Greta Lee’s already accomplished quite a bit over the years, but 2023 is shaping up to be a banner year. Not only is she in Julio Torres’ feature directorial debut Problemista, but she also voices LYLA in the smash hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and leads the awards season-bound Past Lives from A24.

Lee plays Nora in Celine Song’s first feature. As a child (Moon Seung-ah) living in South Korea, she’s deeply connected to her closest friend, Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min). But, that connection is severed when Nora’s family emigrates. Many years later while living in New York, Nora does reconnect with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), but only virtually. Their in-person reunion doesn’t happen until a decade later when Nora is married to an American author, Arthur played by John Magaro.
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It’s a love triangle like you’ve never seen before, one that redefines what such a story can be. Past Lives respects the very real and deeply meaningful love one can have for two people in such a situation, while also emphasizing the importance of prioritizing self as well. Song explores that emotional complexity with a stunning sensitivity that well highlights Lee’s magnetic performance, a performance that’s already earned significant acclaim but could and should be heading towards even more later this year and into 2024.

Image via A24

With the movie now playing in theaters nationwide, Lee joined me for a Collider Forces conversation to retrace her steps in the industry the far, beginning with one of her very first sources of inspiration. Here’s what she said when asked how she discovered she needed to become an actor:

“This is gonna be maybe surprising, but Val Kilmer in the movie The Saint. Hear me out! There’s something about that performance and as a little girl watching, I wanted to be able to, one day, tap into that kind of athletic performance ability. If you remember from the movie, and maybe you don’t because not everyone is an extreme Saint head like myself, he plays a multitude of different characters in such an exquisite, fully immersive way with so much commitment and I just felt like, as a girl, if I could do that, there was something that was just electric about that. I remember feeling distinctly like, ‘Oh my god, I want to be like Val Kilmer.’ I still feel this way!”

Clearly Lee did have particular goals for herself, but when it came to amassing acting opportunities, she took the “I’m gonna go where I’m chosen to be” approach, and that meant kicking off her career on stage before the film and television gigs started to come her way. She recalled:

“I started out doing Broadway. I was in a show called Spelling Bee, and then I also did this play called La Bête with Mark Rylance and David Hyde Pierce, Joanna Lumley. And at the time, I kind of was just moving towards where the work was. It felt very much like, I’m gonna go where I’m chosen to be, and it wasn’t until — I came up around this incredible time of young women, mostly in the comedic world, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Abbi [Jacobson] and Ilana [Glazer] [from] Broad City, obviously Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, who were really creating the space where I was able to work, and I’m so grateful for that and everything I got out of that and playing these ridiculous characters [who] I love so dearly. But that was instrumental to the formation of my little artist self at that time.”

Image via HBO

Another key influence for Lee? Natasha Lyonne, particularly watching her literally do it all on the set of Netflix’s Russian Doll.

“I learned a lot from watching her wear so many hats. I have full respect for wanting to even take that on at all in the first place. I remember days when we were getting ready to shoot a scene and she was having to learn her lines, almost like it was an afterthought to the experience. She was directing and producing and she had written it, and then she had to learn her own lines that she had written. Her level of extreme professionalism and stamina, and she could do it so quickly.”

Yes, Lyonne’s hard work and professionalism should be recognized, but we also can’t overlook the commitment and creativity that must go into delivering the same exact line dozens of times. Wondering how many times Lee had to say, “Sweet birthday baby,” while filming Season 1 of Russian Doll? So was I! Here’s what she said about that:

“I initially said no to the job because I thought there’s no actor in their right mind who will be willing to take on how to do a good job of delivering the same line over and over again. I thought there’s no way anyone can come out of this and feel like they’ve come close to doing it. And I had even suggested that we just film it once and we just reuse that take. [Laughs] And then when I said, ‘Okay, I’m in,’ and I couldn’t say no to this group. Natasha and I go way back. We filmed a pilot for NBC that was kind of the genesis of Russian Doll actually, years ago. And Leslye Headland of course, and Amy Poehler, these incredible women, so I said yes and then they politely and gently said, ‘No, absolutely not. We’re not gonna use the same take over and over and over again.’ So I don’t know, I think it was like 50 times. I mean, I’m trying to think. There were 10 episodes, I said it multiple times. It was a lot of times.”

Image via Netflix

Lee went on to highlight Poehler’s impact a bit further while discussing finding one’s voice in such a high-pressure craft and industry. Here’s what she said when asked for the first time she could feel the power of her own voice on set and how she could influence her characters and the projects she works on for the better:

“I’m still working on that. As a woman and as a woman of color, that is a constant battle and internal negotiation. How to correctly and to simply advocate for myself without the burden of worrying about, am I coming across as a diva? Am I taking up too much space? I really have so much compassion for other women, anyone who has felt any sort of outsider status at the workplace. It’s just the reality of the job. I have improv to thank. There are some moments where I felt what’s on the page, we can do better. We can flush this out a little bit more, and I would like to volunteer my own services. I would like to help with that. So certain characters, I felt really lucky that it was an environment where I had people being so supportive. Oh! Like Sisters! I remember playing the role of Hae-Won and Amy Poehler suggested that they let me improvise, and an entire scene of that movie in the nail salon is because she advocated for that. So in a way it wasn’t me advocating for myself, it was Amy, but I think then in that moment being able to step forward and grab it and do it, I’m grateful for that younger version of myself who was so game to do that.”

I’m willing to bet if that younger version making Sisters could see what Lee accomplishes in Past Lives, she’d be quite proud of herself as well.

Yes, there are many talented performers out there, but after seeing Past Lives, it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in these three roles. Lee, Yoo, and Magaro make these roles theirs and theirs alone, so it was shocking to learn that, initially, Lee was turned down for the role of Nora.

“I’ve had conversations with Celine about it. According to her, she initially had written this script with the final triptych of the movie ending with the characters, they were like 25, I believe. That’s because the story, the movie is semi-autobiographical, actually based on Celine’s experience. That was the age she was when she actually found herself flanked by two men at a speakeasy, one being her husband and one being her childhood sweetheart. So initially, there was this idea where I was too old and it didn’t make sense for me to play mid 20s. And then, over time, she says that she realized that it was more interesting and it served the story that she wanted to tell to have the characters be a little bit older and that’s where I come in. [Laughs] I’m happy to supply an agier performance of it, but it just speaks to what she was after. I think she wanted to tell a very adult story. I’m so impressed by her own emotional maturity. It far surpasses what I was dealing with or thinking about at that time, but I do think that that was part of it.”

While there was likely some disappointment when Lee didn’t book the role initially, when it did become hers, the timing was right. She was more prepared than ever to tackle the material with personal authority. Here’s how she put it:

“By the time I got the call out of the blue almost a year after I initially had auditioned for it, I think there was this sense of, ‘Well, you know, I’m just gonna be me.’ It’s that kind of audition where you’re not thinking so much about, let me try to guess what they want, and really trusting my own sense of, if I were to really do this, because I was imagining in that moment it’s never going to be my job, but I want to take this moment and explore as an exercise. Like, if I was actually doing this, how would I do it? And, who is she in my mind? There was no point in pretending at that point after so long. I don’t know what came over me that day. I think it was just lack of time. There was no time to, I don’t know, engineer some kind of performance or character that was carefully thought out. I just had to read these scenes spur of the moment with Celine, and incredibly we just matched. We have in-yun. Our souls matched in terms of what kind of movie she wanted to make and in what way.”

Eager to hear more from Lee about her journey in the industry thus far and the making of Past Live, including that unforgettable ending? Be sure to check out her full Collider Forces interview in the video at the top of this article or in podcast form below: