McBryde became one of country’s most respected, and unlikeliest, stars.
There’s a certain kind of cowboy who rides into the sunset with a smile on his face, riding off into his sunset, with no plan in mind, without purpose or destination for the rest of his days. Just like Ashley McBryde, the kind of cowboy who rides into the sunset as she approached 30, the kind of cowboy whose life story was told in an old-fashioned Western movie.
From the moment she appeared on the big screen in a Western, Ashley knew she was destined for something special. A year after she broke into film, in 2005, she was on the cover of Time magazine, as one of the 30 most influential people in the world. She had made it. As she told reporters at that time: “I always think it’s a little strange, because I grew up in that little town in Georgia where not a lot of people got to see movies. So for some reason I thought, ‘Why not do it?’ I knew I was going to be successful. I was going to be famous. I was going to travel the world. I wasn’t going to have to work.”
And she knew she would do it on a ranch, with her horse riding, fishing and hunting. To her, that was how it worked. It was how she and her family had lived, how she had grown up. So when she appeared onscreen in McBryde, the movie about the legendary West Texas beauty, she saw herself as a living, breathing movie star.
She told reporters after the movie that she was like a kid again. “I’m like a little girl, not wanting to do anything that’s boring. I’m just happy to be in a movie and be on TV and go from farm to ranch. I was like a kid again. It’s like a wonderful adventure. I was like, ‘Wow!’
And then, of course, people started asking her, “What is your dream?” That’s how she found out that “I have a lot of dreams. I love to travel. I love to get to travel so much that I would do any job.” And then they asked, “What would you do if you