{"id":2413098,"date":"2026-05-12T11:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2413098"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:15:18","slug":"randall-park-recalls-taking-a-road-trip-to-see-a-girlfriend-that-ended-with-him-in-the-hospital-i-never-made-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/randall-park-recalls-taking-a-road-trip-to-see-a-girlfriend-that-ended-with-him-in-the-hospital-i-never-made-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Randall Park recalls taking a road trip to see a girlfriend that ended with him in the hospital: &#8216;I never made it&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3 class=\"heading\">Key Points<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"content-list\">\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>Randall Park recalls the worst trip that he ever took was when a long drive to see a girlfriend ended with him in the hospital, he tells <em>Entertainment Weekly<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>Park&#8217;s best trip was when he went with his father to London, not long before he died.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"list-disc\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p>The <em>Always Be My Maybe<\/em> star is taking over the Negotiator character in Priceline ads from William Shatner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Randall Park;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/randall-park\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Randall Park<\/a> has had some memorable trips \u2014 not all of them happy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I was out of high school, I had a high school girlfriend who ended up going to Indiana University. So I decided to do a road trip from L.A. to Indiana,&#8221; Park tells <em>Entertainment Weekly<\/em>. &#8220;And that turned out to be a nightmare because I ended up getting sick somewhere around Wyoming. And by the time I got to Chicago, I ended up in a hospital, and I had viral meningitis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Fresh Off the Boat<\/em> star was desperate to reach his girlfriend, but his health status made it impossible.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember just thinking, &#8216;I have to get to Indiana to see her,'&#8221; he says. &#8220;But I was so sick that I ended up having to fly back home and I never made it to Indiana.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our <\/em><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The couple stayed together for a year or so, but then they broke up. He always wondered what would have happened if he had reached his intended destination.<\/p>\n<p>Park, who married actress Jae Suh Park in 2009, takes travel seriously. Priceline announced Tuesday that he&#8217;s taking over the role of the brand&#8217;s Negotiator from the iconic <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:William Shatner;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/william-shatner\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">William Shatner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure flex justify-center mb-[1em] mx-auto\">\n<div style=\"max-width:960px\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\">\n<p><i>Randall Park and Jae Suh Park in 2025<br \/>Credit: Rodin Eckenroth\/WireImage<\/i><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The actor, who has already portrayed Jimmy Woo in Marvel projects such as <em>Ant-Man<\/em> and <em>WandaVision<\/em>, as well as appeared in the 2019 movie <em>Always Be My Maybe<\/em>, notes that it&#8217;s a big deal for him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I took it just as seriously as I would any role,&#8221; Park says. &#8220;I really put a lot of thought into the character and what I could bring to it, but also all of the tropes and the things that a spy, a secret agent kind of character would embody.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The job was an easy sell for him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There was a lot to like about it, because I grew up watching their ads and seeing William Shatner as the Negotiator,&#8221; Park says. &#8220;So that was all firmly in place in my brain and kind of just embedded from growing up watching him. So to be a part of something that already existed in my memory was very exciting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Park, 52, is quick to recall his best trip, too, although narrowing down the list is difficult for him.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A couple years ago, I went on a trip to London with my parents,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;And that was really cool. My dad passed not too long ago, so I really look back at that trip very fondly. He really loved the trip and we had a really great time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Park told <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/how-randall-park-changed-his-life-after-his-fathers-death-exclusive-11701474\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">PEOPLE<\/a> in March 2025 that his father&#8217;s death from cancer and his 50th birthday had prompted him to focus on his health. He ran his first marathon in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his new role as the Negotiator, Park plays the character of Gabe on the new AMC series <em>The Audacity<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/randall-park-recalls-road-trip-to-see-girlfriend-put-him-in-the-hospital-11970541\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Points Randall Park recalls the worst trip that he ever took was when a long drive to see a girlfriend ended with him in the hospital, he tells Entertainment Weekly. Park&#8217;s best trip was when he went with his father to London, not long before he died. The Always Be My Maybe star is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2413099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[355705,472192,451815,472193,24088],"class_list":["post-2413098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-indiana-university","tag-jae-suh-park","tag-randall-park","tag-the-negotiator","tag-william-shatner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Randall-Park-recalls-taking-a-road-trip-to-see-a.com2Fen2Faol_entertainment_weekly_articles_3682F0ebe6738078552e73b91111bd.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2413100,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413098\/revisions\/2413100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}