Fan Service

15 Minutes with Devin Ashwood

GQ Exclusive—

More than twenty years after the TV show first premiered, the Arcane Files film launched this week at South by Southwest—without its former star.

By Eden Fienberg

Shortly after it was announced that his claim to fame would head to the silver screen without him, TV’s most famous werewolf quietly purchased two hundred acres of farmland in northern Florida with plans to turn the property into a sanctuary for retired racehorses. Today, One-Trick Pony has thirteen occupied stables and counting. We caught up with Devin Ashwood to talk happy endings.

EF: What made you decide to forgo the spotlight after over thirty years in front of the camera in Hollywood?

DA: *laughs* I’m sure you can see the obvious parallels between a racehorse and a child actor. I need the fresh air and tranquility as much as the horses. We’re all working on getting over our baggage. On starting again. I recently brought on some goats and a few donkeys. They’re good companions for skittish horses. We’re all on a journey together. I’ve got everyone in therapy. It turns out a bunch of us have low-key internalized disordered eating.

EF: Oh. Well, I must say all the animals look very happy in retirement. They seem to enjoy visitors.

DA: Racehorses work very hard and give so much of themselves to make people happy. I’m glad that people want to come and celebrate them later in their lives. A few days a week, we allow visitors to stop by and take photos, that kind of thing, and those ticket sales help support our costs and programming. We’re lucky that we attract a lot of tourists and horse enthusiasts who flock to the area for the nearby racetrack. Our horses know they’re special, and while we try to give them many other types of care, they do seem to flourish in the face of adoration.

EF: There’s no way to talk around this. When Brian Dempsey announced the Arcane Files film would go forward without you, hundreds of thousands of fans signed a petition in protest. What would you say to those people who are disappointed that Colby Southerland won’t return for another chapter?

DA: First of all, I’d say I really appreciate the support and enthusiasm that folks have shown for this character for going on two decades. It was one of the great honors of my life to portray someone who meant so much to so many. The love for Colby is not something I take for granted. I don’t like to think about where I’d be right now without this fandom. That said, Colby’s been through the wringer, and we all know how much the writers love tying him to a cross. I think it’s okay that we let him sit this one out.

EF: Since we won’t get to find out onscreen, what would you say Colby’s up to now, as the actor who portrayed him?

DA: I think he and Nathaniel are off somewhere in a remote cabin, living off the land. Or maybe they’re running a small-town coffee shop or a bookstore. I can’t take credit for those theories. They’re just my favorite of the fandom’s fix-it tropes.

EF: I’m sorry, are you saying that you believe Colby is canonically queer? Because to my knowledge you’ve never addressed the huge lobby for that ship online.

DA: Oh yeah. Why do you think he looked so sad for all those seasons? Poor guy’s been waiting twenty-odd years for that vampire to ream him against a wall.

EF: Um. I don’t know if we can print that. Brian Dempsey has always fervently denied queer fan theories about that pairing.

DA: Well, I no longer work for him, so he can deny my theories too.