The Big Picture · Interview

How 'Crazy Rich Asians' Director Jon M. Chu Earned His Spot

August 17, 2018/ 31 min/ Sean Fennessey

Sean Fennessey talks to Jon M. Chu the week 'Crazy Rich Asians' opens: how a studio-raised director of sequels and a Bieber doc found the movie that finally felt personal, why he tracks the box office he claims not to care about, and what's next with 'In the Heights'.

9 films across 1 segment.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

In conversation

Jon M. Chu on

Crazy Rich Asians 2018

The adaptation of Kevin Kwan's 2013 novel, and the first Hollywood studio film with an all-Asian cast since 1993. Chu says the opulence didn't move him in the book; what he related to was Rachel Chu, an Asian American going to her cultural homeland for the first time and being made to feel like an outsider. Calls it his most present film and points to a two-and-a-half-minute oner at Tyersall Park, where all the tones collide, as the moment he knew it would work.

Jon M. Chu on

The Joy Luck Club 1993

The last major studio production with an all-Asian and Asian American cast before this one, 25 years earlier.

Jon M. Chu on

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 2011

The performance documentary cited as part of his early studio run, before he went looking for something personal.

Jon M. Chu on

Step Up 2: The Streets 2008

One of two Step Up installments he directed on his way up through the studio system.

Jon M. Chu on

Step Up 3D 2010

His second Step Up film.

Jon M. Chu on

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 2013

The G.I. Joe sequel from his run of studio work; his movies, he says, made over a billion dollars for other companies while he stayed 'famous-ish.'

Jon M. Chu on

Jem and the Holograms 2015

The flop where, in his words, 'literally nobody sees your movie.' Chu says he's still proud of it, and that it's what got him asking why he makes movies at all.

Jon M. Chu on

Now You See Me 2 2016

Big franchise work with a great cast that still left him asking what he was contributing, which sent him searching for his cultural identity.

Jon M. Chu on

In the Heights 2021

His next film, which he joined around the same time as this one. The Lin-Manuel Miranda musical about immigrants and community; he's after the truth in their eyes, not the sing-to-the-stars spectacle.

Also mentioned raised along the way

In passing The Great Gatsby Black Panther To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV Dawson's CreekThe Staircase

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