'A star is born': Actor Maisy Stella breaks through in the Sundance hit 'My Old Ass'

“Who’s that girl?”

"Who’s that girl?” was a common refrain from Sundance Film Festival goers walking out of “ My Old Ass ” in January.

The comedic and heartfelt coming of-age-film, in which a small town 18-year-old eager to leave for college is suddenly in conversation with her 39-year-old self (thank you, mushrooms), was one of the breakouts of a strong festival. It’s currently playing in select theaters, expanding this weekend and next.

The girl in question is its vibrant star, Maisy Stella. It’s a name that will be familiar to some, for her years on the television series “Nashville” playing Daphne Conrad, for her viral video singing Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” with her sister, Lennon Stella (31 million views and counting), and for being someone Billie Eilish has said inspired her to start singing. But to a certain subset of cinephiles, Stella seemed like a complete discovery and an exciting one at that.

Both designations work, in a way. Stella is reintroducing herself in her first film role after taking a few years off to just be a normal teen. She started on “Nashville” when she was 8 years old. At 15, she took a break from acting.

“I went back to school and made sure my head was like nice and screwed on and just went to prom and did all that stuff,” Stella, now 20, said in an interview with director Megan Park earlier this year “The second I turned 18, I was just like, I missed it so much and found such a new appreciation for it.”

In “My Old Ass” she plays Elliott, a bisexual teen on a small cranberry farm in Canada who is ready for her life to start elsewhere. But her 39-year-old self, played by Aubrey Plaza, tells her to slow down a bit, to appreciate the things around her in the moment and to stay away from a guy named Chad. It’s a part that many actors wanted.

“I think the best thing she ever did was take a break for a second after ‘Nashville’ and just, like, be a normal human,” Park said. “A lot of kids that have been acting from such a young age, that’s the only thing they know, and they don’t have as much life experience. And Elliott is just like a normal girl. Maisy has that perfect mix … she is one in a million.”

Park met Stella through their mutual friend Maddie Ziegler, who plays one of Elliott’s friends in the film.

“I think about her and Maddie and I’m like ‘so it was like two 8-year-old prodigies just hanging out,’” Park laughed. “You singing and her just chaîné-ing across the floor.”

Stella downplays this, as she does many things (we’ll get to Eilish later). She and Ziegler, the “Dance Moms” alum and Sia music video star, are just best friends. Their extracurricular talents don’t come up very often. But they do get to perform together in this movie, alongside Kerrice Brooks. Without spoiling too much, there is a bit of a dream sequence in which Elliott performs Justin Bieber’s “One Less Lonely Girl.” It’s a song that Stella suggested, and that Bieber and his camp had to approve.

“It was a big deal for our generation,” said Stella. “It like changed who I am today as a person.”

The film as a whole was a dream re-entry for Stella to work on material that she loved with a supportive group, including “Wednesday” actor Percy Hynes White and Plaza, who was only there for a few days but made a big impression.

“She’s the most legit and the most genuinely profound actor,” Stella said. “She genuinely taught me so much about how to be a good scene partner.”

Plaza would ask what she needed from the day and then afterward make sure to text and give her a boost, saying how well she had done.

“In future projects like I will take that with me and like always try to give other people what she gave to me,” Stella said. “It literally made the biggest difference.”

Both Park and Stella were overwhelmed by the response to the film at Sundance, where it was quickly acquired by Amazon MGM Studios (for a reported $15 million) for a theatrical release. Stella, too, was already fielding opportunities.

“Sundance changed me,” Stella said, a few months later. “The experience of it woke me up in such a crazy way… and auditioning for things feels a little bit more exciting when I feel like there’s a little bit more buzz or like there’s a little bit more of a chance that I will be like taken seriously.”

In the spring, she joined Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in an ambitious (and top secret) film from Bad Robot, Warner Bros. and “It Follows” director David Robert Mitchell.

“I think this early on, getting to do two projects that are so opposite is like winning the lottery,” Stella said a few months later during production. “I am so aware of how special that is and getting to show any type of range is really exciting for me.”

None of this is surprising to Park, who knew she had a star on the rise.

“Maisie’s such the real deal,” Park said. “She’s been very patient and specific… I think everyone’s really excited to see, at least I’m excited to see your long career and what you choose to do, because you’ve been silently influencing so much of culture.”

Stella: Oh my god.

Park: Billie Eilish became a singer because of Maisy. I know this for a fact. Finneas confirmed it.

Stella: She would have done it with or without me. I’m not the reason for Billie Eilish… She is a genius.

Park: I’m your hype woman.

Stella: You really are, to the point where I just sweat.

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This story first ran on Jan. 24, 2024 as part of The Associated Press’s Sundance Film Festival coverage. It has been updated with details about its acquisition, release and Stella's new project.