Adele Lim’s Joy Ride well earns its R rating. The movie is absolutely packed to the brim with raunchy humor that doesn’t hold back in the least, and just about every single one of those jokes lands. On top of that, the film’s extreme and hugely effective comedy is all backed by a powerful emotional throughline about identity and self-discovery.

Ashley Park leads the film as Audrey, an Asian American adoptee. When Audrey gets the opportunity to travel to China for a work trip, her best friend Lolo (Sherry Cola) encourages her to use it as an opportunity to find her birth mother. So off they go with Lolo’s cousin, Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), in tow. Soon after arriving, they meet up with Audrey’s college friend who’s become a Chinese soap opera star, Stephanie Hsu’s Kat, and together, they embark on an unexpected road trip that involves slapping, vomit, a cocaine fiasco, an impromptu K-pop performance, and then some.

With Joy Ride now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to chat with Park and Cola about their journey with the movie including the wealth of outrageous and delightful humor, and also the groundbreaking “firsts” many of the core team achieved while making the film. Hear all about Park’s pride in being #1 on the call sheet for the first time, Cola’s unforgettable scene with former NBA athlete Baron Davis, and loads more in the video at the top of this article or in transcript form below.

Image via Lionsgate

PERRI NEMIROFF: I want to ask you both about working with Adele Lim because this is her first feature as director and I have a very good feeling there will be many more on the horizon, so what is something about her as an actor’s director that you look forward to more actors getting to experience with her on her future films?

SHERRY COLA: You know, I think there’s always something very special about being in someone’s directorial debut because this is the first time they’re wearing that hat and the fact that we get to be the ensemble in Joy Ride that experienced it for the first time, it was such a bonding experience, the trust between the actors and the director and the producers to play around and to challenge ourselves. I think Adele kept the heart in it, which was very important for the entire film.

ASHLEY PARK: Especially for my character. The thing about having a directorial debut or people who are playing leads for the first time in a big studio film is there’s no way you can understand it until you’ve experienced it, so we were all learning together. And to watch as she was like, “Okay, what do you …,” like, so collaborative, and also us being like, “What do you want? Is it okay?” And then all of us being like, “Wait, let’s all figure out …” I’m allowed to say for the first time what I think should be happening and it’s gonna be listened to, and she felt the same way. All of us learning together really did feel like a group project in a way.

And I really think that Point Grey taking a chance on somebody who’s a directorial debut in that way, and her being one of the creators of it — most of the discussions I had with Adele were very like, at the end of the day, this is a raunchy comedy as it’s being sold, but the thing that takes people’s breath is the friendship that’s the core of it and the journey with Audrey and what she has to figure out about her identity, and what she goes through in it. And I think that Adele was so great as a writer and as a storyteller of being like, “Okay, let’s not lose sight of that because of jokes,” and I really appreciated her for that.

That through-line — it’s fun watching the movie, but that’s the thing that makes it stick with you well after it’s over.

PARK: Well, that’s the thing, too. It’s because we’ve always been the butt of jokes, you know? And so in order to be like, “Okay, great, we’re making jokes on ourself and we’re the butt of the jokes, but also there’s something more meaningful here,” that was so important for all of us.

Image via Lionsgate

Time for my most sentimental question of all. I’ve gotten in the habit of asking this a lot because I don’t think anybody in this business tells themselves good job nearly enough, so for each of you, can you tell me something you did in this movie that makes you say to yourself, “Damn, I am proud of what I did there?”

PARK: Oh my gosh! Aww, I’m gonna cry!

COLA: Thank you. Thank you very much.

PARK: We’re really bad at that, too. We do that for each other.

COLA: Yeah, words of affirmation inwards. A standout for me was my day with Baron Davis. This was a long day, hours and hours of just him being game for everything I threw at him, and he was such a good sport. We had an intimacy coordinator on set, of course, for his benefit [laughs], and the sex noises that I do and just slapping him and just [makes slurping sounds], all that stuff, that was just so fun. We never get to play like that, you know? Yeah, that was definitely a standout for me.

PARK: I think everybody behind the camera and around the camera trusted you, too, to just do your thing.

COLA: [Laughs] Yeah, yeah, yeah! What about you?

PARK: I think I’m still working on it. Just owning the fact that I’ve never been a title character, I’ve never been the number one on the call sheet, I’ve never felt like I didn’t have to rush through a scene because we have to get to the protagonist part of the story. So, I think I’m really just processing that still and realizing that that’s important, that’s okay. I don’t know, I’m glad that I woke up every morning and did the best work I could, I guess. I watch it and I don’t think, “Oh, I wish I would have done that,” or, “I wish I would have really gone for that.” I really think we all just were like, “Here’s what it is. It might be our only chance ever, so let’s just do it!”

COLA: 100%, yeah.

Hurry up and process and let it sink in because there will be more on the horizon. I’m sure that.

Alright, silly question time! I play an acting Would You Rather game a lot and there’s this one question that I ask all the time that feels very appropriate to ask for this movie; would you rather have to fake sneeze or fake vomit in a scene?

COLA: I’m really bad at fake sneezing!

PARK: I sneeze all the time. I’m surprised I haven’t done it in this junket yet, and I have fake vomited, so it depends. We had great VFX people and they were like, “What are your favorite flavors?” I was like, “Cinnamon rolls, chocolate …” So my fake barf tasted pretty good.

COLA: Wow! I low-key would have been down to try it.

PARK: But I have a small mouth, so it didn’t fit a lot.

COLA: I have a really big mouth. The mouthy one!

PARK: I think probably fake vomit because you just have to put something in and then spit it out versus fake sneeze, to make it organic you have to really …

COLA: Yeah, people can tell you’re an impostor!

PARK: [Fakes sneezes].

COLA: Oh, let me try. [Fakes sneezing]

PARK: The build-up was good.

COLA: Was that good?

PARK: I’ve heard you sneeze before and I know that’s not real, but to the normal eye that was good.

COLA: That was fake. That was fake!

Image via Lionsgate

The follow-up to that is, what seemingly silly everyday thing is most difficult to replicate believably on set in a film? Things like falling asleep, fake driving …

COLA: Oh, waking up is funny. Waking up always makes me laugh.

PARK: Really?

COLA: Waking up in the scene, you’re always like [acts out waking up]. You make those sounds of like, coming alive. [Laughs]

PARK: Let’s talk about that later. That’s a weird thing.

COLA: Waking up is always so awkward in a scene! You know?

PARK: I guess so. I think for me, the most difficult thing is, because I love food, I can eat anything, anywhere, you know? But when you do scenes where you’re just eating over and over, I’m like, “Oh, this strawberry …” [Mimes eating.]

COLA: [Laughs] Yeah, this strawberry for the 87th time. You have to watch what you do on the first take because you have to commit. Also kissing! Kissing is also a whole other thing because when I’m kissing on screen, I’m not kissing how I kiss in real life.

PARK: Why?

COLA: They can’t know my secrets! I have to put on this fake TV/film kiss. You know what I mean?

PARK: [Laughs] I don’t do that.

COLA: A little suck, suck, lick, you know? You kiss for real? You kiss like you kiss intimately behind closed doors? No way!

PARK: Everyone just calm down.

This is a great question that I wish I could ask at other junkets, but it doesn’t feel right.