Ashley Park is unstoppable. On the long list of things the EMILY IN PARIS star has made it through: cancer, racism, mean girls, and a recent near-death experience that taught her that sometimes you have to power down in order to level back up all over again. Now COSMOPOLITAN’s Fall 2024 issue cover star, Ashely opens up about her scary experience with sepsis, her relationship with onscreen love interest/real-life boyfriend Paul Forman, what she loves about adult friendships, whether she believes in revenge, and more. Plus, in her episode of COSMOPOLITAN video series “The Breakdown”, Ashely looks back on career moments which include cocooning herself in a Louis Vuitton garment bag, a duet with Meryl Streep, and lots of laughs on the set of EMILY IN PARIS.
On the being haunted by a ghost in the Manhattan hotel room she stayed in ahead of her Cosmo cover interview: “I don’t even believe in this stuff! I swear something was there. It scared the crap out of me… I was very forcefully like, ‘Get out of my room!’ I think it worked.”
On whether she’d use the word celebrity to describe herself: “People used to just yell, ‘Hey, Emily in Paris!’ when they saw me. Now everybody calls me ‘Ashley.’ Still, ‘celebrity’ is a really weird word.”
On whether she ever wishes she’d kept her cancer private: “No. It was such a big part of what was happening with me, and it was going to affect me forever. If people didn’t know that, it would feel false in some kind of way.”
On whether comedy is a part of her wellness routine: “Absolutely. It makes it easier. As an adult, I understand what coping mechanisms are. Stuff I didn’t know when I was a teenager. And even though both of the extreme illnesses I’ve had have been such flukes in a way—no one who’s 15 should have cancer, and no one who’s my age should have septic shock—I feel lucky, actually. It’s been kind of a miracle how I’ve recovered.”
On several people—castmates and directors—using the words “angel human” to describe her: “I think that’s hilarious, because I consider myself messy to a fault sometimes. Not literally—I’m actually very neat. But emotionally, I’m too open and honest. I don’t know how to be anything else. Maybe that’s what people find angelic? Whether it be sepsis, cancer, or mean people in class, I have learned how to smile through stuff that I didn’t want to smile through and how to find a genuine way to do that. It’s so much easier than being angry.”
On going straight from recovery into shooting Emily in Paris: “It really was just about survival for me. I can’t remember anything because I was not well. But one thing I’ll give myself credit for is, I don’t think I’m the most talented, prettiest, any of those things. But I do the best I can, and that work ethic always means a lot. I think I’m super resilient.”
On whether she liked onscreen love interest/real-life boyfriend, actor and model Paul Forman right away: “In the beginning, we were just friends, because I was at a point where I was like, ‘I will never date an actor again.’ And one of the first things he said to me was, ‘I’ve never dated an actor.’ And I was like, ‘Amazing.’”
On denying early feelings and chemistry between them: “Lily noticed the chemistry. She was like, ‘Ashley, what is going on?’ And I replied, ‘Nothing. I told you I wasn’t dating actors.’ It was the first time I was really standing up for myself. I told her, ‘Lily, your disbelief in my growth is sad, because he’s the exact type of guy that I said I wasn’t going to go for. I told you, and so I really want you, as my friend, to believe me.’ …So I had to do a little loss-of-dignity tour. I had to be like, ‘Lily, everyone, we are so in love.’ That was about two years ago.”
On being costars and best friends with Lily Collins and how adult friendships are different from those in your 20s: “I was discussing with Lily the other day what an adult friendship is. And first of all, we are so fucking lucky, me and Lily. We both came into each other’s lives at a time when we needed that exact kind of friendship. Her, Florence Pugh, Sherry Cola—we came to each other at the exact right moment…. Lily and I don’t have to check in every day. It’s so amazing when you can see someone after months and go deep immediately. And also, you don’t feel like you need to have ownership over that person. It’s cool if they’re hanging out with other people, living their life…. I love when my friends hang out with each other. You feel secure. There’s no anxiety.”
On being a secret introvert: “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve been around, whether they’re famous or not, and I’m always intimidated. I can’t get it through my head that they might be intimidated too. That’s crazy to me.”
On playing Tuptim in The King and I at Lincoln Center, and the character’s lyric, “The smile beneath my smile / He’ll never see”: “Oh, wow. That was my first lead. I fought tooth and nail for that role. And please credit the director Bart Sher for this, because I was not the most qualified. But Bart said, ‘Oh, she’s got the guts and the balls. She’s got something inside. That’s this character.’ And I didn’t even realize it until this very moment, years and years later, but ‘the smile you’ll never see’ is all of this pent-up energy that says, I’m gonna go into this room now. I’m gonna talk to these people now, and I’m going to navigate these halls of power. They call it code-switching, navigating, whatever.”
On playing a villain with very bad karma in Beef: What I love about villains and antagonists is that we know, in life too, that bullies think they’re correct. They think, “I am the victim.” And because I’ve dealt with so many people like the person I played in Beef, I was like, “I’m so ready to play this woman with such honesty.” Part of what I love about acting is being like, “Why did this person treat me this way? Let me just try to figure it out.” That’s actually my therapy.
On being bullied: “I will say, nobody’s ever been as mean to me as the girls in college in Michigan. I don’t know what was in the water there, but wow. Now, not as much, because as adults, we’re better at curating our circle, right? But look, I was the only person of color in my musical theater graduating class. I didn’t have any friends among the girls. None at all. And I had one teacher who was awful to me. He said, ‘Oh, it’s so good you’re going into the industry right now, because it’s really trending to be ethnic, so you could take those roles.’ When I came back to accept an alumni award, they did a panel for the whole university, and that man was supposed to be the moderator. And that’s the first time I ever put my foot down and said, ‘No.’”
The Fall 2024 issue of COSMOPOLITAN hits newsstands nationwide on August 13.
[Photo Credit: Brendan Wixted for Cosmopolitan Magazine]
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