Amber Nash Talks ‘Archer: Dreamland’ and Poovey’s New Journey [Exclusive Interview]

The world is about to get more Archer, and fans couldn’t be more excited.

When the series’ seventh season concluded, fans were left wondering where the long-running FXX cartoon would possibly go, as (spoiler alert) Archer Sterling was left face down and unconscious in a pool.

Because of the brilliant mind of Archer creator Adam Reed, who concocted a way to use those final moments to reboot the series, the show (and the laughs) will go on.

I recently spoke to Amber Nash, who voices Pam Poovey, about the upcoming season, Archer: Dreamland, and she had nothing but praise to heap upon the latest iteration of the series.

“Honestly, this season is so cool. I’m so excited for people to see it. It looks beautiful, the time period is amazing, and watching everybody interact with each other — they’re the same characters they’ve always been,” Nash said.

The time period Nash referred to is the comatose dream state of Archer Sterling, which places the members of the agency in a noir 1940’s style setting.

In Archer’s coma, he assigns new roles to the members of his team, propelling them to interact in creative new ways.

“They treat each other the same way. They’re just in a new situation and are all new to each other in the beginning, which is really cool. After having done the show for eight years, to get to find each other again as characters was really fun,” Nash continued.

One new development in Archer’s subconscious surrounds Nash’s character, who began the series as a human resources representative.

For the first time on Dreamland, Pam will no longer be assigned a gender identity, and will simply be known as ‘Poovey,’ as the character goes on a new journey.

“I went back recently and read the pilot episode, and when Pam is first introduced she’s introduced as the mousey HR director. And when you think about the character now, the last thing that would come to anybody’s mind is ‘mousey.’ So watching the character evolve and become this super bad-ass that’s like, body positive and sex positive [person] and can do whatever they want, and now with the new season — it’s incredible,” Nash said.

“It’s really amazing to play. I think I’m really lucky because I feel like I get a lot of gems. I think everyone does, the show is really well-written. But I feel particularly lucky that I get such a juicy character that I get to play with. It’s really fun.”

“And as an actor, it’s nice to be able to sink your teeth in and be surprised and have to keep working and thinking about the character that you’re playing,” she continued.

Nash learned about the concept of Archer: Dreamland from Reed, who called the cast to explain where the show was headed.

“Adam called, and kind of told us where we were going, and he said to me, ‘Poovey is loosely based on Russell Crowe’s character from L.A. Confidential. So I immediately went back and watched L.A. Confidential, which I hadn’t watched in years. The first time I watched it, I was too young to appreciate what a good movie it was. So it’s been really fun to work on that.”

Nash also shared another change this season that will find Poovey and Cyril (voiced by Chris Parnell) working together.

“Poovey and Cyril are partners. Which I love, because Cyril has also had such a great arc, and he’s become such a hated bad guy. And he’s a bad guy in this season, too.”

Nash, who’s been with the series from the beginning, is an improviser who continues her work at the Dad’s Garage Theater Company in Atlanta, alongside fellow Archer cast-mate Lucky Yates, who voices Dr. Krieger.

Despite an improv background, Nash said that when recording for Archer, improv isn’t usually necessary.

“[Reed] likes working with improvisers, but there’s really no need, honestly, to improvise because the scripts are so tight,” she explained.

“There are opportunities — it’s usually when we get a script and there are a lot of reactions, a lot of everybody lines, so something’s happened…and everybody reacts. Little things like that can be some of the fun stuff — little gems come out of that. There’s room for improvisation there, but we actually don’t do too much of it. I don’t think they would mind, but we just don’t need it.”

Because the cast records in different locations across the country, opportunities for them to work together don’t come around often. They enjoy coming together for conventions and for special readings of Archer, aptly titled, “Archer Live.”

“We love being together. We’ve done tons of panels, and for a while, we were doing Archer Live. So we were kind of touring around doing these live shows, and that’s when we really got close. We did one last year at Comic Con…it was so much fun.”

Speaking of Comic Con, Nash also shared some of her most memorable interactions with Archer fans.

“One of my favorite interactions in person that I had with a fan was pretty early on. Maybe we were in Season 2 or 3? And there’s a big con in Atlanta called Dragon Con, and I went to Dragon Con, and there was a Pam cosplayer who was a man, and he was like a pretty big dude. And his wife is a makeup artist, and she had totally done him up in spectacular way. He looked incredible. It was the first time that I’d seen a man Pam, and I was like, ‘This is the best,'” Nash recalled.

“There are several people out there who have Pam tattooed on their bodies. The first time I saw it was on Twitter. Somebody had posted a picture; they had just got it done. It was the classic Pam from Season 1. That’s the black and blue outfit, and she’s got the [dolphin] puppet…like her full calf was this huge Pam picture. And I was like, ‘That is insane. I don’t even know what to do with that information.’ But it’s so cool. What an awesome thing to be able to tell people!”

When rumors began swirling that a live-action Archer movie could be on the horizon, fans excitedly began talking about the possibility and nearly unanimously dream-cast Mad Men star Jon Hamm in the role of Archer Sterling.

I asked Nash if she’d like to see that movie come to fruition.

“We just can’t imagine how it would work! Nobody can play Archer other than [H. Jon Benjamin.] Because everybody talks about how it would be Jon Hamm — and it’s like, yeah great. But he doesn’t sound like H. Jon Benjamin, so I think it would be hard,” Nash noted.

“Almost everyone else looks a lot like their character, but I don’t know how it would work without [Benjamin] in the role. It would be fun. I would have a blast. It would be up my alley, and I’d be so stoked to do it. But it would be hard to figure out how it would work.”

Archer will be back on April 5th with new episodes, but Nash can also be seen in Hart of America, a web series she did with Dad’s Garage, which is currently hitting the festival circuits.

Nash is also excited about her next project.

“In April, the same crew that made Hart of America is making a short film…we’re working with a theater group of special needs adults. It’s the story of a floor hockey team, and the film is called That Was Awesome. We start shooting that in the middle of April, so I’m super excited about that. It’ll probably be out in mid-summer,” she said.

Be sure to catch Nash on Archer: Dreamland when it premieres on April 5th, 2017 on FXX. In the meantime, check out the trailer for the new season!

*Featured image credits — Photographer: Birdie Thompson, Glam: Allison Noel Mesa

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