The Cast of My Old Ass on Making the ‘Therapeutic, Cathartic’ Coming-of-Age Film

It’s a tale as old as time—a young queer woman about to leave for college wants to have a fun summer with friends, so she does mushrooms on her 18th birthday. But this version is a bit different: Just as she thinks she’s not tripping, Elliott (Maisy Stella) meets her “old ass,” her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza), who gives her sage advice—and warns her about her future.

For the director and writer of My Old Ass, Megan Park, the mushrooms came later in her writing process for the film, which is in theaters now. What initially inspired 38-year-old Park was a (literal) trip home. “I [was] feeling really nostalgic. I was home in Canada, where we shot the movie, and I was like, ‘This is so beautiful. Why did I ever want to leave here?’” she tells ELLE.com. “And I just had my first daughter and was thinking if I could go back and appreciate it through a different lens, would I?”

Maisy Stella as Elliott with her mother (Maria Dizzia) in My Old Ass.

What ensued is a funny, insightful, and devastating coming-of-age story for both Elliotts. Through their conversations, texts, and phone calls long after that shroom trip, young Elliott begins to heed her older self’s guidance, particularly when it comes to avoiding a guy named Chad (Percy Hynes White), but we won’t spoil why here. Having two actors play one character is something that hinged on getting two performers who could really embrace the role. Stella, who was previously known for the ABC drama Nashville, was first cast as Elliott, and Park says they built the movie around her. Stella was intimidated; she was leading her first film, which also happened to be her first movie role ever. “I really thought I was going to be 10 years down, really fighting my way to get to a project that I really have feelings for. So I was very aware of how truly lucky that was. I feel like Megan, [Aubrey], and Lucky Chap [the film’s production company, helmed by Margot Robbie] really held up a lot of the pressure and weight,” Stella says. Park chimes in to mention she was constantly in awe of how Stella handled herself on set and carried the film without a lot of previous experience.

Knowing this would be a big role for Stella, figuring out who would play older Elliott became really important. At first, Park was hellbent on finding someone who was a physical match for Stella, and originally, in the script older Elliott was older than the 39-year-old Elliott who ends up in the film. But when Plaza’s name came up, it was a game-changer. “I love Aubrey. I’m such a fan of hers. I knew Maisie was a fan and all of a sudden it felt like she would be the right fit for the movie. We wrote in a few jokes about how they don’t look exactly the same, and we went with it and it was funnier,” laughs Park.

We get glimpses of what Elliott’s future looks like throughout her conversations with her younger self—she has a girlfriend, she’s a PhD student, and climate change has made a significant impact on her life. Park’s way of building out older Elliott’s life was one of the reasons that Plaza was drawn to the film. “I love how all of that stuff was handled by Megan. She was able to ground it in a way, but also you can use your imagination to fill in the gaps. We would have funny jokes and whatever like, ‘Eat as much salmon as you can. None of it [will be] left.’ But she said it is like once you start going there, you have to be a little careful,” Plaza says.

Aubrey Plaza studied Maisy Stella when she was cast as the older version of Elliott.

The chemistry between Stella and Plaza is magical—their banter is sharp and they are really funny, yet there’s so much care in their performances. To create this dynamic, they didn’t put a lot of pressure on themselves. They didn’t have a lot of time together and Stella was already filming when Plaza joined, so Plaza learned from her. “I got to creep out on her,” Plaza jokes. “I got to watch videos of her and stuff. One thing about this movie that’s so cool is no one was hung up on the literal part of playing each other. They were one person, but it was more like the energy [was the same]. When we met each other, I definitely was studying her mannerisms and the way she talked, and I would talk to myself and try to talk like her, but I kept that to myself,” Plaza laughs.

