Greta Lee knows the feeling of breaking out a little late. The Los Angeles native, who studied theater at Northwestern University and stood out with supporting roles in hit shows like Girls and Russian Doll over the first decade-plus of her career, was a kind of comic utility player onscreen until her transfixing dramatic turn in Past Lives. That Oscar-nominated movie, directed by new A24 favorite Celine Song, hit theaters a few months after Lee had turned 40 in 2023, going on to net her a Golden Globe nomination and wide critical acclaim.

Past Lives ushered in a new chapter for Lee: She earned an Emmy nom for her role in Apple’s blockbuster series The Morning Show, took on key roles in massive Disney projects like Tron: Ares and Toy Story 5, and — perhaps the highest marker of status in Hollywood these days — played herself in an episode of The Studio. 

With more notoriety comes more choice, and so it’s notable that Lee’s next big project is Late Fame, a scrappy indie helmed by critic-turned-filmmaker Kent Jones (Diane) that Magnolia Pictures will put out in select theaters Aug. 7. If Lee’s new era has been characterized by nuanced, subtle performances, this movie signals a hell of a zag: She plays Gloria, a working actress hunting for gigs who develops a complex bond with Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe), a postal worker and former poet whose writing is rediscovered by a group of eccentric younger artists in New York. The collective seems to operate out of time, Gloria foremost among them: Lee portrays her with the haughty glamour of a bygone era’s iconic diva, while laced with the timeless melancholy of an artist desperate for recognition. 

It’s a striking indication of Lee’s own ambition as an actor, refusing to play it safe even as she’s topping more callsheets. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the actor about how she’s approaching her own Late Fame.

This movie premiered at Venice about a year ago. Safe to call it a small gem, I think, in what was a typically stacked lineup. What’s it been like to observe the life it has led to now, just ahead of release?

I am just so appreciative that we got to make it at all. Given the themes of the movie, this is almost the only way for it to exist. (Laughs.) It does feel like this precious secret gem. Certainly that feels reflected in the kind of distribution and release it’s going to have. I’m just hoping that it can find an audience. It’s one of those films that I feel like is this gift that I want people to receive and to get to see it in a theater.

Sandra Hüller was originally attached to play this part before you stepped in. Did that inform how you approached the character at all, knowing that? 

It was meant to be hers for a while. We’re pals and she’s incredible. But when the opportunity presented itself so unexpectedly, it was so seamless. The idea of Gloria and who she was in my mind was so firm and so separate from anyone else, including Sandra. I got on the phone with Kent and just started talking about, I think excessively, all of the things that were swirling around when I’m thinking about a woman like this. It felt like it was mine — like, “I really want to take the plunge and run with this idea of exactly who this person is.”

Kabuki is an iconic, legendary makeup artist known for fashion, known for his work in drag, who’s been around. Before we started, I went to his place in Manhattan and he did my makeup for hours. We talked about the ‘60s and the ‘70s and the ‘80s of New York City and just trying all kinds of looks and faces. That felt so integral to Gloria. The same with the hair, getting to work with all these wigs. We were thinking about real iconic women who actually existed and what was considered fabulous back then — and maybe not so much anymore. Kids on TikTok, I don’t know how much they’re looking at Sally Bowles, or Liza [Minnelli] back in the day and what that meant. 

Late Fame is arriving on the heels of Toy Story 5, which you went all over the world for. You have a bigger profile in this industry than you did a few years ago. Why are movies like this important to you? What do you see as their role in Hollywood right now? 

I think it’s so essential. I really do. I really believe in not only this movie specifically, but movies like this. I am actively campaigning for us to keep making and supporting movies like this of the size, of this scope. So much has been said in a much more articulate way about the importance of the theater-going experience, but we are in a very tricky spot right now. I would be so devastated to find ourselves in a situation where there’s not a movie like this that one could go enjoy.

I know how instrumental it was for me. I remember seeing the Before trilogy in theaters in New York City by myself and what that meant for me, not as an actor, but as a person. To think that is being threatened, that it might not be possible for people anymore, is a really scary thing. I’m hoping that this movie is just another chance for someone to go experience a story — you can call it art, but just to go see a movie like this.

Gloria is a character where you do get to have such a strong point of view and there’s so much room to play. You mentioned having really strong ideas about who she was — where were you excited to go and explore with her?

I was surprised by what this movie was and could be. I didn’t know how much I needed it until I read it and I got it. I’d just finished Past Lives and that was obviously such a wonderful and specific experience. The style of it was realism, deeply grounded in naturalism, a lot more restraint. I really needed something different and I wanted to take up space in a different way. I wanted to go back and try things that were things that I was passionate about when I was first starting out as a musical theater actor and doing stage work. I loved getting to play someone like Marlene Dietrich would. I was watching old movies and thinking about how so many of the performances we see now — arguably, it’s all naturalism. That will be endlessly fulfilling and challenging, but I found myself pining for a different way of performance and thinking about, “How can I make that new again?” I studied a certain way of acting that would not be acceptable for any of the other films that I do.

