“Emily In Paris” Star Ashley Park Thought She Reached A New Level Of BTS Fangirling—But Had COVID Instead

The feeling hadn’t been what she expected it was.

Ashley Park from Netflix‘s hit series Emily In Paris recently guest-starred on Jim Kimmel Live! and shared an experience of BTS fangirling that was taken to new heights from contracting the Omicron variant of COVID-19 (coronavirus).

Ashley Park | @ashleyparklady/Instagram

Because Ashley Park covered BTS’s “Dynamite” for the opening episode of Emily In Paris, she revealed how it came to be.

When speaking with the show’s staff, she threw out the idea by saying, “Maybe they’ll let me cover somewhere, like my favorite band BTS this season.” The producers quickly got the rights to “Dynamite” and made her dream a reality—one that didn’t go unnoticed by BTS.

So excited to share the news that she had to calm down, Ashley Park gushed about RM sharing her cover on his Instagram. He wasn’t the only member who showed love for her cover, either.

The show comes out, and RM posted on his Instagram story a clip of it and was laughing along. And I was dressed as a half-man, half-woman with a mustache, so I was like, ‘He could be laughing at me, but I’m just internalizing that he’s laughing.’

— Ashley Park

Ashley Park remembered being notified that V shared the clip on his Instagram as well. Like a true ARMY, she’d been so excited to be noticed that she couldn’t sit still. Ashley Park didn’t have a clue how her nail artist was able to complete the task because of her shaking hands.

Fast forward to a couple of days later, V posted on his feed the video of the number. I was getting a manicure at the time, and I couldn’t stop shaking. It’s a miracle I got a manicure.

— Ashley Park

From being noticed by both RM and V, Ashley Park was on such a high that she’d “never had this experience before” and pointed out that she’d “never been a fangirl to this extent.” It turned out that all those feelings had been symptoms instead.

The whole rest of the day, as soon as he had posted that, I couldn’t think. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t get up.

And I was like, ‘Is this what it feels like when your body goes into shock?’ Like, my sinuses, my head was like this.

— Ashley Park

The next day, Ashley Park went about her day and took a COVID-19 test for safety but soon received bad news. She said, “I had Omicron, which is why I was in such a fog.” All of those extreme feelings she thought had been part of intense fangirling were actually symptoms of COVID-19.

Despite those feelings not being what she expected them to be, Ashley Park is indeed a BTS fangirl from how excited she was just by recalling the story. Fortunately, she was able to get better after contracting the virus.

Listen to Ashley Park talk about the new experience, along with her cover of “Dynamite” that caught RM and V’s attention.

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