Jon M. Chu Breaks Down His Inspirations for 'Wicked'

Mom, we're at the Curran Theater.

I don't know if you've been back in this theater since then,

so I just want to thank you for taking me

to see Wicked before anyone else really saw it

because it's changed my life.

[bright chiming music]

Hi, I'm Jon M. Chu,

the director of the film Adaptations of Wicked.

And I brought you here to the Curran Theater

in San Francisco where I saw Wicked

for the very first time 20 plus years ago.

This is Directors on Location.

[bright chiming music]

Our family started a Chinese restaurant

in Los Altos in 1969.

And they wanted us kids to experience all-American culture.

They took us to Niner games.

They took us to musicals, operas, ballets, symphony.

And going to the movies was the big thing!

I remember seeing E.T. on the big screen

for the first time in a seat not very different than this.

And just the images were so large, and so bright,

and so of something I'd never seen before.

I mean, I believed

E.T. really existed. [champion trumpet music]

And when that spaceship takes off at the end

and that John Williams score is blasting,

I know that it was literally a contagious wonder

that made people believe in big things,

and made people wanna become storytellers.

[champion trumpet music]

Growing up in the Bay Area,

everyone had a plan to have their big startup

in their things.

And I was like, I wanna go tell stories.

I was at USC pursuing this, and I got a call from my mom.

She had been going through chemotherapy

sort of the year before,

so she wasn't allowed to go out a lot.

And now, some time had passed,

so she was allowed to go to a show again.

And so they always took us to musicals

during the musical season.

And so she called me and said,

Stephen Schwartz, the guy who did Pippin, [laughing]

has a new musical about the Wizard of Oz,

and it's showing at the Curran Theater,

so come back and watch it with me.

That was a dream.

Oh, we get to see a work in progress.

And I had been going to film school,

so I was really understanding craft for the first time.

I think, sitting there with my mother watching this show,

and seeing Galinda come down from the rafters,

taking this childhood story

that has lived in our family about the American dream.

It's the American fairy tale and then twisting and saying,

Hey,

what if the stories you were told

that you were young weren't exactly the way

the things are,

what beauty is, how the yellow brick road actually works?

Is there a man behind the curtain

who's gonna give you your heart's desire

or is there a new story that's being told right now?

And who are you going to be when you know the truth?

All those things were converging at this moment in my life.

And it felt like it spoke to every single one of them.

So I come from a observer of the stage.

When I sit in the seat, I feel very swept away.

I'm very much locked in with these actors,

and I feel very intimate, and I love the energy of it.

You never know where it's gonna go.

You almost are looking if they're gonna look at you,

somebody in front of you doing it

brings the material so close to your heart,

even if you're 50 feet away,

even if you have the last seats in the house.

And so when I see something on stage,

even though I experience it as an audience member,

I see it as an audience of a film

because that's the way I see the world.

The heart of a movie

is what it makes you feel in little moments.

You don't really remember the plot.

I barely remember character names.

It's not what it's about.

And then when you're developing a script,

it's easy to get caught in those things

'cause that's the only thing in front of you.

Plot, names, story, whah.

I think it's actually how you feel about this character.

♪ Is that how that is ♪ Galinda, the girl!

♪ When all your dreams come true ♪

[crowd applauds]

[clouds exploding]

It's the Wicked Witch! [crowds screams]

A movie like Wicked at the smallest level,

I write down every scene on a big wall.

And this was hard 'cause Wicked is two movies technically,

and we shot it all at the same time.

Of course, we talk about the plot,

but it's about what should the audience

be feeling about which character in this scene.

It's an emotion wall.

It's just like yearning, it's sadness,

it's whatever we need to feel here.

We're talking story emotion first, technical second.

Best thing about movies is you got one night,

you got one moment to get it on that film.

It doesn't matter what argument you had about it,

if you didn't shoot it, it doesn't exist!

That day is like game day, it's like the Super Bowl.

We walk in there, I play music walking in.

Let's go, let's find some magic.

So we all trust our instincts, let's play.

