Ashley Park Takes a 'Joy Ride' This Summer and Embraces the Chaos: 'We're Allowed to Be Messy' (Exclusive)

Ashley Park is about to wipe out. The actress, wearing a fuchsia Valentino shorts set and matching Brandon Blackwood platform heels, stands on a giant wooden swing, attempts a dramatic dip—and promptly goes horizontal. With a combination of tenaciousness, luck and impressive core strength, Park somehow manages to stay on the rickety contraption.

The crew, assembled for her People cover shoot at a cliffside Malibu estate, freezes. Would the Emily in Paris star freak out? Refuse to continue? Fret about unintentional Valentino underboob? Nope. As soon as her feet touch the ground, Park runs to the video monitor. "Oh my God, did you get that?" she says, laughing. "B-roll? I want it!" 

The moment captures the sheer determination, sheathed in effervescence, that has gotten the actress where she is today: teetering on the precipice of becoming a movie star just before the theatrical release of Joy Ride.

Raunchy, rowdy and unapologetically chaotic, the film (out July 7) is the heir apparent to buddy comedies like The Hangover and Bridesmaids, with one key difference: It's written and directed by Asian women and stars four top rising Asian talents. The story follows friends Audrey (Park), Lolo (Good Trouble’s Sherry Cola), Kat (Everything Everywhere All at Once’s Stephanie Hsu) and Deadeye (stand-up comic Sabrina Wu) on a business trip to China that goes gloriously, debaucherously wrong; the movie got a rapturous response from audiences when it debuted at the South by Southwest festival in March.

“I love that genre of comedy,” Park says, settling in for a chat after her shoot. “Those are the ones I can watch over and over again. Joy Ride just feels like that caliber of comedy that everyone walks away really loving. And it just happens to star people who look like us.”

Beginnings, Broadway and Her Big Break

Ashley Park didn’t see many people who looked like her when she was growing up. She was born in Glendale, Calif., and raised in Ann Arbor, Mich., by parents Andrew and Sara, both of whom immigrated to California from South Korea as children.

“My only access to an Asian community was in our Korean American church there,” says Park, 32. “I would go there on Sundays. Me and my younger sister Audrey weren’t completely fluent in Korean, and I had a very different community there than I did at school and the rest of my life.”

She caught the performing bug early, beginning to dance at age 3 and joining choir and community theater in middle school. But like many people of color, she internalized her otherness.

“Of course, I remember watching Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels…and Sandra Oh, too," she says. "[But] to be honest, all of my role models were White actresses, whether it be Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Laura Linney or Emma Thompson, because I got to see them be people with humanity and flaws on the screen. And I had hoped that I could be part of that one day—with the acknowledgement and genuine okayness of knowing that I'd probably just be in the industry to support their stories.”

At 15, Park’s plans were put on hold when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and hospitalized for eight months. It was serious enough that the Make-A-Wish foundation granted her a trip to New York City to see several Broadway shows. She eventually recovered and returned to high school, but had mixed feelings about how the ordeal impacted her outlook on life.

“People say, ‘You're a hero for surviving,'" she says. “But that was probably the most selfish time of my life because I had to have everybody I care about only thinking about me. And I really don’t like that. But then I realized surviving [cancer] and then working hard to thrive and be happy after that is an inspiration for people.”

In true full-circle fashion, she got her Broadway break in 2014, a small role in Mamma Mia! Larger parts in The King and I and Sunday in the Park With George followed before she landed the role of Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls—and a Tony nomination for her performance. Emily in Paris creator Darren Star took in the show twice and eventually offered her the part that made her famous, Emily’s BFF, aspiring singer Mindy Chen.

“[After Emily in Paris], people from all walks of life and backgrounds, all ages, all demographics come up and say, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re the best friend I always wanted'," says Park. “For me, that felt important because ... they'll always associate a face like that with someone who can be a friend of theirs.”

Despite Emily’s success—it was Netflix’s most successful comedy series of 2020, with 58 million viewers watching during the show’s debut month—Park found herself turning inward during a rare period of downtime the following year. It was March 2021, and she was quarantining in Ireland before filming her role in Mr. Malcolm’s List, when she learned of the deadly shootings targeting Asian spa workers in Atlanta. Overwhelmed with sadness and anger, she posted an Instagram video that went viral. For the first time in her career, she spoke plainly and publicly about racism and hate crimes against Asians.

“I’ve lived my entire life trying not to be bitter and trying to move forward in a society run by White supremacy,” she said through tears in the video. “But this racism starts at a very small level. ... The amount of times in my life where I am asked where I’m from before I’m asked what my name is. You don’t understand the undervaluing that that does....It starts with stupid jokes, even with your close friends. It starts when you say, ‘Oh, this is a good time to be in this industry because ethnic is really in right now.’ ”

Looking back, Park says she probably wouldn’t have posted the video if she hadn’t been up while most of her support system was asleep in the U.S. “I’m the kind of person, when something bad happens, I can vent, go to sleep and the next day I’m like, ‘It’s a new day,' and I actually forget [what I was upset about].”

She continues: “What's interesting to me is if I had been talking to a friend, I would not have painted it that way. I would've accommodated them. I would not have been as explicit. I realized how good I am at code-switching. We code-switch because we're trying to find a way to be indispensable to people, whether that be as their buddy or their confidant. I think code-switching really helped me as an actor because I'm really good at immediately observing what somebody needs and what somebody feels safe with, it makes me feel good to be that for them. But that compromised me as a person a lot.”

