In the new time travel comedy My old assMaisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza play two versions of the same character, Elliott: one is a young, confident teenager, and the other is her older self.
The two actors do not In fact They seem like perfect couples, but My old ass Director Megan Park said she was looking for more than a superficial double when casting two sides of the same character.
“I remember on our first call Aubrey was like, ‘Do you want me to really study her and try to pick up on her mannerisms? How much of this do you want to try to mimic?'” Park tells Polygon. “And I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s important, because it’s been a long time and I think as much as you feel like you need to get into the characters, you should. ’ When we first met and went out to dinner together, I could tell that I was really taking in Maisy and doing that work for the character.
“But we tried not to focus so much on it being an imitation of each other, but on there being chemistry and a good relationship, which was pretty instant. Aubrey has younger sisters who are close in age to Maisy, and Maisy has an older sister. So there was kind of a natural sisterly relationship between them and they adored each other immediately, which was helpful. Luckily, it happened pretty organically.”
The time-based plot begins when young Elliott takes a large amount of psychedelic mushrooms, and during her trip, she ends up meeting the older version of herself. It's handled rather ambiguously whether there's time travel involved or if it's all in her head. But regardless of that, young Elliott, who is brash, bold, and very self-assured, sees a lot of her preconceived notions challenged by her older self. It was important to Park that Elliott convey a very specific kind of energy.
“I hadn’t seen a lot of young women in film who were very calm and level-headed, but also very bright and cheerful and optimistic and a little bubbly,” Park says. “I don’t know why I hadn’t seen that often, but I was really looking for someone who embodied that energy and was very vulnerable and open and loving, and it was hard to find her. It was kind of hard to find that magic combination.”
Landing Plaza was a little trickier, but once the creative team focused on what they were looking for and broke away from trying to find a full-fledged double (“We spent a lot of time stuck in [which potential actors] “I have blonde hair”) everything fell into place.
“At a certain point it's like, Who do we want to see sitting on that log, joking around and having that kind of relationship?” Park says. “As soon as Aubrey's name came up, I thought: Oh shit, that makes perfect sense.
“I also find it much more fun than [young Elliott] think [Aubrey Plaza] “He’s very old and he’s not even 40,” she adds, laughing. “And that added another layer of comedy that I really loved.”
My old ass is now available in select theaters and worldwide on September 27.