Review prepared by Justyna Bryczkowska, journalist at Gazeta.pl.
Mindy and Alfie are the best, though secondary, characters in the series "Emily in Paris." They’re the best not only because they’re the most interesting and well-written, but also because they’re played by the exceptionally charismatic Ashley Park and Lucien Laviscount.
She didn’t want to be "just the girl with cancer," so she became an actress
Viewers know well that Emily would be lost in Paris without her loyal friend Mindy. The life story of Ashley Park, who plays her, is impressive for many reasons. Not long ago, the actress received a prestigious Tony Award nomination for her role as Gretchen in the Broadway musical "Mean Girls." Darren Star saw her on stage. He liked her so much that he rewrote a character specifically for her. "I saw Ashley in 'Mean Girls' on Broadway twice, and she blew me away. Because she has such an incredible voice, casting her as Mindy changed the way we looked at her. We knew we wanted her to sing on screen," he told "Cosmopolitan." And so we hear Ashley’s real voice in songs like "Falling Slowly," "Sympathique," and "Mon Soleil."
Ashley Park was born in 1991, but her life experiences could fill several lifetimes. As a teenager, she had leukemia, and recently, she narrowly survived septic shock. "No one should have cancer at 15, no one my age should have sepsis. And yet, I feel lucky because the way I recovered and returned to myself is basically a miracle," she told "Cosmopolitan" this year.
Paradoxically, it was this severe illness that made Ashley decide to become an actress. "My experiences with cancer are why I’m in theater now. As soon as I left the hospital, I wanted to be around people as much as possible," she said in an interview. After eight months of treatment, she returned to school and immediately took on the lead role in the play "Thoroughly Modern Millie." "Putting on a wig, shoes, and costume to become someone else was the best escape from being just the girl who had cancer," she told playbill.com. She then enrolled in theater school, debuting on stage in 2009 as Yvonne in "Miss Saigon." She began on Broadway with a small role in the musical "Mamma Mia!" in 2014, and thanks to recordings of "The King and I," where she sang as a soloist, she received an Emmy nomination. Her projects grew increasingly prominent, and in 2017, she starred on Broadway in "Sunday in the Park with George" with Jake Gyllenhaal. Shortly after, she began rehearsals for the aforementioned "Mean Girls" musical. Her role as Gretchen wasn’t the end of it, as her performance in the musical "KPOP" earned her the Lucille Lortel Award.
An on-screen romance that became real in Poland
Park has 3.2 million fans on Instagram and another million on TikTok. Her followers eagerly await her latest posts, in which she shares not only photos with her on-screen friend Emily. It’s worth noting that Ashley is truly friends with Lily Collins (just as she is with Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh and Selena Gomez - she says they’re all very similar), and their relationship off-screen is even warmer than on-screen.
The same goes for Mindy’s on-screen boyfriend, Nicolas, played by Paul Forman. And it just so happens that the actors’ feelings blossomed in Poland: after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, they both came to our country to support refugees as volunteers. In an interview with "Cosmopolitan," Ashley revealed that her heart melted when she saw how Paul genuinely cared for children whose fathers were fighting on the front lines. Although she insisted she wouldn’t date actors, she had to admit to herself that she had fallen head over heels in love.
How "Shakira's alleged boyfriend" became an actor
Lucien Laviscount was "discovered" as a particularly cheeky 10-year-old who charmed a pretty cashier in a shopping mall so much that he caught the attention of an agent responsible for a Marks & Spencer ad campaign. On set, he met David Beckham - the footballer was so impressed with the outspoken and confident kid that he personally advised him to pursue acting. Lucien didn’t need to be told twice; from that point on, he methodically attended auditions and landed increasingly significant roles, first in BBC series and then in American productions.
Interestingly, in 2011, he participated in the celebrity edition of "Big Brother," and two years later, he appeared in two episodes of the iconic series "Skins." In 2014, he had a brief role in "Supernatural," and then Ryan Murphy cast him in one of the leading roles in his series "Scream Queens." He also starred with "Harry Potter" star Rupert Grint and "Bridgerton" season one star Phoebe Dynevor in the series "Snatch." Of course, "Emily in Paris" solidified Lucien’s fate as an international star. And after he starred in the music video for "Punteria" by Shakira and Cardi B, media buzzed with rumors that the actor and the Colombian singer had really become a couple. No one confirms or denies it, but if it’s true, and if Emily on the show ends up choosing Gabriel, it might be some consolation for millions of viewers.