♪ Because I need you ♪ ♪ Because I ♪

♪ I have been changed ♪

♪ For good ♪ [bright upbeat music]

The pressure of doing For Good the song is just enormous.

It's one of the greatest songs put on stage ever!

It's one of the most covered songs,

so we've heard every version of it.

This is for good.

The movie's called For Good,

so there is a tendency to get the crane out,

Let's make this hot, let's spin around it!

And you got the two biggest divas

in the world singing For Good!

And when we got there, I had everything ready.

And when the girls started to sing it,

it wasn't about any of that.

It wasn't about putting on a show,

it was just about two people almost just having

a last handhold before never seeing each other again,

and asking forgiveness, and getting it,

and then walking away.

And that is very small after a giant movie of giant effects.

So we rehearsed this with the girls.

We were playing with it, and that's where we realized,

Oh, yeah, this is a much smaller thing,

but then I was like,

Can you do three minutes of them just looking at each other

or do I need to as a filmmaker

and using these tools move them around?

We started doing that.

We have a little couple moves, but really nothing.

We realized there's nothing there.

Then I didn't call cut on the rehearsal,

and I just let them be present

'cause they'll just continue the scene,

even if they have to make up lines,

so they finish For Good.

And I watch them go, and I'm just watching them.

And she puts her in the closet before the melting.

They start to whisper to each other before closing the door.

And she says what you would say before saying goodbye

to someone without the song.

The reality of what the song was saying hit me so hard,

and then she had to shut the door.

And when she shut the door,

and this is a invisible door, by the way, in this rehearsal.

them shutting the door

and them standing on either side of the door

was just devastating to me.

And again, this is just a rehearsal.

And I just kept letting it play out,

until she melted in all the things.

And then I called cut, and we're all in tears.

And we're like, What the hell just happened?

It was this moment at the door that I knew.

It was like, People don't know this is gonna happen.

It's going to rip your heart out!

That moment happened in a rehearsal

just because they kept going and didn't say,

Okay, that's the end of the scene.

You could prepare all you want, and you get on the day,

and then you trust your instincts.

Trusting your instincts means every single person

on that set is looking at you like you're an idiot.

Trusting your instincts mean you say,

Okay, we're gonna go down the hallway,

and everyone groans.

This guy don't have to go down the hallway.

We could just shoot it right here.

The producer is whispering to the guy,

[whispers] How do we get him to do that thing?

It's the writer saying,

I don't think you understand the scene.

It's the actors being like, I wouldn't do that.

And hopefully,

you have somebody that you're in on this with,

hopefully as an actor, and you're like,

Listen, they're not gonna get that, but I see it.

You just do it!

To me, I love that.

How do we cheat time

and resources to just squeeze in

that thing we would've got if we were a student,

and the police were coming,

and we had to get that one last shot.

To me, it's the energy of why make movies,

but it is not easy, even for me to this day.

[bright chiming music]

All great musicals are digging at the truth,

are both a mirror to where we are,

but also a reveal to who do you want become?

And now, as a father of five, I often think about,

How do I adjust the story for my children

so they're a little bit better equipped

for the world they're about to walk into?

And yet,

they don't lose the optimism

and the love of life that engine me as a child

when going to see a show;

thinking about the possibilities

and how to reach far if my movies can do that.

If movie musicals can do that, both via satire,

subversive, and entertain all in one, what do they call it?

A spoonful of sugar.

[Interviewer] Would you like to thank your mom?

Yeah!

I had to hide my mom over there

'cause she was getting in the shot here.

Mom, are you there, are you still awake?

[Jon laughing] [group crosstalk]

Come over here.

Come sit, come sit right next to me!

Mom, we're at the Curran Theater.

I don't know if you've been back in this theater since then,

so I just want to thank you for taking me

to see Wicked before anyone else really saw it

because it's changed my life.

And thank you for always taking me to shows,

and believing that we deserved to see shows,

and we deserved to be in an environment

where lots of kids weren't necessarily [giggles] always at.

And thanks, I love you.

[bright chiming music]

That's my mom. [bright chiming music]