‘Previous Lives’ Star Greta Lee On Her Lengthy-Distance Skype Romance   – Deadline

The standout film at Sundance this yr, Celine Track’s indie hit Previous Lives has touched the elements of the human coronary heart not reached since Richard Linklater’s Earlier than trilogy. Starring Greta Lee, it tells the story of Nora, a Korean-born playwright on the point of breakout success in New York, who’s taken abruptly when, out of the blue, her childhood sweetheart from Seoul, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), makes contact on social media. Will it result in some gentle nostalgic enjoyable? Or is there one thing deeper — Koreans name it inyeon, the concept that some issues are supposed to be — that makes them soulmates?

DEADLINE: When did you first get entangled with Previous Lives?

GRETA LEE: I learn the script just a few years in the past. It was despatched to me by my agent, and the topic line simply mentioned, “Korean: Do you converse it?” To be trustworthy, on the time I felt like, “Oh god, what a drag. I don’t know.” I used to be instantly wired on the concept of doing a film in Korean, frankly. I hadn’t carried out that earlier than. However, anyway, I went in blind. I didn’t know who Celine Track was. Although we each have a theater background in New York, I wasn’t conscious of her. However I completed with the script in a single sitting.

There was lots of crying. I imply, I don’t assume I’ve ever had that have, simply attempting to learn whereas by being blinded by my very own tears [laughs]. However I completely fell in love with that script. It felt like I instantly knew it was going to be one thing particular, and I used to be determined to be part of it. So, I put myself on tape — and I didn’t get the job.

DEADLINE: What?

LEE: Yeah, I didn’t get the job. I assumed on the time, “Nicely, somebody goes to be very fortunate to have the ability to do that,” and I attempted to erase it from my reminiscence, like a foul breakup. And virtually precisely a yr later, I bought a telephone name utterly out of the blue asking if I remembered Celine Track, and would I be prepared and capable of meet together with her that very same day over Zoom? I used to be so confused, however apparently the casting had gone one other means and there’d been some adjustments creatively. They have been searching for — and I really like this — “older” actors. I mentioned, “Oh, thanks very a lot. Right here’s the place I are available!”

I had no time to arrange. It was a giant leap of religion, and I simply dove proper in. We learn some scenes collectively, and he or she ended up providing me the job on the spot that day. So, it has been a wild experience. My expertise with turning into a part of this undertaking mirrors the essence of the film, this concept of inyeon: future and connectivity. I really feel just like the script and I have been soulmates [laughs]. Celine likes to say she’s sure we have been married in one other lifetime, though I’m not solely positive she implies that utterly in a constructive means!

DEADLINE: When you have been on board, what was the method like? It seems like a really well-thought-out movie.

LEE: Completely. I feel some folks could assume, together with myself, {that a} undertaking like this, with lots of silence, lots of restraint and a sure sort of pacing, could be, like, a whimsical expertise — the belief being that we’d be discovering issues within the second, leaving issues to probability. However that was solely not the case. One of many issues about Celine that’s so unbelievable about her is how meticulous and the way surgical this was. I imply, it was, with out query, the toughest factor I’ve ever been requested to do.

I walked in with lots of comedy on my again considering, “Oh, how simple! Lengthy days of simply staring out the window? No drawback.” [Laughs]. And I used to be instantly humbled by how extremely troublesome it was. I feel most of that comes from the sort of film we have been endeavoring to make and being actually hyper-specific about all of those pregnant pauses. It felt like following alongside some kind of musical rating, if that is smart. We couldn’t waste a single second, as a result of we have been taking pictures with one digital camera on 35mm. We solely had a lot, so there was this preciousness within the course of.

DEADLINE: How good is your Korean? Does your character converse good Korean or is there a sure rustiness to it?

