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    I Genuinely Cannot Watch "My Old Ass" The Same Way After Learning These 13 Fascinating Facts

    I just love that Megan Park, the movie's writer and director, also starred on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

    Lauren Garafano
    by Lauren Garafano

    BuzzFeed Staff

    🚨Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead!🚨

    My Old Ass dropped on Prime Video last week, and people cannot get enough of it. The film follows an 18-year-old named Elliot (Maisy Stella) who tries shrooms one night and meets her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). When Elliot's older self begins giving advice and warnings, her younger self suddenly rethinks everything about her family, her love life, and more.

    And if you're one of the many people who watched the movie and fell in love with it, here are 13 cool BTS facts that'll make you love it even more:

    1. My Old Ass director and writer Megan Park is also an actor, best known for playing Grace Bowman on The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

    THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER, Megan Park, 'Caught', (Season 1, aired July 22, 2008), 2008-. photo: Randy Holmes \/ \u00a9 ABC Family \/ Courtesy: Everett Collection<\/p>","thumbnail_crop":{"height":"1708","width":"1707","x_offset":"93","y_offset":"111"},"thumbnail_src":"https:\/\/img.buzzfeed.com\/buzzfeed-static\/static\/2024-11\/14\/21\/asset\/1480f6e599c8\/sub-buzz-1370-1731618132-1.jpg?crop=1707:1708;93,111","alt_text":"A person in a cheerleader outfit stands outdoors with hands together, possibly in prayer. The outfit has a retro style with a high-neck top"}], "id": 137693136, "index": 3, "bfa": {"e":"{idx:0,subbuzzId:137693136}"} }

    Harold Feng / Getty Images, Abc Family / ©ABC Family/courtesy Everett Collection

    She's also married to Tyler Hilton, aka Chris Keller from One Tree Hill. 

    2. Megan said that when writing the script, she first wanted to tell a story about "this idea that there's one night that a nuclear family sleeps under the same roof together for the last time." She explained that at the time, she was home in Canada visiting family, back in her childhood bedroom and began feeling very nostalgic.

    Two people embrace warmly on a wooden chair outdoors, surrounded by trees, conveying a sense of comfort and connection
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "Before you know it, somebody moves on or goes to college or whatever. And I was just feeling very nostalgic," she said. "And it wasn't necessarily this idea of talking to your younger-older self, or certainly not the mushrooms, that was the initial spark for me wanting to tell this story. It was that feeling, and then again, thinking about I used to love making dance videos on like our VHS to Spice Girls when I was younger, and there was a time when we just did that for the last time and didn't know it."

    3. Megan said that she saw a ton of great actors audition for the role of Elliot, but as soon as she saw Maisy Stella's audition she knew she was the one. "This character who was so cool and grounded and real, but also had so much sweetness and warmth and joie de vivre, and Maisy just had that in spades," she said.

    Two people smiling at each other in front of a media wall with &quot;MY OLD ASS&quot; text. One wears a sweater vest and long skirt, the other a blazer over a dress
    Harold Feng / Getty Images

    And then the rest of the cast was "built around Maisy." 

    4. My Old Ass is also Maisy's first movie role ever. She previously appeared on the series Nashville.

    Michael Simon / Getty Images, Mark Levine / ©CMT/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection

    She's also the younger sister of singer Lennon Stella. 

    5. Maisy had previously auditioned for a role in Megan's first film, The Fallout, and while she didn't get cast there was something about Maisy that stuck in Megan's mind. “I thought there was a really cool, endearing, interesting quality and reminded me of a lot of movies I watched in the ‘90s,” she said.

    Person wearing a plaid shirt and cap, sitting in a small boat on a lake with a wooded shoreline in the background
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "You can’t always take that quality and put it on camera. It’s not easy to do. So I was thinking about [Stella], or the idea of who she might be, as weird as that sounds, as I was writing it," Megan said. 

