Megan Park may have had to wait nine months for her celebrated Sundance romantic comedy “My Old Ass” to hit theaters, but she’s been busy in the interim. Not only does she have more projects in development with Lucky Chap, the Margot Robbie-led production company that shepherded “Ass” to life, but with Jen Salke’s Amazon Studios, the streaming giant that acquired the indie out of Park City. And, yes, those are two powerful people to have in your corner.
Set almost entirely around a sleepy Canadian lake, “My Old Ass” centers on Elliot (Maisy Stella), a decidedly bisexual queen who is trying to have one last hot summer before heading to college in the fall. While celebrating her 18th birthday with her friends, she journeys on a mushroom trip that finds her meeting a version of herself from 20 years (or so) later. Portrayed by Aubrey Plaza, this person, affectionately known as My Old Ass, has a lot of valuable and specific advice for a hallucination because, well, she’s not. And soon, in ways the movie never needs to explain, the pair are communicating on the phone back and forth through time. From the beginning, though, My Old Ass has one very important message for Elliot, “Stay away from Chad.” At the time, that makes no sense to Elliot until, of course, a Chad (Percy Hynes White) arrives and unintentionally sweeps her off her feet.
The film is often very funny, has a wonderful storyline between Maisy and her mother (Maria Dizzia), and is just romantic enough to have you rooting (or not) for Elliot and Chad to make it and not take My Old Ass’ advice.
Earlier this week, and with her sophomore effort now in wide release, Park took some time to chat with The Playlist about her inspiration for the movie’s creative storyline, her already impressive casting skills, how the movie looks much more expensive than it cost, a mountain of praise for Robbie and her Lucky Chap partners, and much more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Playlist: You make the movie, you go to Sundance, and then you have to wait nine months for it to come out. The good news is people loved it then and people love it now, and it’s getting great word of mouth. Are you all checking out the reaction on social media?
Megan Park: I mean, I feel like I normally would not be on social media checking it out but I have had a second to creep everything online and watch some of the interviews. So yeah, it’s been really fun actually. And I think it’s been fun because it’s been overwhelmingly positive and I just feel like such a proud mom watching Maisie and reading about her performance and reviews. So, yes, I have been doing a little creeping.
Well, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Your first directorial effort, “The Fallout,” was a slightly more serious film than this.
Yeah.
What made you go in a different direction? Or was this an idea you’d had for a long time?
It was a little bit intentional to be in the lighter headspace for sure because, obviously, “The Fallout” was a really important story for me personally to tell. But at the same time, it was a really heavy headspace to be in, understandably so. I definitely wanted to tap into something a little lighter, a little more fun, and heartfelt. But yeah, I mean, the story [just] came to me. I think it was feeling really nostalgic about Canada, where I’m from. I just had my first daughter. I think becoming a parent for the first time makes you immediately reflect on your own childhood, and your perception of your parents changes so much. And so, in a weird way, it was almost like me becoming a mother that made me want to explore this idea, which doesn’t maybe track linearly, but it was sort of the nostalgic feel, and time all of a sudden just sped up like 10 times more. As soon as I had a child, it was like, “Whoa, where’s all the time going?”
Do you remember where you got the idea to have the future version of Elliot come and visit her younger self? Was that the genesis of the screenplay or was it added later?
That was later. I started with the idea that ended up being a scene with Chad and Elliot where he’s talking about when was the last time you played with your friends, and you played pretend, and you didn’t know there was a last time your whole family slept under the same roof. It was that idea. It made me so sad. I feel like I’m the type of person who, if I knew it was the last time, I wouldn’t enjoy it. I would just be too anxious. So, I think that my biggest fear about life is that in death, I’m going to be like, “F**k, I should have enjoyed it.” I’m always struggling with being in the present and enjoying the present. So it was really that feeling that made me want to go back. If I could go back and tell myself it was the last time, how would that change that for me? And that led to this older, younger conversation. And then the mushroom trip, all of that stuff, Chad, all that came later. It was a discovery for me as I was writing it from page one.
I know it’s hard to think back about your process. I’m sure things come and go, but do you remember when you thought this narrative could work for the whole movie and not just a one-time mushroom trip scene?
That’s a good question. I am a writer who doesn’t know what the f**k I’m doing, and from page one, I don’t outline. I don’t do a pitch. And so even the big turn that happens with Know Who, I was kind of figuring that out as I went, but I knew that I felt like I’d seen this story told from the older perspective before, but I hadn’t seen it primarily focused on the younger version. And even though it’s ultimately kind of Old Ass’s lesson to learn from her younger self, I just liked the idea of it coming from that kind of fresh, fun, free perspective. But yeah, the balance of how much you see older Elliot was really tricky to navigate every step of the way, truthfully. And even when we were done, it was like, “I wish we’d had more of her,” but I think she needed to go away in the way that she did to have Elliot figure out and mess up and have all those moments happen that happened.
