'Wicked' director Jon M. Chu says creativity isn't magic — it's hard work

Filmmaker Jon M. Chu says one his most enduring childhood memories is of his father, a Chinese immigrant, bustling about the family-run restaurant in California. One moment, Chu's dad would be in the dining area, suavely greeting guests and making jokes. The next, he'd be "greasy in the back of the kitchen, sweating," Chu remembers.

"The guy that in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero," Chu says. "Not the guy who's making the jokes, but the guy in the back working his butt off. ... I think about that often in my own life: I want to be the guy in the kitchen."

Growing up in Silicon Valley at the dawn of the start-up era, Chu was surrounded by technology. Apple founder Steve Jobs was a regular at the family restaurant and George Lucas was in the city filming his special-effects heavy Star Wars films. Chu was an early adapter — which helped lead him to filmmaking.

"Technology for me has been such a game changer," he says. "It literally gave me the voice that I didn't know I had. Without a camera, without editing equipment, I wouldn't know that I had this storytelling bug in me."

Chu's film credits include Now You See Me 2, In the Heights and Crazy Rich Asians, which he's currently adapting into a Broadway musical. His film adaptation of the musical Wicked is expected to open in November. Though he's clearly found a place for himself in Hollywood, Chu says he's not motivated by glitz and glamour.

"It's not about the red carpet. It's not about this press tour," he says. "It's about doing the work. And it's hard. ... The secret is it's not magic. It's work."

Chu looks back on his life and career in the memoir Viewfinder.

Interview highlights

On seeing the stage production of Wicked years ago

As part of our "Americanization" [my parents] would take us to a show every weekend — ballet season, opera season, musical season. And all five kids, we'd be in our little polo shirts, tucked in and trying to stay quiet, even though we were very restless. ... And years later, when I was just starting college, my mom said, "Hey, there's another show coming in. It's a new show, and no one's seen it, by Stephen Schwartz." ...

I was blown away by [Wicked]. This idea that this American story could be flipped, and you could see it from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, and that she wasn't so bad. ... That was very compelling to me. And the production was so big. ... It stayed with me. I never thought I would be so lucky to be able to direct it one day, but it always stayed with me.

On what he loves about the story of Wicked

This idea of looking at the American story, flipping it. … Maybe the yellow brick road isn't the way to go. Maybe you need to go on your own path, and maybe there is no wizard on the other side waiting to give you your heart's desire. Maybe you have to figure it out yourself, and maybe there's no real such thing as happy endings, that the path just keeps going and you just have to keep walking.

On the criticism of his musical In the Heights for not having enough dark-skinned Afro Latino representation

It's hard to hear those things. … I wasn't going to push back and take down some argument from these people who are speaking out. Again, there's plenty of other complaints you can make about any of my movies, but I wanted to show compassion and that's not easy sometimes. And sometimes it's at the risk of your own art that you've spent years on. That said, I hope people really do discover In the Heights, because I think it's a beautiful movie and it has a great message. And at the same time, I hope we have grace for each other, because if we're changing, everybody's going to have blind spots or things they need to learn along the way.

On his decision to direct the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians

The last thing I wanted to do was put myself in a category of “that's the Asian director.” I just wanted to be a director. And so I was very resistant. After 10 years, maybe more, of that in the business and feeling like I made it, there's a point where I was working on Now You See Me 2, with some of the biggest actors out there: Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, and we were flowing, and it felt really good. And I felt like I hit my 10,000 hours. I was like, "OK, I belong here, I can do this." And then the big question came that landed on my head basically was like, if you can do this, what story do you need to tell that no one else can tell? And what are you trying to say with your movies?

And so I told my agent and my managers and my whole team, "I don't know what's happening with me, but I need to get off of any movie I'm doing right now. And I need to start fresh with something that scares me the most." So I went on a search for something that felt like it was going to deal with the scariest thing in my life, which was my cultural identity crisis. And that's when my sister and my mom sent me Crazy Rich Asians.

On growing up in Silicon Valley and being taught to blend in

My mom and dad came from Taiwan and China. And so they always wanted us kids — I'm the youngest of five kids — to have an experience that was different than theirs. So they put us in dance classes. I took tap dance for 12 years. Piano, drums, saxophone, violin. I was terrible at all of those. I did sports camps, basketball, tennis. We did etiquette classes where they taught us how to sit at a table and greet people. … And my mom really wanted us to be the Kennedys. So she would even call me John-John sometimes. So it was very much like we are ambassadors and some of the people who come into the restaurant is the first time they're going to interact with a Chinese family, so we have to show them that we can hang just as well as they can.

On how meeting Steven Spielberg changed his life

I got to go to the Dreamworks office, which is, you know, overwhelming when you're 22 years old. I was prepared to tell him how much I loved him. And all he did was tell me what he loved about my short [film]. … He invited me to his set to visit him and watch him direct. And it was the most encouraging, beautiful thing that someone could do. …

It was a masterclass for me to watch. ... He gave me a seat next to him. I'm sharing candy with him and this musical number that he was shooting, it wasn't happening. … I saw him totally calm, never panic, and he just said, “No, we're going to switch this camera. Forget that whole thing. We're going to switch the camera here, do this, do that.” And the whole machine moved. And he was just right back at the seat with me, and it kept going. And there was a lot of tension right before that. So to see that and to see the kindness that he would give in those directions and the confidence, made me want that, like, "Oh, you can be at that level and be that kind and giving."

Sam Briger and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.