    6. Aubrey Plaza was one of the final people brought into the cast. Initially, there was some hesitance to cast her because she looks nothing like Maisy and they're supposed to be playing the same person, but Megan felt like Aubrey's "energy was so right."

    Person lying on a bed, gazing thoughtfully into the distance, in a scene from a TV or movie
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Megan even said that Aubrey was the "missing piece." 

    7. Aubrey and Maisy only met a few days before filming together, after Maisy had already been filming for two weeks. They didn't have much time to get to know each other but said their meeting was based mainly on "vibes."

    JA/Everett Collection

    "Megan just set up everything perfectly and allowed us to get to know each other in a fun environment and not some pressure cooker. It felt really organic," Aubrey said.

    8. The first scene Aubrey and Maisy filmed together is the one where younger Elliot and older Elliot are lying in bed and they kiss.

    Two people sitting on a log by a campfire, smiling at each other in a forest setting. One wears a sweater and boots, and the other is in casual clothes
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    Aubrey told Maisy, "The minute I met you, it was just like, Okay, everything's gonna be fine. I just could feel it."

    9. Megan has a group chat with Maisy, Maddie Ziegler, and Kerrice Brooks and said that they keep her "somewhat in the know about what’s going on." For instance, Maisy got Megan to turn her phone on dark mode and to stop using capital letters in her texts.

    Three people sit around a campfire, with a tent and trees in the background, creating a scene of outdoor camping at night
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    10. Before filming, Megan spent a couple of weeks with Maisy to get to know her and "[pick] up on her energy." Then, after learning who Maisy was and how she spoke, she tweaked the script to make it sound true to her voice.

    Person relaxing in a wooden chair outdoors, surrounded by trees and a lake view, smiling slightly
    Amazon Prime Video / Courtesy Everett Collection

    "I try to create set environments where young actors, especially young women, have the autonomy to speak up. I also like to spend time with the cast before we’re actually making the movie, soaking that in and then infusing that into the script," she said. 

    11. The film's iconic "One Less Lonely Girl" scene almost didn't happen. Megan had originally written the scene to a different musical number, but they couldn't get the rights cleared for the movie. So, she asked Maisy, Maddie, and Kerrice who an "influential" artist from their generation was, and they all picked Justin Bieber.

    Two images from a stage performance with dancers. Text reads: &quot;There&#x27;s gonna be one less lonely girl...&quot;
    Prime Video

    "Originally, Elliot didn’t sing in the movie, but now we had Maisy, and Kerrice and Maddie are professional dancers, so I was like, 'This is so perfect. It has to be cleared,'" Megan added. 

    12. And while Justin's press team read the scene and liked it, they wouldn't give their final approval until they saw the final product. Luckily, his team ended up loving it. "So we had to shoot the whole thing knowing that his team could see it and kill it," Megan said. "But we felt like he would love it. It’s such an homage to him. And he liked it. It was one of the most fun days on set."

    Two people with long hair smiling at each other on stage, one holding a bouquet of roses, under bright lights
    Prime Video

    13. Finally, Megan kept waiting for an executive to nix the film's title, but luckily it never happened. "I was like, 'No one’s going to let this go the whole way. Like, I want to see business people sending My Old Ass contract emails.' And sure enough, that’s literally my inbox," she said.

    Three people in casual, comfortable clothing are standing outdoors with mugs, smiling and chatting near a tent
    JA/Everett Collection

    She explained that making the film independently, alongside Margot Robbie's production company Lucky Chap, helped keep My Old Ass as authentic as it could possibly be. Megan said she never had to battle with execs. 

    “I do think that it was a really important way to make this type of movie … to make it for less money, tighten our belt a little bit in certain ways, but hopefully keep the authenticity of the story and the place and the little things, like the title,” she said. “It was never any kind of battle with [Lucky Chap, the production company] which speaks a lot to how they were like, ‘Yeah, this is important to you and a love letter to where you’re from.’”