< As a kid, Greta Lee identified with Val Kilmer — now, she imagines 'Past Lives'

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Our guest, Greta Lee, stars in the film "Past Lives." Our film critic, Justin Chang, calls it an exquisitely thoughtful and moving film and the most affecting love story he's seen in ages. Although Greta Lee is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, which is currently on strike, "Past Lives" received an interim agreement from the Guild which enables Greta Lee to talk about it. She talked about "Past Lives" with FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado. Here's Ann Marie.

ANN MARIE BALDONADO, BYLINE: It might be easy to see "Past Lives" as a film about a love triangle. In it, Nora, an Asian American playwright living in New York City with her white American husband, is visited by her childhood sweetheart, who she hasn't physically seen since she emigrated from Seoul over 20 years ago. When that old love, Hae Sung, comes to New York to visit Nora, she finds herself between two men who love different versions of her.

So there is that triangle element, but the movie is so much more. It's about loss and regret and how the choices you make and the people around you shape your life. It's also about the lives that you could have lived, and how that fork in the road between what is and what might have been has more weight when someone emigrates and moves away from their first home. It's also about reconciling your past self with your current self.

The film, which has continued to be called one of the best of the year by critics, is anchored by our guest, Greta Lee. She's best known for her comedic roles in TV shows like "Girls," "Inside Amy Schumer" and her starring role in "Russian Doll" with Natasha Lyonne. She currently stars as TV exec Stella Bak in the third season of "The Morning Show." Her films include the comedy "Sisters" with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and this year's "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse."

Let's start with a scene from "Past Lives." Here, Nora has just returned from her weighty reunion with her old friend, Hae Sung. It's clear that he has come to see her in New York because he still has unresolved feelings for her. She talks about it with her husband, Arthur, played by John Magaro.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PAST LIVES")

GRETA LEE: (As Nora) It's so crazy to see him be this grown-up man with a normal job and a normal life. He's so Korean. He still lives with his parents, which is really Korean. He has all these really Korean views about everything. And I feel so not Korean when I'm with him, but also in some way more Korean. So weird. I mean, I have Korean friends, but he's not like Korean American. He's Korean Korean.

JOHN MAGARO: (As Arthur Zaturansky) Is he attractive?

LEE: (As Nora) I think so. He's really masculine in this way that I think is so Korean.

MAGARO: (As Arthur Zaturansky) Are you attracted to him?

LEE: (As Nora) I don't think so. I don't know. I mean, I don't think so. He was just this kid in my head for such a long time. And then he was just this image on my laptop. And now he is a physical person. It's really intense. But I don't think that that's attraction. I think I just missed him a lot. I think I missed Seoul.

MAGARO: (As Arthur Zaturansky) Did he miss you?

LEE: (As Nora) I think he missed the 12-year-old crybaby he knew a long time ago.

MAGARO: (As Arthur Zaturansky) You were a crybaby?

LEE: (As Nora) Yeah. Most of the time, he'd have to just stand there and watch me.

BALDONADO: Greta Lee, welcome to FRESH AIR.

LEE: It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.

BALDONADO: What drew you to Nora and to this project? A lot of fans know you from your roles in comedies, and this isn't like those. What did you relate to the most?

LEE: I remember reading the script, and I was completely astounded by the script. I wasn't at the time familiar with Celine Song, even though, you know, she was a playwright, and we both have that theatrical background. I wasn't familiar with her work. I went in blind. And I started reading her gorgeous words. And it became clear that I was reading something that was subverting genre. It was a love story. And it was, you know, a love triangle. But it was completely, for me, radicalizing the idea of what we can expect from a story like that. And as I continued to read, I was just imagining taking on something like this. And yeah, it was really terrifying to think about the possibility of even doing it - the language, I mean, the tremendous amount of Korean that would be required of me. I've never acted in another language, period.

BALDONADO: You had said that you figured you'd never do a role where you speak Korean.

LEE: Yeah. That's not something that was on my vision board. I had never expected to do that. To be honest, I don't think that I was entirely confident that I had the capacity to do that. Acting is already hard, and to do it in a different language, I was really challenged by the idea of whether or not I'd be able to pull it off and do it in service of everything we wanted to accomplish with this movie. It required such a tremendous amount of restraint and stillness and silence and a supreme specificity that, you know, I wanted to make sure that I'd be able to deliver on all of those things.