Finding Herself—and Enjoying Her Biggest Year Yet

As Park’s perspective shifted, so did her roles. She started gravitating toward edgier characters, murkier storylines—less fashionable best friend, more frenemy. (Still fashionable, though.)

“Mindy has put me in this lovely category where a lot of people in the industry trust me to play this character with humor,” she says. “But I was really interested in finding some truth in a role that is basically an antagonist.”

Enter her turn as wealthy stay-at-home-mom Naomi, who is thirsty for validation—or at least a spread in Calabasas Style—in this April’s tense, provocative Netflix limited series Beef. 

“I was really excited about that role because [I wanted] to work on something with the Korean showrunner Sonny Lee and with Steve [Yeun] and with Ali [Wong],” she says, “I approach the character and think, ‘What is making them tick? What do they want? What were they deprived of? And how are they trying to get that?' ”

Naomi (spoiler alert!) ends up becoming arguably the most conniving character in a tale stuffed with conniving characters. “What’s awesome is that they are so flawed and have many different aspects of them that are not what we’d consider good, but they’re human,” says Park.

Joy Ride continues the star’s journey—and for the first time, she was No. 1 on the call sheet. The significance of that isn’t lost on her, but the comfort and confidence she felt on the set was even more of a milestone.

“First of all, Sabrina and Stephanie and Sherry, all of us are so happy and conditioned to be supporting characters,” she says. “It really did feel like family right off the bat. And there's a certain level of comfort, especially with [writer] Teresa [Hsiao]  and [director] Adele Lim and [writer] Cherry [Chevapravatdumrong] at the helm.”

It’s a feeling she doesn’t want to forget, whatever her future projects hold. “It’s not about other sets being a certain way—but it was another version of me where I was okay with feeling like I want to make somebody comfortable and happy and not ruffle any feathers.”

Now she wants to ruffle all the feathers. Just like the characters in Joy Ride blow up the trope of the model minority, Park has stopped putting so much pressure on herself to be perfect. And she hopes that the influx of projects created by and starring Asians will alleviate the pressure for future stars.

“I would go to audition room after audition room and nobody else looked like me,” she says. “[I thought] there was no other way than to be so undeniably good and not mess up at all. I realized we’re allowed to mess up, and we’re allowed to be messy. I’m not going to try to figure out what you want and be your cookie-cutter version, because most likely I don’t look like who you initially wrote it for.’ And I'm trying to do that more in life too.”

It seems to be working. Park just wrapped a Nora Kirkpatrick-directed film opposite Josh Gad, Daveed Diggs and Alexandra Daddario. And she’ll next be seen on season 3 of Only Murders in the Building (premiering in August), joining other new cast members Paul Rudd and her childhood idol Meryl Streep.

“I had everybody sign something at the end of filming,” says Park. “And she just wrote ‘I see you, Ash. Meryl.’ ”

Eventually there will be season 4 of Emily in Paris, which left fans on quite the cliff-hanger last year with both Emily and Mindy in romantic quandaries. Park deflects when pushed for a teaser: “I don't even know when we're filming next, so I can't say.”

One thing’s for sure—she has a strong circle of friends to see her through her rising fame. In addition to her Joy Ride cohorts, she counts her Emily costar Lily Collins and actress Florence Pugh (whom she met at a Valentino couture show last year) among her besties.

“The people who really understand and love and support this version of myself are the people that I want to be around,” she says. “I need nothing from you, and you need nothing from me. So when we are able to be together every four or five months, even if it's just at the Met Gala, we make that our catch-up session. Lily and Flo are amazing examples of that. And for me, those are quality friendships. Quality over quantity.”

As for her love life, Park does drop a few “my boyfriend”s throughout our conversation — and though she asks us not to name him, it's clear she's in a great place when it comes to love and relationships. (Case in point? Said boyfriend showed up at the end of the shoot to spend time with his leading lady before she had to jump on a flight. She pushed him on the swing. It was very cute.)

She says learning more about her own needs has made this kind of joy possible.

“I was always that person who wanted to give all of myself to other people, and that's what made me feel fulfilled,” she says. “I don't want to be that person who is now not able to be there for other people. But then I realize the people that I care about, whether it’s my boyfriend or my friends, will never penalize me for not giving all of myself to them. They want to protect me as much as I want to protect them.”

As for the lucky guy, “I've just never been with someone so supportive,” she says. “And not supportive like, ‘Oh, that's so cool for you,’ but who genuinely feels happiness when I do.”

Reaching New Heights

Should Joy Ride succeed, no one can say that Park didn’t work hard for her moment in the sun.

“Ashley Park is a unicorn,” says the film’s director Adele Lim. “Most people know her from Emily in Paris and having these more fun, bubbly roles. But what they don't see is the tremendous amount of work that goes into it. When we were prepping for the movie, Ashley would show up with this big binder full of these little Post-its, and we would go through every single scene and just plot her character arc scene by scene throughout the whole movie. This is the work that you don't necessarily see because we are this ridiculous R-rated comedy, but the reason you feel so hard for it and the emotional moments work is because of Ashley.”

Adds Joy Ride producer James Weaver: “She has that ability to connect to the audience and bring them into her experience as the character of Audrey. I’m a cis White man, as basic as they come, and in reading the script, we just thought it was so funny and heartfelt. And she has legit comedy chops.”

Park is happy enough to accept the flowers, while acknowledging the bumps on her journey. “I think someone said on [the Joy Ride] set, ‘Is this a dream come true?’ " she recalls. “And I was like, ‘Of course! But it's not even a dream that I ever thought to have.' "