Laufey as Screen Goddess: How Working With Past Lives Director Celine Song and Co-

October 2024 · 14 minute read

The title of Laufey‘s new single and music video, “Goddess,” is intended somewhat ironically. The storyline of both has a star feeling she’s let down a lover who only wanted the glamorous version of her he’d seen on stage, not the everyday person. But, in the unironic sense, Laufey does take a big step toward possibly becoming a screen goddess, of sorts, by having starred in a short film that may serve as a calling card for a possible move into film or TV roles.

It doesn’t hurt, when you feel like you’re truly acting for the first time, to have no less famous a director than Oscar-nominated “Past Lives” filmmaker Celine Song at the helm. Song is making her music video debut with “Goddess” — although this is being referred to more often as a “short film,” a label it can justifiably carry, between its naturalistic flavor, lack of lip-synched lyrics and, on top of everything else, the fact that Song shot it on 35mm film.

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It also can’t hurt when her co-star is an actor with a following of his own, Will Gao, of Netflix/”Heartstopper” fame, although Laufey says that her real connection with Gao was through his own musical endeavors.

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“Goddess” is the leadoff single from a deluxe edition of Laufey’s Grammy-winning “Bewitched” album, which arrives later this month, expanding upon the singer-songwriter’s heralded fusion of the jazz, pop-standards and classical styles she grew up mastering and the contemporary, Swiftie-era pop she equally loves.

Laufey got on a Zoom with Variety on the eve of the “Goddess” short coming out to discuss hooking up with Song and Gao, her acting aspirations, and instantly selling out her summer Hollywood Bowl show with the LA Philharmonic.

How did the working relationship with Celine Song come about?

With “Goddess,” I think the song itself tells such a strong story. And for the music video, we really wanted to do something different and not necessarily work with a director that only does music videos. I had seen “Past Lives” last year, and it really touched me. I know my label went out to a couple of directors, and her name came up and I was immediately like, “Oh my God. If we can make that happen, that would be so incredible.” Then somehow, for some reason, she was down to do it. It’s her first music video, and my first time working with a director like that, and just the most incredible experience. It came through through those channels, but it felt very, very serendipitous in a way.

So it’s fair to say you were a fan of “Past Lives,” along with just about everybody else who saw it last year?

Oh my God, yes. I mean, you know, so much of — all of — the music I write about is about these experiences of love that aren’t quite perfect… these things that could have happened. I think so much about the other ways in which my life could have turned out if I would’ve made different moves. Celine illustrated that so well with “Past Lives” and the way that she directed a movie that is, in a way, a love story was just really clever and refreshing, and it’s something I try to do with my music.

Was Will Gao somebody you knew of from his show, “Heartstopper”? Or was that Celine’s idea?

I actually got to know Will as a musician. He and his sister, Olivia (Hardy), are in a band called the Wasia Project. I think he followed me and a lot of my fans were like, “Oh my God, Will from ‘Heartstopper’ follows you? And I was like, “Oh my God, I didn’t even realize.” I discovered their band on Spotify one day, and it then turned out that we were on the same label, so I was like, “Oh my God, we must hang out.” I messaged them when I was in London over a year ago, and we hung out and then we just became friends through that. I mean, the music that we all make is quite similar. We’ve all had classical music backgrounds, but are writing more in a pop world now, but definitely blend those worlds together. Upon finding their music, I just thought it was the most beautiful, and they were all my top listens last year on Spotify. And their band is called Wasia Project and I am — as they say — Wasian as well, which is half white and half Asian, so I think we just really bonded over those experiences as well. They, too, are half Chinese. So when it came to finding somebody for the music video and working with Celine, it was quite important to me to find somebody who also had that kind of shared background of coming from Asian descent. And I thought Will would be one of the most perfect options. Also, Wasia Project is supporting me on tour soon. So it was kind of like a fun way of keeping it in the family.

Some people like to star in their more dramatic music videos and some people don’t. It seems like there’s been a lot of dramatic videos where it’s like, “Well, I’m gonna cast two actors as the dramatic leads,” like “All Too Well” from Taylor Swift. But you went for it. So did that feel like, “This is a bold choice I’m taking,” or “Actually, this is the obvious first step in my acting career”?

It felt like both. It definitely felt like my first real acting gig. The song is just so personal to me that I felt like I had to be the face of that character, just to really see it through. And then it’s definitely something I’m interested in, and I thought, what better way of trying it out than with my own music, telling my own story with such an amazing director? It definitely felt scary because it’s something that I haven’t done much of before, but I definitely got bit by the bug, even during the filming of it. I think also, because we were doing it on (35mm) film, I was just so focused on doing it perfectly. Every time I got a note from Celine, I was like, “All right, let’s take it.” It was almost like when I was young and practicing cello, and my mom, who taught me a lot, would tell me to fix this one thing, and it just became this fun challenge to nail it.

It’s a very naturalistic style of acting. You’re not overdoing anything. And that’s not always the way somebody does it the first time out. Did you have encouragement from her in that, or just instinctively knew the song will help sell the emotion and you didn’t need to overplay it? Even though you do have some tears at the end.

