For Academy Award-nominated director Celine Song, her sophomore film Materialists lifts from a chapter in her life as a matchmaker in New York City. Song based her character Lucy around that career, and Materialists around modern dating culture. “She’s (Lucy) somebody who’s very clear about the fact that love really does baffle her, but she’s very good at the math of dating,” Song describes.
Song felt like there was an immediate connection when she met Dakota Johnson for the role. “We were having a meeting and the way that she is so vulnerable and so funny and sharp, I remember walking away from her thinking, she’s Lucy,” Song recalls.
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Materialists follows the story of Lucy, a young matchmaker in New York City, whose successful career doesn’t translate into real life romance. In a series of chance encounters and coincidences, she finds herself torn between the perfect match and her imperfect ex.
For Johnson, Lucy’s skill with matching people feels like the reason she distanced herself from love. “She’s extremely nonjudgmental,” Dakota Johnson says about Lucy. “She just wants to deliver and she wants people to find love, but she’s pretty shut off from that search herself.”
Johnson fell in love with the role and how Lucy changes throughout the film. “I was drawn to the role because it’s so complex,” Johnson says. “Lucy has so many different dynamics in the film, so there’s many different Lucys. She’s a bit of a different person with every other character — she’s sort of a chameleon in that way. And then you’re wondering which of her is the truth, which I thought was just so fun to play with.”
Song sees a versatility in Johnson that mirrors Lucy’s strength and underlying fragility. “Lucy is so beautiful, but she’s very vulnerable when it comes to these things that come from her own intimate self-perception and self-objectification, which I think Dakota actually does understand from being in public forever,” Song notes.
Watch Lucy find love for others and herself as Materialists opens in Philippine cinemas on August 6.
Photo & Video Credit: “Columbia Pictures”
