From Belting on Broadway to Starring in 'Emily in Paris,' Ashley Park's Voice Shines
L'OFFICIEL's December 2021 digital cover star speaks about reprising her role of Mindy on the hit Netflix show, standing up for the AAPI community, and the pinch-me moments of her career thus far.
Photography Brendan Wixted
Styling by Yael Quint
When last we checked in on Mindy Chen, she had just been fired from her au pair job and was now living with Emily Cooper in a small French flat that evoked, as does most of Emily in Paris, a city of baguettes and berets, of love affairs and Les Deux Magots. At the top of Season 2, which Netflix will release later this month, Mindy’s life is still in the toilet. She has taken a gig at a local cabaret where, in exchange for the opportunity to sing, she has also been assigned restroom attendant duty, or, as the role is more commonly known in France, Dame Pipi. It is from a table sandwiched between stalls, in a deconstructed showgirl costume that owes as much to Victor/Victoria as it does to Harvey Dent, that Mindy emerges for her star-making performance of the BTS song “Dynamite.”
Or rather, it would have been a star-making performance. But Ashley Park, the 30-year-old actor who plays Mindy, had already given us two of them with her soul-awakening renditions of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie En Rose” and Sia’s “Chandelier.” And in every scenario, each one more preposterous than the last—eyes closed, a crowd forming around her, in the Tuileries; on stage, live-streamed, to redeem herself after a shameful appearance on the competition series Chinese Popstar—Park, as Mindy, finds a way to swath her character in a kind of gentle pathos.
Park’s talent for finding humanity in unlikely places will come as no surprise to anyone who saw her turn as Tuptim, a Burmese slave, in the 2015 revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The King and I. Or her Tony-nominated performance as Gretchen Wieners in the Broadway adaptation of Mean Girls. She was even responsible for getting the band back together in the Peacock series Girls5Eva, and in that one she’s not even alive.
THIS PHOTO—Bag SENREVE Midi Maestra Coat, Top, and Pants TORY BURCH Tights WOLFORD X AMINA MAUDDI Shoes ROGER VIVIER. COVER PHOTO—Bag SENREVE Aria Belt Jacket, Dress, and Shoes GUCCI Watch CHANEL.
While Mindy picks up where we last left her, the same can’t be said of Park, who grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in a Korean-American household, with her parents, Andrew and Sara, and her younger sister Audrey. A shift occurred in her on March 16, 2021, the night that eight people, six of them Asian women, were murdered by a white man at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. Park heard the news from Ireland, where she was quarantining before starting production on a 19th-century-set romantic comedy. She decided to record a video that she later uploaded to Instagram, in which, through tears, she described living “my entire life trying not to be bitter, and trying to move forward in a society ruled by white supremacy.” Park carried that reignited passion back with her to the set of Emily in Paris, where, even in a champagne-soaked phantasmagoria that sometimes values Goyard over Godard, she is able to walk into the frame and deliver, in just a single line, heartbreak, humor, and hope.
Bag SENREVE Milli Maestra Coat ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER Dress THE SITUATIONIST Shoes ROGER VIVIER Tights WOLFORD X AMINA MAUDDI.
NICK HARAMIS: From what I gather, you’ve had a pretty intense week.
ASHLEY PARK: This press junket has been insane. Lily [Collins, who plays Emily] and I were like, “Thank god we’re actually best friends.”
NH: It’s a lot of time to spend with someone you’re only pretending to like. What’s the reception been like this time around?
AP: People seem to be as delighted with the second season as they were with the first one. They’ve been very responsive to Mindy’s stuff, too, which is fun.
NH: What’s been the most exciting part about stepping back into Mindy’s shoes?
AP: We were all just so grateful to be back together. When season one came out and 58 million people watched it in that first month, we weren’t able to celebrate together because of the pandemic. Filming season two felt like getting to have that celebration.
NH: I love how casually you just dropped that number. Was it only 58 million?
AP: Oh my god, I’ve been memorizing these little sound bites. I’m so embarrassed.
NH: Don’t be! It’s a very impressive number. What was it like for you at the beginning of the pandemic?
AP: I think we’ve all had different chapters. I spent the first three months in Texas, where my parents are, with my sister. She’d been teaching in China for three years, and I’d been on Broadway, which meant that we didn’t usually get to spend the holidays together. The four of us hadn’t all been together for two years. I came back to New York in June to pack up my apartment. I went to L.A. and stayed with my best friend Jonalyn [Saxer, an actor in the stage production of Mean Girls], and her parents, for three months. I was in New York, in an apartment I’d just bought on the Upper West Side, when the show came out. That’s when I started Girls5eva there, too. And then I went to Ireland to film a movie called Mr. Malcolm’s List. That was the first time I’d had to isolate myself in an apartment for 10 days.
