Ashley Park Sparkled Like the Eiffel Tower at the Emily in Paris Premiere

Since premiering on Netflix in 2020, Emily in Paris has proven to be a massive hit, as much for its romance and friendship-centered storylines as its Patricia Field costumes. Now in its third season, the series has been a robust part of the streamer’s lineup, but the cast has never had the chance to properly celebrate in person. That is, until, the show’s appropriately Parisian first premiere, which brought cast and crew together for a special evening on December 6th.

Held (fittingly) at the revamped Champs Elysées Theater, the event was attended by the full cast, including stars Lily Collins, Ashley Park, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Kate Walsh, Lucas Bravo, and Camille Razat. The dress code, per Netflix? “C’est Paris, it’s couture baby!”

Front and center and wearing a sparkling, gold, floor-length Valentino gown with matching cropped jacket was Ashley Park, who plays the witty Mindy. Speaking to W from Paris, Park said of the premiere, “It was the most special and most magical. We’ve never been able to celebrate the show all together. I come from the background of theater, and what’s important to me is you’re all sharing the sensations.”

She added, “We’ve all made this thing together, each year, for the third time. Just being able to all be in the same space and to be in Paris for it, and especially with most of our hair and makeup people who were also from the show, felt really joyful and really, well, overdue.”

Park said it was a particular honor to wear Valentino the day after creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli won the BFA award for Designer of the Year. “This dress was one that my stylist, Erin Walsh, immediately was like, ‘This has to be the one,’” she said. “The first thing I thought of when I saw it was the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. Especially in the winter, what you think of when you think of romance is Paris.”

It’s not a dress that Park would have naturally gravitated toward in the past, though. “I would've been too intimidated to wear [it] before. It’s one that someone has to really own themselves in. I’m humbled and happy that I got to wear it for this special premiere, and I’m so grateful I have that jacket, too,” she added. “I’m a person who loves being able to wear an outfit and not have the outfit wear me. Having these layers and being able to have elements that I can play with and have movement with is always fun.”

Although her journey to France was more of a work trip, it was nonetheless filled with activity; and the cast still found time to have fun. “Lily and I often joke that we use these press junkets as our built-in catch-up time. It’s the only time when all of the cast will stay in the same hotel, so it feels a little bit like after-hours where we get to go and talk in our PJs and share the same space.”

As for the season itself, Park is happy to see her character bond with Lily’s titular role. “We get to see a new dimension to Emily and Mindy’s friendship this season—and it’s one that really turns it into a dimension of sisterhood,” she said. “There’s a stigma that if people come from different backgrounds or don’t see eye to eye, that they can’t be there for each other.”

She continued, “We also have some great new characters this season. There’s a character that comes in who represents who Mindy used to be, or the life that she comes from, which is one that we’ve seen her run away from and be intimidated to share. She feels understood and seen in a way that she hasn’t been able to feel in Paris.”