A decade ago, before Celine Song scored two Oscar nominations for her debut film, Past Lives, she was a struggling playwright searching for odd jobs to make ends meet. She didn’t have the latte-art skills to be a barista and couldn’t land a steady babysitting gig without prior experience. But with a tip from a friend already in the industry, she secured a role as a matchmaker in Manhattan.

A naive creature might assume Song’s meetings with clients seeking their soulmates involved conversations about hobbies, work-life balance, or procreation. In fact, the initial consultation was far more mathematical: They listed their requirements for height, income, age, and, yes, race. “All of the men would say ‘fit.’ What they meant was 20 BMI, just one level above underweight,” Song remembers. “The women wanted someone who was 6’ tall. My joke was, that person is going to be 5’7” by the time you’re 90. And what is the goal of marriage if not to grow old together? All these numbers have nothing to do with that.”

Song lasted just six months on the job, but she knew as soon as she left that she would write about the experience. “I learned more about people in those six months than I did in any other part of my life,” she says. “I knew more than their therapists because they were willing to tell me their hearts’ desires in a way that was so frank and objective.”