In fact, Lee wasn’t even considered for the role. “Past Lives” writer-director Celine Song has been eyeing the other Nora, the other Hyesung for months. “They cast it with two other guys,” said Lee.
Song said the director had little to do with Lee himself. The film’s story is loosely based on the director’s real-life reunion with her American husband and Korean school friend, which happened when she was 29 years old. And it makes sense,” Song said. “So I was trying to find someone in their 30s or even 20s. And of course Greta was in her late 30s.”
“It was really stupid,” Song admitted.
After Song comes to his senses, She contacted Lee. It had been a year since Lee read her script for the first time, but she still remembered it. She called it her soulmate movie. Would she have been able to meet with Song via Zoom that day? After a two-and-a-half-hour video audition, Lee read out key scenes as Song played the two male lead characters (“Celine is perfect for the great Arthur and Hyesung,” Lee said). Song offered Lee the part on the spot.
The film will begin shooting in the summer of 2021. In order for the actors to express the feeling of being reunited with someone after 24 years of communicating only on Skype, Song kept Lee and Yoo as close to each other as possible. “She told us you guys shouldn’t touch,” Ms. Lee said.
For Yu, “during the rehearsal process, it’s a natural instinct to hug and say goodbye,” he said. “And Celine was like, ‘No, no, no, you guys, stop touching it.'” I She told them that they were allowed to touch and hug, but Yu and Li were chased away when they tried.
Song insisted the actors were all there and she didn’t need to scold them to keep them in line. “Is that what they say?” she asked, laughing. “No, no. I think they wanted to go along with the trick.”
