Following its winning over audiences at both this year’s Sundance and Sydney Film Festivals, My Old Ass is arriving in Australian theatres this week for all to witness Megan Park‘s “deliriously sweet, always charming, oft-hilarious venture.” (You can read the rest of our review here).
Featuring a stand-out performance from Maisy Stella, My Old Ass is a fresh coming-of-age story about an 18th birthday mushroom trip that brings free-spirited Elliott (Stella) face-to-face with her wisecracking 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), but when Elliott’s “old ass” starts handing out warnings about what her younger self should and shouldn’t do, Elliott realizes she has to rethink everything about family, love, and what’s becoming a transformative summer.
To coincide with the film’s release this week, Peter Gray spoke with both Megan and Maisy about the cathartic experience of writing the film, the anchor of the story being light as opposed to darkness, and working with “good human” Margot Robbie and her hands-on production company.
I wanted to ask you first, Megan, about writing this story. I know how cathartic writing can be, and I was wondering if that was something you felt when writing this? That you get to tackle those “What if?” questions through your writing?
Megan Park: Yeah, I feel like it was selfishly therapy for me. I’m not thinking, as I’m writing, about that (my script) is ever going to be seen. Truthfully, it feels like me figuring out exactly what we’re talking about. What would I do if I could go back in time? And grief and loss and motherhood, and all these little things that kind of come out through these different characters that I’m sort of figuring out about myself or my past. Yeah, it is a very cathartic experience, and although I probably relate more to older Elliott, “Old Assy”, as we call her in this film, now at this point in my life, there’s a little piece of me and my story in each one of the characters.
One of the things I loved about Elliott is that she’s so sure of herself. She isn’t one of those teens that’s always brooding. We’re immediately on her side from the get-go. Was that always in the script? Or did you, Maisy, imbue any of that into the character yourself?
Maisy Stella: I read Elliott to be that way. I read Elliott as a ball of love. I was so attracted to her because of that, literally exactly what you said. I’m so used to all of these coming of age movies where there’s such a stereotype around the younger character. Most of the time the teenagers are pretty angsty and brooding and mysterious. I don’t know, I was just so excited about (My Old Ass) feeling different. It was exciting to have a lead character not need that, because I think a lot of the times that’s the anchor of the movie, that lead’s darkness. I just thought it was really interesting to have it be light instead of darkness, but still not feeling shallow. It still has a lot of depth. I think Elliott has so much depth to her.
Megan Park: Somebody said something to me the other day that was the ultimate compliment. They said there’s no mean person in your movie. There’s no bad guy. And I just said “Thank you.” Because I feel like I hate that character in movies, and really the enemy in this movie is time. That’s the bad guy. It’s such a joy to just write…I love all these characters. They’re all really good people.
Maisy Stella: For sure, but also allowing them to have faults. I think Elliott, at the start of the movie, has so many faults. She’s very selfish, but as she should be, yeah? Like, it’s just an accidental thing and never an intentional hurt ever.
It is kind of nice to have a movie where a character named Chad isn’t the guy we hate too…
Megan Park: (Laughs) I know.
And being an Australian, it’s always great to see Margot Robbie’s Lucky Chap producing this. I wanted to ask quickly how involved were Margot and Tom (Ackerley) in the script and the production of the film overall?
Megan Park: Very involved. And another Australian executive over there at Lucky Chap, Bronte Payne, who we love and was a huge part of this movie. But they were amazing. We love our Aussie and British producers. They’re incredible. They were there on set with us, and they’re just really grounded, smart, real people. And there’s a reason for their success and why they get so much repeat business with their directors and their cast, because there’s no cracks. It’s very genuine. It’s very real.
Maisy Stella: They are just, like, good humans. During a lunch break I got this massive poster of Blue Crush, which is a movie that Margot had us over to watch, and she literally just sent it to me as a gift. She’s genuinely just so special, and I was just so happy to have gotten to know her and work with her.
Megan Park: She cleaned my bunkie. She was using my bunkie as an office for the day, and, I kid you not, she brought me a present almost every single day. Like flowers or, she’s like, “Here’s some gluten free banana bread I got you at the farmer’s market.” Just so thoughtful, and then I’d come in and she would have cleaned my room for me, and swept the floor. She was like, “I just thought you’d want to come home to this.” I’m like, “What? Who are you? Thank you.”
I’m just going to take away the fact that all Australians are kind of great.
Megan Park: Honestly, it’s true.
Thank you so much for taking the time out. This film played so well to an audience, and I was so happy to see this. I’m excited for everyone to see this, so congratulations again.
My Old Ass is screening in Australian theatres from September 26th, 2024.
