The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with the team behind My Old Ass at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Writer-director Megan Park and stars Maisy Stella and Kerrice Brooks talk about their movie, My Old Ass, which just became one of the biggest sales of the festival. The movie focuses on Stella’s Elliott, who comes face-to-face with her older self, played by Aubrey Plaza, during a mushroom trip.

There is nothing better than walking out of a Sundance screening confident that, in January, you have already seen one of your favorite films of the year. It happened to me in 2019 with Brittany Runs a Marathon. (A movie that literally inspired me to run a marathon.) Sundance 2020 gave me a trio of favorites — Promising Young Woman, Palm Springs, and His House. In 2021, that distinction went to Mass and CODA. In 2022, I fell hard for Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth. In 2023, it was the Philippou brothers’ first feature, Talk to Me. Now, in 2024, it’s Megan Park’s second feature film as a director, My Old Ass, a movie that is bound to get a theatrical release this year given Amazon MGM scooped up the worldwide rights via a massive $15 million deal.

The film features a star-making turn from Maisy Stella as Elliott, a teenager enjoying one last summer at home before her first year of college. During a mushroom trip, Elliott is visited by her 39-year-old self, played by Aubrey Plaza. During their chat, adult Elliott reveals a few things that heavily influence how young Elliott opts to spend her time in her final weeks at her childhood home.

My Old Ass is brilliant. It’s a wildly creative and thoughtful way to explore one’s relationship with their past, present and future selves that’s phenomenally well executed by Park and her main ensemble, including Stella and Kerrice Brooks, who plays one of Elliott’s close friends in the film, Ro. The movie is bound to be a 2024 gem, so get ahead of the game by watching the video interview at the top of this article to learn more about Park’s experience going from her first feature, The Fallout, to My Old Ass, what it was like for Stella to headline her very first movie, and why Brooks deeply appreciated the creative freedom Park offered on set.

All of that and so much more in my interview with the trio at the Collider interview studio in Park City brought to you by Film.io in the video above, or in the transcript below.

My Old Ass Elliott Labrant, who has been advised by her future self not to fall in love, is sure she can do so after being given the advice. That is, until she meets the boy her older self warned her about. Release Date January 20, 2024 Director Megan Park Runtime 88 minutes Main Genre Comedy Writers Megan Park

PERRI NEMIROFF: I will happily say this on camera: My Old Ass — I just love saying My Old Ass, too — My Old Ass is my favorite film of Sundance 2024. I want all the good distribution vibes to go your way because I want to end the year by calling it one of my favorite films of the year. My heart was bursting at the seams.

MEGAN PARK: You’re so sweet. Thank you!

KERRICE BROOKS: That’s insane.

You know how much I love The Fallout, too. It’s not like I went into this movie not expecting it, but I feel like the emotional wallop and the way that this movie inspires you to rethink your past, present and future is not an easy thing to pull off, so congratulations.

PARK: Thank you! Oh my goodness, will you be the publicist for the film and just follow us all around?

Happily! You have a wonderful team at your back, but I promise, I’m here to promote all you want.

PARK: We do have a wonderful team, but we’ll always take more. [Laughs]

Meet the Filmmakers Behind the Best Movie at Sundance 2024
Image via Sundance

Clearly, I love your movie, but a lot of people will first learn about the film via Sundance, so would you mind doing the honors and giving a brief description of My Old Ass?

PARK: My Old Ass is about 18-year-old Elliott who does mushrooms to celebrate her birthday in the Canadian wilderness and has a trip where she meets herself at 40, played by Aubrey Plaza — iconic …

MAISY STELLA: 39.

Good clarification.

PARK: Sorry, 39. Her older self tells her some things that happen to her in the future that don’t sound too great to her and kind of sends her on a bit of a tailspin.

Megan, I have a big complicated two-parter about the journey from first feature to second feature because I feel like a lot of people out there think that when you make one good film, the second one should come easily, and that’s not always the case. What is one surprising hurdle you had to overcome to make this movie happen? But then I also want the opposite. What’s something about the reception The Fallout got that did make My Old Ass happen and happen the way you wanted?

PARK: I got to make this movie because of The Fallout. It had a lot of success at South By and we were so fortunate that HBO bought it. It was amazing and a lot of great people saw it, and so I had a meeting with LuckyChap, our amazing producers. They had seen The Fallout and wanted to meet and just generally kind of chat, and during that conversation they were like, “Well, do you have any other movie ideas?” And I’d been thinking about this idea, but I was like, “I don’t know if anyone’s gonna let me make it.” [Laughs] I just loose-pitched the logline to them, like I just did to you, on the Zoom, and they were like, “That sounds really interesting. Let’s talk more about that.” And so basically, from there, I started building out the script and working with them on it, and then we found our amazing financiers, Indian Paintbrush, who are just incredible and give so much creative freedom and just really are all about supporting the director’s vision, as are LuckyChap. So it was the dream situation. So that was the great thing, and that was what kind of came on the heels of The Fallout.

