'My Old Ass' Director Megan Park and Lead Actress Maisy Stella on Fooling Around with Aubrey Plaza

The use of banned substances by teenagers is not uncommon in the canon of coming-of-age films. But the endearingly earnest My Old Ass, the latest film from Canadian actress and singer-filmmaker Megan Park, offers an intriguing twist.

Maisy Stella (Nashville) plays Elliot, an 18-year-old queer kid about to leave her cranberry-farming parents' rural town to study in the big city. But before she leaves, she and her best friends Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler, who starred in Park's first feature film “The Fallout” and is known for dancing in Sia's 2010s music videos) and Ro (Kerrice Brooks) go on a boat ride to a forested island to collect mushrooms together. Last “don’t tell mom” hurray.

So far, so textbook. But what really makes “My Old Ass” crazy is the fact that while Ro and Ruthie are cavorting unconventionally, a seemingly unaffected Elliot is confronted by a 40-something woman.

Only “White Lotus” star Aubrey Plaza isn’t a random stranger; She claims she is Elliot's future self.

Wow!

How does the older Elliot prove it's not a stunt? By comparing chest size to her younger weapon (one is slightly smaller than the other).

“It felt so Elliott to me,” Stella says of the silly things they compare and contrast before moving on to a serious conversation like, “If I fall in love, I'll have a great career and, um, my whole family will live.” still?”

“It's just so bright and fun and super playful, which I love,” Stella adds. “It was really important to set it up to highlight the more moving elements of the film more because there was a place for it to go.”

A piece of me

My Old Ass goes to beautiful places. The boisterous banter between Stella and eternally dry “Parks and Recreation” alum Plaza gradually transitions from relentlessly grilling each other along generational lines to genuinely emotional beats.

And hanging over it all is a warning: “Stay away from Chad.”

So far, Elliot has only been attracted to other women. But no sooner has her older self warned her than a stroke of fate occurs while she's skinny dipping. Elliot is surprised by Percy Hynes White's charismatic, crazy farmhand named Chad.

Stella says she was drawn to her character's fluid exploration of her sexuality.

“The strangeness of the film felt really comfortable to me and it was beautifully made; I was so sure of that and confident enough to support this story.”

Authenticity is important to Park, who has form and played Grace Bowman on the popular young adult show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” between 2008 and 2013.

“Honestly, there is a part of me in all of these characters,” says the director.

“So I'm not asking myself, 'How do I write something that appeals to young people?', but I definitely want to put it through its paces and make sure it feels authentic every step of the way.”

“The Fallout,” Park's first feature film as a director, starred Wednesday and Beetlejuice star Jenna Ortega as a traumatized student after a school shooting, a theme that seemed inevitable.

“I'm Canadian, I'm a millennial, and I was honestly so amazed that this was the life of American teenagers,” Park says. “The reality is that they are afraid to go to school, and that was the driving factor in wanting to tell this story.”

Written by Park during lockdown, “My Old Ass” has its tearful moments but is generally much more relaxed.

“It came from a completely different place: I was just a new mother, at home in Canada, nostalgic for my own childhood and wanting to deal with all these issues and this grief,” she says.

“As a writer, I am very emotionally driven first and foremost, and as crazy as it may seem, Mushrooms was actually the most grounded way I could find into this story.”

Tattoos for two

When a big star joins a project, the project usually revolves around them. But Stella was on location for two weeks before Plaza came on set.

“So it was a very interesting situation: I was already established as a younger me, we had the raw material, so it was unique that Aubrey Plaza somehow came to me,” says Stella. “My tattoos were inked on her body. And yes, that was a big deal for me. I can't believe it. We connected in a very happy way because it felt real.”

Park was impressed by how friendly they were. “They had to build chemistry pretty quickly, but that's what the best actors do: they have the ability to be very open, and both Maisy and Aubrey have a great gift for that.”

Since it was an indie film with a modest budget, timing was crucial, but Park still made room for Plaza's improvisational skills, which he had honed as a teenager at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.

“We had as much fun as we could with every scene,” she says. “Aubrey is so multi-talented that she can do anything, but her strength is the ability to get involved and just go with the flow.”

“There were so many hilarious tidbits and back-and-forth lines that we had to cut out because otherwise the scene would have been two hours long,” she adds.

Stella agreed that fooling around with Plaza was a must.

“If you didn't let Aubrey join in, it would be the stupidest decision of your life. It would be illegal.”

Similar to drinking psychedelic mushroom tea…

“My Old Ass” hits theaters September 26th.