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

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. After making the hit film "Crazy Rich Asians" and the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "In The Heights," my guest, Jon M. Chu, is now adapting "Crazy Rich Asians" into a Broadway musical. He's directing a film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical "Wicked," which is expected to open in November. He loves musicals, and his first feature film was supposed to be an updated version of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie." Why that never happened is one of the disappointments he writes about in his new memoir.

The memoir is part prequel to his career, but it's also about making movies. Chu grew up in Silicon Valley, at a time when Apple was getting started, lots of startups were starting up and his friend's father was also the father of GPS navigation. Chu was an early adapter to as much new digital tech as he could get his hands on. His tech know-how served him well in his film career, but he soured on the tech industry's impact on how movies are seen, mostly at home and not in theaters. His parents are immigrants - his mother from Taiwan, his father from China. They own a Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley that they opened in 1970. Chu says it started as a lunch counter restaurant in a nothing-special strip mall, but by the time he was born in 1979, it had become a local institution. Steve Jobs was an early customer. Years later, Jobs helped Chu launch his career without knowing Chu's connection to that restaurant. Jon Chu's new memoir is called "Viewfinder." Jon Chu, welcome to FRESH AIR.

JON M CHU: Thanks. Thanks for having me, it's an honor to be talking to you.

GROSS: It's my pleasure to have you. So you're best known for your film "Crazy Rich Asians," and for how it showed off the talents of great Asian American and other Asian actors who are so underrepresented in Hollywood, and for showing that an Asian cast can be a huge hit. It was also a breakthrough for you personally. But previously, you hadn't wanted to emphasize that you were Asian American, the son of immigrants. You were taught to blend in, to assimilate. What are some of the ways you were taught to blend in?

CHU: Well, my mom and dad, like you said, 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 they dressed us similarly. And, like, Polo. My mom really wanted us to be the Kennedys. She would even call me Jon-Jon sometimes, so...

GROSS: (Laughter).

CHU: It was very much like we are ambassadors, and some of the people who come into the restaurant it's 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.

GROSS: Tell me a little bit more about the etiquette training. I didn't even know they did that anymore.

CHU: Yeah, I mean - this was a long time ago now, too. But, yeah, they would show us how to - where the forks go and how to take the napkin off and put it away. And it was also built into, like, my preschool. My preschool teacher taught us a lot of how to act properly, as they said.

GROSS: Did you buy into that, that you needed to assimilate and be the Kennedys?

CHU: One hundred percent. Yeah, I mean, I didn't - I don't know if I had a choice, but I enjoyed it. The people respected our family. We weren't just like, oh, that's the Chinese food restaurant people that - like, we were as embraced as anybody else there as the engineers or the VCs that were there at the time. I went to a school that was very sort of an Americana small school where musical theater was a part of the curriculum, where we learned Cardon, and so that whole world that I grew up in, at the time, Las Altos, Calif., felt like Main Street USA with this sort of tomorrow edge - that everyone was trying to invent what tomorrow would look like, and engineers were No. 1. No one was on cover of magazines at that time. It was Stanford. It was HP. It was Apple. Everyone was striving to invent what it would look like, and I totally bought into that. It was beautiful to live in that.

GROSS: So you made "Crazy Rich Asians" because someone in your family called - had read it and called your attention to it.

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: And I forget who the other person was who said, you got to read this. And coincidentally, I think your agent was just on the verge of sending you the novel...

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: ...Suggesting that you do an adaptation. So after all the years of, you know, trying to, like, blend in and be the perfect American family, how did you feel about doing an Asian American-themed film?

CHU: Well, before that, I was - I would have never, at that point. I had done a short film at USC. I went to USC film school, and it was the only time that I did something that dealt with my sort of cultural identity crisis. I was very all-American boy, but looked Chinese. The last thing I wanted to do was put myself in a category of, oh, that's the Asian director. I just wanted to be a director. And so I was very resistant. After ten years, maybe more, of that in the business and feeling like I made it. There was a point where I was working - "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. So, OK, I belong here. I can do this.

