Ashlie Atkinson Talks ‘The Lost Bus,’ Her “Hope” of Returning for ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 4, and Being Cut from the ‘Sex and the City’ Movie

After shooting The Lost Bus, Ashlie Atkinson understands the power of an “intrepid” director and a powerful human story.

The new thriller from director Paul Greengrass, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month and began streaming on Apple TV+ on Friday, is based on the true story of the 2018 Camp Fire that ravaged Paradise, California.

Specifically, the film portrays the heroism of first responders, and hones in on the miraculous story of bus driver Kevin McKay (played by Matthew McConaughey) and schoolteacher Mary Ludwig (played by America Ferrera), who together, help transport 22 children to safety on a school bus as the world around them burns.

Journalist Lizzie Johnson, who is an executive producer on the new film, chronicled the tragedy in her 2021 book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire.

Atkinson, who fans may know as the scene-stealing Mamie Fish in HBO‘s The Gilded Age, portrays the real-life bus dispatcher Ruby Hartwig in The Lost Bus, and opened up to DECIDER about what initially drew her in to the “terrifying story.”

“I think what initially drew me in, other than the great script and the fact that Paul Greengrass, who I’d wanted to work with for ages, was directing, is that it really brought home to me that things happen in our lives and we don’t plan for them,” she explained. “I think sometimes I and people in general get caught up in this idea of like, oh, well, if I get all my stuff sorted and all of my life is together, then I can go be a hero and then I can go help other people. And that time never comes. There’s never the right time for something like this. It’s just the call comes, and you’re either there to answer or you’re not.”

During her recent visit to the DECIDER studio, Atkinson opened up about the joys of working with Greengrass, provided a status update on The Gilded Age Season 4, and reflected on her “beautifully overdue”guest arc in And Just Like That after being cut from the Sex and the City movie.

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DECIDER: I’m so excited to talk about The Lost Bus, which is based on the true story of Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig. Were you familiar with the story before you became involved with the project?

ASHLIE ATKINSON: I had known about the Camp Fire in 2018. I did not know Kevin, Mary, and Ruby and Captain Martinez’s stories, but I read the Lizzie Johnson book, which is an incredible story. And then that story of the bus itself is in the book, but it was then pulled out for a long-form article, and I read that as well. So I had the general gist of it, and I remembered the fire happening and sort of the terrible cost of that fire. But I didn’t know that very human story until I got involved. 

With the film being based on this true story, did you feel any kind of added pressure to really get things right and do justice to it on screen?

Yes and no. Paul Greengrass, who was our intrepid director, released me of some of that responsibility in terms of the real woman that I play, Ruby Hartwig. He said, “This is not a Ruby imitation, that you should feel free to develop your own version of this character. We are making a movie.” There are aspects of the story that have been sort of shifted. It’s great because the real Kevin McKay is a really lovely person, and the real Ruby is a really lovely person. And at the beginning of the film, Matthew McConaughey and I, who play them respectively, have a little bit of tension. He’s not maybe the best employee in our iteration of it, and Kevin was very much like, “Well, Ruby and I are friends, like, we’re legitimately friends and you guys don’t seem to get along.” And Paul just said to him, “Yeah, if the if the good guy does the good thing, that’s not really a movie.” But we also did feel a real responsibility to get the action of the fire and the loss of life, the incredible risk and the heroism of that day and beyond right.

I know you mentioned the real Kevin and Ruby, so what was the experience like of getting to meet them?

I did not meet them during filming. I only met them when we premiered at the Toronto Film Festival a few weeks ago. So there is something really nerve-racking after you’ve already done it all and you’re like, well, if you don’t like it, I can’t fix it. But she was really an incredible person. They’re both so kind and so generous with their time and their energy. Ruby shared with me that she felt like the process of the film being made and being interviewed for the film, and even seeing the film was really helpful for her and her own processing of the trauma of that experience. So that made me feel really good, and she’s just really fun. So it was very cool.

What was it about the project, and about the role of Ruby, that initially drew you in?

I mean, the story is terrifying. But I think what initially drew me in, other than the great script and the fact that Paul Greengrass — who I’d wanted to work with for ages — was directing, is that it really brought home to me that things happen in our lives and we don’t plan for them. I think sometimes I and people in general get caught up in this idea of like, oh, well, if I get all my stuff sorted and all of my life is together, then I can go be a hero and then I can go help other people. And that time never comes. There’s never the right time for something like this. It’s just the call comes, and you’re either there to answer or you’re not. And these were people that were right in the middle of their lives. This horrific, catastrophic situation happens and they stepped up and they saved a lot of lives.

