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00:00 (cash register dings)
00:03 - I actually had like a funny fake out.
00:06 Around that time, I got a message that said
00:09 there's a really important meeting
00:12 from a producer's assistant saying we have to meet
00:16 about something really important
00:17 and I assumed that I got the job.
00:19 - Yeah, oh wow.
00:20 - And it turned out, I listened to the voicemail again
00:22 and that voicemail was for Greta Gerwig.
00:25 - (laughs) Oh no.
00:27 - Yes, so it could not have been clearer from the universe
00:31 that this was not gonna be my job.
00:33 I mean, really, I had to laugh about it.
00:35 - Well, it's not gonna be Greta Gerwig's job either.
00:36 - Well, yeah, right.
00:37 (laughing)
00:38 Neither of us.
00:39 (upbeat music)
00:42 (speaking in foreign language)
00:50 (speaking in foreign language)
00:54 (speaking in foreign language)
00:58 (speaking in foreign language)
01:02 (speaking in foreign language)
01:30 - Welcome to the actor's side today.
01:33 Well, first of all, you know her in so many comedic roles
01:37 and so many different shows
01:39 and different projects that she's done.
01:42 And then of course, the morning show
01:44 where she plays the president of UVA News.
01:46 And now, though, an extraordinary movie
01:50 and an extraordinary performance in past lives
01:53 for which she's winning high acclaim,
01:56 lots of awards recognition and buzz.
01:58 Please welcome Greta Lee.
02:00 - Hi.
02:01 - Thanks for joining us on the actor's side.
02:03 - Thanks for having me.
02:04 - What a year you're having.
02:05 - Yes, yes, I suppose so.
02:08 It's been wild.
02:10 It's been very surreal and also wonderful.
02:13 We're just so proud of this movie
02:16 and we keep finding this audience for it too,
02:19 not just here but globally.
02:23 And it's been really, really amazing.
02:25 - I saw it like almost a year ago at Sundance.
02:30 - Oh, yeah.
02:30 - And blown away.
02:32 It was really the talk of Sundance
02:34 and you knew then that you had something special, I think.
02:39 - Well, I didn't know then.
02:40 - You didn't?
02:41 - Because actually for me,
02:44 when we were at the Eccles at Sundance
02:46 and that final scene of the movie,
02:50 and if you've seen it, maybe you know.
02:52 - Sure.
02:52 - Because we'd never screened the movie
02:57 for anyone before that moment.
03:00 - Right.
03:00 - The moment we premiered at Sundance
03:02 was the first time we got to share it with an audience.
03:05 And we had no idea how it was going to be received
03:10 and specifically the end.
03:11 - Right.
03:12 - And I remember sitting in that theater
03:16 and thinking, "Oh no, people are getting up to leave."
03:21 Because people, there was like a foot dance
03:24 that was happening and people shuffling in their seats
03:28 and reaching for what I didn't know then,
03:30 tissues and things.
03:31 Because basically it was the experience
03:36 of people crying en masse.
03:38 Bodies do funny things.
03:41 And so I was, we were really surprised.
03:44 - Oh my God.
03:45 - And pleasantly so.
03:46 It was just such this like very,
03:48 it was an incredible moment for us really
03:50 to experience that.
03:52 - To see the effect that this movie has on people.
03:55 - Yeah.
03:56 - Everywhere.
03:57 There's a story I heard that your mother
04:00 was like, there was something,
04:03 you had no idea what her reaction was.
04:06 And tell that, I mean it's.
04:09 - I can count on one hand the number of times
04:12 I've ever seen her cry.
04:14 So you can imagine my discomfort.
04:16 (laughing)
04:17 When I saw her after the screening
04:21 and she was just, she was very emotional
04:25 and excused herself.
04:28 And I, several days passed before I really
04:33 could get a sense of what was going on.
04:35 And she called me, driving actually,
04:39 and she said, "I'm still crying."
04:42 I said, "Oh God, I'm so sorry."
04:45 (laughing)
04:46 "What's going on?"
04:46 And she just said, she said,
04:49 you know, "You think this movie is about you,
04:54 but I am Nora."
04:56 - Wow, that's obviously the character you play.
04:57 - She said, "I am Nora."
04:58 Yeah. - Wow.
04:59 - And I was totally blown away, really.
05:04 I think, and it opened up a whole new conversation
05:08 that I've never had before about her immigration story.
