Name: Jon M. Chu on ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘In the Heights,’ and ‘Wicked’
Uploaded: 2024-10-22T12:00:00Z
Duration: 9 min 15 s
Description: In this Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine, director Jon M. Chu shares how his 10-year career, starting with a phone call from Steven Spielberg, led from the Step Up franchise to “Wicked.”

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In this Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine, director Jon M. Chu shares how his 10-year career, starting with a phone call from Steven Spielberg, led from the Step Up franchise to “Wicked.” Photo: Andria Chamberlin

https://m.wsj.net/video/20241021/a88c7907-4991-41d1-b578-bdb1b692f182/1/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

In this Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine, director Jon M. Chu shares how his 10-year career, starting with a phone call from Steven Spielberg, led from the Step Up franchise to “Wicked.”

Jon M. Chu on ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘In the Heights,’ and ‘Wicked’

I remember walking away from set and hearing these big manly grips singing "Popular" to each other. So, that's what happens when you get into the world of "Wicked," I guess. No, mom, you're in the shot.

Interviewer: So Jon, you've had a very diverse career. You've worked on the "Step Up" franchise, "GI Joe Retaliation," "Now You See Me 2." You've worked with Justin Bieber.

Yes.

And then, of course, "Crazy Rich Asians," "In The Heights," and now, "Wicked." Looking back, does it feel surreal?

Yeah, it all feels surreal. I've only been waiting my whole life to do it. I saw "Wicked" when, before it was on Broadway, when it was at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Kristin and Idina were magnificent, and it stayed with me. Never thought I would ever get the chance to direct the movie version of that, but 20 something years later is when I got that call.

Interviewer: What tips and tricks did you use to find the right Elphaba and Galinda?

Cynthia, of course, I knew she would kill the audition, but the magnitude at which she did, when she sang in a room smaller than this, half the size of this room, you can feel her voice in your body. ♪ And defying gravity ♪ ♪ And you can call me ♪ I remember this one time we were shooting "Defying Gravity," as Cynthia starts to sing, these birds start chirping, 'cause all these birds have made nests inside the stage. Then they would stop when she stopped singing. But every time she would start singing, they would sing again. That was amazing. It was like they understood the magic that was happening in the space. For Galinda specifically, Ariana came in, and she had maybe a higher bar than everyone else because she had such a public persona, and I really didn't want it to overshadow this role of Galinda. I wanted to find Galinda. She had to audition, everyone had to audition. And she came in the first time, and she looked like Ariana Grande. And we thought, hey, what if you came back and just didn't have any of your makeup? I did not know how that would go over. Not even a question. She came in and did that, and I saw her in a totally new light that I'd never seen her in.

Interviewer: I know you were initially discovered because of your work in musicals.

I grew up watching musicals. Every weekend when I was growing up, my mom would take us to the city to watch shows, whether it was ballet season, opera season, or musical season. When I was in college and I was doing student short films, they just naturally had dance and music to it, and my last one was a straight up musical. Steven Spielberg saw it. He called me into his office, and I got to meet him. He loves musicals. So we got to talk all about musicals and our love of movies, and that has stuck with me my whole life.

Interviewer: I heard that meeting led to one of your first times on a movie set.

He invited me to his set, so I got to sit next to him while he was shooting, and I got to watch him try to solve a problem when something wasn't working right and he just redid it. And watching that kind of leadership with that kind of kindness, with that kind of creativity, it was really a high bar that I got to watch to say, oh, you don't have to be an asshole as a director to get what you want. So I've always tried to achieve that instead of yelling or forcing my vision or something like that, so I was very lucky to watch him in action, actually.

Interviewer: Did Steven Spielberg give you any advice?

He did say, "Pick the first movie really carefully "and make sure it's the right movie for you." I took it as pick the perfect movie, and that scared me too, because okay, if you pick the wrong, not perfect movie, you're not gonna have a career. But the first movie, after years and years of trying to get into the business, that was presented to me was a sequel to a dance movie, straight to DVD movie. Because I had been discovered by Steven Spielberg, I told my team, I said, "Oh, I don't do direct to DVD guys, "I don't.' And then I told my mom, and my mom said to me, "When did you become a snob?" Made that movie, and eventually, didn't go direct to DVD, it went straight theatrical. And that movie turned out to be "Step Up Two The Streets."

Interviewer: Rumor has it, that movie led to a dance off with Miley Cyrus.

