“I’m releasing my first original song soon,”Ashley Park shares with a gleaming smile on an 8pm call from her home in Los Angeles, California. Fresh-faced in a black sweater, headband and delicate gold earrings, the star is recalibrating after a first-time trip to Munich, Germany, for an Actress of the Year awards ceremony that adds yet another accolade to the Grammy-and Tony-nominated star’s dossier.
“The song is called ‘My Own’. It was one of those beautiful collaborative experiences. I worked with Toby Marlow, Dan Henig and Dylan Bauld. Coming from theatre, I’ve always tried to figure out how to make someone else’s words and performance authentic to me. I’m not trying to launch a music career. I’ve just never quite known how to articulate something that felt like my own, something that reflected where I was coming from,” she shares. This sentiment rings particularly true when it comes to the fine line Park has had to walk between the effusive on-screen persona of Mindy Chen and the powerhouse-yet-introverted Broadway actress, singer and performer Ashley Park.
“It’s funny because I feel like we share the same rising sign,” she pauses with a playful chuckle. “My sun is Gemini. My moon, who I am at my core, is Pisces—emotional and introverted. My rising is Leo, so I give off a lot of that energy, but I’m more of a people pleaser and more of a beta than Mindy is. I think she really embraced her alpha side.”And though details of what Park’s music debut might sound like are still under wraps (it drops sometime in January, she shares) her Broadway-honed voice—soprano, vivid, blazing—immediately comes to mind, punctuated by the effusive admiration of viewers around the world. “Ashley Park has such a Disney princess voice,” one comment reads, in awe of her rendition of ‘Beautiful Ruins’. “This struck my heart,” says another.
When Park first took on season one of Darren Star’s wildly successful Emily in Paris in 2020, her portrayal of the straight-shooting, wildly magnetic heiress—and best friend to titular character Emily as played by Lily Collins—took centre stage. The veil of Mindy, however, has since gently lifted, allowing the force behind her to shine through. Park nods knowingly. “This is a conversation I get to have with the world about me. I get to speak about who I am, which is refreshing.”
Our conversation feels like reconnecting with an old friend. It is our third one to date, each one peeling back another layer of her transcendent charm. We last spoke when she headlined Vogue Singapore’s Next In Vogue conference in November last year, a debut appearance that saw her addressing a packed room at The Singapore Edition. There, she delved into the beginnings of her journey, the importance of representation and her vision for the future of fashion. It’s clear how much has changed since then. This year, in particular, has been deeply gratifying for Park—but her path through it has been shaped by life-altering moments that have left an indelible mark.
“I once thought of self-care as somewhat narcissistic, but I’ve come to realise that the only way I can be 100 percent for those around me is by taking care of myself.”
As the world was ringing in the New Year, Park was diagnosed with tonsillitis while on holiday in the Maldives, which eventually developed into critical septic shock. This infected her organs, resulting in her being admitted to the ICU for over a month. Alongside this, she had to navigate being in a foreign country, with language barriers, as well as the terrifying reality of being far from home.“Getting sepsis was a big reality check for me and for everyone in my life, including my team and those around me. It was a tough experience, but it taught me a lot. It was a major wake-up call. Your body is your temple, your instrument and the means through which we navigate the world in our mortal lives. I didn’t fully take that into consideration. I once thought of self-care as somewhat narcissistic, but I’ve come to realise that the only way I can be 100 percent for those around me is by taking care of myself,” she shares.
“To be candid, I was nervous about speaking about this. The show brings so much joy and levity to people’s lives, and it’s done that for me as well. But this last season was incredibly challenging. I’ve been very open about that and I hope people understand. I’m the kind of person who tries to persevere through anything, to prove everyone wrong. It was one of those instances when I’m so happy to have made it through.”
The result, for Park, has been a journey of learned and unapologetic self-gratification—taking care of herself and drawing boundaries where important. This has followed a series of milestones—being recognised in the Time100 Next list alongside pop star Sabrina Carpenter and model Kaia Gerber (an event where she styled and was accompanied by her mother); sparking an ongoing cultural conversation with her standout performance in Netflix’s tragicomedy Beef; collaborating with Meryl Streep on Only Murders in the Building; and sharing her relationship with co-star Paul Forman, much to the delight and adoration of fans all over the world.