And I think probably the most difficult part of it was the pressure I put on myself because I was already feeling like I didn’t really know what I was doing with The Fallout, and was shocked that it worked. [Laughs] And then I had this amazing opportunity. You know, my husband’s a musician, and it’s like the sophomore album thing is like a thing.

Related Maddie Ziegler on How Music Videos Sparked a Passion for Acting & How She Excelled While Making ‘The Fallout’ Ziegler also details her experience working on Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story.’

KERRICE BROOKS: Yes! Oh my gosh, yes.

PARK: I was really feeling that with the second feature, whereas, when I was making The Fallout, I was just like, “Let’s see what happens!” Ignorance was bliss and this time I knew the stakes. And so that was the most challenging part, was getting out of my own head. It was obviously a big step up in many ways, just all around. From that movie to this movie, the stakes were a lot higher. It felt higher.

As a perfectionist who puts a lot of pressure on herself, I get the mentality, but when you watch the two movies, you know with certainty that there’s natural ability there. It’s there, it exists, and it will follow you to every film you make.

PARKER: Thank you. That’s so kind.

Maisy Stella Is a Sundance Breakout Everyone Will Be Talking About
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Maisy, not only is this your first feature, but you’re also number one on the call sheet. When you are presented with that opportunity, what is the scariest thing about it, and then how do you overcome those fears and tackle this performance with confidence?

STELLA: The scariest thing about being a lead in anything, and especially my first project, I think it was just knowing that you kind of have to carry it in a way, and if you don’t have any type of spark, then it’s not gonna feel alive and it’s not gonna be enjoyable to watch. But the people that were on it really were holding a lot of the pressure and a lot of the weight for me, and I honestly didn’t feel it weighing me down or anything. But yeah, being number one on a call sheet, I would look at it every day and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I think tackling it with confidence had so much to do with Megan, and I’ve honestly felt so confident and sure in the script. The script was so, so good that I just knew that everything that we needed was there, and the confidence that I had in Elliott was 100% because I just knew that it was all there already.

So you just gave Megan, the team and the environment credit. Kerrice and Megan, I want you to give Maisy some flowers right now.

PARK: Where do we start?

Again, it’s her first time in a feature film and leading a feature film. What is something about her as a scene partner and as a lead actor in your movie that you really appreciated and you’re excited for more actors and more directors to experience when they work with her in the future?

BROOKS: I don’t have a ton of acting experience so I don’t really have much to go off of, but from what I have experienced so far, I would say that I really appreciate how I didn’t feel like someone was trying to outdo me. I feel like sometimes, at least in training environments, everyone’s like, “I’m about to eat you up,” or, “I’m about to steal the scene from you because I’m trying to be the star of whatever.” It’s so competitive. And even sometimes, on the very few limited projects I’ve done, working with whoever’s higher up on the call sheet than me, it sometimes feels like, “You’re where you’re supposed to be because you’re where you’re supposed to be, and you’ll get here when you get here, but this is where you’re supposed to be.” With Maisy, I just felt warmth. I just felt so warm, and when I feel warm, I feel safe to stretch. When you’re cold, you know, you might pull a hamstring or something, but I don’t know, I just felt really warm.

STELLA: Thank you.

BROOKS: Of course.

Beautiful answer.

PARK: For me, Maisy is one in a million. Truly. And I will say, for this film, the casting director said they’d never had more submissions for a role ever in their career, and they’ve had a really long, successful career. When we saw Maisy’s tape — and I knew Maisy because Maisy had created a song with her sister for The Fallout, and I already knew that she was best friends with Maddie [Ziegler], so we were already friends and friendly with each other, but I always knew and hoped that what I saw in her was — but it doesn’t always translate. You can’t always bring that to life on camera, and when I saw her tape, I already could see the trajectory of her career. I think she is one of the most talented actors I’ve ever met on any side of the camera that I’ve worked on, and I’m so proud of her, because the pressure is huge to carry a film, and you did handle it with so much grace. It wasn’t easy, and the energy it takes to come to set every day and do that. She’s so amazing in this movie and people have only seen a little bit of what she can do, I’m telling you, and I just am so proud of her.