And then the big question came that landed on my head basically was like, OK, then, if you can do this, and what story do you need to tell that no one else can tell? What are you trying to say with your movies? And so I told my agent and my managers and my whole team, like, 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. And 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" and it just so happens that my agent and my manager were going to send me the script for it. So when those sort of coincidents happened I felt compelled - that this is the story of Rachel Chu who's in that movie. She's an Asian American woman who's going to Asia for the first time. To me, that was my story. I 100% understood what - that's when I went to Hong Kong for the first time or Taiwan for the first time, and you feel the sense of home, and you feel the sense of, oh, people are treating you like you're a cousin. But then they call you foreigner, or they call you gweilo, which means foreigner. So that's what compelled me to do "Crazy Rich Asians" at that time.

GROSS: I think you left out part of the story here, which is that you had done a movie that was a huge flop. I mean, like, really big.

CHU: (Laughter) Thanks. Thanks.

GROSS: And I forget the name of it 'cause I didn't know about it, and I don't know the thing it's adapted from.

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: So...

CHU: It was called "Jem And The Holograms."

GROSS: Yeah.

CHU: But it's only a flop if you look at the box office. I'm so proud of that movie, but yes, it did not do well in the box office.

GROSS: OK, but that got you thinking, what track are you on? And, like..

CHU: Yes.

GROSS: ...What's the point of what you're doing? Is it success? Is it money?

CHU: Yes.

GROSS: Is it something that means a whole lot to you? And isn't that part of what got you thinking about being on a different track?

CHU: Definitely. I mean, right now, everything's graded on what your box office numbers are. And that showed me - but when you're making a movie, it's about what you're making it about and who you're making it for. And there's a certain point where when the box office numbers are disappointing, if that shifts the reason for you making that movie - and it did. It jolted me. Then I knew I needed a recenter for myself. That whatever I was making, I knew I could not depend on who was showing up, that I had to make it for me. I had to make it for the audience that I knew needed this or may not know they want it, but need it in some way. And that was sort of the process I was going through when "Crazy Rich Asians" came along.

GROSS: So you adapted the movie from a novel by Kevin Kwan. And there's a lot of personal things from his life in that movie. And you're kind of referenced in it...

(LAUGHTER)

CHU: Yes.

GROSS: ...In a roundabout way 'cause he knew your cousin.

CHU: It's the weirdest story. Like, this - again, these - when these weird - I don't know what you'd call it - things happens - maybe spiritual, maybe the universe telling you - it compels you. But he was friends with my - he is friends, very close friends, with my cousin Vivian, who lives here in New York. And after reading the book, there's a section where the character talks about their cousin 'cause she's defending the Chu family in Cupertino, which is - Cupertino's, like, 10 minutes from my house. And these stories, apparently, were from stories that Vivian would tell him about our family.

And so Rachel Chu and the Chu family in Cupertino, they - there was one point where the main lead, the guy, is defending their family about how much money they make to his mother. And he's saying, you know, they have a - they work hard for their money, and they even have a cousin who makes movies in Hollywood...

GROSS: And that's you.

(LAUGHTER)

CHU: ...Which when you read it, you're like, oh, that's weird. That's really close. I only found out when I met Kevin Kwan in person later, and he said, no, that's a reference to you. And that was mind-blowing.

GROSS: Well, we need to take a short break here, so let me reintroduce you. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jon M. Chu, and he directed "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In The Heights" and is now working on a film adaptation of the musical "Wicked" and a Broadway adaptation - a Broadway musical adaptation of his movie "Crazy Rich Asians." His new memoir is called "Viewfinder." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SALLY YEH'S "200 DU")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Jon M. Chu. He directed the films "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In The Heights." He's now directing the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked," which is scheduled to open in November, and he's creating a Broadway musical adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians." His new memoir is called "Viewfinder."

After all the praise for representing Asian Americans and other Asians in "Crazy Rich Asians," you made the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit Broadway musical, "In The Heights." I really enjoyed that, but it was criticized for not having enough dark-skinned Afro Latino actors in a movie that was set in a predominantly Dominican neighborhood in New York. And you write that, you know, you were upset. You were hurt. But you tried to just listen - just as you wanted people to listen to you when you called out a lack of representation. Lin-Manuel Miranda issued an apology. And I was just wondering, you know, when a criticism - there's a fine line between criticism and condemnation in a situation like that, and I'm wondering which side of the line you felt it fell on.

CHU: You know, honestly...

GROSS: I don't mean to put you in an awkward spot.

CHU: No, no.

