Megan Parkthe two characteristics of “The fallout” And “My old ass“, couldn’t be more different tonally – one is about a high school girl dealing with very contemporary trauma and the other is about a high school girl connecting with her future self (via a mushroom trip to celebrate her 18th birthday, of course). With or without the help of the vision of her at 39 (Place Aubrey), “My old ass» Elliot of star Maisy Stella must determine, like all high school students, what kind of relationships she wants to maintain.

But one of the strengths of Park’s work in both films is his ability to be both incredibly specific in his voice, his humor, and his pacing on universal themes. One of the challenges and great joys of “My Old Ass” was Park’s ability to shape the movie to echo the ’90s coming-of-age stories she loves, while feeling both present and somewhat timeless.

Park and his team created this feeling using everything from choosing to shoot on location with the natural light and beauty of Ontario to collaborating with Jaco Caraco and Tyler Hilton on musical themes that fuel the elements. most sincere and sincerely sentimental of the story. “I wanted there to be a Chadian theme that came back. That kind of John Williams-esque guides the audience on how to feel through the score — which, if done well, is really beautiful and really timeless,” Park told IndieWire on Filmmaker Toolkit. podcast.

But for a coming-of-age story to feel timeless, it really depends on characters who seem like believable products of their environments. Park not only rewrote the script for “My Old Ass” once she knew who she was casting, but she continually consulted with her actors – would you tell that joke? would you actually say this line? – so that their voices are accurately represented.

For example, the musical sequence that kicks off Elliot’s second mishandled drug trip to talk to her older self, in which she transforms into Justin Bieber and begins singing “One Less Lonely Girl” to her crush , Chad (Percy Hynes White), arrived after Park talked to Stella about what her was an iconic teenage concert experience, then suggested Stella take up the mantle from JB.

“I think being in Generation Z is very unique compared to any other generation. You don’t have to be a Gen-Zer to write for Gen-Z, but you have to be open-minded to what you know and what you don’t know…you really have to be open-minded,” Park said. “For me, a fun part of the process is getting to know (the actors) and incorporating parts of their lives or parts that I think are really interesting about them as humans and actors.”

This openness to ideas and specific details is hard-earned through Park’s own experiences as an actress, during which she saw different ways of organizing sets and how well they worked — or not. According to his book, the path to the most creative success is an intensely collaborative, non-hierarchical path.

“I think a director should be like the curator, where you find really great people who are really good at their work and then you give them the space to do that work. That’s what I always try to do with the people I select and also with the department heads,” Park said.

The received idea that a film is shot three times resonates with the Director of “My Old Ass” and gave him all the more reason not to be apprehended by a kind of directive command imposed and which must be transmitted from above. “The movie you write is never the movie you film and it’s never the movie that ends up being released. They’re three completely different things,” Park said.

The trick for a director, then, is to be able to follow the growth of the original idea and stay true to it as it takes shape through each stage of the filmmaking process. Finding the right group of collaborators is part of what makes this possible for Park. “I don’t act anymore, but if I could go back and say something to my actor it would be, ‘If you don’t get the part, it’s not necessarily because you’re not talented'” , she said. “It’s just that there’s an energy. There is something you can imagine when you write it and when you see it you know it immediately.

Stella had read for a role in “The Fallout” and stayed on Park’s mind even after nothing immediately fit (and even though the two had never actually met). With “My Old Ass,” Park wanted someone who could embody a kind of positive, bright, sunny energy while remaining cool, something she hadn’t seen much in teenage female characters.

“I thought there was a really cool, endearing, interesting quality to it and it reminded me of a lot of movies I watched in the ’90s,” Park said. “You can’t always take that quality and put it on camera. It’s not easy to do. So I was thinking about (Stella) or the idea of ​​who she might be, as weird as that sounds, as I was writing.

But the chance to cast Stella, let alone cast her first before attaching a better-known actor to the older Elliot, is not something Park takes for granted. Much of the film’s authenticity, not to mention its title, was able to survive in the finished piece because the “My Old Ass” team decided to make it independently and then sell it to Sundance.

“I think it was a very important way to do this type of film… to do it for less money, to tighten our belts a little bit in some ways, but hopefully keep the authenticity of the story , location and little things, like the title,” Park said. “There was never a fight with (Lucky Chap, the production company), which says a lot about the way they said. : ‘Yeah, it’s important to you and a letter love for where you come from.'”

But park was I’m still waiting for someone to deny the title of the film. That no one has done this shows nothing, and certainly no received studio wisdom, is inevitable. “I said to myself, ‘No one is going to let this go to the end. For example, I want to see business people sending “My old ass” contract emails. And of course, it’s literally my inbox,” Park said. “Every day.”

“My Old Ass” is now available for streaming on Main video.