Interview: Director Carlson Young Talks Meet Cutes and Her Romantic Comedy ‘Upgraded’

Amazon Prime’s Upgraded from director Carlson Young is a romantic workplace comedy with an undeniable sweet center. It’s a callback to traditional rom-coms of the 80s and 90s with undeniable hints of The Devil Wears Prada.

The story centers around a young professional named Ana (Camila Mendes) looking to climb the ladder in the art world. As an intern, she’ll do anything to get in the good graces of her intimidating boss, Claire (Marisa Tomei), even if that means dealing with her bullying co-workers.

Early in the film, Ana is sent on a work trip to help assist in an art auction in the UK. While checking in at the airport, she gets upgraded to first class, and when she thinks her luck has turned, she slams right into Will (Archie Renaux). It’s a “meet cute” that gets the ball rolling on a light romance — the only problem? Will thinks Ana has Claire’s position, which turns into a charade she has to keep up the deeper she gets pulled into Will’s world.

Making her second feature film as a director, Carlson Young balances the tone of a workplace comedy and weaves in rom-com tropes but in a way that makes this a refreshing tale that spans generations.

Awards Radar sat down over Zoom with director Carlson Young to discuss romcoms, working with legendary icons Marisa Tomei and Lena Olin on Upgraded, and more.

Niki Cruz: Upgraded is such a sweet film. I love a good meet cute, and the movie has a lot of heart. How did you get attached to directing the film?

Carlson Young: One of the producers sent me the script, and Camila (Mendes) was attached to play Ana. I read the script and pictured her in the role the whole time, and I loved it. I thought we could give it a little comedy polish and go off to the races. I put together my vision and pitched it to the producers, and they said yes, so we got to make the movie with Amazon.

NC: With this film and other rom-coms out there, I love that we’re back to the traditional sense of tthe rom-com. For a while, we had movies just poking fun at them, which has its place, but I think viewers are craving for a return to form.

CY: I agree. I don’t think there’s any reason they shouldn’t make a comeback, but the cool part about Upgraded is that it has equal amounts of workplace comedy. It also has a Working Girl kind of a thing, which I responded to in the script.

NC: Working Girl is one of my favorite movies.

CY: Me too. So I thought, if we could do 5% of the Working Girl charm and aesthetic, I would be happy, so that was something I was thinking about.

NC: Rom-coms can be tricky because you want to use familiar storytelling devices while staying fresh. As a director, you have to think about tone and making something funny but also having people invested in a romance. When you received the script, and you’re looking at these comedy polishes, how did you go about breaking all of that down?

CY: I looked at the fundamental DNA of the script, and I saw this story of three women. The romance felt so natural and baked in, but there was something about the beating heart of Ana, Claire, and Catherine that I found to be really compelling, so I made a concerted effort to divide and conquer those two romantic energies.

Because I’m always trying to learn something about the world when I’m working, I realized Ana receives the love and the romance on her own terms when she’s ready for it. That was something interesting about the story that I hadn’t fully clocked before.

NC: As far as the art world, how did you approach immersing yourself in that world as a director?

CY: I love the art world. I’m such an admirer of it from afar. My sister-in-law is a painter, so I know a bit about it, but to immerse myself in it for the scope, when we started pre-production in London, I was going to the auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s and exploring their back rooms and basements. Sotheby’s London was kind enough to let me peruse everything, and I was in those basements, seeing how they handle the art with gloves and watching YouTube videos of big auctions with big sales. I also heard from an intern at one point and talked to them about their experience.

NC: I wish there had been more contemporary movies that showed the struggle of being young and in your 20s, and starting out when I was in my 20s. There is an element in the film that people will be able to relate to, whether you’re a struggling artist or just starting out in the professional world. The movie captures that feeling of trying to climb the ladder and how it feels like it’s a never-ending climb. Everyone has those moments in life.

CY: Yes, I related to that so deeply as well. I feel like it’s worth noting that when you’re in that place, you’re just struggling and throwing everything at the wall, and seeing what sticks. It sort of reveals to you that nobody knows what they’re really doing. Everyone is just throwing paint at the canvas and seeing what sticks. I liked that about Ana. She’s very daring, bold, and confident in that way. I wish I had her in my 20s, too.

NC: You mentioned how the film is about three women, and one of those is Claire, played by Marisa Tomei, who’s wonderful in this and is channeling a little bit of Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada. She has this tough exterior, but she still has to be vulnerable underneath. She moved a certain way, the outfits were fantastic, and, of course, she had that larger-than-life accent. Did you have talks with Marisa about that exterior and how she would show it?

CY: It was really a Marisa Tomei creation, and it was amazing to watch her build that out. We had extensive talks about how far she wanted to go and what she wanted to show. You see her vulnerability in the third half of the movie, but it’s just this flicker. Everything that she’s worked really hard for is being compromised by somebody who’s flagrantly disrespected her, and I felt like Claire’s vulnerability comes through in respect and disrespect. We talked a lot about how that would come through.

NC: You also have Lena Olin, another legend, that rounds out the three women. Did you have pinch-me moments on set? I would immediately think back to her in Alias and how iconic she was in that.

CY: I know! And The Unbearable Lightness of Being, too. It just changed my brain chemistry. She is such a goddess. When we got Lena Olin as Catherine, my jaw dropped, and we zoomed. She was so passionate about the role and had such phenomenal ideas, and I had so many pinch-me moments. Working with her was a treasured experience.

NC: You’re an actress, too. I hear that directors who act have a natural language with their actors. Does being an actress give you a different perspective in your approach to directing?

CY: I suspect it does. I feel comfortable, to some extent, communicating my thoughts and my visions to the actors, especially in pre-production. When you get to set, it can be very chaotic, so I try my best to supply the actors with that safe container of like, “I’m the director, and I see you even with all this craziness that’s going on around us. It’s just you and I here.” I try my best to do that for them because that’s what I wanted as an actor.

NC: What lesson have you learned about making this film that you’ll take to the next one?

CY: I think I learned with Upgraded this element of surprise and surrender. There is so much chaos going on around you, and ultimately, you just have to get into this zen place where you can trust the people around you and trust the script. It’s such a beautiful place to get to. I’m venturing off into the next one, imminently, and that’s something I’ll take with me. Surrender.

Upgraded is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

[This interview was edited for length and clarity.]