You mentioned working with director Paul Greengrass. What was your experience like working with him and what were the kinds of conversations you had while developing the character of Ruby? You mentioned not being an imitation [of her], but what else went into the process of the character development?

The way we made this movie was so cool. We shot in Santa Fe for Northern California, and part of that was because they wanted to do certain controlled fires. They built a trailer park and elementary schools so that they could actually do very safe footage fires and then put actors in them. It was really intense. Paul made so much information available to me, and they had done interviews with Ruby, so I got to see those. I had so much fun working with him, and and the first day we had like 30 pages. And I’m so very used to you go in and you set up for a scene and you do the scene, and then you’re done, and then you move on to the next scene and you’re like, okay. And I walked in and I was like, yeah, how do we eat an elephant? We eat an elephant one bite at a time, right? No, Paul eats the whole elephant at once. Paul was like [assumes British accent], “So if Ashlie, if you don’t mind, we’re just going to go to scene 27, 29, 31, 32, 33, 36, 38 and like just went through the whole day.” And he’s like, “I’m just going to rehearse it a bunch. And then we’re going to shoot maybe 3 or 4 times.”

So we rehearsed it all day, and then it was a play. We just did it as a play. And in between the scenes, we were allowed to live in this intricate bus depot space, like [a] transportation office with all the maps and all the things. I had great actors with me, including 20, I think, Santa Fe school bus drivers. Paul hired school bus district people because it was the summertime and some of them still had routes, but they would get them covered. He loves bringing people that are not actors—real people—into these stories. And it was great. I got to hang out with all these bus drivers and get to know some of them, and that actually really helped too, because you can see the care that they take for the kids, that they’re shuttling around. One of them, this woman Patty, I remember when I was shadowing someone who does my job in Santa Fe, came in and she was like, “Make sure that you call Eric’s mom when you get to the house because she’s got an infant and he needs help with his chair.” So, they’re managing a lot of things and they just take that kind of care with every student and it’s just once again, people stepping up when their community and other people need them. It’s pretty cool.

That’s so cool to hear and to see it in action while also trying to portray that on screen.

Yeah.

This movie was kind of a family affair for Matthew McConaughey…

Oh, yeah!

… having both his mom and his son being in the movie.

It was great.

What was it like seeing that dynamic on set?

Oh, I wasn’t there for any of that [laughs]. Yeah. It’s funny because you have completely different movies, right? Like, America’s so lovely, and I got to hang out with her a little during the shooting. But America and I have almost completely different movies. We only intersect in one scene, and I didn’t intersect with Matthew’s mom or son at all on screen. So the days that they were there, I was not, and vice versa. My movie is with Matthew and with the bus drivers and with the parents of the kids on the bus. But it was really great. I heard all the stories about it, and I got to meet them in the promotion process and at the premiere, and, boy, it’s beautiful. Like Paul’s commitments to, I don’t know if you’d call it vérité, but infusing not just authentic, but real people and instances into his films, I think just pays off gangbusters. You really feel it, you know?

I can’t let you go without asking about The Gilded Age, of course, which got renewed for a fourth season.

Exciting, right?

Can we expect more of Mrs. Fish?

I hope so! I really hope so. None of that is is happening yet. I think the plan is that they will start maybe early next year. But yeah, I certainly hope so. I’ve got a lot more to do. The historical Mrs. Fish didn’t die until 1915. So unless Julian [Fellowes], you know, decides he’s going to take massive liberties, I’m hoping that I’m still around.

You got some time.

Yeah, I got a lot of tea to spill. A lot of dirt to dig up. Maybe some lives to ruin. Who knows? I’m hopeful.

Another HBO show that you got to guest star on was And Just Like That…

Oh, that was so fun.

… as Carrie Bradshaw’s editor. I’d love to hear more about your experience on the show. I know it recently ended with Season 3. What was your experience like getting to appear across all three seasons? 

Oh, it was so great and in a way, beautifully overdue. I was actually cut out of the first Sex and the City film. I shot four days, and I remember getting a voicemail from Michael Patrick King a couple months later, and he was like, “Sweetie, Elaine didn’t make it. We had to lift out several things.” And so for years he’s been like, “But we’re going to get you on. We’re going to work together soon and it’s going to air.” And then it ended up being this. And not only was it great to work with him. Carrie Bradshaw’s an immaculate character, and to work with Sarah Jessica [Parker] was a dream. Rachel Dratch is in one of those episodes. She’s fantastic. I got directed by my friend Cynthia Nixon for one of the episodes. We go way, way back. Probably the first time I worked with her was like 2008 and she directed me in a play in 2016. So it was really lovely to not just be on Gilded with her, but to be directed by her. That was really special. 

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The Lost Bus is streaming on Apple TV+.