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Ashley Park was so excited to receive an online shoutout from superstar K-pop group BTS that she felt physically ill — and later discovered she was actually ill, with COVID-19.
On Thursday, Jan. 20, the “Emily in Paris” star dropped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, where she discussed performing the BTS hit “Dynamite” on the Netflix rom-com’s new season.
As she told host Jimmy Kimmel, “Well, I am ARMY. I don’t even realize how much I was ARMY until this happened.”
Recounting the story, Park recalled suggesting to producers that she sing a BTS song in the first episode of the second season of “Emily in Paris”, doubtful it would actually happen.
“Then a couple days before we were going to shoot this scene, we had a whole costume and everything, the producers miraculously got the rights to ‘Dynamite,’” she said. “I remember being on set that day and I was actually super nervous because I hadn’t been in front of a live audience in a while too, and I said to Lily Collins, who is the best, most supportive person on set ever, I was like, ‘If BTS were ever to see this in an alternate universe, I would want to make them as proud as they have made me as a Korean and as an artist.’”
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Her hopes became reality after the episode, when BTS members RM and V posted a clip of her “Dynamite” performance on their respective Instagram pages.
“The whole rest of the day, after they posted that, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t get up,” Park exclaimed. “And I was like, is this what your body feels like when you go into shock? My sinuses, my head… I’ve never had this experience before. I’ve never been a fangirl to this extent.”
However, her physical reaction wasn’t quite what she’d thought it was. “I woke up the next day and I had to take a COVID test for something and I took a COVID test and I had Omicron, which is why I was in such a fog,” she added. “I didn’t think it was COVID because I really thought I had gone into shock.”
