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Lauren Ash on Superstore Dina's sexy cop costume: She's super hot

Lauren Ash knows you probably think of her wearing a boxy blue polo and khaki pants — but she more fondly remembers her time on Superstore in a cop costume.

While speaking on EW's Bold School panel at SCAD TVFest in Atlanta earlier this month, Ash was asked by moderator Maureen Lee Lenker to share a moment from her career where she felt particularly empowered: "The sexy cop costume on Superstore," said the actress, who sat on the panel with Grand Crew star Nicole Byer and Harlem's Jerrie Johnson.

"It was an interesting conversation that was being had at that time behind the scenes," Ash continued. "And I haven't really spoken on that a lot, but at the time I was in a larger body than I am now. And there was debate [in the writers' room] about, 'Is that a conversation?' And I was like, 'Is it a conversation?! I think that she's super hot because I think I'm super hot. So do we need to have a conversation about her being hot for a specific body? I don't think so.' And luckily enough, that was the direction we took. But what's so funny is the reaction when I was in that costume was like, 'She's so brave.' 'Oh, how brave.' 'She's a size 14 and she's put on pleather, how brave.' And I was like, 'That's not brave. Being in those khaki pants the rest of time on that show, that was being brave.'"

Ash — whose response can be seen at the 16:45 mark in the video above (though the entire panel is worth a watch) — went on to state that experience "was not helpful to me." But she's grateful that was just the beginning of her character Dina's positive body image portrayal.

Throughout the rest of the seres "it was just like, 'Oh yeah, she's super hot and she knows it and she sleeps with all these guys and gets all this attention from men and whatever,'" she explained. "It was never with a caveat. It was just that is who she is — because that's what real life is, by the way. I don't know if you know this, but everyone can get laid. It's not about having to look a certain way or not, it's possible for all of us. There's a butt for every chair."

Her sentiments were echoed by Byer: "I had a show called Loosely Exactly Nicole that eight people watched and was probably canceled and then revived on Facebook Watch. And people were like, 'Facebook has content?' And I was like, 'No. You'll never see it,'" the Nailed It! and Wipeout host joked. "But on that show, I did two blow job scenes. I was in a bra a lot. I got to f--- a lot of people. And it felt good because I had never seen anyone who was my size, who looked like me, giving silly blowjobs. And I say silly because watch the show, the way I do it is insane and I cannot believe that they got on with it. But yeah, I'd never seen that, so it felt so empowering. And then on Grand Crew, I get to be another fat, Black woman who is sexually active and it's never the butt of the joke. It's never, 'Look at that fatty. Can you believe someone f---ed her?' But it's like, 'Yeah, someone f---ed her.' Yeah, like he said, 'Yeah, there's people out there. Most fat people with children f--- to have that child.'"

Ash says it's actually been an adjustment moving on from Superstore, embracing her slimmer figure, and wearing designer clothes as the wealthy head of a newspaper on ABC's new sitcom Not Dead Yet.

"That was a thrill. Getting to go from literally the same outfit for six years to being like, 'This is the Dolce & Gabbana, this is the Gucci we pulled.' I was just like, 'I have died and I have gone to a place.... I have put in my time and now I'm being rewarded,'" she said of her new work clothes. "That has been such an empowering journey for me as an actor, getting to do something that is truly the polar opposite. But then it also informs the red carpet game. I'm like, 'We got to step it up, if I'm looking this good on the show now.' Before, on Superstore, I could show up wearing a bag with a belt and they'd be like, 'Oh my God, she's got a waist!' Now I'm like, 'We got to surpass.' That's also been a real joy. It's been real fun."

"I've talked a lot about being fat, and I'm going to continue," added Byer. "Stylists, costumers on shows, boy, oh boy, do they have trouble dressing a fatty. It is as if they looked at a picture of me and they're like, 'She surely can't be that size.' Then I walk in and they're like, 'Oh, no! We pulled everything 10 sizes too small.' It's an uphill battle. It is awful. Constantly I'm like, 'Is my body the problem?' Then I'm like, 'No, I'm not the problem. This bitch is the problem who can't shop.' I work with a stylist who works with drag queens and people of different sizes. His name is Marko Monroe. He's really great. I think it was two years ago we did this Christian Siriano purple dress for the Emmys. I cried when it came out of the bag because I have never had something so beautiful actually fit me. Not only did it fit me, it was slightly too big so we could take it in to make it perfect. I sobbed for a good long time because this doesn't happen to people my size. Now it's on tour. The dress is literally on tour in Siriano exhibits."

At that point the Savannah College of Art and Design students informed Byer that the dress had actually been on display at their campus.

"Right here?!" she replied. "Isn't that a bitch? I want that dress back so bad."

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