Ashley Park found filming the new series of 'Emily in Paris' "so taxing" after her health battle.
Ashley Park is so proud of herself for pushing through after suffering her health scare
The 33-year-old star - who battled leukaemia when she was 15 - was hospitalised with critical septic shock in January, and although it was challenging filming the third season of the Netflix series, she is so "proud" for making it through.
Taking part in Harper’s Bazaar 'What You Don’t Know About Me' video series, she said: “Filming was physically taxing in a way I hadn’t previously endured.
“But I had to stop gaslighting myself and be like, I’m allowed to feel this way. I’ll do the best I can in these stilettos and this latex skirt, and I can be proud when I watch this season and know the amount of passion and hard work I put in just to be there.”
Ashley - who pays Mindy Chen on the hit show - recently admitted she feels "lucky" to be alive.
Noting how using humour "makes it easier" to talk about her problems, she told America's Cosmopolitan magazine: “As an adult, I understand what coping mechanisms are. Stuff I didn’t know when I was a teenager.
“And even though both of the extreme illnesses I’ve had have been such flukes in a way — no one who’s 15 should have cancer, and no one who’s my age should have septic shock — I feel lucky, actually. It’s been kind of a miracle how I’ve recovered.”
Ashley was on vacation with her boyfriend and co-star Paul Forman when she fell ill this year and she doesn't "think [she] would have made it" without his support in unfamiliar surroundings.
She said: “When I went to the ER and ICU for the first time, I was in the Maldives with Paul. I don’t think I would’ve made it without him. Everybody else was on the other side of the world from us.
“Once I got there, I got really sick with tonsillitis. Then everything really started going wrong.
"I was in different ICUs and then air ambulances for a month. I couldn’t leave because I wasn’t allowed to fly.
"When I finally could, it was a shorter distance to Paris than to LA, so I had to go straight to Paris to recover, not home.
“When I woke up in the hospital and they said, ‘You have septic shock.' I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I am shocked I have sepsis!’"
Ashley's hospitalisation was a wake-up call for her and she's pledged to take better care of herself in the future.
She admitted: “I pushed myself too far. I was not listening to my body.
"Now, I’m thinking about my future and asking, ‘Am I putting myself in a position where I’m going to be able to do my best?’ That starts with my health.
"I’m getting back to my old self. I look and feel better, and I’m trying to stay as stable as I can and keep the same energy that people expect.”