You seem to do that in your films too: tie up loose ends, offer the audience a satisfying ending. Should we expect the same from… Wicked?
I’ve been thinking a lot about what Wizard of Oz It’s the American fairy tale, following the yellow brick road. There is someone who will grant you what you want in the end, but you have to prove yourself. And yet, well-contained stories don’t really exist. Life just goes on. In my current work, I’m trying to almost dissect the idea of happy endings. Especially with Wicked, Elphaba talks about how uncomfortable change is for a place like Oz, and about happiness. Sometimes the anger that Elphaba brings—the frustration, the sadness—is necessary for new things to emerge. Expressing how others have hurt us and how we may have hurt others is the only way to get through it. For all of us on set, it was a very personal thing. Elphaba says, “Something has changed inside me. Something is not the same.” Those words are what made me realize that I have to make this movie now. The first part is the choice to stand up, and the second part is what happens when you stand up. It gets a lot more complicated.
(As Chu and I talk, his mother appears in the banquet hall to kiss her son on the forehead. She is a lithe, slender woman with short, gray hair. Chu says, “Hello, “Mom! I love you.” He turns to me and says, “It won’t go away now. When you kiss your kids, they don’t go away.” I choke up. Chu tells his mother, “We’re in the middle of a meeting. I was trying to concentrate here.” She brushes off his concern and leaves as quickly as she came.)
I love that she came to give you a kiss.
He didn’t fix my hair. That’s fine. He didn’t even say I’m fat.
I know, right? For Asian relatives, we are always fat, even if we are not. Are you a good cook?
No, I’m terrible.
But you grew up in a restaurant.
When people cook for you, when are you going to learn how to cook? Although, when I cook, I think I could be good if I focused. I tell my wife, “I think I’m on to something.” She says, “No.” I definitely love setting the table and having people over and then bringing out each dish and talking about it. But no, I’m not a good cook.
Food is like a character in your movies. The street market scene in Crazy, Rich, Wealthy Asians It made me want to go to Singapore. Of course, I love your dance numbers, especially the choreography in In the heights. The scene where they’re dancing along the side of the building, I mean, come on.
I learned to tap dance, but I’m not a great dancer. You’d never look at me and say, “That guy should still be doing that!” No, but I was friends with great dancers. I know what they’re trying to say. If a B-boy starts dancing and starts spinning, don’t do it with him. Let him carry the beat. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a concept, but a lot of times he’ll be driven by the dance.