05:13 And there's a line in the movie between the two mothers,
05:16 Nora and Hye-sung's mothers, talking about,
05:19 in order to gain something, you must lose something.
05:22 - Yeah.
05:22 - And my mom referenced that line.
05:25 And she said, "Moving to America and having our family,
05:29 it's been an embarrassment of riches."
05:31 And everything, her life has unfolded in a way
05:35 that is a dream, and yet to reconcile
05:38 with everything she left behind.
05:40 - Yeah.
05:41 - And the life she never had.
05:42 - Wow.
05:43 Hence the title, Past Lives.
05:45 - Yes.
05:46 - Which is what's at the core of this movie,
05:49 or someone's coming from, long ago from South Korea,
05:54 and you're having a reunion of sorts that you didn't,
05:57 but you are now in America, married,
06:02 a whole different life, and you are torn
06:05 between two lives, essentially, there.
06:09 - Yeah, I mean, I think that really is what's so incredible
06:13 about Celine's movie.
06:16 I mean, it was apparent immediately in the script,
06:19 and then in the way she directed.
06:22 I mean, we like to say it really feels like we all,
06:25 we came for the script, and then we stayed for the director.
06:28 (laughing)
06:29 I mean, really, the script was stunning and shocking
06:34 in terms of feeling like I hadn't read anything
06:38 like that ever.
06:40 The way she's managing what could be seen
06:44 as conventional tropes of romantic drama,
06:47 or a love triangle, but doing it in this way
06:50 that is so expansive, and feels cosmic and monumental,
06:55 and that is just her uncanny ability to do that.
06:59 But I guess what I'm trying to say about her,
07:04 and this film, it's taking these ideas
07:08 that are very simple on one hand,
07:10 of yes, a woman who is revisiting her past, in a sense,
07:15 with the arrival of her childhood sweetheart,
07:18 and she's also married.
07:20 And there are these two men, a Jewish New Yorker,
07:25 and there are these two men who know her
07:28 in such completely different ways,
07:30 and what that feeling is like,
07:33 and yet it's also about so much more.
07:37 And that has been so pleasantly surprising, too,
07:41 to connect with audiences about what they
07:44 are taking away from it.
07:45 - Which is amazing, and both of those relationships
07:48 are so poignant to watch, you know,
07:51 and so real, all of these wonderful actors,
07:54 John Magaro and--
07:55 - Tae-oh Yoo, yeah.
07:56 - Tae-oh Yoo.
07:57 - Exquisite, yeah.
07:59 - And the way you're playing with each of them is unique.
08:02 I mean, was there some special way you did that
08:04 as an actor and approached that?
08:06 - There were a lot of things.
08:08 (laughing)
08:08 You know, we've discussed a certain experiment
08:12 that we were asked to participate in by Celine.
08:17 She had this ultimately brilliant idea
08:20 to separate the two actors, to separate John and Tae-oh.
08:24 So that actual moment in the movie,
08:26 when they meet for the first time,
08:28 that is literally the first time those two actors met.
08:31 - So the actors didn't even meet at a table read or anything?
08:34 - No, when we did table reads,
08:36 when we did rehearsals and Zooms,
08:39 they would turn off their cameras.
08:41 - Wow.
08:42 - Yeah.
08:43 (laughing)
08:44 And with that, it really was more than just some sort of
08:46 like exercise or experiment.
08:49 It was specifically designed to protect and capture
08:54 these very different relationships
08:58 that we had to build together in privacy.
09:02 I had to quickly develop a deep childhood
09:07 soulmate connection that potentially
09:10 expands across multiple lifetimes
09:13 with an actor in Korean.
09:16 And also simultaneously create this relationship with John
09:21 that is a real multi-dimensional,
09:26 actual functioning, healthy marriage.
09:31 And they required such different things.
09:33 And it was very helpful not to have them observed.
09:38 - So interesting, unusual.
09:40 - Yes.
09:41 (laughing)
09:42 Highly, yes.
09:43 - Yeah, she's a wonderful director, Celine.
09:46 - Incredible, yeah.
09:48 - You know, you almost didn't get this role.
09:51 - Oh yes.
09:52 - I mean, you didn't get it.
09:53 - I didn't get it.
09:53 - I didn't get it.
09:54 (laughing)
09:55 I did not get it.
09:56 - You auditioned, you met with her, the whole thing?
10:00 - I initially auditioned, you know, as one does as an actor.
