The tagline for Megan Park and Maisy Stella’s new film My Old Ass is “What would you ask your older self?” It makes sense considering the film (reviewed here) follows a recent high school grad who gets high in the woods and then sees her older self. Stella plays said teenager while sardonic maven Aubrey Plaza is the older version she communicates with throughout the summer.
When I sat down with Stella and Park, who wrote and directed this sci-fi comedy, I didn’t ask the obvious question, but we did talk about where this idea came from — and it wasn’t mushrooms like in the film. We also discussed working with Aubrey Plaza and how hilariously bleak the future could be.
SYNOPSIS: In this fresh, big-hearted take on the classic coming-of-age fable, free-spirited teenager Elliott (Maisy Stella) encounters her wisecracking 39-year-old future self (Aubrey Plaza)—and can’t escape her influence. On the cusp of leaving home for college, Elliott is determined to have one last summer packed with good times and girl crushes. To celebrate her 18th birthday, she boats off to a remote island with her best friends to trip on mushrooms. But just when Elliott thinks she’s not feeling a thing, she suddenly finds herself chatting with a woman who claims to be her literal “old ass” (Aubrey Plaza)—the person she is apparently destined to become in two decades. Prodded for advice, Elliott’s future self gives her one major warning: avoid anyone named Chad, which sounds easy enough. But when Elliott meets the very Chad (Percy Hynes White) she was supposed to dodge, things get complicated. Elliott starts to open herself to what her future self might have to show her…and vice versa. From director Megan Park (The Fallout).
Watch my interview with Park and Stella below. My Old Ass is in theaters now.