LEE: I used to be terrified to take this position. I assumed, “Oh my god, I’m going to be lifeless within the water if I’m requested to do a desk learn.” Even in my private life, there are such a lot of individuals who, once they heard that I used to be doing this, have been shocked to know that I converse Korean. I feel I used to be even asking myself if I might really converse Korean.

My mother and father immigrated from South Korea, and I used to be born in Los Angeles. My first language was Korean, however, as I grew to become extra assimilated and as I grew to become Westernized, there was that lack of language. So sure, I needed to determine that out. And I used to be fortunate sufficient that they have been prepared to forgo a extra conventional route of discovering a dialect coach who might imprint onto me a really typical Seoul Korean accent. As an alternative, we labored with this excellent girl named Sharon Choi, who many individuals know as Bong Joon-ho’s translator. A full-on famous person in her personal proper, in my thoughts.

The best way she was capable of navigate [the nuances of] being bicultural and bilingual was important to the prep for this movie and this character. It was so thrilling to be that particular. Like, “OK, possibly Nora sounds basically white firstly of their conversations when she’s talking Korean. After which, slowly, after hours of being immersed again in her native language, possibly she would sound extra Korean by the top.”

DEADLINE: There are lots of Skype scenes within the film. How did you navigate that?

LEE: Celine and our division heads bought collectively and created an precise Skype system for us. Teo and I have been on our computer systems in numerous rooms, appearing throughout our laptops. And that was an enormous concern: easy methods to transmit chemistry by way of actually unhealthy wifi? We needed to watch these two folks fall again in love over unhealthy Skype. And Celine, in her barely sadistic means, was taking part in kind of DJ, the place she would freeze the connection at varied factors with out us understanding, so we wouldn’t know when the connection would exit whereas we have been doing these scenes. It was troublesome, however I feel that was so essential to convey the sort of tangible love that may be transmitted over oceans.

DEADLINE: It premiered at Sundance. What was the response, and the way did you’re feeling about it?

LEE: We have been on the Eccles, which is a really giant theater. And I simply bear in mind having the shakes and feeling like, “Oh god, is that this going to play? It looks like such an intimate film.” And I’ll always remember what that felt like on the finish of that film. I assumed that we’d misplaced our viewers, as a result of there was a really distinct sort of shuffling and fidgeting. I assumed folks have been getting as much as go, however folks have been reaching into their pockets for tissues and beginning to cry. I’ve by no means skilled something like that. Crying en masse as an viewers at a theatrical expertise was completely surreal.

DEADLINE: There have been lots of love tales in cinema, however this one’s totally different, and the ending actually underscores that distinction…

LEE: Yeah. The ending is the payoff. I imply, from the start, we had set our sights on what it might be wish to belief the viewers to return alongside for this experience and to… To attend, basically. I feel probably the most fascinating issues about Nora for me was that she actually is a contemporary sort of girl who isn’t compartmentalizing her skilled life from her private life. We’ve seen that movie, the place there’s a working girl who has a romantic disaster, or no matter it’s. However for me, this was a few girl coming from a spot of power, and knowingness, and self-assuredness, with a really unapologetic sort of ambition for all the pieces she needs—not simply professionally, however for her entire life. And it’s from that place that she is admittedly, unexpectedly, confronted by these concepts of future and different lives and loves. And in order that ending… [Pauses] We talked at size, performance-wise, in ensuring principally that I used to be by no means going to cry previous that second, and what it’s like, metaphorically, for a contemporary girl to be—quote, unquote— ‘robust’, and the way a lot vulnerability and complexity there’s behind that.

So, sure, the ending. It was one shot, one monitoring shot. There have been some cuts finally, however the way in which we filmed it was in a single take. We did it a number of instances. We handled it prefer it was an motion movie. I felt like I used to be coaching for a struggle scene. And it was a really sort of deliberately choreographed second, the head, the top of the film.

DEADLINE: Are you a really technical actor? What’s your background?

