How the 'Joy Ride' cast brought debauchery to an Asian American friends trip
From the moment actors Ashley Park ("Emily in Paris"), Sherry Cola ("Good Trouble"), Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu ("Everything Everywhere All at Once") and newcomer Sabrina Wu read the script that would become "Joy Ride," a hard-R studio comedy starring Asian American leads, the working title said it all: "Joy F— Club."
"I knew that it would be this raunchy, over-the-top comedy, but then the heart started coming in and I was blown away by how invested I was in these characters and their friendships," said Park, who stars as Audrey, an adoptee and lawyer whose work trip sparks a spur-of-the-moment adventure across China with her BFF Lolo (Cola), an artist stuck in arrested development; her college roommate-turned-soap-star pal Kat (Hsu), who's hiding her sexual history from her devoutly Christian fiance; and Lolo's socially awkward cousin, Deadeye (Wu), whose only friends are on the internet.
Sex, copious drug consumption and a K-pop cover of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's "WAP" ensue as the quartet embarks on an unlucky side journey to find Audrey's birth mother that deepens friendships and tests their bonds. The film allows its Asian American characters to be messy and multilayered in a way Hollywood films rarely do while exploring different dimensions, complexities and truisms of the Asian American experience (and serving up a robust offering of male eye candy through its decidedly female, and ravenous, gaze).
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