EXCLUSIVE: Gayle Rankin (House of the Dragon)has wrapped a lead role in Ashley Wright, an indie also starring Evelyn Grace Kite (Elijah Peel), Weapons Oscar winner Amy Madigan, Golden Globe winner Ed Harris (Westworld), Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), Michole Brianna White (BMF), and Lily Harris.
Directed by Logan & Noah Miller (Touching Home), Ashley Wright stars Rankin as a homeless mother of two kids trying to scrape out a sense of dignity in a world that’s working against her.
Kite plays Ashley’s nine-year-old daughter Peanut, with Madigan as Donna Terry, her court-appointed attorney, who advocates for her to retain custody of her children. Ed Harris plays Judge Allen, a sympathetic judge presiding over Ashley’s child custody hearing, while Lily Harris plays Peanut’s court-appointed attorney, Jessica Steiner. This marks the first time the Harris family has appeared together in a feature film.
Shot recently in Los Angeles, Ashley Wright is a very personal project for the Miller brothers, who told us, “The main character is a synthesis of our experience: our father’s twenty years of homelessness and our mother’s struggle with mental illness.”
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The friendship and filmmaking collaboration between Harris, Madigan and the Miller Bros. began with a Hail Mary approach in a San Francisco alley on their first film Touching Home — they charmed Harris, but it was the script that sealed his participation in the movie. With Ashley Wright, again the material spoke strongly to Harris and Madigan.
“Great script, great directors, great cast,” Ed Harris said. “Amy, our daughter Lily, and I had a great time working on it. The Miller Brothers are the real deal.”’
The film’s lead, Rankin, commented: “I hadn’t encountered a challenge like Ashley Wright in my career before. She is the most fulfilling character I’ve ever had the opportunity to build. I feel wildly grateful to have been invited into Logan and Noah’s world — and privileged to tell this mother’s story, to reveal the truth of her bravery, and to illuminate the humanity in her that we could all stand to recognize more fully.”
Producers on Ashley Wright are Yolanda Bishop Martin, Katie Hausman, Kennedy Martin and Jackson Beall. Executive producers are David & Lucie Brown and JC Krause.
Most recently seen on House of the Dragon as the enigmatic healer Alys, Rankin is otherwise known for her work in projects like GLOW, The Greatest Showman and The Meyerowitz Stories. She is repped by B-Side Management, UTA, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
Following her Oscar win for Zach Cregger’s Weapons, Madigan has set a slate including Ryan Coogler’s X-Files reboot, the Apple thriller Sponsor and the Netflix series All the Sinners Bleed. She is repped by Paradigm and Anonymous Content.
Most recently seen starring in Paramount+’s Dutton Ranch and Apple TV’s comedy The Dink, opposite Jake Johnson, Ed Harris is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham.
Brothers Logan & Noah Miller previously collaborated with Ed Harris on the indies Touching Home and Sweetwater. Additional credits for the duo as writers include White Boy Rick and G20. They are repped by CAA, Canopy Media Partners and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.
Kite is repped by Osbrink, East Coast Talent Agency and Brave Artists Management; Ogg by Buchwald, The Way and Ethos Entertainment; White by SMS Talent and Silver J Management; and Lily Harris by KTM Artist Group.
