For those of you who don’t know, The Clone Wars, was nominated for 4 Annie Awards and I had the honor of attending the awards show last night with 50 other members from our cast and crew. I’ll answer your question right away, we did not win anything last night. We were nominated for Best Animated Show for Television, Best Writing and Corey Burton and Nika Futterman were nominated for Best Performance by a Voice Actor for their roles as Baron Papanoida and Asajj Ventress. I’ll be honest, it was definitely a bummer that we did not win. I am an extremely competitive person and I want to win and be the best. However, the experience last night reminded me how honored and proud I am to be a part of our show.
In my business, you have to get used to rejection. It’s a numbers game. You’re going to get told no, more times than you are told yes. People ask me all the time, how do you deal with the rejection? For me, it’s not about how I deal with not winning, it’s how I prepare for the opportunity. I try to go into every audition, every interview, every job, every day of work fully prepared. I give each opportunity 100% so when I put my head on my pillow at night, I know I did everything I could, instead of staring at the ceiling wishing I had worked harder. To give myself that peace of mind I need to move on after being turned down or rejected, I have to know that there was nothing more I could’ve done. Some things are out of our control and I truly believe everything happens for a reason, but I can control my actions and performance, and with that I can move on knowing in my heart that I did my best.
This leads me to my experience on Saturday night. I was truly honored to be sitting with a group of people who have the same philoshopy as I described above. There are hundreds of people who work on our show and each person goes to work everyday trying to exceed expectations, raise the bar, and give their all to create something that has never been done before on Television. They give 100% because they don’t know how to work any other way. We are a team, all working towards the same goal day in and day out and we can all put our heads on the pillow at night, with or without an award, knowing the the proof is in the work.
There was a sense of natural frustration as we all walked out of Royce Hall at UCLA empty handed, but that frustration soon turned to joy has we all realized that we didn’t need an award to reaffirm our hard work. There were smiles and hugs and winks that said “keep going” because we all knew that we had done our best! There was nothing more we could’ve done, (except fill our stomachs with In and Out Burger, which we did right after the show) and celebrate five years of hard work and dedication. I felt like a winner on Saturday night and I hope that every single person involved in the making of The Clone Wars did too.
Ashley 
Wow, Ashley, you look so pretty with the black dress and red lipstick. I think your policy is one that I need to learn and make it a habit. I could use some hard work and smiles to help me!!!
I’m sorry you didn’t win, Ashely! But I know you worked your hardest, have a good heart and atitude, and that’s all that counts!
Keep up the great work!
~Luke Skywalker’s Girl
Thank you Ashley! I REALLY needed to hear that! I just auditioned for a part in the musical “Annie!” I didn’t get the part I was hoping for because I am too mature in my singing voice and to mature in form for an Orphan roll, but yet I am to short for any other roll! I was REALLY hoping for the roll of Pepper(who is an orphan) but I got the roll of Annette one of Warbucks’ French maids. I was wondering how you deal with people telling you that you don’t have the right kind of body for the roll you are trying for? Thanks for all that you do for me and my fello fan-GIRLS! ~lilashley~
No matter what, you always have such a sunny outlook Ashley. So I’ll go ahead and be the griper…
Y’all got HOSED. A travesty! An injustice! TCW is the best animated show on t.v. and one of the best scripted shows overall. Sometimes I think that as an independent company, Lucasfilm doesn’t have the big studio re$ource$ to effectively campaign for these things. TCW may be popular with kids and it sure can move a lot of action figures, but it doesn’t have the media and critical buzz from the right folks, which also puts it at disadvantage. Winning an award in Tinseltown takes as much work, as much media support, and as much money as a presidential campaign. (See also: Emmys.)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Eric Geller, Fictional Frontiers, Shea's TCW Source, Aljon Go, Her Universe and others. Her Universe said: Check out my new blog post about the #CloneWars and the Annie Awards! http://bit.ly/eLiBFU [...]
That stinks that you guys did not win at the Annies, but atleast you got nominated and that counts for something.And you still won the TV.Com Award and thats an accomplishment right there. I was really rooting for you guys to win at the Annies and am sorry you did not.I’ve been watching Clone Wars since it premiered in 2008 and have been a huge supporter of the show ever since and will continue to support it for many years to come.
