If you’re hoping to laugh your butt off, look no further than Joy Ride. The latest comedy among 2023’s new movie releases to hit theaters this summer is seriously one of the best women-led buddy comedies in some time. There are a lot of hilarious bits throughout the movie from its leading cast, but right now we have to talk about the origins of Ashley Park’s Gollum impression, how it came about and what it almost was.
When CinemaBlend spoke to Ashley Park and Sherry Cola at Joy Ride’s Los Angeles press day, we asked the star about her spot on Lord of the Rings reference (in the video above). First, in Park’s words:
To be frank, I’m scared of everything. Like Harry Potter‘s the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. So like Lord of the Rings, I read the books honestly during my cancer treatment, we don’t have to get into that, but I read the books and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I would love to watch this.’ And I watched it. As soon as Gollum came out I was like, ‘We’re done. I’m out of it.’ So, Gollum has haunted me for a while.
As Park shared, she got super into all the Lord of the Rings books when she was undergoing cancer treatment. The actress was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia when she was a sophomore in high school, which led to an eight-month hospital stay before she broke into Broadway, per Playbill. However, when she went to check out Peter Jackson’s movies, she was completely afraid of Gollum and couldn’t get through them. Even so, she absolutely nailed her impression of Andy Serkis’ motion-capture character as you can see:
So, there’s certainly history there between Ashley Park and Gollum that led to her impression of the mystical character. Park continued, sharing how the moment came about on set, saying:
During that scene in particular, I think Chris and Rohan were such great scene partners and Adele was kind of like, you know what, ‘why don’t you just like improv flirting, like how you would flirt at a bar if guys came up to you’. That didn’t happen to me a lot. So, I thought I was doing well. And afterwards they were like ‘So funny. Oh my god, amazing, so funny.” And I was like, ‘Wait, I wasn’t trying to be funny though. I was trying to flirt’.
This detail about Ashley Park’s Gollum impression is too funny. While Park claimed it’s not very good, Sherry Cola assured us how great she thinks it is. The Emily in Paris star also revealed some of the other wild impressions she tried when they workshopped the scene, saying:
So there were a couple different options like for the Gollum thing. I’m glad they went with Gollum just so it haunts me cause I don’t love that I did that. I think there was like a Cockney version or like Mickey Mouse.
This answer makes us want to see all the bloopers for Joy Ride. I wonder how many impressions she tried on that day. During our interview, Park also threw her hat in for Lord of the Rings 7, joking that she’s ready to play Gollum in a sequel if anyone needs her after her solid impersonation.
Ashley Park found great success in the world of Broadway after high school, starring in over a dozen productions like The King And I – being an original cast member in the Mean Girls musical as Gretchen Weiners is particularly notable too. Plus, there’s the fun fact that she played Colette in the fan-made Ratatouille musical TikTok cooked up amidst crazed 2020 quarantines. So, this actress has range and she’s hysterical.
Park has also found more success in movies and television, between being part of the Emily in Paris cast and playing a role in Netflix’s Beef. Joy Ride is her first leading role in a movie, and she really gets to showcase all her chops, Gollum impression and all. You can check out Joy Ride, now playing in theaters.