GROSS: So I will just say this, that if it comes close to condemnation, it discourages people from even seeing it, which is really defeating the purpose because even if the representation isn't perfect, even if there's a group of people who were misrepresented, despite your efforts to make it as widely representational as you could of the Latino American community, it can discourage people from going - it can discourage other people from trying to make a similar film.

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: And it can make you feel like a bad citizen if you liked it.

CHU: (Laughter).

GROSS: You know what I mean?

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: It's like, how come I didn't notice that? I'm not supposed to like this film. So I think the question of representation is really important, but I also think that, you know, it's possible to go too far.

CHU: Yeah, I mean, it's complicated. And I think that that's the work we're doing. We're on the front lines of trying to make change. And in that change, yes, there's - could be condemnation. It could be criticism. But I - I'm really glad I went through the "Jem" experience. I'm really glad I went through a decade of making movies and hearing criticisms - every movie has criticisms - because it - I already had a solid sort of state to stand on that I'm so proud of this movie.

"In The Heights" shows beautiful people and their beautiful stories that a dream as big as any Hollywood musical could make can happen in an apartment building above a bodega - that a bodega owner could be the main character of a story. And that's what we tried to do throughout the movie. That's what every single actor there was - every single dancer. We worked our butt off to really create a world that was beautiful. There's no violence. There's no guns. There's no drugs. This is about dreaming - dreaming at the highest levels - and that the American dream is complicated and that everybody has their own version of how to fulfill the American dream or keep it going. And for me - for that, I am so proud of the movie at a time when Latino main characters in Hollywood movies - I think they had, like, 2% of the dialogue that year, and we made a full movie full of it. So, yeah, it's hard to hear those things.

You know, I was trying to go through a transformation in the way I make my movies that I make the movie, and the audience takes it for as it is, and I have to be at peace with that. And that sort of had - you know, there's one thing where you say that's the case, and there's one thing where you practice it. And that was a great test for me. And I think our movie - that I wasn't going to push back and take down some argument from these people who were 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" 'cause 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 - that everybody's going to have blind spots or things they need to learn along the way.

GROSS: What did it do to your sense of self - to your personal identity - to be the person criticized about representation instead of the person criticizing...

CHU: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...About the lack of representation?

CHU: It - you know, I definitely questioned myself for moments. I had a lot of support, of course, from everyone who was part of the movie - people outside of the movie, people who found the beauty in it. And, you know, I was getting messages - crazy messages from people. Like, I posted a picture of my daughter when I got home from the press of "In The Heights. " We were in New York. I came home and posted a picture of my daughter, who'd made a sign that said, like, welcome home, daddy. And someone wrote, wow, you're saying - you're raising racist children. And I was like...

GROSS: (Laughter).

CHU: ...Whoa. I need to get off the internet. And when it goes that far, you sort of - like, OK. All right, this - these - I won't be their fodder. I won't let them be a part of my life. But I will keep making the thing that I believe that the world needs and make adjustments accordingly. But, yeah, it was hard, and it was a little bit - it was during sort of the end of COVID period - lockdown period, I guess. And so there was a lot of reassessing.

It sort of led me to "Wicked" in a weird way. This idea that Elphaba sings in "Defying Gravity" - she says, something has changed within me. Something is not the same. And those words, which I've known for many, many years, meant more on that day than anything else. I felt like, this is what we all feel. We are all rejiggering our - how we see the world, and what we thought the world had prepared for us and how we think the American dream was and how it actually is. And now we need to write the new story. What is that? And I felt compelled with - I had a microphone. I had a movie to make that kind of could help us all heal from that idea.

GROSS: So you're working on "Wicked" now and adapting that into a film. What did "The Wizard Of Oz" and "Wicked" mean to you, when, you know, when you first saw "Wicked" and when you were young and watched "The Wizard Of Oz"?

CHU: Well, "Wizard Of Oz" obviously means a lot to a lot of people. It's the great American fairy tale, the one that was written here and about the Yellow Brick Road and this wizard that was going to give you everything your heart's desire. My mom would talk about it often. My dad would talk - I mean, it was so, in a weird way, international, this idea of this place that you could go. And it's always had a place in my life. I watched it many many times, whether it's on TV or VHS or DVD. And when I saw "Wicked," that was - what? - 2002 is what - I saw it before it was on Broadway. My parents would take us every weekend, as part of our Americanization, would take us to a show every weekend - ballet season, opera season, musical season. And all five kids, and we'd be in our little polo shirts, tucked in and trying to stay quiet, even though we were very restless. And so that was a part of our tradition.

