Ashley Park and her character Mindy shared a similar “stressful” experience during season four of Emily in Paris. Warning, minor spoilers for part two, ahead.
In a new interview with People, the 33-year-old actor revealed she was just as nervous for Mindy’s topless performance of “Oops!…I Did It Again” at the famous Parisian cabaret, Crazy Horse. “It was so stressful and so hard to do,” she said at the part two premiere in Rome on September 10, describing the scenario as “every actor’s worst nightmare.”
“We have this recurrent memory of being onstage, not knowing what you’re doing, in your underwear,” Park told the publication. “And that is what I was living out actually, but surrounded by the most beautiful dancers in the world around me.”
We see Mindy face those same fears just before her cabaret performance, especially once she realized she’d have to sing live on stage without her pre-recorded vocal track. “Now I’m gonna choke harder than I did on Chinese Pop Star,” she tells Emily (Lily Collins). And no, picturing the audience naked doesn’t help.
In the end, Mindy used her nerves to her advantage, drawing laughs and applause from the audience as she used various props and strategic choreography to keep from actually revealing “Hansel and Gretel” during the performance.
And just as Mindy navigated the uncomfortable situation with Emily’s help, Ashley Park credits BLACKPINK choreographer, Kyle Hanagami, for having her back. “If it had not been for the choreographer, Kyle Hanagami, coming in and my team around me, I don’t think I would’ve gotten through it,” Park told People.
Now, Park says she’ll “never forget” the experience and is “actually really proud” of how the Emily in Paris scene turned out.
