Exclusive Interview: Celine Song Talks About Past Lives, the Extraordinary Hellos and Goodbyes the Film Explores, and More

Celine Song is an exciting new filmmaker who knows how to make an impression. Her debut feature, Past Lives, is one of the most talked-about films of the year, and already garnering Oscar buzz, rightfully so.

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 Celine about Past Lives, making her first feature, how the film explores extraordinary hellos and goodbyes, and collaborating with her cast.

PC: Past Lives is such a personal yet universal story, and that’s a testament to your writing. Each of your actors had personal ties to their character. I know that you had initial conversations with each of them prior to casting them in their respective roles. What were you looking specifically for in those discussions and how did they vary based on each of their characters?
Celine: What I was looking for when I was casting was, first of all, you have to be a great actor because I feel like there’s so much acting involved in the film. The movie lives and dies on the actors’ performances of their lines, their facial expressions, and things like that. So, are you a great actor?

The second thing that I was looking for more than anything was a soul match to the character. It’s so much about the core of who they are as people. If there is a part of them or even a sliver of them that is connected to the character, that’s really what I was looking for with all three of them.

PC: Great answer. The cast has said in the past that you had such a clear vision for this narrative, but I imagine as a filmmaker you also want to allow these actors to take agency over their characters and bring their own personal experiences to the table. How were you able to create the space for them to do just that?
Celine: It always begins and ends in conversation, which is reflected in the movie too because the movie is a series of conversations that are revelatory. Similarly, I was having conversations with the actors for thousands of hours about these characters and this movie and what we were trying to do. It really is a deep relationship. I can’t really talk about it as a certain approach or a particular process because my relationship with each actor is different. The process is different for all of them because just like in a love relationship you’re getting to know that person deeply and intimately. Then you’re creating your own process of communication so that the actor is as involved in creating the character that I need as I am.

PC: What I found so interesting is the way that you were able to incorporate so many unique techniques into this film to bring those authentic moments to the screen. Were those techniques that you developed through your theater experience? How did you know that they would translate well from the stage to the screen?
Celine: I think it had more to do with what I knew about actors and the task at hand for them and what I knew about them as people too. In some cases, I was inventing a process for individual actors.

The reason why I put so much focus on creating a really authentic and deep way to say hellos and goodbyes is because the movie is about the hellos and the goodbyes. Not everybody needs the process that we had. But I knew that in our movie we did need some of the interesting things that we were trying to do with the performances because it is about really extraordinary hellos and goodbyes.

PC: This is the first feature that you made. What was the most surprising part about the experience? What’s the biggest lesson that you learned that you’ll bring to your next project?
Celine: I was excited to know that there are things that I learned in theater like character and storytelling that I could pull and bring right into the skill set that I needed to be a film director. But what was difficult is that there are some things that are out of your control, like weather, light, sun, or if a fire truck is going to stop right in front of an actor.

There were some things about making this movie, especially when we were on the actual streets of New York, that did make it very challenging at times. I think for my next movie I will be more prepared for the possibility that everything could go completely wrong.

To keep up with Celine, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Past Lives is out in select theaters now.