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 seen it, by Stephen Schwartz, who had done "Pippin" and "Godspell." So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll come, and I was blown away by it. 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 there was a narrative to her that they sold everybody, because the only way to bring people together is to give them a real good enemy, as the Wizard says. That was very compelling to me. And the production was so big. I mean, they did an amazing job, and it wasn't even finished yet when I saw it, that 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.

And this idea of looking at the American story, flipping it, and then now having, 22, 20 years later to try to invert the ideas of it to say, hey, 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. To me, those were the compelling things that I was there at the time in my life where I was ready to tell that story, and in a song like "Defying Gravity" - I sort of needed at that moment, and I felt like that's what the world needed to, this fighter of hope.

GROSS: Well, let me reintroduce you because we have to take another break. If you're just joining us, my guest is Jon Chu, and he directed the films "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In The Heights." And he's now directing a film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked," which is scheduled to open in November, and he's creating a Broadway musical adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians." He's written a new memoir called "Viewfinder." We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE HEIGHTS")

ANTHONY RAMOS: (As Usnavi, rapping) I hope you're writing this down. I'm going to test you later. I'm getting tested. Times are tough on this bodega. Two months ago somebody bought Ortega's. Our neighbors started packing up and picking up and ever since the rents went up. It's gotten mad expensive, but we live with just enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS: (As characters, singing) In the Heights I flip the lights and start my day. There are fights and endless debts and bills to pay. In the Heights I can't survive without cafe...

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, singing) I serve cafe.

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTISTS: (As characters, singing) ...'Cause tonight seems like a million years away in Washington.

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, rapping) Next up - ding - Kevin Rosario. He runs the cab company. He struggles in the barrio. See, his daughter Nina's off at college. Tuition is mad steep so he can't sleep. Everything he get is mad cheap.

JIMMY SMITS: (As Kevin Rosario, singing) Good morning, Usnavi.

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, singing) Pan caliente, cafe con leche.

SMITS: (As Kevin Rosario, singing) Put twenty dollars on today's lottery.

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, singing) OK, must be a lucky day.

SMITS: (As Kevin Rosario, singing) Got to be.

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, singing) Oh, my God, you're so excited.

SMITS: (As Kevin Rosario, singing) My Nina flew in at 3 a.m. last night.

RAMOS: (As Usnavi, singing) Sweet - Abuela's been cooking all week.

SMITS: (As Kevin Rosario, singing) Compai, when I see you this weekend...

ANTHONY RAMOS AND JIMMY SMITS: (As Usnavi and Kevin Rosario, singing) ...Oh, we are going to eat.

DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA: (As Daniela, singing) So then Yesenia walks in the room. She smells sex and cheap perfume...

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with film director Jon M. Chu. He directed the films "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In The Heights." He's now directing the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked," which is scheduled to open in November, and he's creating a Broadway musical adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians." His new memoir is called "Viewfinder." Let's go back to the beginning. You grew up in Silicon Valley in the '80s and '90s. What was happening at the time in Silicon Valley that you were aware of?

CHU: Well, NASA was a big part of our community. HP was a big part. I think when I was growing up, there was - Reagan and Bush were around, and so there was - and Stanford, of course, was kicking. Steve Jobs had just sort of been kicked out of Apple, so he was our hometown hero, and everyone was rooting for him. George Lucas was in the city, making his own movies - independent movies called "Star Wars" and things like that - over there, so it was a beautiful, magical time.

GROSS: And you had a lot of early digital tech, in part because one of your parents' customers - what? - distributed them. And so I don't know whether he gave you deals or just gave you the tech, but you had stuff. What did you have that helped create the know-how that you needed when you started making your own little indie teenage films (laughter)?

CHU: Yeah, I got them for free from customers. They literally - Russell Brown from Adobe would give me all the Adobe Photoshop. I got After Effects, Premiere. I was getting computer equipment from Dave Smith, who had a company called Truevision. I got monitors. This is all free, for this - I was - I don't know - 14 years old.

GROSS: Did they know that you were dying to make movies?

