Get to Know 'Past Lives' Breakout Star Greta Lee

After the release of A24's film Past Lives, the world can't seem to get enough of Greta Lee. The Korean-American actress plays Nora, who reunites with her childhood friend, Hae Sung, 20 years after leaving South Korea. The romantic drama delicately and emotionally depicts the reality of relationships and our inherent shared experiences while wrestling with the concept of fate. The director's use of silence has propelled the film into the mainstream, but the reviews tend to center on one showstopper: Greta Lee.

The LA native garnered an interest in performing arts in high school and set off to Northwestern University to pursue acting more seriously. Her career set sail after her move to New York City, where she took any role she could get. She debuted on an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in 2006, which slowly catapulted her into a series of small roles in projects like The Electric Company, Hello I Must Be Going, and Hair Brained. Although she was still far away from starring roles in 2014, Lee began booking projects with top-notch talent. Lee played a teller in the hit movie St. Vincent alongside acting royalty Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and Naomi Watts. She continued to book a number of roles from New Girl to acting next to comedy greats Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in Sisters. 

After nearly 10 years in the industry, her trouble landing standout roles became harder and harder to swallow. In an interview with Elle, Lee revealed, "I was slowly accepting that I wasn’t going to have the career that I desperately wanted.” She found that after auditioning for roles, they would almost always end up choosing a white actor over her for lead roles and leave her with supporting ones. “It’s like being part of an orchestra—you’re given an instrument like everyone else, and you have to spend a lot of time watching everyone play, but you have to keep your instrument inside of its case. Every once in a while, you’re able to take it out and play a few notes," she said.

But Lee kept trying and eventually started gaining traction, booking a speaking role in the 2018 movie Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and acting in shows for multiple episodes. Most notably, Lee had a 14-episode run starring in Russian Doll and a lead role on The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. By the time 2020 rolled around and the world went into lockdown, Lee's career expanded exponentially. She was booking more prominent roles, the media began talking about her, and she even ended up in Vogue's Beauty Secrets series in 2019.

Since then, her name has floated around the internet, but it wasn't until her performance in Past Lives that she exploded into the mainstream star she is today. Working with director Celine Song gave Lee the opportunity she needed to prove herself as an actress. Critics raved about her performance, with The New York Times describing it as "terrific," subtle," and "delicately calibrated" and Rolling Stone joking that "Lee has stolen so many scenes that you’re surprised SAG hasn’t had her arrested." While her acting capabilities have propelled her career, it's her infectious personality that makes her so likable outside of her role. Her genuinely funny and relatable humor lights up any room she walks into. In interviews, she's captivating, not only in her effortless beauty but in the cadence of her voice as she balances professionalism with humor. 

Although she had a slower start to her career than she hoped and arguably deserved, Lee has managed to maintain her roles as a mother (to two children), a wife (to her college sweetheart), and as Nora in Past Lives. Her impressive dedication and ease at which she approaches life is unique and refreshing to witness.

As the world begins to understand Lee as the incredible actress she is, Lee doesn't want to take it for granted, she explained in an interview with Vanity Fair. "I think that now having had this process of making this movie, it’s reinforced for me the whole reason why I started doing this, it’s because of movies like this," she said. "I certainly don’t want to wait until the end of my career for another chance like this. And I certainly don’t want anyone else like me to have to wait and possibly never get a chance."