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Celine Song Rom-Coms Draw Inspiration from Her Life
By Najla Zaidi | 30 Jun, 2025
Song hopes “Materialists” start an open-hearted and honest conversation about what it’s like to date and love in 2025.
When critically acclaimed writer and director Celine Song wrote the script for her debut feature film, “Past Lives,” she was inspired by a conversation she had at a New York bar with her husband and her childhood sweetheart, who was visiting from South Korea.
In translating between Korean and English for the two significant men in her life, she discovered that she was also translating “two parts of myself,” Song explained in an interview with BAFTA.
The romantic drama, starring Greta Lee and Teo Yoo, portrayed a love triangle, but one that Song has previously described as the past, present and future of her life and the “what ifs” that so many people often think about. Song captivated both audiences and critics with her authentic and heartbreaking film. “Past Lives” earned Song an original screenplay Oscar nomination, and the film was also nominated for best picture. Song was the first Asian woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and the first Asian female director to be nominated in both the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay categories.
Two years later, she’s back with “Materialists,” a New York–set romantic comedy starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. The film follows Lucy (Johnson), a successful matchmaker whose own heart has hardened to the possibility of love, as she finds herself caught between her starving-artist ex, John (Evans), and Harry (Pascal), a wealthy and well-groomed financier.
(Photo courtesy of A24)
Lucy's approach to her clients finding their happily ever after is determined by math, calculations and numbers. When Lucy asks who her clients want to be buried next to and change their diapers when they grow old, her clients tell her the weight, height, salary and age range they want in a partner, focusing on the material aspects.
According to Song, dating is a game to find a partner and the game is numbers orientated. Everyone is looking for numbers such as height, weight, age, income and education. Song goes on to describe the quest for love as a merchandise and value system. “Merchandise can’t fall in love with merchandise,” she states. “The truth about love is that love is an ancient mystery,” reflects Song. “It’s a thing that you cannot quantify. And I would describe it as being struck by lightning.”
In “Materialists,” Song has once again drawn from her real life past to bring the audience an old-fashioned love story with an eye to the unrealistic demands and the pitfalls that come with modern dating.
As an aspiring playwright in New York City, Song didn’t have the experience to work as a barista or in retail. Instead, after meeting a matchmaker at a party, she applied for the same position. “I was like, ‘Well, maybe I’ll try to get that job,’” Song tells TODAY.com. “And then I worked on it for like, six months. But I feel like I learned more about human beings in those six months than I did in any other part of my life. And in fact, it become kind of a big part of what I know about people too.”
Song ultimately decided to call it quits as a matchmaker, “because I wasn’t writing, because it was too fun,” she says. “This was supposed to be a day job, and it was becoming like my full-time thing ... I only did it for six months but some of them resulted in a second date, which is a win,” she tells the Today Show.
“I decided to write this story, which was going to be my next movie, about an experience I’ve been wanting to write about ever since I worked as a matchmaker for a brief period in my 20s,” Song told Toronto Life. “I knew that the story was a modern romance, which helped guide me. I was thinking about modern romantic films for inspiration, or at least to help me feel like the movie was part of a lineage. But I was also conscious of the fact that I was making it for the world that exists today, in 2025,” Song stated.
Song reflects that “Materialists,” is something modern adults can relate to. “The idea that we’re supposed to be in control, to understand the game and how to win it, to try to outsmart the system,” she says. “But love makes fools of all of us. It’s humiliating and humbling. It’s the one domain where all of my answers and smarts and the things that usually make me feel in control go out the window.”
Per Song, the only solution is to surrender. “You can’t solve love with math or an algorithm. The only thing you can do is acknowledge it when it enters your life and say yes when it’s offered to you,” she reflects.
“Materialists” is currently in theaters and from recent reviews, it seems like Song may have once again struck gold.
“You can’t solve love with math or an algorithm. The only thing you can do is acknowledge it when it enters your life and say yes when it’s offered to you,” she reflects.
Celine Song, Oscar nominated filmmaker.
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