CHU: This is the reason why my dad would talk to them. You know, Chef Chu's is a house of stories, so he'd be telling them all stories about us, and they would be like, yeah, we have this thing. It's called digital video. It's going to change everything. Before that, I had been just editing on a VHS on different VCRs, so that changed it. I had no business owning this equipment. It had no manual, so I had to figure it out myself, but that sort of got me started in figuring out the grammar of audiovisual storytelling.

GROSS: Then you started making movies with your older brother.

CHU: (Laughter) Yeah. My older brother, he's, like - you know, everyone loves my older - everyone want to be friends with me to be friends with my older brother, Larry. He was, like, 6'2", and he's, like, the basketball player, and so he would have these class videos, and he would tag me along 'cause I could carry the camera, or carry the batteries, or whatever, and I would just tag along and watch them. And it was also the time of, like, Spike Lee and Michael Jordan, and so that - the sort of convergence of media and sports, and my brother was a basketball player, so he had a guy who was shooting them and shooting their highlight videos and stuff. It became really cool to have, like, a video guy with you at whatever you were doing, and so I was just that guy for them, and became that guy for a lot of people in our school.

GROSS: When you were in film school, you did - I'm unclear about this, whether it was a trailer or a movie, called "When The Kids Are Away," 'cause I saw the trailer online, you know, on the internet...

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: ...But I couldn't find the actual movie.

CHU: Yeah, it's - the full movie is what got me into this business. It's what Steven Spielberg saw. It's what all the - but I - but the - you can't actually see it online. I have not posted it ever.

GROSS: Oh, no wonder. OK.

CHU: Yes.

GROSS: OK, so let me describe the trailer...

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: ...Because the trailer is pretty funny.

CHU: Yeah (laughter).

GROSS: It starts like a kind of, like, horror film - like, what do mothers do when the kids are away? - and you see all these, like, stillls with kind of scary music underneath.

CHU: (Laughter).

GROSS: And it looks like, oh, my God, they're, like - they're all serial killers...

CHU: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...You know, but it turns out a kid sneaks into, like, a trash can and hides out so he could see what the mothers do when the kids are away, and what they're doing is all these big, joyful production numbers. They're singing, and they're dancing while folding laundry (laughter), and stuff like that...

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: ...So it's funny, and it's fun, and there's so many - there's, like, a bunch of different production numbers in it edited together in this kind of really fast sequence.

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: And it's quite impressive, considering you were in film school and just, you know, what it took to do so many songs and, you know, to do so many dances...

CHU: Yeah.

GROSS: ...And so on, so tell us about the doors that that opened for you.

CHU: Well, we had no budget for that, as well (laughter), and we got it all together, and it was - at that time, there was no YouTube, so you couldn't just get it online. People had to have a physical copy in their hand, and that's the one that Steven Spielberg saw. That was the one that I got my agents and managers from. That's the one that got me my first movie. There was something magical about it that people saw in it that changed everything for me.

GROSS: What did Spielberg do for you? He asked to meet with you. What happened?

CHU: Yeah, he met with me, and I got to go to the DreamWorks office - which is, you know, overwhelming when you're 22 years old - and I was prepared to tell him how much I loved him, and all he did was tell me what he loved about my short. It was the kindest thing I've ever experienced, and my goal was to - my friend was like, you got to get a second meeting. That's the goal (laughter), so I tried to maneuver a second meeting by saying, oh, I have a musical that I'm writing right now, and he's like, I would love to hear it, and he was like, how about Thursday? And I was like, yes, so me and my friend had to conjure up this musical by Thursday, and we came back in and pitched the movie and he bought it, and we developed it for a couple years. It never went, but - and 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.

GROSS: And when you were watching him direct, he did a scene that wasn't going well. People criticized him for the way it was done, and instead of being defensive, he said, let's try it another way, and then it worked.

CHU: It was a master class for me to watch. I'm literally sitting next to him. He gave me a seat next to him. I'm sharing, like, candy with him, and this musical number that he was shooting wasn't happening, and so he just took a moment. 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 in 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. I said, oh, you can be at that level and be that kind and giving. I guess the image in my head of an artist is always, like, demanding and screaming and yelling, and that, for the rest of my life, affected me.