BALDONADO: I read that Celine Song, the director and the writer of the movie, did some things to kind of help with the dynamics of you and the other two stars. For example, she told you and Teo Yoo, who plays the childhood friend Hae Sung, that you couldn't touch each other to kind of create this tension or this distance between the two of you. Can you describe some of her techniques, like, what she wanted you to do?

LEE: Because of what we were setting out to do with this movie and the specificity of these relationships, these two very unique relationships that I had to build with, you know, the incredible Teo Yoo you and the extraordinary John Magaro, that were very distinct from each other. And they had to be their own sort of private worlds, private from each other. So part of that involved separating the two of them. So I developed my own relationship respectively with each of these actors.

And it wasn't until the actual scene in the movie when Arthur and Hae Sung meet, that is the actual footage of them meeting for the first time. And that was also the case when we were trying to show the physicality of love. And I guess what I mean by that is the actual physiological response you have when you are reunited with someone that you love. What is chemistry? What is that tangibly? And that involved certain things like Teo and I not touching, not making any sort of physical contact until we actually touched, until that hug in Madison Square Garden. That was the first time we made any sort of physical contact. By making that forbidden, it heightened and pressurized touch.

BALDONADO: Now, you're more known for your comedic roles. How did you approach this film differently? This film is really quiet, and at times, so much is exchanged in these silent moments, these pauses and glances.

LEE: Yeah. I remember feeling stunned by how exposed I felt doing this in ways I think I'm only beginning to understand. There was no costume or, you know, funky makeup. Or there was no behavioral things, nothing sort of - there was nothing to hide behind. I remember joking with Celine that it would be easier if I could actually just be nude (laughter), because I felt so uncomfortably exposed speaking on and showing things in this movie that I previously had never expected to be able to show - all the nuances of what it is to be a woman like Nora or a woman like me, a child of immigrants, a person who is bicultural, who straddles multiple worlds while navigating being just a regular human living in America.

BALDONADO: Now, the film is certainly about love and about past loves and the love triangle and the struggle with that. But I also see it as a struggle - Nora goes through, you know, the fight between looking back and focusing on her life now. And that's a struggle of a lot of immigrants, you know, people who leave where they come from. It's not like she's mourning or yearning necessarily for just the old boyfriend. I felt like she was mourning or yearning for a life that she could have had, you know...

LEE: Exactly.

BALDONADO: ...Had she not moved away and had she not continued her quest to be, like, an artist.

LEE: Yeah.

BALDONADO: It's that struggle, too, and not just about the past love.

LEE: Yes. I think arguably, too, it's almost even bigger than the experience of being an immigrant. It should ring true, hopefully, for anyone who's moved anywhere, anyone who's had to leave home and go to a different place for a certain dream that they have for themselves and how to reconcile this lost version of yourself that you can never get back, ever. And that there may be certain people from home, so to speak, who will forever know you in a way that no one else will be able to know you.

BALDONADO: Well, we'll get to asking you about that in a bit. Let me just reintroduce you. My guest is actor Greta Lee. She stars in the critically acclaimed film "Past Lives," which is now available for streaming. Her past roles include "Russian Doll," "Girls," "Inside Amy Schumer" and "High Maintenance." She's currently in the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF JAKE SHIMABUKURO'S "FIVE DOLLARS UNLEADED")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado, back with actor Greta Lee. Her TV shows include "Russian Doll," "Girls," "Inside Amy Schumer" and "High Maintenance." She currently stars on the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show." Her latest film is called "Past Lives," about a Korean American playwright semi-caught between her husband in New York and her Korean childhood sweetheart who's come to visit. You can now watch the film in your house.

I want to play another scene from the movie. It's between your character, Nora, and her husband, Arthur. He's been really open about the childhood sweetheart coming to visit, but he starts to think about it more. And here in this scene, the characters are about to go to sleep in their New York apartment. Arthur, played by John Magaro, speaks first.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PAST LIVES")

MAGARO: (As Arthur, laughter).

LEE: (As Nora) What?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) I was just thinking about what a good story this is.

LEE: (As Nora) The story of Hae Sung and me?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Yeah. I just can't compete.