The biggest dance off on YouTube history. Our lead actor, Adam Sevani, he got a call from Miley Cyrus, and Miley left him a message and said, "Oh, I loved you in the movie." So we got all our "Step Up" dancers, and we challenged Miley to a dance off. This was like digital "West Side Story" and got it out. And she responded with a video herself, and in her video, she started adding big stars, like Ryan Seacrest and Channing Tatum, which was sort of a slap in our face, and Jenna Dewan, 'cause they were the stars of "Step Up One." We had our sort of iconic YouTube four or five months during that time. It was pretty amazing.

Interviewer: What was it like being a young director on these sets?

It was hard to work with some really big talent, 'cause I always felt like, did I belong there? One thing that when I worked with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, on the first day, he turned to me and he said, "Hey Jon, come here, come here." And he brought me close and he said, "You know you look like my cousin. "And how cool is that, "that someone like you and someone who looks like me "can be the director and the lead of this movie?" He's like, "Let's go kill it." He just gave that little cookie to me, and I knew he had my back and it felt like family. It took me about five or six movies to feel myself that, oh, I think I know the ins and outs of this, and it was after that that I said, "Okay, if you know the ins and outs, "then what do you actually have to say?" And that's when I decided that I needed to make a movie that only I could make.

Interviewer: And that movie was.

"Crazy Rich Asians," confronting the thing that I was most scared of my whole entire life, which is my cultural identity crisis.

Interviewer: What did you learn from working with Constance Wu on "Crazy Rich Asians"?

That these scenes weren't just silly romantic comedy scenes. These were real truths, real wounds in her that she wanted to help figure out. In "Crazy Rich Asians," there's this one line that Eleanor has to give her that is like, devastating, "You will never be enough." And on paper, you're like, is that enough to have our whole movie hinge on this one line? And when we shot it that day, Michelle Yeoh puts her on the staircase and backs her up into the stairs. Constance gets put down from the bottom step, and she looks up, and Michelle Yeoh looks her, and I swear her eyes go black when she says.

You will never be enough.

And Constance immediately just starts crying. Like, she cannot, she's not supposed to do it, so much so that we couldn't get through a takes, that she's like, "I can only do like three more of these. "This is just too hard." And I think everyone on set felt that. So Michelle Yeoh saying those words clearly hit something, and I think audiences felt that too.

Interviewer: And your mom met Michelle Yeoh on that set?

It was at the top of the hotel where we shot the big ending of "Crazy Rich Asians." We were shooting there at like 3:00 in the morning, and my mom happened to be in town. Next thing I know, I turn around, I turn back, and Michelle and my mom have giant bottles of champagne that they're popping. First of all, you don't drink on set. Second of all, it's my mom and Michelle Yeoh. She had to be in the scene, so I had to yell at my mom, "Like, you do not get my actor drunk while we're on set." And then, they become like very close friends. Since then, she's come to my parents' restaurant. My mom has traveled to LA to come to her birthday, so, ah, what can you do? Don't bring your mom on set.

Interviewer: Let's talk about "In The Heights." What were some of your fears tackling Lin-Manuel Miranda's work?

I mean, I was scared outta my wits. I actually hadn't seen "Hamilton" when I first met him, but I couldn't tell him that yet. I couldn't get tickets, and I didn't want to ask him for tickets. So I had to pretend that I really loved it, even though I hadn't seen it. So later, after we were working for a while together, I did get the chance to see it, and I flipped out. I couldn't reveal to him how excited I was and I just saw it, so I had to ask him little bit by little bit about the making of that throughout our relationship. Sorry, Lin, but I did see it.

Interviewer: You've also been pretty open about some mistakes you've made in the past.

I mean, I make mistakes every day, and we all have blind spots, and so we're all constantly learning about who we are and our craft and the power that we have with our voice. I think the hardest thing that I've learned throughout and really impact my whole life is this idea that, oh, you're the director, you're the author, everything you say needs to come true. And the reality is no, that you can't. A movie is made by hundreds and hundreds of hands and eyes and ears, and actually the best version of a movie is something that no individual person could have made alone.

Interviewer: Do you think your younger self who had just graduated from USC would've expected this?

No, I actually don't think he would recognize this person. I think that guy, even though he seemed confident, was really scared, was really scared to be accepted. I felt like I needed to prove myself a lot. And I think he would be proud of where I got to despite the stops and the starts, and despite people looking at you and saying, "Oh, you don't belong here," or, "There's no one like you here." I think he'd be proud that we just kept going.