The door suddenly swung open on its own, making the actor bolt upright in bed. "I don't even believe in this stuff!" Ashley laughs later that day when we meet for fettuccine, fries, and espresso martinis-the "comfort food" she needs. "I swear something was there. It scared the crap out of me."
That's saying something, because at this point, you'd think it would take a lot to frighten Ashley. She survived leukemia as a teen and theater school as a young adult. She won over Broadway's notoriously picky audiences as Gretchen in Mean Girls, nabbing a Tony Award nomination in the process. She's endured auditions where the only feedback was "No, you're Asian" and held her own onscreen with Meryl Streep and Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building), Ali Wong (Beef), and Sherry Cola (Joy Ride). And this past January, she was hospitalized for more than a month with septic shock. Doctors thought she might die; instead, she got out of bed and filmed the fourth season of Emily in Paris (it debuts August 15 on Netflix, where it remains one of the platform's most-viewed shows ever).
Through it all, Ashley has publicly transmitted an unrelenting "happy but chill" aura. Her halogen smile, glossy hair, and sunny-yetstructured style (pink Balmain tweeds and black Nina Ricci ruffles mixed with everygirl athleisure) are the visual version of a "Trust me, I'M FINE" text. On anyone else, this vibe would come off annoyingly fake. On Ashley, it somehow feels refreshingly natural-because it's grounded in her childhood experience with cancer, she says. "I'm so used to people thinking I'm not okay. Believe me, I'm great. I'll let you know otherwise."
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