LEE: (As Nora) What do you mean?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Childhood sweethearts who reconnect 20 years later only to realize they were meant for each other.

LEE: (As Nora) We're not meant for each other.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) I know, I know. In the story, I would be the evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: (As Nora) Shut up.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Me? Well, think about it. Our story is just so boring. We met at an artist residency. We slept together because we both happened to be single. We realize we both live in New York, so we move in together to save money on rent. We got married so you could get a green card.

LEE: (As Nora) Oh, you make it sound so romantic.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) That's what I'm saying. I'm the guy you'd leave in the story when your ex-lover comes to take you away.

LEE: (As Nora) He's not my ex-lover.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) What if you met somebody else at that residency? What if there was another writer from New York who'd also read all the same books you had and watched all the same movies and could give you useful notes on your plays and listen to you complain about your rehearsals?

LEE: (As Nora) That's not how life works.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Yeah. But wouldn't you be laying here with him?

LEE: (As Nora) This is my life and I'm living it with you.

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Are you happy with it? Is this what you imagined for yourself when you left Seoul?

LEE: (As Nora) When I was a 12-year-old?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Yeah. Is this what you pictured for yourself, laying in bed in some tiny apartment in the East Village with some Jewish guy who writes books? Is that what your parents wanted for you?

LEE: (As Nora) You're asking me if you, Arthur Zaturansky, are the answer to my family's immigrant dream?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) Yeah.

LEE: (As Nora) This is where I ended up. This is where I'm supposed to be. Why?

MAGARO: (As Arthur) It's just that you make my life so much bigger, and I'm wondering if I do the same thing for you.

BALDONADO: That's a scene from the film "Past Lives." There's something so beautiful and sad about that last thought that Arthur has that he feels like Nora makes his life bigger, but he's afraid that he doesn't do the same thing for her. I was wondering if you could talk about that.

LEE: Sure. I mean, listening to that scene, this was an indelible moment for us, actually, in terms of the process of filming because this was one of the first days of shooting when we were speaking in English. I think up until this point, we - because we were shooting out of order, we were working, I think, almost exclusively in Korean. And the extraordinary thing about having Celine direct her own movie is she was able to direct Teo and I exclusively in Korean. And then when John and I would work, we would work exclusively in English. So up until this moment, the process of filming and working felt very private. There was no audience. We were doing it only for each other because the crew could literally not understand what we were saying.

And this day, filming this scene - it was a series of scenes in the apartment between Nora and Arthur. I remember our department heads and our crew - I mean, a lot of them - I don't want to blow their covers, but a lot of them were crying. I remember our sound department. I was so stunned by that reaction, that there's so many tears from other people who I think were recognizing the spirit of what we were trying to capture between these two people who love each other.

BALDONADO: You said that this was one of your first scenes speaking in English. Did it feel kind of like an exhale or something? You know, you said that you never thought you'd speak Korean for a role. Was coming back speaking in English...

LEE: Like, was it easier?

BALDONADO: Yeah. Or did it feel, like - did it feel different?

LEE: Yes. Well, it did, and that's baked into the whole movie, actually...

BALDONADO: Yeah.

LEE: ...That it had to feel different because for Nora, it feels so different. Speaking Korean for Nora with Hae Sung is a totally different world that then she's teleported out of into a different world where she's in English, in her American body, speaking to her husband. And I - yeah, I mean, I experienced that kind of science fiction-level kind of teleporting and traveling through time and space. And I think that the - in terms of the Korean, I should mention that part of the challenge and part of the detail in terms of the work that went into it was making sure we could capture the full spectrum of what a Korean American sounds like in this context.

BALDONADO: Well, yeah. Celine Song, the director, said that she felt like you had the right amount of Korean, like, the perfect amount of Korean for the character Nora, who left Seoul at 12.

LEE: Right. And I am very different from Nora. I mean, I had a very different immigrant experience than Nora. I was born in Los Angeles. I am an American. My parents immigrated from Seoul, Korea, and Korean was my first language. But I have a very different relationship to my native language, so to speak. I think I grew up after years and years of being criticized for, you know, my Korean being bad and, like, disappointing my ancestors and, you know, not being a good enough Korean. That is baked into to my experience as an American. But with this movie and with Nora and with Celine and her vision for the movie, it became this incredible opportunity to move towards what was previously considered a flaw.

