What if you could look into the future of a relationship? What if your older self appeared after a mushroom trip to counsel your younger self so you could make informed decisions? Or is it better to simply live each day to the fullest without knowing what the future holds? Filmmaker Megan Park ponders these existential questions in her film My Old Ass starring Maisy Stella as younger Elliot and Aubrey Plaza as older Elliot.

Megan shared her thoughts with us on the impetus behind her film. It’s all a matter of precious time.

“So much of the film came from the idea of how scary time is to me. I spend so much time either being anxious about something or not appreciating it and then looking back and asking, ‘I wish I’d done a B or C differently,’” says Park. The idea of going back in time and doing things differently had you known then what you know now is universal. But life isn’t so simple and linear. We just need to live life in real time.

On the other hand, sometimes we need to go through some heavy stuff in life to obtain strength and clarity to become the person we are. Becoming a first time mother, also heightened Park’s perception of time (or lack thereof) and she looked at the world in a different way following the birth of her daughter.

My Old Ass is arguably a magical realism film, but Park strived to keep it as grounded as possible. “We referenced a lot of movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and 13 Going on 30 during development.” It’s all about setting up the story correctly so the audience buys into the premise of how Elliot’s older self appears and sticks with it.

Young & Old. One & The Same

Park strategically chose younger Elliot to be eighteen years old and her older self to be thirty eight. “I wanted somebody who was right on the cusp of change.” Older Elliot was originally going to be in her fifties, but Megan felt that it may have been too late to reset her path. Instead, making her late thirties allows her time to reinvent her life.

Younger Elliot initially has an exclusive relationship with older Elliot. This was a challenge in the world-building because the relationship between he two was set up as the result of a mushroom trip. Was older Elliot real or a hallucination? Later, when older Elliot could be seen by her boyfriend Chad (Percy Hynes White), she becomes real.

Megan Park. Photo by Michael Buckner

“When Chad shows up at the end and Aubrey can’t see him at the start made total sense to me because, although young Elliot learned so many lessons along the way in the movie, it’s really older Elliot who takes away the biggest, life changing message or the most healing.”

Younger and older Elliot share a very special bond. They’re sisters, mentor and mentee, a guardian angel, and two sides of the same coin all rolled into one.

“Younger Elliot has a bright, sunny, optimistic version of her life versus her older version that’s been through some real shit that younger Elliot hasn’t felt yet. Their energies oddly felt so familiar and their sense of humor was exactly the same. They both have this naughty glint in their eyes,” continues Park.

As much as we talk about younger and older Elliot being separate characters, they are still the same person, just at different stages of their lives. What affects one, affects both.

“The most specific thing was wanted young Elliot to feel that the advice she got from older Elliot didn’t harden her. It didn’t upset her. But it gave her the perspective to be more appreciative of  the people around her and the moments she has because of how quickly time passes and how quickly things change. It’s not scary or depressing, but inspirational.”

Chad completes the relationship triad. He’s close to perfect. He’s not annoying or self-involved. Yet older Elliot advises younger Elliot to end their relationship and withholds the true reason until much later.

There’s nothing bad about Chad. And that’s the problem – Older Elliot

My Old Ass came together rather quickly according to Megan. “I think I wrote two drafts in November before we got the green light. And then come January, we were casting the film and we were shooting it in July,” says Park. “We had incredible financiers and producers with Indian Paintbrush and Lucky Chap.”

Megan is continuing to work with Lucky Chap on her new movie and TV show “because they do have so much trust in their writers and filmmakers and want to work with people who can see their vision and all they want to do is support that vision.”

Since Lucky Chap respond so well to Megan’s specific voice, they create freedom for her stories to easily fall into place.