Was that scary? What you’re doing is big, but also very specific and nuanced.

Yes! It’s such a tightrope. It’s such a fine line because it can’t be an SNL sketch. It’s so easy to swing hard into satire or just straight-up comedy. We were vulnerable there in terms of this movie and these characters and making sure they had that other side to them. I love getting to see Gloria without her wig, when Willem’s character comes over to her place unannounced and sees the rawness, the vulnerability, the truth of who she is. The script brilliantly lays that out to counteract some of the hugeness of her character. But yeah, it was terrifying. 

You’ve made indies before but, to your point, not while making these kinds of choices as an actor. And I can’t imagine you had much shooting time here. How did the shoot logistics impact things?

Yeah, it really fed into the pressure cooker of what we were doing. I can’t pretend that I don’t like it sometimes. Even the idea of shooting on film and having these limitations — it can be useful to have parameters and to have boundaries and things that seem like problems can end up being part of the solution. 

I had to sing “Surabaya Johnny,” in character, and we had no time. For Gloria herself, she doesn’t have a lot of resources. I remember those times when I was starting out in New York and auditioning for musicals, having to learn, have a book of your best 16 bars of contemporary musical theater ready and what it meant to be that kind of a workhorse. You have to be made of steel to be able to just turn it on and sing and just do it. I wanted to pay homage to that and step up to that kind of pressure. I had to walk into this room, go in as Gloria, sing my best, put on a show in the middle of the day and figure out a moment that for her and hopefully for those watching in that bar feel is larger than life. And it takes a lot of support to be able to do that, of people letting you have that chance to take a go and make a big swing and try it. So terrifying, terrifying though.

You shot this shortly after the whirlwind of the Past Lives press tour and awards campaign. There was a lot of attention on you obviously, and it can be a really intense thing — 

You mean my own late fame? (Laughs.)

Right. You’re suddenly in all of these new rooms, on this whole other side of the business. I’m curious what it was like to go into Late Fame, which takes place quite far away from that world, after all that. 

Being able to peek behind the curtain a little bit in terms of how these things go, the business and awards and the circuit and what that means and meeting your heroes up close — for me, all it did is really reaffirm the things that I knew to be true all along. I love this as simple as loving the thing of it, of getting to act. It sounds so corny, but telling a story with a group of people and finding value in that and getting to connect with people, it just makes me want to do more of that.

To keep with this theme of your own “late fame”: There’s a mystery and sadness around Gloria, too. What were you tapping into there?

I really loved the mix of the technical aspect of her own artistry and her commitment, and underneath that, this kind of animalistic desperation to be acknowledged, or to find her own sense of value in arguably an impossible setting. I can relate to this feeling of certain dreams having to die in order for new ones to come into existence and how delicate this life is as an artist. For a woman like her, you’re not entitled to anything really. The style of her speech or her dress or her movement or the way she is literally acting — underneath that, the effable, very human qualities that come out in unexpected ways.

You have another, very different movie coming out this summer, Netflix’s The Last House, with Wagner Moura —

Coming out on the same day as Late Fame.

It’s your own Barbenheimer.

Yeah, exactly. (Laughs.) I don’t know for who, but.

Wagner is coming off of his own whirlwind with The Secret Agent, and here you’re getting to co-lead a genre movie. What was it like, coming together like that?  

It was really interesting to get to experience because of what happened at Cannes, The Secret Agent premiering there and coming onto the scene and his winning the awards — all of that was happening while we were filming.

Right, he couldn’t go back to Cannes to accept the best-actor prize. 

We share a certain sense that we feel like we’ve been around for a while, and are experiencing certain kinds of career things later on in life. We were just talking about how wild and unexpected our business is, the absurdity of it. When he got the call that he had won the Cannes award, he was filming a scene for our movie where he was having to pick up the family dog’s excrement. We were just crying laughing because it perfectly encapsulates the ever-humbling nature of our business. That would be the moment that he would get the call from his reps to tell him he won!

The other project I wanted to ask you about was the film you’d been tapped to direct for Searchlight, The Eyes Are The Best Part. Is there any update on that?

Not yet. There’s not. There’s not one that I can…officially announce yet. But it’s all very exciting.

I caught a long “officially” there.

(Laughs.) It’s in the works and I really look forward to being able to talk about it in a more direct way soon.

When you work with somebody like Kent, does it feed your director brain, as you’re getting deeper into it?

For sure. Kent and I just spent so much time together in Jeonju for the Jeonju Film Festival, which was such an adventure. You pull à la carte the things that you love from the directors that you’ve gotten to work with. He’s absolutely the man for me in terms of holding that space because his knowledge is so deep and vast and yet he’s so giving and so genuinely collaborative. I hope that I can extend that to other people when it’s my turn. 

I’m just thinking about the directors you’ve worked with lately — Celine Song, obviously. Kathryn Bigelow — 

 — so many things with her. A dreamboat of a woman, a dreamboat of a director. I’ve been really lucky. So you can see what I mean by my pulling à la carte. The buffet is rich and large. There’s a lot to take.