10:05 I think I put myself on tape.
10:06 At the time I was thinking all sorts of things.
10:09 I thought this is clearly an opportunity
10:14 of a lifetime for somebody.
10:16 And I also was aware, you know, I was wondering,
10:20 is my Korean good enough?
10:21 You know, will I be able to service
10:25 what this movie is requiring of the actress
10:28 who will take on Nora to carry this film
10:31 in such a delicate and yet deliberate way
10:35 in two different languages?
10:36 I mean, I was worried about the Korean, all of it.
10:39 And I put myself on tape and just really hoped,
10:43 and then I was rejected.
10:45 - Ah.
10:46 - And then, but as it happened--
10:47 - Got a call saying no way.
10:49 - I got a call, I got a call,
10:52 I actually had like a funny fake out.
10:55 Around that time, I got a message that said
10:58 there's a really important meeting
11:01 from a producer's assistant saying we have to meet
11:05 about something really important.
11:07 And I assumed that I got the job.
11:09 - Yeah, oh wow.
11:09 - And it turned out, I listened to the voicemail again,
11:12 and that voicemail was for Greta Gerwig.
11:14 - Oh no.
11:15 - Yes, so it could not have been clearer from the universe
11:20 that this was not gonna be my job.
11:22 I mean, really, I had to laugh about it.
11:24 - Well, it's not gonna be Greta Gerwig's job either.
11:26 - Well, yeah.
11:27 (laughing)
11:28 Neither of us.
11:29 - That's what you get for being Greta,
11:31 and Greta's a big name right now with you two.
11:34 - Yeah, I guess so.
11:35 But yeah, a year later, and it's funny,
11:39 I almost feel like my experience of getting to do this
11:44 reflects some element of the movie, of In-Yeon.
11:47 - Yeah.
11:48 - I feel like I have In-Yeon with the script.
11:51 (laughing)
11:52 And just the fact that a year passes,
11:56 and it was cast with other actors,
11:59 and I got this phone call completely out of the blue
12:02 asking would I be willing to meet with Celine Song
12:05 for this movie, and that same day,
12:09 and I really couldn't believe it.
12:13 It gave me no opportunity to kind of engineer a performance
12:18 or even get like a Korean coach.
12:21 I just had to take a huge leap of faith,
12:24 and I think ultimately there was something
12:26 really liberating about that,
12:27 'cause I just thought I've already lost this once,
12:30 so what if I think about how would I wanna do this
12:35 in my dream of all dreams,
12:36 if I got some magical chance to play Nora,
12:41 how would I wanna do it?
12:43 And I did that with Celine over Zoom,
12:46 and it's also like the movie,
12:48 it's also like Nora and Hyesung talking over Skype.
12:51 Celine and I met over Zoom,
12:54 and we read scenes together in Korean and in English,
12:58 and we talked about her extraordinary vision for the movie.
13:03 I mean, just that thing that I was trying to describe
13:06 of taking these really intimate and small moments
13:09 and making them massive,
13:10 and making them feel like we're transcending time and space,
13:14 that there's like a sci-fi quality to it,
13:17 and we were scheming together,
13:19 almost like two little girls trying to imagine,
13:23 could we really pull this off?
13:25 And I was so moved by her ambition,
13:28 and just the clarity,
13:30 and the unapologetic vision that she had.
13:35 And then she gave me the job, on the spot.
13:38 - Fate, you know, that's what they call it.
13:41 You were meant to play this role,
13:43 and when you see it on screen,
13:45 you can't imagine anyone else doing it.
13:47 You just inhabit it, and it's so beautiful.
13:49 - Thank you.
13:50 - And you inhabit the morning show, too,
13:53 which I'm obsessed with, I told you before we started this.
13:56 It's such a, you know, it's just like,
13:59 I just want more, more, you know?
14:01 It's like high opera, in some ways.
14:04 You never know where it's going,
14:05 and you're just playing an incredible character there.
14:07 She's so fun to watch. - Yes.
14:10 - And she's really climbing that corporate ladder there.
14:13 - Mm-hmm, yes.
14:15 I very much enjoy playing Stella.
14:17 (laughing)
14:18 - She has a power, it says a lot about a power of women
14:22 in this business, and it has a lot to say,
14:25 in watching these characters--
14:26 - Absolutely.
14:27 - Manipulate, and be manipulated, and all kinds of things.
