Ashley Gerasimovich on ‘The Detour’ and Delilah’s Big Decision [Exclusive Interview]

Ashley Gerasimovich got her acting job at the age of five. Some of her credits include Louie, 30 Rock, Blue Bloods, and Deadbeat. Now, she’s known for her role as Delilah in the TBS comedy, The Detour, which just ended its third season.

I recently spoke with Gerasimovich about her experience on the show and her thoughts on Delilah’s big decision on the Season 3 finale.

Gerasimovich loves working on The Detour in large part because of the people she gets to be around.

“My favorite thing is seeing the people that I started working with from the beginning, you know, like the cast and the people from the crew. It’s like so great seeing them again, and I just love working with everyone that I meet there. It’s so nice seeing new faces on the crew and stuff like that,” she said.

“Everyone is awesome there and it’s just a really great experience.”

After three seasons, the cast members have gotten very close.

“Especially as a cast, I feel like we’ve grown closer together like as an actual second family, quote on quote,” Gerasimovich shared. “We’ve been together for three years now since I was like, ten years old, and it’s just gotten so great. I’m so happy to be working with these people.”

At the end of The Detour Season 3, we see Delilah running away from her family, something that Gerasimovich feels her character was thinking about doing for a long time.

“I feel like, personally — this is my headcanon kind of in a way — she made that decision during the transition between Season 2 and Season 3,” she said. “They were running for like six months.”

“I think Delilah was just getting tired of her family, like what, especially her mom, was putting everyone through. She wanted to be free and do better than them in a way because she didn’t want to be at rock bottom anymore. She didn’t want to lose anymore,” Gerasimovich continued.

“Delilah has always been the smart sister with her bumbling brother counterpart, in Season 1 especially. I feel like in Season 2 she showed a quirkier side to her like clinging on to her brother when she realized he was growing up, getting a girlfriend, and she really didn’t want that and he was her best friend and she didn’t want to lose him.”

“And in Season 3 she really shows how smart she is about learning and hiding and everything like that. Because literally her mom spelled it out for her; Robin literally spelled out how to run away and start over and nobody thought that she was going to do it.”

Watching Delilah run away and seeing her family’s reaction when they realize what’s happened makes that Season 3 finale an emotional one.

“I read the script beforehand and everything, so I felt that emotion powerfully reading the script. It was really powerful then, but watching it on screen I’m like, dang man, I can also see where Delilah’s coming from. Because I play her and I can see her motivations and stuff, and everyone else is so sad. And I’m like don’t cry, I’m still here!”

One of the most interesting things about The Detour is the family dynamic — this isn’t, after all, your traditional family sitcom.

“Delilah’s always been closest to her brother, Jared. Ever since he was in Season 1 where it seemed like they didn’t get along, in the pilot they pulled a prank together that got their family pulled over by truckers and they always — she’s always confided in Jared the most especially in Season 3 when they got high she told him about her plans to run away,” Gerasimovich said.

“And with her parents, her dynamic with her dad has always been on and off, and so sometimes she gets mad at him but she overall loves him,” she continued. “Her mom is the same thing except she’s more using her mom to learn how to get out of here because she knows the criminal backstory stuff. She still loves her family — she just couldn’t take it anymore.”

“It’s the insanity that they’ve gone through from Season 1 until now, even in between — it’s a year later [and] you can only imagine what happened then. I understand where she’s coming from to be perfectly honest,” she said.

One of the biggest challenges for Gerasimovich in working in this industry is the time she needs to spend away from home. She opened up about how difficult that can be.

“It’s pretty rare that we work in our hometown where I can come home and sleep in my bed every night. I travel everywhere, and that’s a really amazing experience to see everything, but I miss my family. My family back here in New York just waiting for me to come home, and when they visit it’s the greatest. It’s awesome, then they leave again,” she shared.

“When they are gone, it’s kind of hard missing them all the time. And yeah, you have your second family on set when it comes to The Detour, but my real family is still here and it gets kind of difficult sometimes.”

“My mom usually goes with me, so my older sister, my younger sister, and my dad are here. I really want to show them everything that I see, and it’s amazing to experience this — I wish I could share with them too,” she continued.

Working on The Detour has also been a pretty incredible learning experience for Gerasimovich.

“I’ve learned so many tips and trips for acting from Natalie [Zea], Jason [Jones], and Liam [Carroll] too. And I learned how to memorize a bunch of lines,” Gerasimovich explained.

“The script you get all at once, but you get the scenes you’re filming like let’s say the day before, so I’ve learned some strategies on how to memorize the lines that I have that day. It’s been really helpful for me for future careers and stuff like that.”

When Gerasimovich isn’t busy with school and work, she does find some time to stay caught up on her favorite show, Steven Universe. “It’s a cartoon on Cartoon Network, but it’s in its fifth season, and the story that it’s telling — it’s crazy how a cartoon can do this to your emotions,” she gushed.

We’re hoping, of course, for a Season 4 renewal of The Detour, and so is Gerasimovich. “Fingers crossed everyone. And I’m waiting twice as hard because I want to go back and film season four. I want to know what happens just as much as you guys!”

Seriously. Fingers crossed.

The Detour airs on TBS, and you can catch up on previous episodes (or re-watch) on Hulu and on the TBS app.

*Featured image credit: Michael Creagh

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