So I should mention that, in lieu of a more conventional dialect coach - because I guess one could argue, upon, you know, hearing that you get this kind of a role and you have to speak this much Korean quickly, that you would find someone who could turn you into a native speaker, a native Seoul from Seoul, Korea, speaker. But that wouldn't be appropriate for this. We had to protect aggressively all the in-betweens and making sure that, for example, at the beginning of a conversation that, let's say, Nora and Hae Sung are having - that after years of being apart and, for Nora, not living a life fully immersed in her Korean...

BALDONADO: Yeah.

LEE: ...That she would start out sounding a certain way, that maybe she'd start out sounding more like a westernized theater girl. But maybe after hours of talking and, you know, pouring your heart out and - you know, we all know what that's like - you know, these phone calls that go on for hours and hours and hours, maybe in her youth - what she would then sound like at the end of that conversation. And it was just so - it felt so - that felt like a detail that couldn't be overlooked. And I couldn't access that if I wiped my language clean of all of its flaws.

GROSS: We're listening to the interview FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado recorded with Greta Lee, star of the film "Past Lives." We'll hear more of their conversation after a break. And TV critic David Bianculli will review the new reboot of the series "Frasier." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHRISTOPHER BEAR AND DANIEL ROSSEN'S "IF YOU LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross, back with more of the interview FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado recorded with Greta Lee. She played Maxine on the show "Russian Doll," Soojin on "Girls" and appeared in "Inside Amy Schumer," "High Maintenance" and "Broad City." She's currently in the series "The Morning Show," and she stars in the film "Past Lives." In the new film, she plays Nora, a Korean American playwright living in New York City who's caught between her husband and her childhood sweetheart, who's visiting from Seoul. The movie is a love story, but it's also about life choices, regret and reconciling who you are with who you used to be.

Greta Lee is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, which is still on strike, but the film recently received an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA, which means Greta Lee is able to talk with us about the film. When we left off, she was talking about speaking in Korean for much of the film. It was her first language growing up but not a language she's felt confident using, and she never thought she'd need to speak Korean in a role.

BALDONADO: What was the response of people in your family seeing you speak that much Korean on film?

LEE: Honestly, my parents were shocked, you know? And it was funny to me because I remember the first time that - I mean, I had obviously told them what I was about to - setting out to do. And yet the first time they saw the trailer, my mom called me and said, (speaking Korean), which means, oh, my God. This is in Korean.

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: And I was in total disbelief that she - it just didn't they hadn't fully processed what that means. But now I understand. How could they? They've never seen an American movie in Korean. You know, we were trying to redefine the entire - the idea of what constitutes an American film by A24 shot in New York City on film in a lot of Korean.

BALDONADO: Well, I will say that, you know, the interesting thing about language - I'll share that my first language was Tagalog, the language that they speak in the Philippines. And, like, to this day, I understand everything, but I have a hard time speaking it because I don't speak it that often. And now these days, I don't have anyone near me who speaks Tagalog, so I don't hear it that often. But if I ever hear it, like, if a group of people is walking by or - I recently went to an Asian food store, and some women there were speaking it. I could almost cry because it...

LEE: Yes.

BALDONADO: ...Hits this place deep in my brain, like, in the past that I can hardly, like, access anymore.

LEE: Yes.

BALDONADO: You know what I mean?

LEE: Absolutely. It's that longing. It's, like, a diasporic longing or something that is - like, is so hard to explain, but it feels physical.

BALDONADO: Yeah.

LEE: I remember for months after wrapping the film, I was in a state of grief, honestly, because I knew that the reality of my life - it does not warrant me speaking that much Korean. It just doesn't. You know, I'm a mother of two young children. They know some Korean, but I don't exist in a space in time that allows for me to just speak Korean. No one would understand me. It wouldn't be functionally appropriate. But I think that's what's so, I think, incredible about the movie - that that's also part of this. How do I reconcile? How does Nora reconcile with how tragic that is, that this is a huge part of her actual DNA as a human being? And yet there are certain considerations and certain compromises, exchanges that are made just to live. That's just a reality of life for everyone.