P.S. You did an excellent job with last Friday’s episode , very emotional stuff right there.
You guys completely deserved to win. I was really rooting for yall. But at least you were nominated! That’s really cool!
Like Darthbatsy said, you did win a TV.com award! (I was SO excited when that happened!) I love how you’re so sunny about the whole thing. =)
-Leia <3
P.S. Can't wait to meet you at Star Wars Weekends this year!!
You guys should have won all the awards that you were nominated for! Ya’ll have a great show and should win numerous awards!
-Rachel (Queen Karina)
If I was in control of award things, I’d give CW the biggest award I love the CW!!!!! Didn’t CW win a few other awards though? At least that happened. I’m actully not competitive at all, I just do it for the fun of it. I hate playing sports because I know some people that if they don’t win they’ll scream at their teammates and be really rude. I like to win but if I don’t I let go. But CW will always be the best TV show to me.
I’m sorry you didn’t win. But I love your attitude about it, it makes you a really great person to be around! You and the rest of the Clone Wars cast/crew are still winners to us, we all know Clone Wars is the best show on television!!!
Yup your still winners to all of us!!
Sorry you guys didn’t get acknowledged for your hard work, but know that all that you guys do is appreciated at my home. My wife and I (both Star Wars fans growing up) both love watching the show with our two boys and highlighting “the moral of the story” with them. Just a good good show you guys are putting out. Before all is said and done, I think you all will be recognized for the ground breaking show it is. Thank you.
What’s up with Dreamworks winning about every category they were in? Even over Toy Story 3. Hope their sponsorship didn’t buy those wins because Toy Story 3 is sweeping house at every other award show.
Anyway, even the original Star Wars lost the big award at the Oscars, goes to show you how wrong these award shows can get it.
Sorry you guys didn’t win, but I love your attitude!
That is GREAT advice for me, an inspiring actress! Thank you!!!!!!!!
That stinks that Clone Wars didnt win any awards! In my opinion that yall work harder than anyone other show out there! The Force is strong in the show! Anyway yall are winners to me! CLONE WARS FOREVER!!!!!! May The Force be with you always! ~Rex’sgirl
Star Wars still gets shanked by the media and other “academy” people because Lucas works from outside the system. Everyone should know that the majority of awards like these are just people that work in the industry giving awards to each other. If you are an outsider, you have to be so good you can’t help but get noticed or you won’t even get mentioned. The fact that Clone Wars is nominated means they are THAT GOOD. Keep it up!
Ashley you’re so pretty!!!!! I’m honored that you are my celebrity look alike!! You’re my role model and I’m happy that you got to go to the awards show and sorry that ya’ll didn’t when anything but I love Clone Wars :0)
first time here and just wanted to stop by to say Hi there everyone
As far as i’m concerned, you guys won.
I really appreciate everything you do for Star Wars, Ashley. Keep up the great work! If nothing else, i am so happy that TCW was nominated.:D MTFBWY,
Jessica (Obi-Wan’s Padawan)
LOL, I think Filoni’s one of the only guys out there who can pull off a suit and cowboy hat togethoer.
Congrats on being nominated!
No awards for Clone Wars….. those people are crazy!!!!! If I had a choice CW would have won ALL the awards!!!!
Thanks a ton for your time and effort to have put these points together on this weblog. Janet and i also quite much appreciated your suggestions by means of your articles on certain points. I know that you have a variety of demands on your personal program hence the fact that you took all of the time just like you did to guide men and women just like us by indicates of this write-up is also highly valued.
I like Your Article about The Clone Wars at The Annie Awards! HER UNIVERSE Perfect just what I was searching for! .
[...] ABC kind of redeemed themselves with LOST, but you can just look at a veritable pantheon of shows that have been cancelled because execs don’t understand that a devoted fan-base willing to part with cash for merchandise is just as valuable as ad dollars. Get a piece of the action, son, and then let the advertising be an after-thought. WB seems to have done that for Clone Wars, and they’re killing with it in respect, money and awards. [...]