And it turned out,Past Liveswas very personal for the audience, too.
Song earned an Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for her debut, and the film a Best Picture nomination.
And how did you land on a movie being the right way to go?
Teo Yoo, Celine Song, and Greta Lee of ‘Past Lives’.Getty Images; A24
CELINE SONG:I knew that it had to be a movie because of the nature of the story.
This is a story that spans many decades, in two different continents.
It needed to have a contrast of different parts of our lives.
Teo Yoo, Greta Lee, and John Magaro in ‘Past Lives’.Courtesy of Twenty Years Rights/A24 Films
This is not one of the strengths of theater.
It is a cinematic language that I needed to tell the story.
So that really was the initial thing.
Celine Song and Greta Lee on the set of ‘Past Lives’.Courtesy of Twenty Years Rights/A24 Films
So that opening scene is pulled straight out of your life.
That scene I think is the launch point, and that was the inspiration for the whole film.
It really was about building a film around that moment because that feeling is so amazing.
Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in ‘Past Lives’.Jon Pack/Twenty Years Rights/A24 Films
That scene at the bar, at the end.
Oh, at the end.
The flip side of it.
Greta Lee in ‘Past Lives’.Courtesy of Twenty Years Rights/A24 Films
That’s really the structural thing that I needed to crack from before I could write the whole film.
What is something Greta Lee brought to Nora that you weren’t necessarily expecting?
It’s not strained, it’s not difficult it’s effortless.
It’s a beautiful acceptance that she has.
and then you and I would be transported back to who we were when we were 12.
Are you still 12 or are you no longer 12?
Greta, she’s so professional, she’s so adult.
She’s a mother.
She’s an incredible force and a very powerful person.
And that’s a quality that I really needed from this character more than anything.
Was it one of those kinds of moments?
I had a feeling when he walked into the Zoom like he is the right person for this role…
It’s on a massive lit up sign.
And I think that really was the initial feeling.
I was like, oh, yeah, he can do so much without saying a word.
Did that pay off in the way you were hoping?
We wanted to be rolling when that happened for the human beings who are playing these characters too.
A little bit, right?
Sizing each other up.
Our reference was literally a Western for, how are we going to shoot that scene?
No, I wrote it as an emotional journey.
So it was more instructional for what the performances were going to be.
It should feel long and it should feel short at the same time.
I had made it very clear that this is the scene that this whole movie hinges on.
So it’s a contradictory instruction for how to find the street.
And then it clicked for me.
And that’s the ending of that sequence.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