14:31 - Yeah, I mean, I love that we just get to see
14:33 a woman in power, but it's even more than that.
14:37 We get to see how complicated it really is.
14:40 - Yeah.
14:41 - Yeah, I really enjoy, and I love those actors to death.
14:45 I mean, Billy and I, I just, I could not love the work
14:50 that goes into doing that show,
14:52 and the athleticism, and the stamina.
14:56 For each season, we have to retrain ourselves,
14:59 collectively, to speak faster.
15:01 - Oh, so-- (laughing)
15:02 - And we like to joke, you know,
15:04 whose idea was it to talk this fast?
15:06 Because now, I have to recreate that cadence.
15:09 - Yeah.
15:10 So you had some really interesting stuff
15:12 in this season three.
15:14 Particularly, it looked like you were gonna get
15:15 Billy crud up some job there.
15:18 - Yeah.
15:18 - Surprisingly, I'm watching, she's telling him.
15:21 - Yeah.
15:22 - You know, that was really not expected.
15:24 - Mm-hmm.
15:25 - Yeah.
15:26 - I appreciated that decision.
15:27 It was an emotional decision.
15:30 - Yeah.
15:31 - And it shows the nuances of, you know,
15:33 it is a workplace drama, but it is also about life,
15:36 and about these relationships.
15:38 - Yeah.
15:39 - Yeah.
15:40 - And it's, you never know where it's gonna take
15:42 your character.
15:43 I know the next season, we're not gonna see
15:44 until 2025, I'm told.
15:47 They're just starting to do it.
15:48 - Yeah.
15:49 - Do you have any input about where you'd like to take--
15:52 - We're just starting to talk about it now.
15:54 - Stella.
15:55 - It's, all I can say, it is very exciting, yes.
16:00 - Okay, so you had "Past Lives."
16:02 - Yeah.
16:02 - All this acclaim.
16:03 "Morning Show," everyone's watching.
16:05 That wasn't enough.
16:08 "Spider-Man."
16:08 - Oh, yeah, "Spider-Man."
16:10 (laughing)
16:11 - And you're playing something that's very much
16:13 in the news now, AI.
16:15 (laughing)
16:16 - That's right.
16:17 - Assistant, and what's that like?
16:19 What's like, do you enjoy doing that kind of work?
16:22 - I love it.
16:24 I mean, I really feel, I couldn't have done Nora
16:28 if it weren't for, I mean, Nora exists on the wings
16:33 of all of these other supporting characters
16:36 that I've gotten to play, who I love.
16:39 I do, I believe so firmly in that,
16:43 is it Stanislavski, that they're in their small parts,
16:47 they're only small actors.
16:48 I really believe that, and I get so much out of being,
16:53 you know, utilized in that way, in very heightened ways,
16:59 in, yeah, in these supporting roles,
17:01 and I've loved the various women that I've gotten to play.
17:04 - I know, even if it's voiceover, I loved "Strays,"
17:08 the movie, you played Bella.
17:10 - Yes.
17:10 - Yeah, you played Stella on "Morning Show," Bella.
17:13 - Bella, yeah.
17:14 - Bella was great.
17:15 - Yes, that was really fun.
17:17 I've never gotten to voice a dog.
17:19 (laughing)
17:21 - Any special acting technique for that?
17:23 - Yeah, I mean, nothing that I can really recommend.
17:28 I think, you know, every actor needs to go on that journey
17:31 individually, yeah.
17:33 I'm not gonna prescribe anything to anyone.
17:35 - A lot of people know you from "Russian Doll,"
17:37 and of course, you know, you have one line
17:40 over and over and over.
17:41 (laughing)
17:43 And it was a really interesting, interesting kind of role.
17:46 And so much comedy that we saw you do, and you work,
17:49 you know, I wrote their names down.
17:51 It's like Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, Tina Fey.
17:56 You had a chance to work with all of these amazing women.
18:01 - Yep, those are my ladies.
18:03 - Comedy talent, you know, and I think that's why you,
18:06 you know, you've got such a reputation for comedy, too,
18:08 to work with these kind of people.
18:10 - I think that it's no accident that I got
18:13 my earliest opportunities through women.
18:16 I mean, and women in comedy, and I think for me as an actor,
18:20 I could appreciate that some of these comedic roles
18:25 could give me the most sort of, I don't know,
18:30 like a self-education just in terms of acting.
18:33 To be able to play such wildly different women,
18:37 often in comedy, allowed for that.