STELLA: Oh my god, this is ridiculous! I’m, like, breaking out into hives over here! [Laughs]

Maisy Stella Wowed Margot Robbie While Making ‘My Old Ass’
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

PARK: So easy to work with and effortless and down to play. Every single person that had been in the industry for years came to her — Margot Robbie, Aubrey Plaza, these people — they were like, “Holy [shit],” you know? I remember Aubrey pulling me aside. She said to me on set, “Maisy just made me fall back in love with acting, doing a scene with her,” because of having that type of scene partner. That’s what Maisy brought to the set, and created that environment, and it was so refreshing to work with somebody who was so real. I hope every director out there gets the chance to work with Maisy.

You’re winning the arm chill game. You’re in the lead.

PARK: Okay, great!

STELLA: I feel physically sick at the moment. [Laughs]

PARK: I can’t wait to watch what she does for the rest of her career.

I’m right there with you.

Kerrice, I’m coming back your way because I told you before, I’m obsessed with you. Your energy in the movie was electric and then you hit the stage last night and I’m like, “Oh, that’s real life, too. I need more of this.” I want our audience to get to learn a little bit more about you, so a two-part acting question for you. Going into this film, what was an acting goal you had for yourself and now leaving it, what is a new goal you’ve acquired for your next film?

BROOKS: Damn. You know what’s crazy is, I don’t really set goals. I just kind of go with the flow. Even when I moved to LA, I don’t have bucket lists or anything, even vision boards are pretty hard for me. I don’t really set goals. Whatever comes my way, I’m just grateful because I just like to create art. So I think when getting this, I said this in another interview, but I don’t have a lot of offers. No one’s knocking on my door. The phone is dry unless it’s my friends or Uber Eats or Postmates notification.

STELLA: Oh, you just wait.

PARK: Just wait until people see the movie.

BROOKS: On the real though, I be chilling. I really be chilling. I be incognito. If you find me, I’m in a corner, with a dog.

[Laughs] That’s brilliant!

BROOKS: Yeah, a Shih Tzu. Taco. Shout out Taco! But walking into this film, I would say, because I had faced so much life problems at that time, I called you crying on a Zoom one time and I just couldn’t hold it in. [Megan] was like, “How are you?” And I was like, “Good …” and I just started crying, and she was like, “Oh no!” So I think when I walked into this, my only goal was, as a person just to try and get some fresh air, literally and also metaphorically, and to just be in the moment as much as you possibly can.

What’s the second part?

Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

The second part is, now that you’ve done it and you’ve had the experience, you don’t like to set goals but it was, do you have a new acting goal that you want to go after on another film?

BROOKS: As a performer or to work with?

I’ll take either, actually.

BROOKS: I’ll shoot my shot right now.

STELLA: Yeah, this is the moment! [Laughs]

I do genuinely call this the manifestation table. I like to make things happen here.

BROOKS: Oh shit!

PARK: We like to manifest.

STELLA: I manifested all of it.

BROOKS: I would say one of them is to work with Colman Domingo and Jordan Peele and Angela Bassett, please. And I would say, as a performer is to get even more crazy.

I love everyone you just named. Colman is one of the most lovely individuals I’ve ever met in my life.

BROOKS: I can tell!

He was a producer on my second favorite film of this festival, It’s What’s Inside, so I’m gonna manifest you working on a film that his company produces.

17:58 Related Meet the Cast of Your New Horror Obsession: Netflix’s ‘It’s What’s Inside’ Netflix scooped up the buzzy title out of Sundance for a whopping $17 million.

PARK: Take a meeting while you’re here.

BROOKS: I want to play his daughter. I want that.

I’m so into this idea. Now that you’ve said it, it will happen and I will be sitting there watching it.

Casting Aubrey Plaza for ‘My Old Ass’: “It Was Very Magical.”
Image via Roadside Attractions

Maisy, I have to ask you about Aubrey. When I was watching the film, I kind of assumed that Aubrey had probably been cast first and got involved in the beginning, and then Megan said it was the opposite. So, what was it like finding out that you grow up to become Aubrey Plaza?

STELLA: That was seriously the best news of my life. I was cast first, which is wild. You would think, obviously, that Aubrey was cast first, so it was interesting because we do play the same person, but I was already filming for, like, two weeks. So my Elliott, little Elliott, was already kind of established in a way, and so when Aubrey came in, she kind of came more to me. We were going through a bunch of names, and it was a thing of, “Who looks most like Maisy?” We were looking kind of in physical aspects, and then, at a certain point, just dropped that a little bit and were like, “Energetically, what is the most endearing?”

PARK: And, “Who do we love?” I remember we had a conversation and we were like, “Who, when you look over on the log, do you want to see sitting next to you and saying that first line?” And we’re like, “Aubrey.”