It’s not the core part of the film, but you purposely leave very vague what is going in Old Ass’ “present.”
Yeah.
Did you come up with a backstory about what she’s going through in whatever that year is in the future?
Aubrey and I literally just one-on-one talked about it because I had ideas of kind of what it was, but I also was curious for her as an actor to come in and fill that out and what she felt right for her. And there are little things that get dropped on screen that were there from the beginning in terms of thinking about her having a girlfriend in the future, there were certain things that we purposely added on camera, but then once we had the movie locked, there was a lot of room to add in and change stuff in ADR with the voiceover conversation. Then we could kind of push the boundaries a little bit more and have fun with it once we felt like, “O.K, we can add this joke in, but it doesn’t get us too sliding doors-y where we’re now we’re opening up more questions, and we have answers for.” And the editor, Jen Vecchiarello, was really helpful with that because I get nervous sometimes. She pushed me to trust my audience more. I’ve only made two movies, but I’ve definitely learned the most about myself as a writer in the edit more than anything else about either things I wish I’d done differently or whatever in the script process. Also, it was great to just have Aubrey come into the ADR sessions with the phone stuff and riff and come up with new stuff on the spot. It was really a team effort.
You are taking a big swing with that setup. It might not have worked, but it does. Do you remember on set thinking, “Oh, this clicks. This is what I hoped for.”? Or were you nervous until you got into the editing room?
I felt confident in the script. I did. I felt confident in the story. I knew who Elliot was. I knew the tone of the movie I wanted to make. So, I did have that North Star, and I felt like I was in good hands in terms of the producers and the people kind of guiding me into my sophomore film. I think I felt in good hands, but you also, you never know. I didn’t know until we were in the Sundance screening room whether it was going to work. I mean, you get so lost in it. You’ve seen it 7,000 times. I think it’s easier with jokes to tell if they’re landing in the edit, but with heartfelt moments, you just don’t know, and you hope, but you don’t know if a movie’s real until it’s out there.
It is. Clearly, bless Canadian tax credits, but this could not have been an insanely expensive indie to make. But on the other hand, it looks super polished and expensive. How did you pull that off? How did you pull off the musical sequence? How did you make it look so good?
Well, thank you for saying that. Yeah, it was an indie movie. It was not a huge budget for the movie, and we did have to walk the line. And honestly, filming on boats took so much time and so much money. And I mean, we were dealing with losing light all the time. It was a tough shoot. It was pretty fast, just a little bit of prep. Honestly, my DP is incredible. Kristen Correll, I worked with her on “The Fallout.” I mean, there were times when she couldn’t f**king throw a light up. She was just working with what she had. We were out in the elements. She’s flexible and collaborative and knows what she’s doing. And we had such genius actors and such a strong team of people behind it that I think when everybody knew it was go time and everybody was bringing their A-game.
But there were, I mean, I’m not going to lie. In the edit, there were moments that felt like brain surgery because we just didn’t have certain things like, “Oh f**k, we didn’t get time to get this wide that we needed. We didn’t have time to get this coverage in the way we needed because we ran out of light or the background change.” So again, that’s where you have to get creative and work with what you have. We didn’t get 10 takes of anything in this movie. It wasn’t that type of shoot. It was pretty bare bones. And I don’t even think we got that many tax credits. We were funded by American Money. I think we got a few. I’m Canadian, but we weren’t funded by, to my knowledge, the Canadian government at all. So, we were on our own.
I’m not going to say you discovered her, but for your first movie, you definitely plucked Jenny Ortega before she hit it big time, and now you cast Maisie, who is super charismatic and screams star. First, what is your secret sauce to determining that this actor has talent, and second, what was it about Maisie that made you want to cast her?
