Maisy Stella and Megan Park sit down to discuss their latest film, a unique coming-of-age story where Elliott (Maisy) encounters her 39-year-old self (played by Aubrey Plaza) after a wild 18th birthday mushroom trip. The two dive into the film’s queer narrative, the creative process behind it, and even share a nostalgic moment over a Justin Bieber scene. With thoughtful reflections on self-discovery and LGBTQ+ representation, this interview is packed with insight and heart.
In select theaters September 13, everywhere September 27.
In select theaters September 13, everywhere September 27.
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00:00It's wonderful to see both. Congratulations on the film. I really, really loved it.
00:04Thank you so much.
00:05Yes, absolutely. So I just wanted to start off, Megan, and dive right in.
00:10Your film features a fantastic queer storyline that I really resonated with and loved to see.
00:16And I just wanted to kind of ask, you know, at what point in the creative process
00:20did you know that you wanted to include this queer narrative?
00:24You know, like when I came up with the idea for the story, I didn't know who Elliot was.
00:28It was more like this feeling of this older and younger self and this nostalgic feeling.
00:32And then as Elliot sort of came to me in my mind, it just,
00:37that was just always going to be Elliot to me. I don't know. It wasn't like,
00:41it was never a question. I don't know why. But I did love the idea. I'd never seen,
00:45there's so many parts of Elliot that I'd never seen in a young female lead before
00:49or in a current movie. But there was definitely something with the idea of
00:53her being very sure about her identity and sort of this like reverse, like, wait a second,
00:58and being accepted by her community and her family. And so sure about this kind of
01:03label that she assigned herself. And then sort of being like, wait a second,
01:09maybe it's, you know, maybe I'm bi, maybe I'm pan. I just hadn't seen that before,
01:13which I thought was interesting.
01:15Yeah, no, I agree. I think that it's definitely a story that's not told a lot. And it's also,
01:21it's Bisexual Awareness Month. So I think that it's a perfect time to come out. Yeah,
01:26for everyone to see that. Going over to you, Maisie, I mean, this is one of your first movies.
01:31It is my first movie.
01:32Yes. Congratulations.
01:34And it has that, you know, queer storyline. So I just want to know, what did that mean to you
01:38going into it? And you know, how, how excited were you to be playing this role?
01:43It was always like a really comfy part of the script for me. It always felt very safe to me.
01:49And it felt very like genuine and honest and real. And yeah, I was, I was very excited to play.
01:54I think I, I've always like really enjoyed, in coming of age, like,
01:58I've always really enjoyed watching a character, like any type of self exploration or like
02:03confusion or like genuine, honest, like just honesty and searching. And I was really excited
02:09to play that and also felt that I am that and I'm still that and was that when we were filming.
02:16And so, yeah, I think it resonated a lot with me. Just any type of like
02:19confusion, self-exploration will always feel very real and authentic to me.
02:24Absolutely. And it's, the whole film is so nostalgic, especially for me. And I also loved
02:30the Justin Bieber sequence. I always have to, I have to bring that up because that was definitely
02:35nostalgic for me as someone who tried to be the one. So I wanted to ask, I mean, both of you,
02:41was it nostalgic for you? How did this come to be? How did, what did that scene mean to you?
02:46I was, I missed that a lot. I was a little older, but that was definitely.
02:50You put your trust in me to be like, I was like, no, no, no, just, just wait. Like,
02:54people are going to get it. Like they'll vouch for me. Like, this is real. Yeah. Yeah. It was
02:58very, I, it was originally like a different song in the original script. And then I was like,
03:04no, no, no. One Less Lonely Girl is what it was. It was so important to me in my childhood.
03:11And yeah, it was like all the people that you would like literally get done up as if you were
03:15a hundred percent going to get brought up onto stage, but like watching the videos, like how
03:19truly jealous, how truly angry I would feel watching the One Less Lonely Girl get brought
03:24up. But it was your genius idea to have me be Bieber. Well, when I, I remember you sent me
03:28the, like the Never Say Never tour thing where they do the whole thing and how they like scout
03:31the world. And I was like, this is incredible. And these girls are just hysterical. And yeah,
03:36it was, it was really fun to gender swap it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was so shocked,
03:40but I loved every second of it. So did I. So did I. I loved it.