STELLA: I genuinely think Aubrey is the most legit. I think so many people try to do her and be like her, but she really was the start of this whole thing. She just has such a unique — just everything about her is so special. I just feel like she’s the most original, legit, and so I was so excited to work with her, and so nervous!

PARK: And they weirdly have such a similar energy. Even though they’re not exact physical matches, there are so many qualities to them that are really similar, like sense of humor. And when they met, it was magical. You could see the chemistry right away.

STELLA: Yeah, I love her a lot. I think, yeah, there was definitely a thing [where] we were like, “Is it gonna be so obvious that we’re so different?”

PARK: We leaned into it.

STELLA: We really did. And watching it back, honestly, that’s one of my favorite parts of the movie is how different we are and how she’s just a little bit of a toughened, hardened version of what you would be at 18, which is, I’m sure, what will happen to me too. And that’s just what happens! But yeah, I honestly think our differences turned out to be really sweet and endearing.

It’s such a perfect pairing. It works so well.

STELLA: Oh, amazing! Thank you.

Megan Park Is Sticking With LuckyChap for Her Third Film
Related ‘My Old Ass’ Review: Aubrey Plaza Helps Her Teenage Self in Delightful Coming-of-Age Comedy | Sundance 2024 Megan Park’s follow-up to ‘The Fallout’ perfectly captures that period before leaving home, featuring an excellent performance by Aubrey Plaza.

Megan, I wanna come back to you to talk a little bit about LuckyChap and Indian Paintbrush, the companies that you were working with, because I always think it’s important to emphasize when those big companies support a filmmaker and their vision the way that they need. What are some of the things they did for you that helped you exceed your own expectations for your work on this film?

PARK: The bar has been set so high for me. It was truly every director and writer’s dream situation where I got so much invaluable advice, so much support, really smart and thoughtful, insightful notes, and then so much freedom. They really know how to support their filmmakers, that’s why they get so much repeat business. I’m doing my next movie with them. It was a pinch-me situation.

That makes me so happy.

PARK: Yeah, I feel very lucky to be working with them. And everything that is coming to them is so deserved. What I will say is, on set they treat the star, the director, and the PA the same. They are so wonderful and supportive and kind human beings first, and that really comes across. You know, after years of working together, you see cracks if it’s not genuine. It’s so genuine. It’s so, so genuine. They’re lovely humans, and so much fun. We had a great time, as well. They would throw dinners and we would get to boat places, and they really know how to create a really warm environment for everybody to feel comfortable. And again, like I said, the bar has been set pretty high for me now.

STELLA: No, truly.

It makes me so happy to know companies like that exist. It creates a brighter future for this industry, and we need to highlight them as much as possible.

‘My Old Ass’ Isn’t for a Young Genre, It’s for Young People
Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Speaking of which, I’ll lean into my Film.io question, which kind of taps into that. Film.io is all about putting the creative control in the hands of the creators, so whether it’s on this film or any project you’ve worked on, can you each recall a time when you got creative control and you didn’t expect to get it?

STELLA: Oh my gosh, I felt that so much in this movie. I think Megan, just her writing, I think, honestly, as young actors, there’s a lot of scripts that you read that don’t land and don’t feel right and don’t feel super natural. Megan’s writing, I think for all young actors that read it, it’s literally chilling because you just feel like you’re reading genuine conversation. It feels mature but still young, and it just really shines such a nice light on this generation. I think that doesn’t happen that often, honestly, in film now.

Megan really, because she wants it to feel so genuine and so real for this generation, she gives a lot of creative control to the actors, and I think that was so huge for us, and I know for Maddie and Percy [Hynes White] as well. To feel like yourself and to feel that freedom, I know how rare that is, and that was something that I think all of us, it’s one of our favorite things about working with Megan.

BROOKS: 100%. I would say, besides me giving myself that creative freedom with my company that I just made, I would say it’s definitely this movie, because, like she said, people tend to have difficulties writing for young people, because that’s their target audience. They think, “Okay, let’s lean super into it,” but I think that what Megan touches on so beautifully is that there is no such thing as a young genre, it’s just a young person. You’re just a young being. You’re a human being just being. You are just being, and so I think that she allowed us to just be, and actually be human beings, and that gave me so much license as a performer and as a person.

STELLA: Yeah, it makes it a lot more enjoyable, genuinely. It makes it feel much more sparky and like you’re watching real people, which is my favorite thing to watch in movies. That’s my favorite style of film, and you reach the hands out.

BROOKS: 100%.

I really like that description. It kind of reflects how the movie treats coming-of-age and where someone is at at any point in their life.