18:40 But I really feel like, and I'm getting asked, you know,
18:44 what's it like to go from comedy to drama?
18:48 But I heard, I think it's Matthew McConaughey
18:51 was talking about how he really approaches comedy
18:56 as a drama, and drama as a comedy.
18:59 - Okay.
19:00 - And I had to wrap my mind around that
19:02 when I first heard it, but then I absolutely agree.
19:07 I mean, I really feel sort of genre agnostic.
19:11 I mean, clearly I'm playing a puppy,
19:13 and also an AI robot, and also Nora,
19:16 so there's something going on there.
19:17 But I do feel that with "Past Lives," for example,
19:22 the silence and the timing,
19:26 what is comedy other than tension and timing?
19:32 That is what we were doing for "Past Lives."
19:35 That is drama.
19:36 And also, how can you not appreciate
19:39 the inherent sort of cosmic joke of the situation
19:43 of a woman walks into a bar with her Korean sweetheart
19:48 and her Jewish New York husband?
19:51 You know, I mean, that situation is so inherently,
19:55 I mean, if not comedic, but you have to appreciate
19:58 that that is sort of the beautiful absurdity of life.
20:01 - It's so, it's so, you're from LA, aren't you?
20:04 - I am. - I knew it.
20:05 So you went to school and you got into drama that way?
20:09 Did you just like knew you were gonna do this, or?
20:12 - You know, I have such a hard time
20:15 answering that question for some reason.
20:17 I mean, you'd think I, and I think because growing up,
20:21 acting just never seemed like an actual career
20:28 that I could pursue.
20:30 Yes, at the time, there were, I think,
20:33 maybe one or two other Asian women who I could look to.
20:37 So it just, I don't think,
20:40 I think it happened much later for me
20:43 in terms of deliberately deciding,
20:46 yes, I'm going to become an actor.
20:48 And even then, it always felt kind of theoretical,
20:51 like, am I an actor? - Right.
20:54 - But it was always chasing this feeling
20:56 of whether it was through dance.
20:59 I danced a lot and was very serious about dance
21:03 and also singing.
21:04 I did musical theater.
21:06 But with acting as well, it's just, it's this feeling.
21:12 And it's kind of like with "Past Lives,"
21:15 and I keep going back to this movie,
21:17 but so many people have said, from all over the world,
21:21 who look so different from me
21:22 and have totally different life experiences,
21:25 just that they've said,
21:27 "I know that feeling about the movie."
21:30 And that, to me, is sort of maybe the best way
21:34 I can describe why I wanted to become an actor
21:37 or why it is that I'm continuing to do this.
21:40 - Were there actors, you mentioned there was very few
21:44 big Asian actresses out there that you can latch onto
21:49 and say, "Okay, I'm gonna be that."
21:51 You wanted to be other actors, right?
21:54 - I loved Val Kilmer.
21:56 - Val Kilmer was your inspiration.
21:57 - I still do, I love, yeah, I love Val Kilmer.
22:00 - What was it about Val Kilmer?
22:02 - I, as a young girl-- - As Batman?
22:05 - No, as the saint.
22:07 - As the saint, not Roger Moore, who played it before him.
22:09 - No, sorry, sorry, Roger.
22:12 No, I really, as a girl growing up in my household,
22:16 I was really attracted to this idea
22:18 of a very kind of masculine
22:21 and athletic kind of performance.
22:24 I don't know, I think that just seemed like,
22:28 that felt like, wow, how freeing
22:32 to be able to take on something like that.
22:34 And then, over the years, getting to know other actors,
22:40 then it became something else.
22:43 And I got introduced to the work of Maggie Chung
22:46 and Tony Leung and Charlotte Rampling.
22:50 - Oh yeah, oh my God, didn't you love her?
22:52 - I love, I have loved that kind of performance.
22:57 And I didn't think I'd be lucky enough
23:01 to be able to do something in that style.
23:04 So I'm really happy I got to with Past Lives.
23:09 - And now the floodgates have opened, I guarantee you.
23:12 You're gonna get a lot of opportunities
23:16 to do many different things.
23:17 We all look forward to seeing it, too.
23:19 - Oh, thank you so much. - Greta Lee,
23:20 thank you for joining us on The Actor's Side.
23:23 - No problem, man.
23:24 (laughing)
23:26 (upbeat music)
23:29 (upbeat music)