Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella Talk Trauma, Life Lessons and Embarrassing Kisses on ‘My Old Ass’

Megan Park’s “My Old Ass” isn’t the first movie to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to have a warning about what life has in store for us. But this borderline sci-fi film set in a lakeside Ontario town, starring Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza alongside a multigenerational cast of veteran and newcomer actors, may be the first to do so via a kiss between the younger and older parts of the protagonist.

The Sundance hit, which opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, appears to be a somewhat formulaic coming-of-age story about the summer after high school — until its 18-year-old protagonist (Stella) is visited by her 39-year-old self (Plaza) during a mushroom trip. The encounter and kiss lead to a surreal series of phone calls during which the older Elliott tries to help her younger self avoid a defining trauma from her early life — a theme Park also explored in her 2021 feature debut, “The Fallout,” starring Jenna Ortega as a teen whose life is transformed by a school shooting.

“It wasn’t really intentional that they both focused on that, but it’s definitely a theme in both,” Park told NBC News in a joint interview with the stars of “My Old Ass,” referring to their films’ framing of tragedy as a central teenage experience.

“When I was writing ‘The Fallout,’ I was stunned as a millennial who grew up in Canada. I thought, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in America — this is a fear that needs to be faced,’” she said of gun violence in schools. “In the case of (‘My Old Ass’), it didn’t really start with the idea of ​​loss; it was more of a feeling of nostalgia.”

Park, a former actress who developed an interest in writing and directing on set, was inspired to write the script for her second feature after moving back home during the pandemic and having her first baby. As a first-time mother who slept in her childhood bed, she said, she was first struck by the feeling that “time is your biggest enemy” and wanted to capture that in a film that combined humor with heaviness, to make it more digestible for audiences. That led her to the story of a soon-to-be college student whose summer of saying goodbye to her best friends (Maddie Ziegler and Kerrice Brooks) and wooing the cute girl on the pier is hijacked by an unexpected crush on a boy (Percy Hynes White), making an effort to get to know his family and having important conversations with her older self.

“I was hoping to make people laugh and cry with this movie. With both ‘The Fallout’ and this one, I wanted to tackle some pretty heavy subject matter but make it as enjoyable as possible,” he said of tackling topics like school shootings and grief and loss.

To carry out that vision, Park needed a young actor with a comedic touch who could channel the complexities of being a teenager on the brink of adulthood in a time-travel setting. And Stella, who was a child actress on the TV series “Nashville” and met Park while co-writing a song for “The Fallout,” proved to be the ideal choice. In addition to bringing humor and timelessness to Elliott’s performance by blending her Gen Z sensibilities with Park’s millennial perspective, the first-time actress also shared her director’s sense of nostalgia for adolescence — even though she was still in it herself.

“I’m a very nostalgic person. I was nostalgic when I was still into the things you’re supposed to be nostalgic about,” Stella, who had just graduated from high school when she filmed the role, told NBC News, poking fun at her younger self.

Pointing to Park and Plaza, she said, “When I read the script, I read it as if I was one of you looking back on your life. I didn’t really read it from the perspective of an 18-year-old.”

After Stella signed on to the project, Park looked for an older Elliott who could pair well with his young star and make both a comedic and dramatic impact on the film, despite having little screen time. And Plaza, who has made a name for herself for her sardonic screen presence in projects like “Parks and Recreation” and the second season of Mike White’s “White Lotus,” was a dream choice that turned out to be less risky than the director imagined.

“First of all, I cried when I read (the script), which doesn’t happen very often,” Plaza told NBC News of accepting the role, despite its high profile and being an off-screen voice for most of the film. “It’s exactly the kind of movie I like, because it has this high-concept element that transports you and forces you to use your imagination. But it also has this very human and realistic story. And it does both of those things very well.”