NH: Did you discover you were an extrovert or an introvert?
AP: I’ve really come to love my alone time, or at least understand that I need it. When I’m around people, I want to really be with them. But I also need time for myself to recalibrate. During that time when I was fully alone, that was when the shootings happened in the massage parlors. That’s when Stop Asian Hate was created to address the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes. It was complicated to be alone in a foreign country during that time.
NH: I thought you so gracefully and graciously became a voice for people within the AAPI community, but also beyond, when you posted that emotional video documenting your reaction to the shootings.
AP: I really had no intention of sharing it when I started recording. I filmed it because I was isolated and nobody I knew on the other side of the world was awake yet. When something difficult happens, I’m usually able to wake up the next day on a new page. Some people call it resilience. But those feelings that day, they went much deeper. I didn’t know how to unpack everything that was going through my head, but I didn’t want to wake up the next morning forgetting that feeling, so I hit the record button and everything just spewed out. I think the reason I was able to articulate things in such a truthful way was because I was speaking to myself. I’ve been conditioned, which is sometimes a good thing, to accommodate the person I’m talking to, to make them feel comfortable about what I’m saying. But I wasn’t trying to make anyone comfortable with that video. I was just so hungry for connection. When I eventually watched it back after I fell asleep crying, I thought, “This might help someone else who is feeling this way, someone who is isolated and doesn’t know how to work through these feelings. Maybe I can help that person.” I don’t have the education to speak about the subject of systemic racism on an academic level, but I can speak from personal experience.
What was also complicated is that all of a sudden everyone was like, “We want to hear your thoughts on what it’s like to be an Asian-American.” I was like, “Everyone, hold on. I’ve learned how to survive in this country, in this industry, and in my own skin because I’ve figured out how to navigate this identity. I’ve figured out ways to comfort myself. I’m happy that you’re finally ready to listen, but there has to be a level of respect, too. There’s no on-off switch for trauma.”
Bag SENREVE Milli Maestra Blazer, Skirt, and Top CHRISTIAN DIOR Shoes ROGER VIVIER.
NH: I also watched you question what you saw as your own complicity in “trying really hard to make people forget that I’m Asian.” I’m not at all conflating our experiences, but as a gay kid growing up in small-town Canada, I can relate to hiding parts of yourself to survive.
AP: I love that you’re Canadian. I just shot in Vancouver for three months.
NH: No way!
AP: Yeah, I filmed this R-rated comedy up there. It’s going to be the first of its kind. I’m leading it, and my three supporting leads are all Asian actors. The director [Adele Lim], all of the department heads, and all of the writers are Asian women. It was the first time in my life that I was surrounded by Asians who were integral to the story and the work that I was doing. I didn’t realize until after doing it that I’d never really had an Asian community. The Broadway world didn’t provide me with one. I’ve been speaking about the importance of Asian community for a year, but it’s not until I did this movie—I compare it to being in love. It’s not until you’ve actually been in love that you’re like, “Oh, I wasn’t in love all those other times.” I’m so proud to be Asian. I wouldn’t change that for anything, and that’s maybe not exactly how I felt before. As an actor, I wanted so much for people to see me as the smart character, the nice character, the character who’s really good at this or that. I wanted to be seen for my human traits, and I realize now that this can happen and it doesn’t have to be in spite of my being Asian. I was conditioned to feel that if I was in a room surrounded by white people, that was the best room to be in. That tokenism made it very hard to have an Asian community. We’re taught that there can only be one. And to tie this back to Emily in Paris, I’m so thrilled by the people who have come up to me and said, “I’ve never seen an Asian character like this on a show like this.” It’s not about having a splash of color on screen, and I’m grateful for that. Hate comes from fear. It comes from being unfamiliar with people from other walks of life. What I love so much about Mindy is that she’s a comfort. She’s the best friend. She’s who you trust. She’s who you want to be around. She’s who makes you laugh.
NH: It hadn’t occurred to me, but without Mindy, Emily in Paris is actually a horror story. You’ve said in the past that acting requires you to “live in a world of narcissism.” But in my estimation, acting is so much about empathy.
AP: I’ll put that into context. It’s true that there’s no way I can play a part unless I completely empathize with the character, whether it’s the villain or the best friend. But the definition of narcissism is that you only think about yourself, right? And as an actor, I’m constantly thinking about myself: What are my lines? Where should I stand? What do I look like? My work comes from my body, so I have to be much more conscious about myself. That’s why I find it essential to do outreach where I’m thinking about other people, or go to the middle of the woods and sit by a rock for a second.
