How to Be a Star by Not Giving Your All

In reality, Lee wasn’t even being thought of for the half. For months, Celine Song, the author and director of “Past Lives,” had been taking a look at different Noras, different Hae Sungs. “They cast it with two other people,” Lee mentioned.

According to Song, the oversight had little to do with Lee herself. The movie’s story is loosely primarily based on the true-life reunion of Song, her American husband and her Korean college pal, which occurred when the director was 29. “When you’re young, you think that being 29 is so interesting and cool and meaningful,” Song mentioned. “So I was trying to find somebody at 30, or even in their twenties, and Greta, of course, was in her late 30s.”

“It was really stupid,” Song admitted.

AFTER SONG CAME TO HER SENSES, she contacted Lee. A 12 months had handed since Lee had first learn the script, however she nonetheless remembered it: her soul-mate movie, she known as it. Could she meet with Song, by way of Zoom, that day? After a video audition that stretched on for 2 and a half hours, with Lee studying key scenes as Song performed the 2 male leads (“Celine makes an excellent Arthur and Hae Sung,” Lee mentioned), Song provided Lee the half on the spot.

The movie started taking pictures in summer season 2021. To assist the actors convey the sensation of being reunited with somebody after 24 years, if you’ve solely communicated over Skype, Song saved Lee and Yoo aside as a lot as attainable. “She told us, you guys can’t touch,” Lee mentioned.

For Yoo, “during the rehearsal process, the instinct is to say goodbye naturally, with a hug,” he mentioned. “And Celine was like, no, no, no, you guys, no touching.” I’m allowed to the touch and hug, she advised them, however Yoo and Lee acquired shooed away after they tried.

Song insisted that the actors have been all in, and that she by no means needed to scold them to maintain them in line. “Is that what they’re saying?” she requested, with fun. “No, no. I think they wanted to go along with the trick.”