The movies that will “always have a special place” in Greta Lee’s heart
Actor Greta Lee established herself as one of the best actors in the movie industry in 2023 when she starred in the best film of the year, Celine Song’s glorious directorial debut Past Lives, a semi-autobiographical cinematic work based on true parts of Song’s life.
The film tells of two South Korean children, Na Young and Hae Sung, who begin to feel an attraction for one another shortly before Na Young emigrates to Canada with her family. The remainder of the narrative explores the pair contacting one another every twelve years even though their lives have drastically changed.
During a feature with A.Frame, Lee named her five favourite movies of all time, and in doing so, she revealed a trilogy of films that contained an environment and mood that she herself wanted to be in. They’re The Before Trilogy, a series of romantic drama films directed by Richard Linklater.
“I know The Before Trilogy counts as three movies,” Lee began, “So I’ll only say one of them. But early in my career, that was an example of a space that I really wanted to be in. I remember watching those performances in those movies and feeling like they were humanising a really relatable experience.”
The first Before film, Before Sunrise, arrived in 1995 and stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse and Julie Delpy as Celine, a pair of solo travellers moving through Europe on a train. They get off together in Vienna and walk around the city until it’s time for Jesse’s flight back to America in the morning, slowly developing a romantic attraction to one another.
Continuing to discuss her admiration for Linklater’s film, Lee noted: “And as someone who has felt like such an outsider for so long, that felt like the ultimate liberation, just to be able to tell a story on that scale. A two-hander with such great dialogue. So, those movies will always have a special place in my heart.”
Past Lives has sometimes been compared to Before Sunrise in the way it deals with the nature of destiny and fate through a romantic lens. Discussing the likening, Lee said: “I know. I can’t accept it. It’s so wild to me. It really means the world to me that anyone would say that, and maybe that’s evidence for progress or some kind of better future in terms of diversity and inclusion. I don’t know, but it’s pretty cool.”