GROSS: Well, let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. If you're just joining us, my guest is film director Jon Chu. His new memoir is called "Viewfinder." We'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE CURE SONG, "IN BETWEEN DAYS")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with Jon Chu. He directed the films "Crazy Rich Asians" and "In The Heights." He's now directing a film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Wicked," which is scheduled to open in November, and he's creating a Broadway musical adaptation of "Crazy Rich Asians," a film which he directed. His new memoir is called "Viewfinder." Let's talk a little bit about your parents. Your mother was from Taiwan. Your father was from several places.

CHU: Yes. He moved around.

GROSS: Do you want to explain?

CHU: Yeah, he moved around a lot and then ended up in Taiwan and then Hong Kong, and then the States. But they both met in the Bay area. So that was their connection.

GROSS: And in 1970, they opened a Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley. On a scale from takeout to fine dining...

CHU: (Laughter).

GROSS: ...Where does the restaurant fit?

CHU: I wouldn't say it's like chic dining, but it's nice dining. I mean, people take dates there. There are business meetings there. I've had birthday parties, many birthday parties. People have wedding receptions there. But it's - you know, my parents - they wanted always to feel open for families. We had a big family, so my mom always wanted to make sure that you never felt uncomfortable by having a mess on the floor at the end. And yet you could still take a date there.

GROSS: So when you were growing up, what was the menu?

CHU: By the time I was around, it was a full-on menu. You know, when they started, I think there was less than 10 items, and there wasn't even a place to sit. And it was one little part of this bigger sort of complex of different stores. There was a salon, a cigar shop or something like that. And so by the time I came around, that was all one. They owned the whole corner there plus other buildings behind it. And they grew up with the Silicon Valley there. So eventually, they had sit-downs and people from Stanford would come, people from all the different companies would come. I'm sure my dad got stock tips along the way. And they grew with the community. So it's still there. Fifty-one years later, it is still there. My dad's still in the kitchen, 80 years old. My mom's still out there greeting people, and more people know me from the restaurant than I feel like know me from directing my movies.

GROSS: (Laughter) What did you like to eat there when you were growing up?

CHU: I'm a simple guy, but I always loved the pot stickers? The handmade pot stickers there. They're delicious. The chicken salad is very exciting there, and people love it. They have this garlic noodles with lobster that is to die for. Of course, their duck is great. So there's a lot to have there.

GROSS: Your parents' attitude, the way you describe it, was never complain. Like, we're here to be model citizens. If someone, you know, insults you or behaves badly, just, like, never complain. Can you describe more what the never-complain ethic was like?

CHU: Yeah, there was a keep-going attitude. There's five of us, and the middle child - his name is Howard, and he's my brother. We were roommates my whole life, basically, and he has special needs. And so he will always live with my parents or with our family. And so growing up, to have a brother that had those needs, we had to be very adaptable in any situation. Even if we were at a show, and he had a breakdown, we would leave. If we were going on vacation and he didn't want to get on the flight, we would all leave. And my parents - you could never say, but I need to go on that plane, why are we - that was not part of the conversation. So we were always very adaptable.

All right, we're going to make up our own thing at the house now. And that went for everything else in our life. When we walked in and people would look at our family or stare at our family - we had a lot of kids, we'd maybe be a little wild - we ignored them. When people would stare or when people would say something in the restaurant itself - because sometimes when people come to a restaurant, they think they deserve to be served in a certain way - you ignore it, and you keep moving. My parents always said, that we don't just fill their bellies, we fill their hearts.

And so next time they see a Chinese family, they'll know that they can treat them better than they treated us. So that was always in my mind, and it helped me honestly navigate through the beginning of my business and my career.

GROSS: Yes. So your brother Howard has autism, and as you said, has special needs. You shared a bedroom and sometimes had to, like, turn back from a vacation or leave a show because he wasn't able to handle it and was causing a fuss, so the family would leave. Did you resent him for that? Like, how deep was your understanding and your empathy?

CHU: I was sort of led by my oldest brother. By the time I came around - no, there was zero, no anger, none of that. It wasn't part of our family. My oldest brother had sort of set the table early. I remember one time when I was young, I think I imitated my brother once, Howard, and my other brother slapped me across - I don't get hit. I had never been slapped before and that - maybe never since. And he's like, you do not ever imitate Howard. And that landed on me so clearly that I can feel the slap today. We take care of Howard. That's what we do. We're family. So, yeah, that - there's no resentment at all, ever.

