Maisy Stella and Megan Park Talk Leading Ladies and Lessons Learned In My Old Ass
An 18th birthday mushroom trip brings Elliott face-to-face with her older self who hands out warnings of what she should and shouldn’t be doing in what ends up being the most transformative summer of her life. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with actress Maisy Stella and director Megan Park about My Old Ass.
Megan Park made an impressive directorial debut with The Fallout and following it up with My Old Ass proves her success was no fluke. She is a brilliant writer and director and has used her gift to center incredible leading ladies. "Making stories about young women, it's sort of been a happy accident [with] the two stories that I wanted to tell, but I kind of have no interest in telling stories about men,” Park told me. “It was like write what you know, but I love working with young actors. I was a young actor. I think I can understand sometimes sort of the complexities of being an actor on the set and being young and the pressure and what that feels like maybe more than some people who haven't been in those shoes.”
She gave Jenna Ortega her first leading film role in The Fallout and now has given Maisy Stella a platform to showcase her immense talent in her first film role ever. “I certainly see so many similar qualities in Maisy that I saw in Jenna. They're both very different, but so, so similar and so equally genius,” said Park, revealing that Stella had actually auditioned for The Fallout. “Maisy had read for The Fallout. We had already cast Jenna and she had read for the role of Mia. I remember it was so painful because Maisy was so genius, but there wasn't really a role that was right for her in The Fallout. It was like, how can I let this person who's so talented go? I remember being like, should I write in a role for her? She's so talented. I want her in this film. So it was in the back of my head that I really hoped that we would get to work together at some point and when this opportunity came around it was so amazing that we got to work together. I see the same future for Maisy that I see for Jenna.”
While My Old Ass shows older Elliott (Aubrey Plaza) giving her younger self advice, they both learn important lessons from each other as her younger self is brave enough to open herself up to new experiences. “That was always one of the things that spoke to me the most. The younger self learned equally as much from the older as the older learned from the younger. I feel like I was even more on the older Elliot side before,” Stella shared. “Don't hurt me. I don't want to get hurt and [was] not really being open or brave in a lot of ways.”
“I also learned from younger Elliott. I felt that I was much more open and a little bit softened in that way. I always felt that that was like such a choice on your end and such a good one to have it be a different message that they're both getting, but equally as important for the other one,” continued Stella. “It always was my favorite part.
Park agreed. “Writing is so therapeutic for me and personal. I certainly relate more to the older ass perspective to a degree for this movie. That was sort of what I was learning as I was writing it,” she expained. “You need to be that young dumb idiot or whatever she calls her in the movie to get to where you are. Not all things happen for a reason, but some things happen for a reason.”
My Old Ass is playing in limited theaters and will be open everywhere on September 27.
