Azie Dungey as Lizzie Mae. Photo via Ask A Slave.

“What does George Washington think of Abraham Lincoln freeing all of his slaves?”

Yes, that was a real question that a real person once asked Azie Mira Dungey, the star and creator of the hilarious and cringeworthy new web series Ask A Slave. Dungey, a D.C. native, used to work as a “living history character” at historic Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate, and after two years on the job, had written down enough horrible, ignorant, and hilarious things said to her that she decided to turn it into a web series.

In the series, Dungey plays Lizzie Mae, personal housemaid to President and First Lady Washington at their home and plantation. As she fields questions in the “Year of Our Lord, 1795” from modern-day tourists, she becomes increasingly sassy and frustrated as the barrage of questions move from SMH territory, to full-on ridiculous (“Why did you become a slave?”)

Recently, DCist talked to Dungey over the phone about the series, which is already a hit, how she got her start as a “living history” actor, and the worst thing said to her during her time at Mount Vernon.

DCist: How did the idea for this web series come about?

Azie Mira Dungey: My friends and family were encouraging me to write down stories that I would tell them. Things that happened to me at work. The thing that attracted me to the job was doing the same thing that I was doing at the museum; talking to students and doing presentations, tours, and things like that. Interacting with visitors this way was something that I didn’t really know anything about and that was a new experience, very different than I expected.

I had these really odd interactions all the time, and I would come home and tell my family and friends about them. They would be so amused…and disturbed, and they said I should write them down, so I started writing them down. That turned into talking to theatre friends who were like “Oh goodness, you have so much material, you should do a one-woman show or something.” I was really encouraged by them. Then I realized that the best format would be on film, just because of the nature of it. That was probably about a year of working at Mount Vernon. It was also around the time that I decided I was going to move.

DCist: Has there been a lot of angry responses for your web series? If so, how do you handle that?

AMD: The reviewers, bloggers, and viewers have had such good things to say that, the only negative comments I’ve gotten is such a small minority. If you look on Youtube, you can even see the comments—I’ve never seen such positive comments on anything on YouTube. I’ve also never seen such a high ‘Thumbs Up’ vs. ‘Thumbs Down’ ratio. So, when I do get criticism, I feel much more confident that most people are understanding it, the way that I intended it.

The criticism that I have gotten that has been somewhat intellectual or whatever, has been people that say that I’m trying to make money off of my ancestors. Which, first of all, is not offering much of a critique.

DCist: Right.

AMD: But, I don’t like it when criticism is directed at me. I know that some people are uncomfortable with the fact that there’s comedy and slavery even in the same sentence—and I totally respect that—and I know it doesn’t work for a lot of people, even if it is satire, even if it’s not making fun of slavery. It’s just something that some people can’t begin to laugh at when that’s the subject of something. I totally understand that and respect that.

Most people don’t see it that way, and that’s great. But when they attack me personally, that’s a little bit of a bummer.

DCist: How long did you work at Mount Vernon?

AMD: About two years. I was part-time, but I worked there for almost two full years. I started around Christmas of 2010 and I left in September of 2012.

DCist: Why did you take the job in the first place?

AMD: I was doing work at the American History Museum. My first job when I moved back to D.C. was doing children’s theatre at the Ripley Center and the shows that they do. That led to interactive theatre at the museum, doing a show called “Join the Student Sit-Ins” at the American History Museum, and then I ended up being asked to do a Christmas show at Mount Vernon, and that led into a part-time gig, which was the living history thing.

I’m really interested in history, so this was opportunity was kind of merging my interest in history with my main job, which is acting. I still did professional theatre at night, doing shows and stuff, but I thought this was an interesting part-time gig to do.

DCist: What’s the most outrageous thing a tourist has ever asked or said to you?

AMD: I think the most outrageous thing was a man—I don’t think I can put him in the series, well, maybe I will in the future, but I haven’t yet—who grabbed my arm and asked to see where I was branded.

DCist: Holy shit.

AMD: Yeah, he thought it was funny.

DCist: How did you react to that?

AMD: I just said “sir, I haven’t been branded.” And I pulled my arm out of his grip. And then his wife said “well you have it good, because we’re from South Carolina and they got branded!” And I said “Alright…” and I walked away.

You start to kind of learn who to walk away from. You know what I mean? That’s not someone I want to force an interaction with where I try to educate them or anything. They’re just rude and possibly racist people, so I just left them alone.

DCist: How many times did you think about quitting?

AMD: I have a pretty good sense of self, and I started to notice that I was getting a little bitter and I knew that it was time to move on. Even when I left I still did programs and teaching conferences, and I still talked to students and teachers. But I knew that the interaction with the public and being involved in the day-to-day aspects of that job, in that regard, it was time to move on.

I never felt like “this is horrible, I hate my life.” I had very fulfilling interactions and I learned a lot of things that I would have never learned about history and America today, so it wasn’t like I wanted to jump off a bridge or anything! But checking in on myself after a while, I knew that there were other things I wanted to do as an actor and as a person.

DCist: Would you ever do it again?

AMD: No way.

New episodes of Ask A Slave premiere every Sunday and can be found here.