Korean American director Celine Song is taking the film industry by storm. Her latest film, “Materialists,” recently premiered in June.

The film which takes place in the same city stars successful matchmaker Lucy (Dakota Johnson) struggling to choose between a new billionaire man (Pedro Pascal) and her old flame and actor and waiter (Chris Evans).

Song revealed the inspiration behind her latest romantic comedy “Materialists” came from her real-life job matching couples together.

While writing plays in New York City, Song met a matchmaker at a party and applied to be one.

In an interview with USA Today, Song emphasized the impact the position had on her personal and professional life. 

“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,” she said.

Despite the insight she gained from her role, Song expressed why she eventually left the position.

“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 said.

Materialists follows Song’s debut Oscar-nominated film Past Lives, which was also inspired by her love life. The film explores her bond with a childhood friend over the course of their lives, and how cultural differences and other relationships complicate that connection.

Song told The New York Times in a Modern Love podcast interview that her relationships have shaped her approach to filmmaking. 

“To me, the reason why I’m drawn to love stories, I’m drawn to love as a mystery is because it’s one place where I feel like I’m reading everything, looking at everything, I’m thinking about it a lot, but I feel so — what is it? I feel like an idiot when it comes to this one very powerful, ancient mystery, which is the mystery of love,” she said.

Song explained that while she focuses on female protagonists, her films also explore the male perspective.

“So often the topics of romance are reduced to girl s—,” she added.“The truth is, men are also crushed by the dating market. They’re also crushed by the way that we date and with the way that we objectify and commodify ourselves and each other. I really wanted there to be a very real consequence for men in the film, and have them be crushed by the same dating market that crushes (Lucy’s client) Sophie or Lucy.”

Lucy in Materialists is someone who relies on calculations, yet finds herself conflicted when the numbers don’t help her decide who to be with.

Song told Forbes that the frequent mention of numbers in her clients’ descriptions of ideal partners, during her time as a matchmaker, motivated her to create a character like Lucy.

“This is something I learned while I was working as a matchmaker. Something that I was really shocked by is that behind closed doors, in a way that they would not speak of, in front of anyone else, clients were telling me all the numbers that they wanted and that were their non-negotiables like height, weight, age, income. There’s a very specific way that people say ‘I will not date somebody who is over 30.’ Or ‘I will not date somebody under 6 feet tall,’” she said.

Song added love “won’t have anything to do with numbers, it will always be simpler.”

Song shared with Forbes that she hopes the movie will spark conversation about the meaning of love and what it means to look beyond the surface of a seemingly perfect match.

“A person might be able to experience the miracle, which is to love someone. The movie is so much about the objectification and qualification of each other. And what we know about the objectification of a human being, is that it’s always going to be dehumanization. That’s also connected to what Harry does to his body. That’s just something I really wanted to talk about, I’m very concerned about it, and it’s worthy of a conversation,” she said.

Related