LEE: I’ve some coaching [laughs]. I went to high school for it. However I’ve loved attempting to set out on this sort of path the place it’s like my very own self-taught, self-inflicted curriculum. I really like comedy. Yeah, comedy has confirmed to be profoundly helpful for me in dramatic appearing. I consider it as the identical factor, I do. I do know that’s totally different for everybody, but when comedy is timing and pressure, what’s drama? Previous Lives is precisely an instance of that for me. All of these moments of silence are timed. It’s timed pressure. I don’t assume I’d be capable to do this if I didn’t really feel assured in my comedy experiences, and I really feel very grateful about that.

DEADLINE: How did first break into the enterprise?

LEE: That’s what’s been so humorous: being requested that. I imply, can you’ve gotten a breakthrough that’s so sluggish and incremental that it’s not a breakthrough? Like, it’s identical to a slow-release existence — and an anticlimactic one — over twenty years? [Laughs] Technically, I discovered work proper out of the gate. After college, I moved to New York, and I instantly began a Broadway run of a musical referred to as The twenty fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I did some TV, nevertheless it was a sluggish burn. It was laborious to search out work — good work — and attempt to get higher. I watched all my friends transfer forward of me and simply have alternative after alternative to develop into wonderful, and that was one thing I used to be at all times so determined for. However I really feel actually fortunate that I got here up across the time of this very sturdy feminine comedy scene in New York.

DEADLINE: How did that assist?

LEE: Lena Dunham got here to see me in a play. I had one scene in a play referred to as 4000 Miles, by Amy Herzog, at Lincoln Middle. And Lena got here and noticed it, after which she wrote a component for me on her present, Women, that had simply began. From there, I began working in tv and was working with folks like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, Natasha Lyonne for Russian Doll. Yeah, I feel that’s kind of what occurred to me within the earlier days.

DEADLINE: When did you understand it was occurring, that you might do that for a dwelling?

LEE: I don’t assume I ever had a second like that. I actually simply felt like this was only a factor that I beloved so intensely, and the profession a part of it felt theoretical. It at all times felt like, at any given level, it might finish. And that’s what’s so outrageous for me now. Even only a few years in the past, I’d made peace with the truth that I in all probability wouldn’t ever have a chance like this, and I in all probability wouldn’t have the sort of profession that possibly I’d envisioned as a teen beginning out. However I felt OK. I really love taking part in supporting characters, and that work will at all times be obtainable to me. [Laughs] Then Celine comes alongside and utterly ruins all the pieces for me, and now I actually really feel prefer it’s not possible for me to return! I’m beginning yet again, on the age of 40, which is barely exhausting to consider.

DEADLINE: You’ve had a little bit of time to get used to the excitement it generated at Sundance. Has it impacted your profession in a means that you may see but?

LEE: Completely, utterly. I had no concept what I used to be lacking out on. I imply, it is a tiny impartial movie, and we’re getting mentioned in the identical context as large, huge motion pictures: Scorsese’s movie, Barbie, Oppenheimer — these extremely large, magnificent movies. And it doesn’t matter what occurs with awards or whatnot — on the danger of nobody believing us — we actually really feel like we’ve already gained. To us, it looks like such a validation. Not just for impartial movie, however to have a film that has utterly restored my religion in the concept that folks can join so undeniably, and internationally, with a very easy concept, a narrative about love. I really feel genuinely so thrilled about that. I’ve been round for lengthy sufficient to know there’s nothing higher than that. So, yeah, that that helps take all of this in our stride and simply actually attempt to respect the viewers that we’ve discovered and all of the love we’re getting.

DEADLINE: What’s subsequent for you?

LEE: I’m about to start out a completely totally different sort of a factor: I’m filming Tron: Ares for Disney. [Laughs] Only a pure development from Previous Lives! I’m excited. It’ll be a really new factor for me, one thing that may contain lots of firsts, extra first-time endeavors. I’ll be studying easy methods to experience a bike and attempting to run, so it’ll be equally as humbling as Previous Lives.