While the majority of the film followed the script, Stella says they would do a “fun run” to allow for any improv moments. “It would be such a crime to have Aubrey and not leave room for improv. That would be the stupidest thing you’ve ever done as a director,” Stella joked to Park. “I said to Aubrey, it would be my worst nightmare to be on a stage doing improv, but in a scene I can get down with it,” she added. Plaza, however, attests that Stella was very good at improv. Case in point: In an early scene during Elliott’s initial mushroom trip, young Elliott asks older Elliott if she can kiss her. While that was in the script, the final take has Stella and Plaza actually kiss. Stella’s real-life excitement is apparent on-screen. “You can see me for a second. I’m fully Maisy. And I’m like, ‘Wait, can I actually?’ Then I’m so excited. When I laid down I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ It is a real reaction.” Park points out that Plaza added something to the scene too. “I don’t think that was in the script and you’re like, ‘I want to, but you’re younger, so it’s weird.’ I love that line.”

Stella also got to work on her dance skills in a fantasy Justin Bieber concert scene, where she plays the Canadian teen heartthrob, all-white outfit, vocals, and all. “I was walking differently after that,” she says. “Kerrice [Brooks, who plays Elliott’s friend Ro] and Maddie [Ziegler, who plays their friend Ruthie] are both full-on professional dancers, and so I went into a studio with them and they taught me and we had the best time.” Stella remembers downing three Red Bulls for that late-night shoot. “The medic put a hold on how many Red Bulls I could drink that day.”

Kerrice Brooks (left), Stella (center), and Maddie Ziegler (right) recreated a Justin Bieber performance in one standout scene.

Like Park’s previous film The Fallout, starring Jenna Ortega, which focuses on Gen Z students in the wake of a school shooting, My Old Ass also tackles queer identity with a casual hand. It isn’t a coming out story; Elliott is just simply a queer woman living her life, who also happens to embark on a relationship with a man. “We had a lot of conversations about how to walk that line and make sure it felt really authentic and true to Ellliott. The conversations about identity and queerness seem to be more open and go hand in hand certainly than when I was [a teenager] as a millennial,” Park says. The ways Elliott’s queer identity is discussed in the script appealed to Stella but also reflected her own reality. “I was lucky enough to grow up in a way that labels were never forced on me, which I know is not everyone’s experience. A lot of people really do feel a lot of pressure to choose what you are. I was really lucky in the way that I didn’t have that and the stress or confusion of queerness didn’t come until much later in my life. I loved playing a character that was experiencing with labels. I was very fascinated by it and I related to it in a lot of ways.”

Park also adds something new to the typical coming-of-age narrative. Young Elliott’s world is about to change as she goes to school in Toronto and begins a brand new relationship; but what’s unexpected is the ways that both Elliotts nurture and change one another, allowing for the older Elliott to have her own coming-of-age journey at 39 too. “When I was writing it, I related more to that character and I think writing is super personal and therapeutic to me,” Park says. “It was probably working out some shit in my own brain about grief and loss and time. It’s very much a two-hander in terms of who’s really walking away with the lesson here and who’s teaching, which is really sort of the meta themes I wanted to get into.

The film had Plaza reflecting deeply on her own life too. “I really did feel like I was talking to my younger self. It’s a therapeutic, cathartic thing to do. I’ve done it in therapy sessions… It’s something that I actually know about a little bit. Knowing that and infusing that into the movie, there’s a lot of history and weight there that I feel like I just naturally had because that’s what happens when you really visualize your younger self. It’s pretty heavy.” Plaza adds, “That’s what’s so amazing about the movie and what sets it apart from anything I’ve ever seen, which is that young Elliott actually changes old Elliott’s life. At the end I visualized that I go back [and move on].”

Aubrey Plaza, Maisy Stella, and Megan Park at a New York screening of My Old Ass.

As for whether or not they’d want to know their own futures, Park, Stella, and Plaza launch into a vivid discussion. The director thinks it depends on what you would first want to know. Stella, meanwhile, rejects the concept. “I would take a visit from my 7- or 8-year-old self, but I would not do a future self.” But Park’s final thoughts on the topic have both her lead actors in agreement. “What would be cool is to relive a day that you knew that you couldn’t fuck up, you couldn’t butterfly-effect, you couldn’t necessarily change anything,” she says, “but you could pick one day and just relive it.”

Kerensa Cadenas is a freelance writer and editor based in New York. She’s previously worked at Thrillist, The Cut, Entertainment Weekly, and Complex. Her writing has been in GQ, Vanity Fair, Vulture, Cosmopolitan, and others.