Renegades | Jon M. Chu on Taking the Leap
The director of "Wicked" and author of "Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen" tells us about his journey from Silicon Valley to Hollywood and beyond
Welcome to Renegades, Gold House’s newsletter series spotlighting Asian Pacific leaders and creatives who are carving their own paths and defying stereotypes along the way. This week, we sat down with Jon M. Chu, Director and Author of “Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen.” With beginnings in Northern California as the son of Chinese American restaurant owners, Jon recounts his initial move to Los Angeles to attend USC film school, a surreal moment shadowing Spielberg on set, and the defining turning point “Crazy Rich Asians” represented in his career.
What did you want to be when you were growing up and how does that compare to where you are now?
Well when I was probably in like third or fourth grade I wanted to go into animation and then I got a camera in my hand and I never let that go. I always remember thinking that I wanted to tell stories in a big theater with a lot of people of all ages and people from all around the world in a big spectacle form, so I feel I'm very grateful that my journey has led me to a place that is similar to that. And that it's just the beginning.
“Viewfinder” is a deeply personal memoir with moments shared about your childhood and recent accomplishments across film and TV. What were the most fun or challenging parts of retracing your steps and delving into your past to write this book?
The most fun was just remembering all the little stories that took me on this journey. When you're working so hard, you tend to let things in your path go very quickly. But it was great to think about how scared I was coming out of college, or how insecure I was making my first movie, or how lost I was making my sixth movie. I think it made me appreciate my journey much more and appreciate that it took many steps and wasn't just an overnight occurrence. The probably most challenging one was, I was thinking about my parents' story because their stories are so varied from each other and their point of view. And I had to put it in the form of a movie in the book and do it sort of through my point of view of their stories as a reference. Because I never got a full straight answer. But it was cathartic to me to process it in that way, so I could button up those stories in my own mind. And it was, in a weird way, a sort of form of therapy.
In “Viewfinder”, you talk about growing up as a first generation Chinese American in Silicon Valley. What is one particular experience at your parents' restaurant that you believe shaped your cultural identity?
I think just watching my parents work really hard in the kitchen, be sweaty, and devoted and then clean up and come out to the front of the restaurant and be able to interface with people of all ages and all walks of life and make each of them smile and fill not only their belly but their hearts. To me, their ability to do that was like a superhero and showed me a way of how to be a bridge in a community while also doing what you love.
You mentioned that you wish you had this book when you were younger. What is a specific message or passage you hope resonates most with readers, especially first generation kids like yourself?
I hope this touches people who are on the cusp of dreaming something big and are on the cusp of activating themselves to do it. I hope this book pushes them in the direction of doing it and pushes them not to be too scared. I hope it gives them a little bit of that courage or encouragement to make that first move because it won't start if you don't make that first move. And for anyone else who's in the middle of their journey, who's having a difficult time, I hope this book gives them that extra little push to keep going. Nobody's journey is overnight, and there is light at the end of the tunnel if you just keep going and surviving and making. That your chase for your biggest, most ambitious dreams is a work in process, not a destination. It's a habit, not a natural trait that you already have.
This book touches on your journey from being discovered by Steven Spielberg to directing major films. Can you share a story or moment where mentorship influenced your career as an award winning director, writer, and producer?
Well, Steven Spielberg alone inviting me to go to his set was a game changing moment for my brain. He had a seat right next to him for me and the fact that I got to be there and watch him direct and he was so kind to me. Tom Hanks came up to me and talked to me and all the people on set, Janusz, his DP, talked to me. Watching them do their thing on the set was incredible, even when obstacles came at them Steven was very calm and very poised and very kind to everybody. Him and Janusz were like kids in a candy store. They were just playing the whole time. So to see two people of that stature, to see a whole crew of such high skill sets being able to still play like children as adults guided me through all my movies from then on and to say that you can be that you don't have to be the asshole. You don't have to be working your crew and everyone be miserable. Everyone can be working hard and loving it and playing as well all at the same time.
The book shares narratives of your early transition from Silicon Valley to Hollywood. What were some of the biggest cultural adjustments you had to make during this transition?
The hardest one was just coming to LA to go to USC. I was a very protected kid in Silicon Valley. I went to a small school. My family was very big in the community. I was the youngest of five, so everyone knew my brothers and sisters already. And I thought I was pretty great. So then coming to USC film school, the best film school in the world, and everyone who's there is the top of their game and loves movies and loves the craft. Maybe even more than you do. It was a big shocker. It also was very encouraging, because it pushed me to be better, it pushed me to learn more, it pushed me to understand people more. LA alone is a huge landscape of cultures, and I had to learn a lot of lessons about what the reality of the world was like coming into LA. I think mostly in the end, it was getting used to being me and being comfortable that I didn't have to be anybody else. Sometimes at first, I feel like I'm not smart enough or I'm not cultured enough because I came from a small town and I tried to act like I was. But when I got comfortable in my own skin, and that I had something to offer that nobody else had to offer, that's when I felt like I found my home here.
You have accrued many awards, such as the Princess Grace Award and Distinguished Honors throughout your professional career. What personal milestone, whether tangible or not, has meant the most to you and why?
I think for me personally, after having made seven, six movies, I forget how many it was… After doing Now You See Me 2, the decision to clear my slate of movies and start over with a movie that I was scared to do and deal with the subject matter that I was most fearful of, which is my cultural identity crisis, to find Crazy Rich Asians and think that no one was ever going to see this movie, but I needed to make it for myself, that was, that's what I'm most proud of. And to put it into theaters, to challenge the world to pay money to go see it, to challenge our culture, to value this cast and this story. I felt very alone and scared making those choices, but once I witnessed the result of it, seeing families come to the movie theaters that weekend and the following weekend, it reaffirmed my belief that we have such a responsibility and power as storytellers, the ones with the microphones. That we must be pushing the boundaries and we must be inviting new points of view into the circle. And honestly, it was more fun than anything I'd ever done before that. So it changed how I saw spending my time and what I wanted to make.
You have another highly anticipated project coming out later this year. As we approach the upcoming release of Wicked, what are you most excited to share with the audience?
I'm excited to share one of the most famous American fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz, through a new perspective. Through the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, and Glinda the Good. I've loved the musical since I was younger when it first came out. And to be able to be the first to bring it to the big screen, and to have Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande represent those two women who are very different from each other, and yet have a strong bond in their friendship, that touched me when I was young. I know it will touch millions and millions and millions and millions of people around the world. I also am excited that it will take the audience away in this epic, sweeping fantasy to Oz, a place that has a warm place in my heart and in cinematic history. And that I'm one of the few people to get to paint that picture of Oz. To bring the audience there, now, on the biggest screen possible, is really exciting for me. I hope people have a great time, that it's fun, and yet at the same time we'll find something really honest and true in it about our society, about what we think is true, who are the storytellers, and the love between these two friends that stand the test of time.
