Exclusive Interview: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro Talk About Past Lives, the Film’s Universal Themes, and More

Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro are the cast of Celine Song’s feature film debut, Past Lives.

The must-see drama follows Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two deeply connected childhood friends, who are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Greta, Teo, and John about Past Lives, their collaboration as a cast, the film’s universal themes, and more.

PC: Greta, there’s so much vulnerability that you need to tap into when you’re showing your native language. Nora has had that taken away from her at such a young age. What were some of the early conversations that you had with Celine [Song] about Nora’s connection with her native tongue? How did you create the space for yourself to dive into that vulnerability?
Greta: You’re right. It was so vulnerable to show what I think is a private part of someone’s identity: language. Korean was my first language, but over the years, well into my adulthood, that’s been something that I have had a very different relationship with and I’d never shown that before.

From the beginning, Celine and I had a lot of conversations about the specificity of how we wanted to show that. It felt really scary. Honestly, for years I’ve had such a love-hate relationship with that part of myself as an American kid growing up in Los Angeles. We wanted to hone in on what that experience really is like to be bicultural and bilingual. But it was never in service of trying to present something or explain something because the real story is about love and this universal idea of love that any human being can relate to, whether you speak Korean or not.

PC: John, you were able to draw a lot of parallels between your own life and what Arthur is feeling throughout the film. There’s a really subtle and beautiful moment when he reveals to Nora that she dreams in a language that he can’t understand, which perfectly encapsulates how he feels like an outsider. Were you able to bring your own personal experiences to this character? How did that collaboration with Celine allow you to take agency over Arthur’s journey and bring those authentic moments to the screen?
John: Thank you for that. I’m married to a Korean-American woman. Early on, I had a really nice dinner with Celine and her husband Justin who is also a White American male.

Greta: A White guy.

John: A White guy. We initially started talking about these things. It was fun to talk to Justin because we had an understanding of each other. When you’re married to a partner who has an immigrant experience and a very different set of circumstances growing up, you’ll always feel like an outsider. You love them, and you’re supportive of them. But there’s a piece that you’re always never going to quite understand.

For me, playing Arthur was like being paid to go to therapy. It was like a therapeutic experience to express in a more poetic way and a less stumbling way the feelings that I was already going through. That was a lot of fun and kind of scary to play.

PC: Teo, you’ve said in the past that you’ve been longing for a script and a character like this, which again is another interesting parallel to what your character’s experiencing in this film. Celine leveraged a lot of really unique techniques to create that sense of longing between all the different characters. How did those experiences help you step into your character’s shoes? Were there any nerves knowing that a lot of that discovery was going to happen on the day and on camera?
Teo: For me, coming from a different type of immigrant experience being born and raised in Germany, I always had this feeling of displacement with an undercurrent of melancholy. I was always longing for a script where I could express that because I haven’t seen it in contemporary cinema. Another aspect for us that really worked on screen was that Celine didn’t want us to touch during rehearsal. That first hug after twenty-four years that you see on screen, you get to experience that with us. That actually was the first time when we actually hugged. Also with me and John, we were never allowed to see each other during our pre-production phase. The crew would usher one person in the front and the other person out in the back when we had rehearsal and whatnot. Those visceral reactions that I had as Hae Sung really prepared me for Celine’s directing.

Greta: Not touching him amounted to a pretty good hug.

John: You guys should have hugged twenty-four years ago, so you could have had it be real. [laughs]

Greta: Like a hologram of a hug.

PC: Greta, speaking of techniques, during the rehearsal process for this film Celine had you work with Teo and John separately, and like Nora, you become the connective tissue between these two worlds where Teo was learning about John through your lens and vice versa. With that being such a unique process, what was that experience like for you?
Greta: I was just trying to spread rumors about the two of them respectively and create a lot of tension and a lot of animosity on set.

John: I think you were.

Greta: Celine did ask that I keep these two relationships separate, and it was a very interesting experience in that I did get to channel a lot of what Nora was feeling and that purgatory space.

I felt really different with each of them. It drove me insane, but it was a necessary element to the core of the story that we were telling. So that scene that you see at the opening at the bar, I think at that point I almost felt like I was in two different movies with the two of them respectively. Then those moments when those two come crashing together were appropriately crazy.

PC: John, this is Celine’s debut as a filmmaker. You’ve worked with so many directors throughout your career. Is the experience different when the person who created this universe is also at the helm directing?
John: It really depends on the director. As a freshman director, she had tremendous confidence. She has a deep well of knowledge about cinema, theater, and storytelling in general. I’ve worked with directors who’ve been doing this for ages. I’ve worked with first-time directors and auteurs and hired gun directors. But I think what makes for a great director is the confidence and that clarity of vision. Celine, although it was her first time, had that in spades. There was always confidence there. As an actor, you can’t help but trust it.

Make sure to follow Teo on Instagram. Past Lives is out in select theaters now.