When I first saw a preview of Megan Park’s My Old Ass, a coming-of-age comedy-drama starring my lord and savior, Aubrey Plaza, and the super talented girlie from Nashville, Maisy Stella, I knew this was gonna be a certified Ilana Movie. After all, the multi-talented Megan has yet to disappoint me — A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song was a crucial part of my childhood, and the first film she wrote, The Fallout, is one of the most real and powerful movies I’ve seen in recent years.
In the writer and director’s latest masterpiece, 18-year-old Elliott (Maisy) tries shrooms for the first time and winds up ~meeting~ her 39-year-old self (Aubrey). They exchange numbers and develop a relationship, and the wacky experience helps baby Elliott mature and appreciate everyone in her life more. Apparently, Aubrey was the one tasked with studying and emulating Maisy, so they could accurately portray the same person. “It was a crazy feeling to have Aubrey Plaza filming you with her eyes,” Maisy said about that process. “Really crazy.”
Now, did Megan herself ever have a wild shroom trip, encounter her older self, and manage to get her future self’s phone number? Obviously, yes. The film is completely non-fiction. During our chat, Megan *sarcastically* confirmed, “It’s my autobiography. Everything that happened is 100% verbatim.” ‘Scuse me while I go do shrooms and attempt to have a supernatural experience that leads to a hit Amazon Studios movie.
After watching My Old Ass, I had lots of burning questions for Megan and Maisy, and they were ready with thoughtful and hilarious answers. We discussed the inspo behind the movie, the iconic Aubrey, queerness in film, Justin Bieber and other pop star fantasies, Nashville, and their fave filming memories. Spoiler alert: Megan and Maisy are very passionate about jet skiing.
My Old Ass will be available to stream on Amazon starting November 7.
So Megan, what inspired this film? Is it based on any real experiences you’ve had?
Megan: It’s all real. No. I wish I could say that it was real. I wish I could say I just did shrooms and this happened to me. I’m a really emotional writer. With this movie, I had just gone back to Canada after having my first kid. It was during the pandemic, and I was sleeping in my childhood bedroom, and I was just nostalgic thinking about the idea of the last time my nuclear family slept under this roof. And if I had known that, would I have appreciated it? I guess eventually that led to what if you could go back and tell your younger self that, how would that change things? But it was all sort of like an evolving thing. And so, yeah, even the shrooms, all of it, it was just kind of flowing out of this emotionally fueled place.
What got you excited about this film, Maisy?
Maisy: I have literal dated pages in my notebook of me witch scripturing, manifesting like, “Megan Park, Megan Park, I am in her next movie,” full on. And then when I read the script for My Old Ass, it almost wasn’t even fun to read it because I was just like, “Oh, what do I do? How do I get this?” And I was so stressed and scared of not doing it and not getting it. But yeah, it was just really beautiful, just honestly pretty undeniable.
Yeah. Manifesting works!
Maisy: Manifesting works. 369 method, I’m telling you.
The chemistry between you and Aubrey Plaza is incredible. What was involved in preparing to act as the same person? Did you guys do any bonding activities or exercises that helped?
Maisy: Honestly, we didn’t have that much time before we started filming together. It was not a typical situation because I was already filming when she was attached. And she had to come more towards me because my baby Elliot had already been more established. So, my tattoos were put on her, and she was watching my dailies, and it was just such a mind bend for me to witness that happening. But I think we just tried to have it be an energy connection. And so, we had a lot of room to play, and luckily, we kind of just fell into each other. And I really, really love her in such a real way. Yeah, it was a quick connection.
Megan: The first night we all hung out and had dinner. I remember she was studying you the whole dinner. She was just really taking you in.
That’s so cool. Did you get any advice from Aubrey acting-wise or just in general, Maisy?
Maisy: I took so much advice from her, but not advice that she intentionally gave me. In the short time that I was filming with her, I was like, “Oh, cool. That’s how you do it. That’s how you treat people. That’s just how you be the best that you could possibly be.” She was so great to work with. And so yeah, I learned a lot from her.
Amazing. Could you both talk about what it means to you to write and play a queer character who’s on a journey exploring her sexuality?
Maisy: I was really excited by the way that it was written. I grew up in such a label-less world, and it’s not everyone’s experience, and I know that, but I was raised in a way where I didn’t feel much external pressure in terms of labels. And so, I was always fluid and always flowing, and changing, and breathing through it all. I’ve just always felt very strongly about things can move and change. It was very natural. I feel like I’ve watched a lot of movies and things where the queer character is the token queer character and that’s their whole thing. I really loved that Elliot, it was just like a part of her, and it wasn’t the whole basis of her character.
Megan: I don’t even know where in the writing process that even came to play, necessarily. It just sort of became a part of Elliot. And I took it really seriously. But I think I took it just not seriously enough where it didn’t become the whole character. There are coming out stories, and they’re really important, but this wasn’t a coming out movie. So, we had to make sure to walk that line. I think you can have a lot of messy conversations and interesting and layered and nuanced conversations about things if you just come from a place of authenticity.
Totally. I loved the Justin Bieber part, that whole “One Less Lonely Girl” fantasy. Do you guys have any pop star fantasies? Would it be Justin Bieber or someone else?
Maisy: I mean, dude, I was definitely speaking from personal experience. It was originally a Disney song in the script, and Megan’s like, “We can’t get that approved. There’s drugs in the scene.” So yeah, Megan was like, “What is the performance that is really going to get in there?” And everyone around my age… Or honestly, just anyone would get it. But yeah, the “One Less Lonely Girl” performance of him bringing someone up and doing the roses, it was just such a big deal. It just had to be Bieber. It had to be. I got to live that out. I really got to live out my Bieber fantasies.
Megan: Mine would probably be a little more dated. It would probably be a Spice Girls moment for me. Yeah. I would die to pretend to be a Spice girl. Oh my God. They should make a Spice Girls biopic.
Maisy: Baby Spice. Let me in, babe.
I want to see that.
Maisy: I would do anything.
I was a big Nashville fan growing up. I watched it in middle school and high school.
Megan: Cute.
Maisy: Oh my gosh. Cool.
I was wondering if you brought any of Daphne into this performance or if it was just like a totally fresh start for you?
Maisy: I actually saw someone commented on something once. It was like, “I always knew Daphne was gay. Daphne was always a little gay.” And I was like, “Wait, you’re right. I didn’t even think about that, but she definitely was.”
I think I took a lot of the experience from being on Nashville because it was so… I knew the technicalities, or some of them, definitely not all of them, but I knew some of how to hit your mark, and how to do this, and that there’s a camera on you and that it can see every little detail and things like that.
Do you have a favorite memory from filming?
Maisy: It was so bliss. It was literally summer camp. I think my first day walking in and seeing my trailer and all of those moments are so high up for me. I think I could genuinely replay the entire shoot from start to finish if I closed my eyes. I remember Megan said to me before, “It’s like a wedding. You need to pay attention and just soak it all in, or it’s going to go by so fast.” And I was like, “Okay, okay.” So, I really tried to do that. So yeah, I had such a blast. Meeting Aubrey was the best.
Megan: I found Jesus on the jet ski. We found Jesus on the jet ski. We had some good jet skis.
Megan: 7:00 AM, being out alone in the lake, ripping across with my backpack on.
Maisy: It’s just so-
Megan: When will I ever do that again?
Maisy: … badass.
Megan: That was iconic.