I mean, casting is so instinctual for me. I have to go with my gut, and I can usually tell within 10 seconds of a self-tape read. I mean, the one thing I realized is there’s just so much f**king talent out there. And if I could go back and tell my acting self, which is who’s now retired, I’d say, “So much of the time when you get a part, it has nothing to do with how talented [you are], it’s just your energy.” And so, for me, I’m looking for an energy, the talent, and the ability to pull it off. And with Jenna, there was just this intangible intelligence and special sauce to her that was so undeniable. I mean, we met for coffee, and within 30 seconds, I remember being like, “Oh yeah, this girl. The depth of what she’s capable of is unreal. And she’s only 17 years old, and she gets it.” And we also had a similar way of working, which makes it the whole process a lot easier. And the same thing with Maisy. I met her because she read for “The Fallout,” and her audition tape was so good, but there wasn’t a part that was quite right for her energy. And I remember being bummed because it’s hard to let someone go, and they’re so talented. And I knew she was a star. I knew it in my gut, but there just wasn’t a part for her. But then, as I was writing this movie, I didn’t really know her. I kind of just peripherally knew her through Maddie Ziegler and whatever, but I’d only met her maybe once in passing. But she’s very cool and grounded, but she also is so kind and warm and sparkly. And I thought, “Wow, I haven’t really seen a lot of young female leads, teenage characters that are not jaded and dark and moody and sad that are still cool.” She kind of has that Alicia Silverstone and “Clueless” thing, but without the ditzy, whatever they forced on her in that movie. And [Maisy has this] intangible depth to her as well where you feel like you’re talking to somebody who could be 30, 40, or 50. They’re just so on your level, but then they’ll say something, and you’re like, “Oh my God, this person’s 18 years old.” There’s that depth that Jenna has, too. And then when we started talking again, such a similar working style. And I think when you’re making an indie movie, you’ve got 20 days to make a movie, and whoever is your number one in every frame of that f**king movie, it makes things easier if you have a similar way of working. And in an unspoken language. And I certainly had that with both of them, and it just made the whole process so easy and fun.
The movie is still in theaters, but let’s say it goes to Prime Video, it smashes and Jen Salke calls you and says, “I want a sequel.” Would you do a sequel to this one? Is there a “My Old Asser” or “My Old Ass 2” in your brain?
Listen, I love Jen Salke, so if Jen Salke calls and asks me for anything, I’m going to have a hard time saying no to that. I love it. Never say never,
Never say never. And then obviously you shot this last year it came out. Have you been working on anything else? Have you been writing anything else in the meantime that you want to get made next?
I’ve been working with Jen Salke on something else. [Laughs].
Oh.
Yeah, I have a few things in the works. I’m also working with Lucky Chap on another project, which I’m excited about, and with Indian Paintbrush, who are my partners in this movie. I mean, again, it took a long time, the edit and the post-production of this. But yeah, I’m writing two other things right now, which I’m really excited about.
Alright, well I won’t ask you to give this away, but how involved was Margot Robbie and her production company, Lucky Chap, in making this film? Because next to Plan B, their taste level is top tier in Hollywood. And I’m sure for any filmmaker it’s right now it’s like a golden endorsement if they want to make your movie. But I don’t know if you knew that then.
Oh my God. I know. It’s so funny. “People were like, what’s it like working with Lucky Chap?” I’m like, “Well, I’m doing my next two projects both with them.” So, if that doesn’t say what the vibe is, I mean, they’re extremely involved, and Margo herself is extremely involved. It’s not like she just has slapped her name on something and then isn’t involved every step of the way. She was doing pre-production meetings from her “Barbie” trailer in the UK, and she was on set, she was by the monitor. She was a part of every step of the way as well as Tom Ackerley, who was very involved, her husband, Bronte Payne, and Josey McNamara, as well. Although Josey was mostly on the “Saltburn” set, they were kind of all bouncing around through filming at the same time. But everyone in their company is so filmmaker-friendly, and the phrase filmmaker-friendly to me means that they uniquely deal with each director differently in terms of figuring out what they need from them. And they’ve told me Greta needs something so different than I need, and they’re able to kind of tailor their process to just giving the director, I think, just the healthiest amount of creative freedom, but being there for them when you need them. I’m somebody who doesn’t like to know about some of the business fires behind the scenes where some directors really want to know, and I need help with certain things maybe other people don’t need help with. So they’re good at reading that. And I think they just have great gut instincts on things, and they know how to make movies and retain the creative core of what you were trying to do every step of the way, which isn’t always easy when you’re starting to make movies on a bigger level. So, I feel very protected and safe with them. And then I got to say, on top of that, they’re f**king incredible humans. I’ve now worked with them for almost three years. They treat everybody, from the PA to the star, to whoever they’re talking to, with the same level of respect. They’re just really decent human beings, which in this industry is sadly not always the case. So, when you find people that are just honest and good and f**king smart and great, I don’t know, I feel very lucky to be in their orbit.
“My Old Ass” is now in theaters nationwide.