Celine Song “can’t write anything” until she knows how it’s going to end.

With Materialists, the tender follow-up to her directorial feature debut Past Lives, the ending — namely, who gets the girl — came early on. But to get there, she first imagined another scene: Chris Evans’ introduction as John, a struggling actor and part-time cater-waiter who reconnects with ex-girlfriend Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a successful matchmaker, while working her client’s wedding. As wealthy groomsman Harry, a charming financier played by Pedro Pascal, puts the moves on Lucy, John delivers her drink of choice to the table: Coca-Cola and a beer.

“That really helped me crack it,” Song tells Entertainment Weekly of the scene. “This is a situation that I’m in sometimes, where you’re in the room talking to the person who is a multimillionaire, and then you also know the guy who is the cater-waiter. You have different parts of New York City sitting in that room. I wrote that scene, and then I knew how to write the whole movie.”

A meditation on love and money, Materialists (in theaters now) follows Lucy, a dedicated matchmaker at a glossy dating firm who has a pragmatic view of romance. The bachelorette perceives marriage as more of a lucrative business deal, helping her clients with otherwise surface-level specifications — like net worth, age, and height — when it comes to finding love.

But love and what it means to love is not merely an equation, which Lucy comes to learn after a match she orchestrates goes horribly awry despite appearing perfect on paper. That lesson leads to the realization that she is, in fact, in love with the imperfect John (sorry, Pedro Pascal die-hards!) and the two wed at a New York courthouse bustling with future spouses. 

In the months leading up to the film’s highly anticipated release, social media has lit up with humorous reaction videos from Pascal obsessives declaring that he better get the girl. What does Song have to say to those who may be broken-hearted over Lucy’s choice?

“Oh my God,” she responds with a laugh. “I think it’s amazing that people feel so passionate about the actors behind the characters. But it’s a movie. I would say it’s a movie. I feel so lucky and happy that these actors showed up to do this movie. We love it, and we believe in it.” 

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Plus, sorry to the folks who aspire to that Jane Austen type of love, but life doesn’t always work out that way, okay? “What’s amazing about Pride and Prejudice is that the person who is going to pay off your debt and your family’s debt is also going to be the love of your life,” Song says. “What an amazing fantasy, but we know in life, that’s not necessarily true. I think it’s so much easier to be somebody who is cynical and materialistic about what we’re looking for. I totally understand it. It’s fun to be like, ‘Well, who cares about love?’ But what I believe more than anything is that the fantasy of true love, the hope of it, the thing that’s really hard and humiliating and embarrassing — it’s the bravest thing you can do.” 

At the core of the film is Lucy’s, and by extension, John’s, transformation, and the way the two find their way back to each other. “Lucy, in the beginning of the film, is somebody who is quote unquote very smart about the dating market; she’s somebody who’s very cynical,” Song says. “But because of what she goes through, she becomes somebody who makes a decision that Lucy, from the beginning of the film, would think is really stupid. But the truth is that she’s making the only smart decision that she can, which is, when there is an offer of true love, all you can do is accept it.” 

John, meanwhile, has “completely surrendered to love,” Song adds. “He was a bit more hung up when they were together on the way that he’s not able to materially provide for her. He really sabotaged it. Because she walked away, he basically was able to then say, well, here’s the thing. You will probably reject this offer, but I’m going to offer you everything I have, and the only thing I have. You would be really stupid to take it, but here it is. I’m just going to offer it because love is surrender.”