How the movie 'My Old Ass' takes an unlikely premise to a surprising place – Orange County Register

When Elliott, played by Maisy Stella, skips a family birthday dinner to take magic mushrooms in the woods with her friends, you might think it's the setup for a coming-of-age comedy. And on one level, “My Old Ass” is just that: a funny look at Elliott at a turning point in her life, when she meets Chad, played by Percy Hynes White, just before she leaves her small-town home for college in the big city.

But audiences at this year's Sundance Film Festival were still in tears. The film's twist is that on her trip, Elliott meets an older version of herself, played by Aubrey Plaza, who gives her younger self some hard-to-follow advice. As the old and young Elliott – who manage to maintain a connection even after the effects of the drugs wear off – face what life has in store for them, the laughter turns to poignant tears.

The film, which opens in theaters September 13, is only the second from Megan Park, an actress whose acclaimed debut as a writer and director, “The Fallout,” follows a high school student (Jenna Ortega) who struggles with trauma after surviving a school shooting.

Park recently spoke via video about capturing the language of teenagers and finding the story in the editing room. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Was it the thought of a teenager at a crucial moment or the vanity of a mushroom trip and meeting your older self?

As a writer, I'm guided by emotion. The Fallout was born out of my frustration and anger at the idea that American high school students have to live with the constant possibility of school shootings. For this film, I was home in my childhood bedroom during the pandemic, had a baby, and was feeling nostalgic. I had this feeling that comes up in the scene where Chad talks about the last time you played with your friends as a kid and you don't realize it's the last time. That made me explore this idea of ​​older and younger self. The idea of ​​the mushroom trip came when I was trying to figure out how to make that happen.

Q. Among the many fantastic qualities of the film is the dialogue, which is perfectly tuned for teenagers. Do you have a natural ear or did you give your young actors input?

I started out acting, so I put a lot of emphasis on dialogue and when I write, I say it out loud to make sure it flows. You have to know what you know and what you don't know.

I try to make it relatable and authentic, but I'm not 18 anymore, so I try to be open-minded and really engage the actors: “Is this joke funny or is there another line you would say instead?” It's an open line of communication every step of the way and they're so helpful and always checking for me how relatable it is.

And we did scripts, but also a lot of fun runs, and the chemistry between Maisy and Maddie Ziegler and Kerrice Brooks as her best friends was very natural and naturally created some great moments.

Q: Do these improvised “fun run” moments end up being shown on screen or do they create more of a chemistry that drives the scripted material?

It's both. A lot of times it's the runway to get the script done, but there were moments that stuck, especially ones that started with Aubrey saying something and then it took off. And it was Kerricet's first film, but she's so good that I kept saying, “Put her in her position and just press record and see what she says.”

Q: What did you look for when casting Elliott and Chad?

We got really lucky because the finance people and producers said we should find the younger Elliott first and didn't insist on just finding the hottest object. I wanted someone who was very grounded and very Gen Z, but also had a vulnerability and also a lightness and joy of life. Then we screened her for her chemistry with everyone. Percy sent a self-tape and it was brilliant and he just got the humor. When he did the list with his name, everyone had to show their whole body, so he wore a nice shirt and then panned down to show nice pants… and bare feet. It was so Chad.

Q. There are a lot of laughs and a very silly hallucination where Elliott is Justin Bieber. How difficult was it to find the balance between humor and pathos, knowing where the film is going?

That was the hardest thing. We were hoping the film would be heartfelt, but the script was lighter and the performances were just so incredible and the setting had such a beautiful and nostalgic feel that the film ended up being much more heartfelt and emotional in the edit than we expected. So there's a delicate line and you have to go back and reverse engineer every moment and think about how many doors you're opening with each scene. Once we really figured out what the film was about, we were able to use the advice that Aubrey gives Maisy in her phone conversations to change things in the edit.

Q: Did you know what kind of reaction you would get when the film came out?

No. With humor, you get a sense of it while you're shooting, but with emotion, you don't always get that sense because you're so deep in the filming and you're worrying about whether the camera is in focus. Although I got pretty emotional while I was shooting, Aubrey's performance really blew me away.

Still, you don't know, and in the cut you see it 7,000 times, so it's hard to say for sure. Sitting in that audience at Sundance, where all genders and ages had such a universal reaction, was pretty crazy.