‘Past Lives’ Director Celine Song Is Already Excited About Her Next A24 Film [Interview]

I believe you shot the US scenes first, but was there a moment on set where you maybe had a sigh of relief that Greta and Teo were actually going to click on screen?

I think that the first day [I] knew. The first day we shot the Statue of Liberty.

O.K.

And I was just watching them out on the boat and I was like, “I think we’re all right. I think we’re O.K.” And of course, they’re just great actors. So, I know that even if it became difficult, I knew that we could work through it. So on the basic level, I think that I knew, but when it comes to the order of shooting, I wanted the two nights that we’re shooting the bar scene at the end, and then I wanted the next night to be when they’re walking home. So those are probably the toughest three nights the actors ever had because so much of the movie is in that.

Yeah.

Because it’s like the movie is building up to those two sequences, the one in the bar and then the one walking home. I call that week the hell week. I was like, “This is the hell week.” I think I literally said it into the comms. I was like, “This is the hell week. This is the week where the movie will live or die.”

No. [Laughs.]

“This week will make or break the film.” Literally into my comms. I wouldn’t yell, but I would tell to the actors, I’d be like, “You have to understand this week will make or break the movie.” I think I scared them sufficiently. So, they really went through those three nights knowing that, and of course, they understood the gravity. They’re so smart, they’re so intelligent about the work. So, they knew that that’s how it needed to happen. But I think after I shot those three nights, I was not worried again about the movie. Of course, I had to shoot a whole unit in Korea. But I know that at the end of the day, I have the fundamental part of the movie that the whole movie depends on, honestly. Yeah.

Had you done any shorts before? Had you directed anything in this manner?

Nope.

First of all, and I would ask this by the way, to anyone, besides an amazing script, what magic did you use to get A24 to finance your first film? [Laughs.] Did they ask for proof of concept? Did they ask for storyboards or anything?

Well, I think it really was just script.

Oh, that’s impressive.

And of course, I think that A24 is so good about risking something for first-time filmmakers. And really, for a first-time filmmaker, something that I really love about working with my producers and the studio is that they gave me such complete creative control. And that my authorial voice was not ever disrespected or ignored just based on my lack of experience. So I never really felt like a first-time filmmaker in that way with them because they were treating me with the same kind of authorship or auteur-ship that is usually reserved for people who’ve made 10 movies. But I really think it is the script. And it is also the way that I would be talking about the script. It would also be the way that I was talking about making the movie, but I didn’t have to do a big sales pitch or proof of concept. I just had to have a script. And of course, the script itself is a proof of concept because I had really detailed action lines, for example. I had really detailed way that I describe how the scene should be. Right? It is very much a … It’s a sales document.

You would never know that it was your first film, which is what’s so amazing about it. And perhaps the image that sticks in my mind was just a happy accident, but were there certain visuals that you wanted before you started shooting that were in your mind that you wanted to make sure at certain scenes, “I wanted to look like this”? And the image that always pops in my mind, and I saw it way back at Sundance, is when the two kids are at the fork in the road and one’s going one way and one’s going the other, and it sort of sets up the rest of the film. Were there images like that that were in your mind that you wanted to make sure were captured in the picture?

Yes. The opening scene, for example, is exactly the way that I wanted it to be done, which is the zoom and the timing of when she turns to us, that kind of a thing. And of course, the two goodbyes and also the hellos too, because it’s like … Well, it’s not even those two goodbyes. I think it’s three goodbyes. Because all three goodbyes need to have the kind of same kind of distance between them. But also in Madison Square Park, when they say their first hello, it has to be the same kind of distance. So some of it had to do with the shape of where the actors would need to stand in the frame. So I think sometimes the things like that, sometimes it’s like, I need it to be this particular distance because the distance between the actors needs to speak everything about what’s going on with these characters in these scenes. Right? Because if they’re sitting too close, for example, at Dumbo, then that would make it seem like it’s too familiar and they actually don’t know each other that well.

Yeah, yeah.

Right? They’re estranged, right? But also, if they’re too far apart, then they would be … it would seem like they don’t like each other, or they actually are too estranged. So it has to be a kind of really interesting middle point somewhere in there. And it really is, you just see it and you know it. And I think that really was the guidance for so much of it. And then when they first see each other for the first time in Madison Square Park, the same thing. That distance has to be perfect. It can’t be like, you can’t just run up to each other. Also, you can’t be too far away because they would look like they’re too scared of each other or something. So you have to be somewhere where they can really see, they can really observe, but at a safe distance. Right?

Right.

And then of course when I was shooting the childhood, the goodbye, some of it, it really was as simple as me pulling up the goodbye from New York and then trying to find a shape that feels connected to that. It’s not so exact, but it’s an interesting frame, given what it is, which is the most interesting frame we could find, given the limitation that it has to in some way reflect or match up with the site of the scene of goodbye, that movie.

You mentioned your “maybe” pile. Do you, you know what you want to do next? Do you have an idea?

Yes. I wrote a script last year.

And is A24 going to make it?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, it’s not announced, I’m assuming.

No.

O.K. But you’re excited.

Yes. You can see in my eyes.

“Past Lives” is now playing in New York and Los Angeles. It expands across the country this month.