PARK: Yeah, I think also a little bit of this for me was, when I was acting, I was acting at their age, I never felt in control most of the time. Maybe once or twice in a career of 10, 15 years did I ever feel that. So I definitely am trying to curate that kind of environment and trying to write, maybe redo history a little bit, not every situation I was in as an actor, but certainly the majority. It frustrated me, and I’m trying to create a different vibe.

That’s so important. We need more people who will take their past experiences and use them to make the future better for all the artists in this industry.

I’m going to end with a couple of questions inspired by this concept. I’m sure you’re being asked, what would you tell your younger self, so I tried to switch it up a little bit. If you had the opportunity to re-experience a memory from your past, what memory would you choose and why?

BROOKS: And not change it?

No, not change it. Just relive it, and maybe reprocess it for whatever reason.

PARK: I would just want to go back and relive one day that was totally normal as, like, a six-year-old. Just morning till night, like a summer day, swimming in the pool, hanging out with your family as it was when you were a kid, eating dinner, playing with your friends. Just the simple things.

Image via Photagonist at the Collider Media Studio

Not a care in the world.

PARK: Yeah, not a care in the world. Going to bed in your childhood bed, getting tucked in. That makes me want to cry.

STELLA: My sister and I have talked about this memory all the time because we can’t figure out if it really happened or not. I’m from Oshawa. It’s in Ontario, Canada. It’s this really small town, and there was this one day, we were at our friend’s house, and they had all these little back, weird not even roads, just like little paths everywhere, and we went on a little adventure. We packed our backpacks, we got our bandaids and our snacks, and Lennon had her little guitar, and we just went adventuring. We found this, in my memory, it is a Bob Ross painting. It is the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen, and we spent the entire day there and we all literally just played our guitars and just hung out. And then the next day we tried to find it again, and we literally, for weeks, tried to find this place again and we couldn’t find it. We all are convinced that it was literally a magical, mystical little fairytale. It was so beautiful. Me and Lennon talk about it all the time, “Did we literally make that up or did that happen?” So I would relive that just so I could prove that that wasn’t a dream and that that really happened. And our friends remember it, too! God, it was so beautiful. I would go back there. Definitely.

If you believe it happened, then it happened.

STELLA: It happened! I swear it.

PARK: I feel like if more than one person remembers it, it happened.

STELLA: Dude, I could draw it. I could literally draw it from memory. It was so beautiful. But yeah, that’s my answer.

BROOKS: For me specifically, I would say, my brother and I used to just ride our bikes around with these neighborhood kids in our neighborhood. We call them the Rugrats. That’s because they always got into a lot of trouble and stuff. We used to just ride our bikes around and just be terrible in the neighborhood. So I would relive one of those days for sure.

Rock solid choice.

I’m gonna end on a silly one that just crossed my mind. If you could revisit your favorite discontinued snack, what snack would you choose?

BROOKS: I’ll go first. Mine would be the cereal straws. They used to have flavor on the inside and you suck milk out of them. You know what I’m talking about?

Yes I do!

STELLA: Wait, that’s such a good question. Honestly, every snack is discontinued to me because all my favorite snacks are Canadian snacks, and they’ve been discontinued because I don’t live in Canada anymore. So in that regard, all-dressed chips, ketchup chips, Crunchie bars. Any type of Canadian snack — so superior.

PARK: Smarties.

STELLA: That has been discontinued.

BROOKS: Smarties are discontinued?

PARK: Smarties in America are different.

Wait, what are your Smarties?

PARK: They’re like M&Ms, just chocolate little colored things.

STELLA: Lennon and I got into this the other day because we were confused, because they’re Rockets in Cananda, but here they’re called Smarties. The little pill-y things.

PARK: Are Dunkaroos discontinued?

I know this information because I was looking it up. Dunkaroos, I think, were discontinued, but then in 2020 they were brought back, so apparently they exist. But I would have chosen Dunkaroos.

PARK: That would have been my choice. I was never allowed to have them as a kid, but I would trade them, you know what I mean?

STELLA: Those are so good!

My pick was probably Kudos. They were these granola bars that were pretending to be granola bars but were really candy bars because they were covered in either candy or drizzled in chocolate. So good, so good.

STELLA: That’s a good question. You have really amazing questions.

PARK: Yeah, the best.

An amazing movie deserves the best questions, the best press, the best distribution, the best audience. I am willing all of that in your direction right now. Thank you for sharing your experience with us today, and thank you for this movie.

Special thanks to our 2024 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Film.io and supporting partners Pressed Juicery and DragonFly Coffee Roasters.