“It’s the kind of love and partnership I never thought I deserved and never really understood existed. [Paul] is the best kind of friend, collaborator and person.”
I point out that their relationship has been met with an overwhelmingly loving response, and Park gently smiles. “I’m a terrible liar. At a certain point in our relationship, I felt I was actively hiding something very important to me. It’s the kind of love and partnership I never thought I deserved and never really understood existed. I thought that by the time I was over 30, it wasn’t going to happen for me. But it did. He’s the best kind of friend, collaborator and person. I couldn’t be luckier. And then, of course, I got sick with sepsis, so that wasn’t exactly the ‘hard launch’ we anticipated,” she laughs. “It’s also tricky when people are dating within the same industry or show. But it’s been the best kind of relationship and I’m so grateful for it. When people say things about my relationships or friendships, I love it and take it to heart because it’s genuine. I’m so glad others can relate to or feel happiness from seeing that kind of love and friendship.”
In the fourth season of Emily in Paris, Park’s character undergoes a transformation of her own, caught between the allure of big Eurovision dreams and the complexities of her relationship with her boyfriend—Forman’s Nicolas de Léon, a wealthy entrepreneur whom Mindy first encountered during her time at boarding school in Switzerland—who casts a critical eye on her ambitions. Half a decade into developing Mindy, Park has come up with a formula. To get into the character’s state of mind, at least over the course of seasons three and four, she looked to scents—particularly Thé Matcha from Le Labo, a fig note anchored by vetiver and cedar woods, with a hint of bitter orange.
On the fashion front, things have changed too. Park viewed clothes as cloaks in her earlier days of filming. These days, however, she is guided by an introspective and playfully indulgent light that illuminates her choices, which to date have been a glamorous edit of bold, colourful and tailored pieces with thoughtful accents—think a lilac Kevin Germanier blazer co-ord with embellishments or a dripping sequinned Dior dress—all accented with Park’s signature towering heels. Still, with all that has been joyful, she notes the valleys that have been a part of the equation.
“I’ve been disappointed more times than I’ve succeeded and I think that has shaped me,” she shares. “Some people think I’m overly positive or assume I get everything I want, but that’s far from the truth. There are so many conversations and opportunities I’m part of now that I never imagined. I didn’t feel entitled to any of them. If I hadn’t embraced the idea of not expecting anything, I wouldn’t be here.” I bring up the notion of legacy—both in the essence of the show and Park herself. “Whenever I think of legacy, I think of trying to do justice to the legacy of my parents, my grandparents and everyone who worked hard for the life that I’m able to have. What I’m proud of is that every penny I’ve earned to get to where I am right now—I earned it myself. But it’s only because of the qualities and support I received from the people who raised me and championed me.”
For now, the actress confirms a season five of Emily in Paris, with a host of other exciting projects in the works where I predict she’ll be wearing different hats, from director to producer. As for what’s next? “I feel I need to focus on checking in with myself,” she nods. “I’m planning to try gardening as I love radishes! I planted a lot and harvested them all. It’s quite satisfying. However, I forgot that once you harvest them, you need to replant. While some plants continue to grow, radishes grow from seeds, and once you pull them out, the seed is gone. So, I will be replanting radishes. I’m still figuring it out.”
And that’s the beauty of Park—her perspective on the world: selfless, hopeful and uplifting, infused with a nuanced optimism that acknowledges both the good and the bad, yet always choosing the extraordinary.
Photography Benjamin Lennox
Styling Carolina Orrico
Hair Sunnie Brook
Make-up Jenna Nicole/Dew Beauty Agency
Manicure Thuy Nguyen/A-Frame
Digital technician Justin Manzano
Photographer’s assistants Antonio Perrone and Christian Koepenick
Stylist’s assistant Luis Cruz
Producer Jason Agron/Photobomb
Project manager Georgia Rebekah/Photobomb
Production assistant Paul Draper
Vogue Singapore’s December ‘Gratification’ issue will be out on newsstands from 9 December and available to preorder online.
