After years of enlivening other people’s stories from the margins, Greta Lee has entered a phase of her career defined by strikingly different leading roles. “Past Lives” relied on her extraordinary restraint, while Kent Jones’ delicate character study “Late Fame” gives her the freedom to deliver a fabulous, vivacious performance opposite Willem Dafoe (read our review).
But not every project Lee hoped would expand that progression has survived. While promoting “Late Fame” on the Talk Easy podcast, the actress confirmed that A24’s adaptation of “Minor Feelings” is no longer happening, although she has found a measure of peace with its collapse. She also revealed that she is developing something new with Lena Dunham.
READ MORE: Greta Lee Thought Someone Else Would Get Her Breakout ‘Past Lives’ Role [Interview]
The planned series was based on Korean American poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong’s acclaimed 2020 collection, “Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,” which Lee has credited with changing her life.
When the podcast host noted that A24 had acquired the project but that it was no longer moving forward, Lee confirmed, “No. No, it’s not.”
Lee said she had accepted the project’s fate, although the ideas she hoped to explore through Hong’s book would continue to influence her work.
“I’ve made a certain peace with certain things not coming into fruition,” she explained. “And for now, ‘Minor Feelings’ is one of those. And I’ve talked to Cathy Park Hong about it too, and we kind of feel similarly.”
The material remains deeply important to Lee, even if she no longer feels compelled to translate the book directly to the screen. “I will be forever indebted to that book and what it did for me,” Lee continued. “It did change my life. But I can see that that was a container for things that I can now inject differently into other things, if that makes sense.”
“I don’t need it in the way that I did then,” she added.
One of Lee’s other projects may involve Dunham, who gave the actress an early showcase on HBO’s “Girls.” Lee played Soojin, an ambitious artist who briefly employed Jemima Kirke’s Jessa. Lee once described landing the role as leaving her feeling like a “Make-A-Wish Foundation charity case,” a remark she reconsidered when Fragoso raised it.
“What did I mean by that?” Lee asked, then clarified that she and Dunham remain friendly. “I wanted to kind of clear the record because that’s on the internet, and Lena’s having a moment.”
“We talk, and we’re still—over the years, I can’t say we had consistently kept in touch, but we’re good, as far as I know, and we’re working on something together,” she continued. “But she’s one of one. We love her.”
Lee offered no details about the form their collaboration might take. She did, however, explain the frustration behind her old remark. At the time, she felt her opportunities depended upon powerful white women inviting her into stories that ultimately belonged to them.
“I was having to hold a lot of different feelings—feelings of gratitude, undeniable gratitude and appreciation, and also this feeling of, ‘I don’t know how sustainable this is,’” Lee recalled. “I don’t know what my actual function is.”
Lee said she often felt she was “in service of certain stories, propping up certain types of characters” and functioning as “decoration.” While “Minor Feelings” will not become the vehicle she once envisioned, she now intends to channel the book’s ideas into other work—and her new collaboration with Dunham suggests their creative relationship has entered a different phase.
“Late Fame” is now playing in theaters nationwide. Watch the full conversation below.