BALDONADO: I read that your mother was a musician, and she was a pianist before she moved away from Seoul. But she wasn't able to perform in the U.S. Do I have that story right?

LEE: Yes.

BALDONADO: And did you know that growing up?

LEE: Yes. My mother - she attended Ewha University. It's a women's - it's a prestigious women's university in Seoul, Korea. And she was a piano major. She was a concert pianist, an incredible, classically trained musician. And she immigrated to America with my father right before having us and put aside her musical aspirations. She is thoroughly an artist. I wouldn't say she's as cool as Nora. She doesn't - she certainly doesn't smoke cigarettes. But she is - she has always been an artist just in every way. She's a painter. She does minhwa. This is a form of traditional Korean painting. She does flower arranging. She is an artist, capital A. But, yes, she became a homemaker.

And this is reminding me of something else she said after she saw the movie. And, oh, I guess I'm getting kind of emotional remembering this, but she was in tears. And I was shocked because I don't think my parents have ever specifically acknowledged my work, for better or for worse - not in a cruel way. It was just - it was more along the lines of, like, oh, you did that. Good job. What do you want for dinner? But this - the first time they saw the movie, my mom was - oh, gosh. I'm crying now. But she was sobbing. And I was deeply uncomfortable, if I'm honest, and not prepared to receive that kind of a reaction from her. And several days later, she called me, and she was driving. And she said, I'm still crying about your movie. And I said, I'm so sorry, Mom. You know, what's going on for you? And she said, I am Nora. She said, this movie is about me. And I was totally shocked by that sentiment, and it never even occurred to me that she could feel that way.

BALDONADO: And was the artistic part of it - like, what - did she tell you more about - it would also be consistent that she didn't, but...

LEE: Yeah, but...

BALDONADO: She's like, and that's enough now.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDONADO: But did she tell you more about what it was about it?

LEE: She did. She, you know, maintained the mystery about her. But...

(LAUGHTER)

LEE: She mentioned it was along the lines of all that is lost when you move but also all that is gained. It's like that line in the movie when the two mothers are talking. In order to gain something, you have to lose something I think is the line.

BALDONADO: Yeah.

LEE: And my mother was expressing the embarrassment of riches she's received in her life immigrating here but the heartache of everything that was lost in order to do that. And yes, also the artistic sacrifice that she made in order to become a mother to me and my brother and sister.

BALDONADO: Our guest is actor Greta Lee. She stars in the critically acclaimed film "Past Lives," which is now available for streaming. Her previous roles include those in "Russian Doll," "Girls," "Inside Amy Schumer" and "High Maintenance." She currently stars in the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHARLIE HADEN'S "EL CIEGO (THE BLIND)")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado, back with actor Greta Lee. Her TV shows include "Russian Doll," "Girls," "Inside Amy Schumer" and "High Maintenance." She currently stars on the Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show." Her latest film is called "Past Lives," and it's about a Korean American playwright caught between her husband in New York and her Korean childhood sweetheart who comes to visit her. "Past Lives," which is now available for streaming, recently received an interim agreement from SAG-AFTRA, which is currently on strike. That's why Greta Lee is able to join us to talk about the film.

I read that your grandfather was also an artist. He was a painter. Can you describe what his art was like? And did you know him? Did you grow up with him?

LEE: Yes. My grandfather was a real character. Instead of serving in the army during the Korean War - he had polio, so he couldn't. And he instead worked as a painter at the U.S. Army base in Pusan. And it was his job to paint these movie posters - these huge, Hollywood movie posters for the U.S. Army. They would have these movies brought in for the soldiers, and he, through painting them, fell in love with American cinema. And growing up in Los Angeles, he is the reason why I know who Greta Garbo is and Katharine Hepburn. He was a real movie buff.

BALDONADO: And is it true that he wanted you to be named Greta? That that's...

LEE: So...

BALDONADO: ...Where it came from?

LEE: ...That's something that I - that you'd have to take up with my mom.

BALDONADO: Yes.

LEE: There's a little bit of a conflicting account of who exactly is responsible. For most of my life, I had heard that it was my grandfather who named me after Greta Garbo. But in recent years, my mother is insisting that it was her. That she was passed down an American English name book, and she came across a name Greta, and she fell in love with that name. So, you know, I'm going to stay out of this one and just say...

