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Amber Nash talks Pam Poovey’s new gender switch and Season 8 of ‘Archer’
For seven seasons, voice actor Amber Nash has given life to Pam Poovey, the brash HR director turned badass field agent on FX’s “Archer.” Over those seven seasons, Pam has smuggled (and become addicted to) cocaine, managed Cheryl’s brief country music career, had an affair with Archer, and taken on the Yakuza.
In Season 8’s upcoming “Dreamland,” when the show moves to its new home on comedy-focused FXX, Nash will tackle a whole new identity: Going only by Poovey, Pam is now a gender-neutral cop who’s only slightly less corrupt than her fellow partner Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell).
We had a chance to catch up with Amber Nash as she was preparing tweets for Pam Poovey’s official Twitter handle, before the Season 8 premiere…
So you’re behind the genius Pam tweets?
Yup, I write the tweets for Pam’s twitter, as does Lucky Yates for Dr. Kreiger. We’re getting started up again, and it’s tricky because we have to write in the style of 1947, in this new noir language. Plus Twitter didn’t exist then, so we have to factor that in. So it’s kind of a mind f*ck.
Season 8 marks the jump from FX to FXX. Does this change the series at all? Are you allowed to be a little raunchier (if that’s even possible)?
We’re super excited to move to FXX, and kind of spearhead what they’re doing in animation. They’re really making a name for themselves with strong comedy. “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” moved there last season; and I absolutely love “Man Seeking Woman.” Its so weird and wonderful and such a fresh perspective in comedy.
This season is risky, but I think we always take those risks. I don’t know if we’ll be any raunchier than what we usually are — I mean, this show is so dirty, and Pam in particular always says some pretty shocking things. But what I love about this show is while it is super dirty, we always earn it. It’s gross, but it’s also super smart humor.
Last season drew on ‘Magnum P.I.’ for its late-70’s LA look and feel. What did the mood board for Season 8 look like?
Well, I know the EP’s were watching a lot of “Maltese Falcon,” “LA Confidential” and things like that. They really got into the nitty-gritty noir stuff. Adam Reed actually told me that Pam, who is now gender-neutral and just goes by Poovey, was loosely based on Russell Crowe’s character in “LA Confidential.”
That’s quite the character twist for Pam! What did you think when you first found out?
It’s such a gift as an actor. Over the series she has become such a badass, and there really isn’t anything she’s incapable of.
In Season 1 she really was just someone for the other characters to sh*t on, but over time Adam got to know all the actors and characters and realized that they can really have Pam do anything — and she’s so body positive, sex positive, and confident. Now I get this other curveball, Poovey — [they won’t] sound any different or look any different, but it’s just an interesting approach…
There’s a quick scene in Season 7 where Archer and his clone talk about their spin-off series together. What would Pam’s clone spin-off look like?
I think they would destroy the world! Just destroy the world with drinking and debauchery. It maybe would be the perfect situation where one can be in one place eating out of a crock pot, and the other can be having sex with a really hot dude or something. It would be insane.
What is your favorite joke from the series so far?
I do love “phrasing.” It’s super fun on social media — you just tweak that line a little bit, and people have a lot of fun with it.
One of my favorites from Pam involves her weird, big sister/little sister-like relationship with Cheryl. I think it was first back in Season 2 or something, but Pam just walks by Cheryl’s desk and just drops “What’s up, neckbones?”
What a weird thing to call someone!
“Archer: Dreamland” returns Wednesday, Apr. 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FXX.