{"id":272691,"date":"2025-11-09T19:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T19:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272691\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T19:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T19:42:08","slug":"for-good-director-jon-m-chu-discusses-the-importance-of-identity-in-his-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/272691\/","title":{"rendered":"For Good’ director Jon M. Chu discusses the importance of identity in his films"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWicked: For Good\u201d director Jon M. Chu has built his career on turning stories about outsiders into celebrations of belonging. But in an interview with \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that aired Sunday, the filmmaker opened up about following his own yellow brick road: one marked by rejection and resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole life, I\u2019ve been trying to prove myself, that I can be here, that I can be in this business,\u201d Chu told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker. \u201cAnd I think I was always searching for that kind of validation. But through the process of making movies and doing it over \u2014 and I had a whole long career before ever doing \u2018Wicked\u2019 \u2014 I think I got killed many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d the second chapter in his adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, will hit theaters on Nov. 21. It is loosely based on Gregory Maguire\u2019s 1995 novel \u2014 a creative reimagining of \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d The new film is produced by Universal Pictures, part of NBCUniversal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWicked,\u201d which Chu also directed, is the most profitable Broadway film adaptation of all time and was nominated for 10 Oscars, of which it won two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chu says he found that lesson of authenticity reflected in his film\u2019s two main characters \u2014 Elphaba and Glinda \u2014 and in the actors who played them, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.<\/p>\n

Glinda, played by Grande, and Elphaba, played by Erivo, form an unlikely friendship, each challenging the other to view life from a new perspective and defy the expectations their world pins onto them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned so much from Elphaba and Glinda and from Cynthia and Ariana,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019ve gotten to let go of that idea of proving yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Chu was just 23, fresh out of the University of Southern California\u2019s film school, he landed two movie deals. Both collapsed before production began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were days where I was like, \u2018Am I a fool?\u2019 \u2026 I would go into USC \u2014 they asked me to speak at USC, because this is the guy that just came out of college and got his deal … and I sit in the loading dock, and I\u2019m watching all these kids excited about making a movie. And I feel like nothing. I feel like \u2014 and I just started to weep. It was probably the first time I cried in 20 years or something at that point. I was like, \u2018These people think I\u2019m a complete fake.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later, after gaining experience and completing a variety of film projects such as \u201cStep Up 2\u201d and \u201cNow You See Me 2,\u201d Chu found a story that changed the trajectory of his career and became a watershed moment for Asian American representation on screen: \u201cCrazy Rich Asians.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Crazy Rich Asians\u2019 was great, because it cracked the door open or showed a path for the other people who needed to invest money in this. I\u2019m not sure if it was for us,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was for everyone else to say, \u2018Oh, these actors have value.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d was the first major Hollywood studio film to feature a majority-Asian cast in 25 years and was the highest-grossing romantic comedy of the decade. Chu says he sees his film as an \u201cavenue\u201d for other Asian American filmmakers to share aspects of their own experience: \u201cLet\u2019s own our stories and tell every version of our story we could.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Chu said that more representation \u201ctakes time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have to be careful to expect too big of a change too quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course we want that, but to change culture, it takes time. You cannot force people to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chu also says he remains deeply committed to the movie theater experience, despite the growth of streaming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think movies are one of our last analog spaces. It\u2019s a space that we have to protect,\u201d Chu said. \u201cYou have to make a choice to go in. You have to leave your phone \u2026 and then you have to just sit back in the dark and watch something for two hours through someone else\u2019s perspective. That is maybe one of the last spaces we have to do that. It is a part of our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that, he says, is what \u201cWicked\u201d is all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it\u2019s a fantasy, even though it\u2019s a fairy tale, it\u2019s our access into a human experience. What does it feel like when you believe so deeply, when you love so deeply, when you sacrifice everything? That we still have the capacity to do that,\u201d Chu said. \u201cIt\u2019s what my parents taught me. It\u2019s what America has taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWicked: For Good\u201d director Jon M. Chu has built his career on turning stories about outsiders into celebrations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":["post-272691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}