'A star is born': Actor Maisy Stella breaks through in 'My Old Ass'

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — "Who’s that girl?” was a common refrain from Sundance Film Festival goers walking out of “ My Old Ass ” in January.

The comedic and heartfelt coming of-age-film, in which a small town 18-year-old eager to leave for college is suddenly in conversation with her 39-year-old self (thank you, mushrooms), was one of the breakouts of a strong festival. It’s currently playing in select theaters, and will be in wide release on Sept. 27.

The girl in question is its vibrant star, Maisy Stella. It’s a name that will be familiar to some, for her years on the television series “Nashville” playing Daphne Conrad, for her viral video singing Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” with her sister, Lennon Stella (31 million views and counting), and for being someone Billie Eilish has said inspired her to start singing. But to a certain subset of cinephiles, Stella seemed like a complete discovery and an exciting one at that.

Both designations work, in a way. Stella is reintroducing herself in her first film role after taking a few years off to just be a normal teen. She started on “Nashville” when she was 8 years old. At 15, she took a break from acting.

“I went back to school and made sure my head was like nice and screwed on and just went to prom and did all that stuff,” Stella, now 20, said in an interview with director Megan Park earlier this year “The second I turned 18, I was just like, I missed it so much and found such a new appreciation for it.”

In “My Old Ass” she plays Elliott, a bisexual teen on a small cranberry farm in Canada who is ready for her life to start elsewhere. But her 39-year-old self, played by Aubrey Plaza, tells her to slow down a bit, to appreciate the things around her in the moment and to stay away from a guy named Chad. It’s a part that many actors wanted.

“I think the best thing she ever did was take a break for a second after ‘Nashville’ and just, like, be a normal human,” Park said. “A lot of kids that have been acting from such a young age, that’s the only thing they know, and they don’t have as much life experience. And Elliott is just like a normal girl. Maisy has that perfect mix … she is one in a million.”

Park met Stella through their mutual friend Maddie Ziegler, who plays one of Elliott’s friends in the film.

“I think about her and Maddie and I’m like ‘so it was like two 8-year-old prodigies just hanging out,’” Park laughed. “You singing and her just chaîné-ing across the floor.”

Stella downplays this, as she does many things (we’ll get to Eilish later). She and Ziegler, the “Dance Moms” alum and Sia music video star, are just best friends. Their extracurricular talents don’t come up very often. But they do get to perform together in this movie, alongside Kerrice Brooks. Without spoiling too much, there is a bit of a dream sequence in which Elliott performs Justin Bieber’s “One Less Lonely Girl.” It’s a song that Stella suggested, and that Bieber and his camp had to approve.

“It was a big deal for our generation,” said Stella. “It like changed who I am today as a person.”

The film as a whole was a dream re-entry for Stella to work on material that she loved with a supportive group, including “Wednesday” actor Percy Hynes White and Plaza, who was only there for a few days but made a big impression.

“She’s the most legit and the most genuinely profound actor,” Stella said. “She genuinely taught me so much about how to be a good scene partner.”

Plaza would ask what she needed from the day and then afterward make sure to text and give her a boost, saying how well she had done.

“In future projects like I will take that with me and like always try to give other people what she gave to me,” Stella said. “It literally made the biggest difference.”

Both Park and Stella were overwhelmed by the response to the film at Sundance, where it was quickly acquired by Amazon MGM Studios (for a reported $15 million) for a theatrical release. Stella, too, was already fielding opportunities.

“Sundance changed me,” Stella said, a few months later. “The experience of it woke me up in such a crazy way… and auditioning for things feels a little bit more exciting when I feel like there’s a little bit more buzz or like there’s a little bit more of a chance that I will be like taken seriously.”

In the spring, she joined Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor in an ambitious (and top secret) film from Bad Robot, Warner Bros. and “It Follows” director David Robert Mitchell.

“I think this early on, getting to do two projects that are so opposite is like winning the lottery,” Stella said a few months later during production. “I am so aware of how special that is and getting to show any type of range is really exciting for me.”

None of this is surprising to Park, who knew she had a star on the rise.

“Maisie’s such the real deal,” Park said. “She’s been very patient and specific… I think everyone’s really excited to see, at least I’m excited to see your long career and what you choose to do, because you’ve been silently influencing so much of culture.”

Stella: “Oh my god.”

“Billie Eilish became a singer because of Maisy. I know this for a fact. Finneas confirmed it,” Park said.

“She would have done it with or without me. I’m not the reason for Billie Eilish… She is a genius,” Stella said.

Park: “I’m your hype woman.”

Stella: “You really are, to the point where I just sweat.”

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This story first ran on Jan. 24, 2024 as part of The Associated Press’s Sundance Film Festival coverage. It has been updated with details about its acquisition, release and Stella's new project.

Maisy Stella arrives at the premiere of "My Old Ass" at Tree People on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Megan Park, from left, Maisy Stella, and Margot Robbie arrive at the premiere of "My Old Ass" at Tree People on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Actor Maisy Stella attends a special screening of "My Old Ass" at The William Vale Hotel on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Actors Aubrey Plaza, left, and Maisy Stella, and director Megan Park attend a special screening of "My Old Ass" at The William Vale Hotel on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

This image released by Amazon shows Maisy Stella, left, and Aubrey Plaza in a scene from "My Old Ass." (Amazon via AP)

This image released by Amazon Studios shows Maisy Stella in a scene from "My Old Ass." (Amazon Studios via AP)

Maisy Stella poses for a portrait to promote her film "My Old Ass" during the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Maisy Stella poses for a portrait to promote her film "My Old Ass" during the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Maisy Stella poses for a portrait to promote her film "My Old Ass" during the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Maisy Stella poses for a portrait to promote her film "My Old Ass" during the Sundance Film Festival on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)