Aubrey Plaza transcended lookalike looks for My Old Ass, says director

Within the new time-travel comedy My Previous Ass, Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza play two variations of the identical character, Elliott: One is a younger, assured teenager, and the opposite is her older self.

The 2 actors don’t actually appear like picture-perfect matches. However My Previous Ass director Megan Park stated that she was in search of one thing past only a superficial lookalike in casting two sides of a single character.

“Aubrey requested me, I bear in mind in our first name, ‘Would you like me to essentially research her and attempt to decide up on her mannerisms? How a lot of this do you wish to be attempting to imitate?’” Park tells Polygon. “And I used to be like, ‘I don’t suppose that’s necessary, as a result of a lot time has handed and I feel as a lot as you are feeling like it is advisable to get into the characters.’ Once we first all met and frolicked and had dinner collectively, I might inform she was actually taking Maisy in and doing that work for the character.

“However we attempt to not focus as a lot on it being an imitation of each other as a lot as simply there being this chemistry and this rapport, which was fairly instantaneous. Aubrey has youthful sisters who’re near Maisy’s age, and Maisy has an older sister. So there was type of this pure sisterly factor in addition they fell into fairly simply and so they simply actually adored one another instantly, which was useful. It fortunately occurred pretty organically.”

The timey-wimey plotline kicks off when younger Elliott takes a complete lot of psychedelic mushrooms, and through her journey, finally ends up encountering the older model of herself. It’s performed fairly ambiguously as as to whether there’s precise time journey concerned or if it’s all in her head. However regardless, younger Elliott — who’s brash, daring, and really certain of herself — will get a variety of her preconceived notions challenged by her older self. It was necessary for Park that Elliott convey a really particular form of vitality.

“I hadn’t seen a variety of younger ladies in motion pictures who had been very cool and grounded, however had been additionally very shiny and cheery and optimistic and form of sparkly,” Park says. “I don’t know why I hadn’t seen that so much, however I used to be actually in search of someone who embodied that vitality and was very weak and open and loving, and it was tough to search out. It was type of tough to search out that magical mixture.”

Touchdown on Plaza was a bit trickier, however as soon as the artistic staff narrowed in on what they had been in search of and separated from looking for an entire lookalike (“We spent a variety of time getting caught up in [which potential actors] have blond hair”) all of it clicked collectively.

“At a sure level it’s like, Who will we wish to see sitting on that log collectively bantering and having that type of rapport?” Park says. “As quickly as Aubrey’s identify got here up, it was like, Oh shit, that makes excellent sense.

“It’s additionally a lot funnier to me that [young Elliott] thinks [Aubrey Plaza] is so previous and he or she’s not even 40,” she provides with fun. “And it added a complete different layer of comedy that I actually cherished.”

My Previous Ass is out in choose theaters now, and all over the place on Sept. 27.