I’m usually able to wake up the next day on a new page. Some people call it resilience. But those feelings that day, they went much deeper.
NH: This might be a stupid question, but I assume that when you’re on stage, you’re acting to the audience. For TV, are you acting to your co-stars? To the crew?
AP: It’s a completely different process. When people ask me if I prefer acting on screen or on stage, I always say, “That’s like asking which parent you like better.” In the theater, when you say something on stage and people laugh, you begin to understand more about them. You know how to do your next line and the one after that. When I get applause from an audience, it’s not like, “Thank you for patting me on the back.” It’s like, “Oh, you received what I just said. I’ll keep going with the story in that way.” When you say something funny on camera, people aren’t allowed to laugh.
NH: There were fewer expectations for season one. Was there more pressure to perform this time around?
AP: I think we found that pressure exciting. In many ways, it was more comfortable. We’d already done an entire season as these people. We knew who they were.
NH: Season one marked your first time in Paris. What was that like? And did it feel, in a way, like returning home?
AP: Where are you located?
NH: I’m in Brooklyn.
AP: Do you remember, during the pandemic, when you’d be walking in Times Square and thinking to yourself, “Whoa, this feels like a neighborhood for the first time. This is New York”? There were no tourists, and you got to feel like a real local. That’s what Paris felt like. I fell in love with the city so hard and so fast. The running joke was that Ashley was Emily. Everything that happened to Emily happened to me, except that everybody was so lovely. I did every single touristy thing, and every not-touristy thing. It was weird going back and having everything be closed. Only Parisians walked the streets. It was really different.
Bag SENREVE Fiore Bucket Coat MICHAEL KORS Shoes ROGER VIVIER Sheer Stockings WOLFORD X AMINA MAUDDI Earrings BEA BONGIASCA.
NH: What’s the most meaningful feedback you’ve received from a fan?
AP: Oh, gosh. I’m so appreciative of anyone who watches the show. I can think of particular instances when someone has said, “I’m doing what I’m doing because you doing your work has made me realize that it’s possible.”
NH: What is the most outrageous thing that happened on set this season?
AP: We can talk about it over drinks another time.
NH: What’s one you can share?
AP: For some reason, there was always freezing rain. It was very cold. But one of our episodes takes place in a heatwave, so I’m wearing skimpy summer dresses. Everyone in the crew is in a parka, and I’m freezing outside on a bridge. I ended up getting tonsillitis that night. We had another scene the next day on a boat, so I was like, “I have to get better. I need something stronger than French Tylenol.” The show sent a doctor to my apartment. He was very sweet and very good at his job. He was going to give me the equivalent of a very powerful B12 shot. He said, “It’s fastest in the buttocks.” I was like, “Whatever is fastest, I guess.” So I laid down and pulled out my buttocks. I was like, “Wait, is it going to hurt?” Again, he’s only speaking French, but I gather he’s like, “No. It will not hurt.” And at that moment he spanked me. Like, fully spanked me. Before I could even process what happened, he had given me the shot.
NH: A great spank-me moment. What’s been the greatest pinch-me moment of your career?
AP: I think it was doing this movie that I just shot in Vancouver. Getting a Tony nomination or being a lead in a Broadway show are, of course, big moments. But they’re goals I’ve strived for my entire life. I’ve worked for them. As I was filming this movie, it occurred to me that I didn’t even know this was a dream I could dream. Every moment on that set was a pinch-me moment. Every scene is a pinch-me moment. It’s not that I never knew I wanted it, it’s that I never knew it was possible.
NH: What’s something in Mindy’s closet that you’d never actually wear?
AP: There was this tarp–I think it was an art piece–that they turned into a dress with feathers. Because it wasn’t made as a dress, I had to be sewn into it. I don’t think I would ever in real life wear something that I couldn’t easily go to the bathroom in.
NH: Makes sense. One last question: When you’re at karaoke and you really want to bring the house down, what do you sing?
AP: Karaoke is stressful for actual singers. What I want to sing is a Spice Girls song, really, really badly, but there are expectations.
HAIR DJ Quintero
MAKEUP Misha Shahzada
NAILS Aki Hirayama
PRODUCTION William Foster
ON-SET PRODUCTION Landon Ford
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT Justin Mulroy
STYLIST ASSISTANTS Sydnee Baker and Andrew Krops
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Tyler Fahey