GROSS: So I want to ask you a question related both to your family and to your movie, "Crazy Rich Asians." In the movie, the young woman who is marrying somebody who is from Singapore goes to meet his family. And his mother, who's played by Michelle Yeoh, is very disapproving of this young Asian American who plans on having a career. And the potential mother-in-law says to her - you know, she describes to her how it's all about family, how she gave up her interest in being a lawyer - she gave up law school - to raise a family and to be part of that family. And it's implicit that she would expect, you know, her daughter-in-law to be the same, but she suspects her daughter-in-law would not do that, that her daughter-in-law would not sacrifice her career and the life that she wanted for her family. And I'm wondering if that resonated at all with your family.

CHU: Yeah. I think that's an argument that I have often with my parents or grandparents about sacrifice, what it means for our generation to sacrifice and put someone else in front of your own dreams. Again, I was the youngest, so I was maybe allowed a little bit more elbow room than my brothers and sisters. But I was allowed to pursue this crazy dream of becoming a filmmaker. But it was always impressed upon us that sacrifice was a part of what we did.

You know, when my - when I'd had my short film, when the kids already played at USC for the first time, my family came. And the - right before, they're like, what are you feeding everyone? I said, oh, no, nothing. I have, like, sodas. They're like, nope. They went to Costco and got tons of frozen food, made it in my apartment kitchen, and they served everybody there. They were there to see my movie and enjoy a time and - no, they worked. And they were serving people wine and champagne and things like - and so it always - it wasn't just talk. It was impressed on me of that.

And so, yes, when I see Rachel and her - the mother of how - what that standard is like and the questions about, what are we capable of doing? Are we able to do that for our children? I feel that to this day with my children.

GROSS: So another question about your parents - because your parents, you know, were sending you to, like, etiquette school and every minute of your day seems to have been programmed, did you see your friends having, like, more flexibility, more free time, more freedom than you did?

CHU: Yes. I was always the busy one in a group of friends. I saw them having fun and doing other things for sure.

GROSS: Did you want that for yourself?

CHU: Yes. I mean, I was always busy, so it was hard to fully let that sink in. But, yes, I wanted that for myself. I also wanted - when I would go to their house, I would - their moms would cook them cinnamon rolls in the morning, and they would all go to church, and they would all have game - family game time, and the dad would be home at 5 p.m. And I would look at that big - this is the perfect family. This is amazing. That was not our family at all. It was much less traditional than that. But I - that always stayed in me as, like, oh, that's the way a family is supposed to be, and why can't my family be a little bit more like that?

GROSS: But I suppose you certainly learned a work ethic and many skills and...

CHU: Yes, absolutely. There's a point in the book where I - it was hard to get through in my audiobook. I kept crying. But there's a piece that's called, like, be the guy in the kitchen. And it talks about my dad, watching him, greasy, in the back of the kitchen, sweating. And then moments later, he'd be in the front, cleaning up his tie and then greeting people. And he was, like, so suave, making jokes. And then he'd go back in the kitchen and be the sort of captain of this pirate ship. And I always - the guy in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero. That guy was so freaking cool - not the guy who's making the jokes, but the guy in the back working his butt off 'cause he was the planner. He was the architect. And so I think about that often as my - of my own life. I want to be the guy in the kitchen.

GROSS: Did you feel that way as the director of the film?

CHU: Yeah. I think about - it's not about red carpets. It's not about this press tour. It's not about any of that. It's about doing the work, and it's hard. And creativity - even though some people - like, oh, you - creativity is - you're a creative genius. It comes out of the air. No, it's, like, hard. I got to schedule my time. I got to put time into when I ruminate and when I come up with something, and it's a routine. It's not -the secret is it's not magic. It's work.

GROSS: Jon Chu, it's really just been such a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you so much. I look forward to seeing your latest projects.

CHU: Thank you very much. It's an honor to talk to you, Terry.

GROSS: Jon M. Chu's new memoir is called "Viewfinder." His film adaptation of "Wicked" is scheduled to open in November.

After we take a short break, Maureen Corrigan will review "Someone Like Us," which she describes as a most idiosyncratic American immigrant novel. It's by Dinaw Mengestu, who was born in Ethiopia. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL MARVINE'S "PEOPLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.