BALDONADO: Both could be true.

LEE: ...We don't know. Sure. Yeah.

BALDONADO: Oh, well, you were born in Los Angeles. You moved around a bit, but settled in LA. What was your neighborhood like when you were growing up?

LEE: Well, we moved around a lot, and we moved so much because my dad was trying to find a job. He didn't speak English, and he was looking to do his residency at a hospital that would employ a non-English speaking person. And turns out, that was a very tall order. Not a lot of people wanted to take that on. So we moved to La Canada Flintridge when I was in, I think, first or second grade, and we had a very sort of suburban kind of upbringing. There was a lot of church involved, a lot of time in the car.

We went to, I guess you would call an elite, LA private school that was very far away. And I think maybe similar to Nora, an experience that, you know, of past lives and what it's like to jump through these, like, different worlds, to teleport. It was sort of a version of that to go from the suburbs of La Canada to Harvard Westlake to Koreatown and managing these totally disparate, very different, separate worlds. And it wasn't until I found the theater nerds that I found my people. I mean, I - it was so clear. It was like my coming out of, like, this is who I am. This makes sense.

BALDONADO: Well, when you were younger and deciding you wanted to be a performer, what kind of career did you want to have?

LEE: Well, when I was younger, I was always really attracted to very male and very kind of athletic types of performances and actors.

BALDONADO: Like what?

LEE: Like Val Kilmer. One of my first cinematic experiences - and I am aware this isn't, like, the most high-brow reference that I could make, but this is honestly what I - one of my earliest memories of feeling like I found something that I needed to be a part of was seeing Val Kilmer in the movie "The Saint."

BALDONADO: Oh.

LEE: Yes. But what specifically I was drawn to as a little girl - and mind you, I am a little Korean American girl in a household that was very traditional in terms of the expectations put on a female to not be too loud, to be ladylike, to do well at school, but you probably become an excellent wife and mother one day, to be beautiful in a feminine way. But for me, I really recognized a part of myself, my true self, as a child in performances like Val Kilmer - Val Kilmer, Nicolas Cage, I mean, really big, muscular performances. I wanted to do that. I wanted to take that on, and I believed that I could. I think that's why, within the comedic world, I was attracted to these characters. I felt like that was sort of like my benign resistance to this idea of what certain women were allowed to do, if this makes any sense.

BALDONADO: No, so it was like you saw something in those parts or those actors that you couldn't do yourself in your real life?

LEE: Yeah, that I wasn't - I didn't have easy access to. Another example of this would be getting to work with the incredible Mark Rylance when we did a play together and observing the space he took up unapologetically, creatively, professionally, and the kinds of - it felt like freedom. And it's something that I wanted actively as a young person starting out in the business.

BALDONADO: Now, you were on Broadway. You were in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." You toured with it, then you were on Broadway. You thought you had made it as an actor.

LEE: Yes.

BALDONADO: And then that didn't lead to steady work after that. That must have been so hard.

LEE: Oh, yeah. I was so naive. I remember my - because "Spelling Bee," that Broadway gig, which we ended up doing for about a year, a year and a half, it's a long time. I remember thinking, out of my own naivety, that that was - great, now I'm done. I've made it. Here I come, Hollywood. And the reality was very different. I think that at that time then - I don't know. I think the opportunities were even more scarce than they are now. I think I remember distinctly only seeing a handful of Asian American actresses who were making a living doing this, and that was a big reality check for me.

But I was - I don't know - somehow still very - I was relentless. I just could not accept, even if the world around me was telling me explicitly, there's no room for you here or this is impossible, or you're not right or you're just not - you don't fit the idea of the person we would want to see at the center of the story. I think I still - it's that child self, that part of me that had this incredible moxie or something. This, like, illogical, outsized - I can't even call it confidence, but it's something else that just would not accept no.

BALDONADO: Well, Greta Lee, thanks so much for joining us.

LEE: Thank you for having me.

GROSS: Greta Lee stars in the film "Past Lives." She spoke with FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado. After we take a short break, our TV critic David Bianculli will review the new sequel to the comedy series "Frasier." Like the original, it stars Kelsey Grammer. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUADRO NUEVO'S "TU VUO")

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