Yeah, there’s so much emotion in the song. There’s a lot of stillness in the song as well. So I think overacting those emotions wouldn’t lend itself to that kind of music. Most of the song is just a melody and piano and a lot of space, and I think any kind of sharp movements or deep, rash emotions just wouldn’t fit that style. Like you mentioned with the tears, it’s not until the very end when the song grows and gets bigger that the emotions kind of grow with it. Because I think for me, what I tend to do is, I really suppress a lot of those emotions and I kind of have almost this… not straight face, but almost this face of wonder, a lot, through my experiences with love. And I really wanted to (carry) that through the acting and the video.

Lyrically, “Goddess” has to be your first song that will command a parental warning label, with the F-word.

Definitely. I was a little bit wary of that, and words like that, I use them sparingly, because I don’t want to overuse them and I don’t want them to lose meaning. But this song felt like it needed it.

People will take this as a pretty autobiographical song. Maybe all of your songs have been that way, as you’ve explained them in concert, but this one is pretty explicitly so. It’s almost like a “Dear John” kind of song, about feeling wrecked by a bad experience with someone as a young person. But on top of that, you’re presenting it as from the point of view of a star, which is not everybody’s everyday experience.

No, it’s not. I definitely thought a lot about it when putting this song out. It’s definitely the most mature version of myself that I’ve presented thus far. You know, I think so much about relatability when it comes to songwriting, and this experience of being in the limelight isn’t necessarily everyone’s experience. But I think the way I write songs, though they’re autobiographical, I always hope and make a point out of making sure that a lot of people can find points of relating to it. I think in this day and age, we put on a face, we put on makeup and a perfect outfit and depict ourselves a certain way on the internet or at a party or whatnot, and then we come home and we take all that makeup off and all the clothing off. And whether you’re in the limelight or not, I think that’s a shared feeling, of this juxtaposition of being perfect out to the world and feeling insecure about yourself when you’re just on your own and not wearing all that makeup that you present to the public.

Going back to the video: the tears at the end — was that hard to do, or did you have some help with that?

I had no help with that, which I’m very, very proud of. We didn’t plan to do a crying scene. If anything, I was just meant to kind of stand very still, like a statue. And then we were just shooting it for a while and it was the very last thing that we did that day. And I was like, I feel like I can do it. I was just standing there for so long and was like, “I wonder what Celine will say if I just cry right now.” And I was like: I think I can do it. I just blinked and it just kind of all came out — and I kind of had a lot of fun with it. It was satisfying to be able to pull that emotion out. I kind of smiled through it, almost, both as a personal victory, but also because I think it shows kind of that pain of still needing to be that star on stage and wearing all that makeup and smiling through it, even if you’re having a rough day. And then Celine was like, “Do you think you can do that again?” And I was like, “Yeah, I think I can.” It was very fun. I think I shocked myself, even.

As far as acting, you said you’ve got the bug, so did you have a bug before this and it just kind of accelerated it? And do you have plans now?

I mean, I definitely had an interest, but I hadn’t really had the opportunity to test it out, outside of music videos. And I think this was the first one where I’m not mouthing any words to the song. This was just telling the story through actions, really. And working with a director like Celine, who is used to working with just actors, not necessarily musicians, I was so scared before the video. It turned out I just really enjoyed it, and it’s definitely something I look forward to, hopefully, doing more in the future. It just has to be the right role in the right moment.

Last time we talked, we discussed you wanting to do scoring and do film songs, but it never occurred to me to ask about acting too. So, now we know.

Oh, yeah. I mean, my dream would be to act in something, or even do kind of a guest role, and couple that with writing something for a film or for TV. I think it’s always so magical when there’s some sort of thing like that where an artist contributes musically, but also has a role in the film as well.

To ask just a little about the deluxe version of your album that comes out later this month, you’ve got the four new tracks, of which “Goddess” is one. Another is “Bored,” which you’ve already been performing live a little bit...

Yes, I’ve done it twice now.

“Bored” is lighter, maybe closer to the sort of thing that people are used to hearing from you, even though, as a fun song, it may have come out of a not so fun situation.

Right. You know, I think this came out of of a more fun situation than people think. I guess “Goddess” was so serious that I don’t want people to think that I’ve lost my humor, and I really do see everything through a bit of a humorous lens. I think that’s something I just do as my (default): Everything is very sarcastic. And “Bored,” is very, very sarcastic. It’s turning this situation where it’s, I guess, not ideal into kind of a funny situation, in my head.

Looking ahead to your summer touring: We reviewed your show in L.A. at the Ford last year with the LA Phil, and our take was, why isn’t this already across the street at the Hollywood Bowl? And now we see you playing with the Phil for a sold-out night this summer, and the price of resale tickets even for that is through the roof, and so our take would have to be: Why aren’t there two nights at the Bowl? Or three?

It is truly, truly wild. I never ever thought that it would get to this scale. And I feel like every single day I wake up and I’m shocked by something new and exciting. Especially to get to sell out the Bowl, and play with the LA Phil, it’s really special to me, just on a personal level. Because I grew up within the walls of an orchestra, and one of my goals as an artist and guiding lights is to bring this orchestral sound to Gen Z. So the fact that the biggest concert that I’ll play to this point is with the LA Phil is really, really special.

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