Ashley Park took Broadway, then Paris.
Now, the actress heads to Beijing forJoy Ride, this summers raunchiest R-rated buddy comedy.
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Ashley Parkwonderedif she was a bad person.
If maybe she was getting things she didnt deserve.
Before cancer, shed tried out for her high schools production ofHigh School Musicaland did not get Sharpay.
After cancer, she tried out forThoroughly Modern Millieand got Millie.
She was thrilled, but she was conscious of how shed changed.
She was used to being seen as the Asian girl.
Now she was also the sick bald girl.
This was liberal Ann Arbor, so no one quite said it out loud.
What was clear to Ashley was that they were done being nice to her.
I thought,Wow, I never want to be called that again.
Park just turned 32.
The actress has made a career of being as successful as possible without being front and center.
Shed once dreamed of Broadway, modestly like maybe shed get ensemble inWicked?
then she surprised herself.
She landed the role ofGretchen WienersinMean Girls,the musical, and played the henchwoman full of yearning.
If you believe her as No.
2, its because Park believes it as well.
What I love about Gretchen is she doesnt want to be anything but the beta.
But did Gretchen really choose that?
It might just be the first R-rated studio comedy to star Asian women and nonbinary actors.
And its definitely the first in which they shove condoms full of cocaine up their assholes.
Thats just buddy-comedy magic, baby.)
Maybe thats just her way of playing the lead: Shed rather be part of a team.
This is, after all, a woman with a tattoo that reads YES, AND.
Her parents were more surprised to hear Ashleys voice.
They were like, Wait, is she singing on key?
They had no clue what the heck was going on.
Hurwitz, who had also survived cancer, started visiting Ashley in the hospital.
Im scared to death What are you doing here?
And she proceeds to just nail the audition.
No, absolutely not.
Shes so wrong about that.
Honestly, thats ridiculous.
We had done lots of shows that featured Caucasian leads, and fact is it was an open competition.
But nobody else could jump into the pain the way she could, she says.
Afterward, one of those parents wrote Hurwitz a note admitting it was a great show.
She remembers Park was squeezing in the workshop between aKing and Imatinee and an evening performance.
Broadway is crazy like that.
Theres just nothing harder, says Hsu.
Youre kicking your face for two and a half hours.
It is, says Hsu, but it trains you to be sort of impenetrable.
Park used to pride herself on being that way.
She loved when people said, Ashley has an endless battery.
She was also starting to go for onscreen parts.
Only in relative terms.
OnEmily in Paris,Parks Mindy is a font of patience.
What we were looking for was this unicorn, and I expressed all that to Daniel.
He said, I think I have the person for you.
Still, she doesnt thinkJoy Rides Asianness is what we should be talking about.
(The Oscarswhirl forEverything Everywhere All at Oncewould stretch anyones patience for that.)
But the movie does make Asianness the focus.
We watch as Audrey endures multiple people telling her, Youre basically white.
Joy Ridealso finds a way to say it groin-first.
It was Parks first time shooting any kind of sex scene: Im so seasoned now.
That evening, she says Hsiao invited her and a bunch of other people over for pizza.
Shed never been with an Asian guy either though she has now.
What Ive learned is good guys are good no matter what they look like.
And toxic, awful guys are also Asian sometimes.
Park is good at making friends in her industry.
She drops, casually, that she knows a few of theBlackpinkgirls Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa.
She counts Collins andFlorence Pugh, whom she met at a Valentino show last year, among her confidantes.
Pugh says that when they get together, Well do face masks.
Well order room service.
Well laugh and cry and talk all in the space of about 130 minutes.
And here we are.
When shes with a friend, shes plugged in; the next day, her drive is wiped.
You know how I keep energy?
I literally, in the best way, dissociate really well.
We meet in L.A. on the day before Parks birthday.
I never want any handout for any reason that is out of my control.
It reminds her of a powerlessness shed rather not think about.
I want to earn when people are congratulating me, Park says.
I wish my birthday was something I earned.
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