By james art 
‘My Old Ass’: Teen meets her future self in Aubrey Plaza’s film
Maisie Stella stars as a teenager on a mushroom trip who meets her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) in the coming-of-age film My Old Ass.
A few weeks before Aubrey Plaza took the New York Times on a tour of her hometown, naming her five favorite places in Wilmington, the paper asked the question, “Have we been wrong about Aubrey Plaza all along?”
That was the headline of an article by pop culture and film industry reporter/columnist Kyle Buchanan, who interviewed the actor for the piece while on her promotional tour for a trio of high-profile, recently released projects.
Although a 4.7-magnitude earthquake interrupted their summer conversation at an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles, some of the things Plaza revealed in the interview drew the most attention for fans of the 40-year-old Ursuline Academy in rising Hollywood.
Here’s some of what we learned.
She “really, really wants” to host the Academy Awards
As Buchanan wrote, “While many stars turned down the high-stakes gig, Plaza openly pursued it. After several witty hosting of the Independent Spirit Awards, the Plaza feels ready to host Hollywood’s biggest night. At a recent dinner with John Waters, she met with some academy dignitaries and pitched for the position, saying the host should be someone who cares a lot about movies.
She explained why she wanted what is generally considered a thankless but high-profile job.
“It drives me crazy when you see a bad show at the Oscars, because it’s the big event, these are the most brilliant people who make movies for the whole world, so can’t we get them to put on the best show? I put it out there, I manifest it, because I bleed for movies. I don’t care,” she said.
Not noted in the article: One of the most head-scratching moments of Plaza’s career actually happened at a movie awards ceremony, when she crashed the stage at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and tried to snatch an award from the hands of Will Ferrell. It may have been a mistake, but she was reportedly escorted from the awards show after the incident.
Judy Garland 40th Birthday Party at the Plaza
When Plaza turned 40 in June, she celebrated in style — old Hollywood style.
She revealed that her party had a Judy Garland theme with a drag queen performing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and dinner menus copying the flyer for Garland’s 1961 Carnegie Hall show, which was released as a live album.
The Los Angeles Gay Men’s Choir was also there to perform, including singing “Happy Birthday” to the birthday girl.
She is writing a film that she hopes to direct
The article notes how Plaza’s most recent projects — the movie “Megalopolis” and “My Old Ass” and the Marvel series “Agatha All Along” on Disney+ — were all released within a two-week period last month.
No, it wasn’t planned that way. That’s exactly how it worked out, prompting the Times to call this “Aubrey’s Fall.”
“It’s almost embarrassing. People are like, ‘God, you work so much!’ she said.
But then she revealed another project she’s working on: she’s writing the script for a new movie she also wants to star in and direct. This will be her directorial debut. No other details about the passion project were mentioned.
However, two other upcoming films were screened at the Plaza: Ryan Reynolds’ R-rated comedy Animal Friends and Ethan Cohen’s crime drama Honey Don’t.
WNBA All-Stars react to Plaza tearing ACL on All-Star weekend
It was in July that Plaza attended the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona, and made the fateful decision to play Knockout, a basketball game focused on shooting, with a few friends.
Then she tore her ACL, leaving her on crutches for months afterward and “inspiring endless jokes as she received medical attention backstage,” Buchanan wrote.
“All the WNBA players kept showing up in the room like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ Who gets hurt in a knockout game? she said.
Thoughts on Megalopolis’ ‘Extraordinary Production’
The Times notes press releases that have come out of the $120 million production of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which stars Plaza alongside Adam Driver, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight and others.
Reports included accusations that Coppola was sexually inappropriate on set, attempting to kiss a stat, which he initially denied; he later said they were women he knew.
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When asked about it, Plaza told the Times, “I wasn’t on set that day, so I really don’t know what happened there.”
Buchanan writes: “But she admitted the production is ‘not for the faint of heart,’ with Coppola valuing spontaneity and directing a cast full of strong personalities, all used to leading their own films.”
She told the interviewer, “It was crazy working on this movie. My mentality every day was “every man for himself; only the strong survive here.”
Got a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).