For the Director of Wicked, There’s No Place Like Silicon Valley

You seem to do that in your movies too—tie things up with a bow, give the audience a satisfying ending. Should we expect the same from Wicked?

I’ve thought a lot about what Wizard of Oz means. It’s the American fairytale, to follow the yellow brick road. There’s someone who’s going to give you your heart’s desire at the end of it, but you have to prove yourself. And yet nicely contained stories don’t actually exist. Life just keeps going. In my work now, I’m trying to almost dissect the idea of happy endings. Especially with Wicked, which is all about how uncomfortable change is for a place like Oz, which is all about being happy. Sometimes the anger that Elphaba brings—the frustration, the sadness—is necessary for new things to grow. Expressing how others have hurt us and how we may have hurt others is the only way through. It felt very personal to everybody on set. Elphaba says the words, “Something has changed within me. Something is not the same.” Those words are the thing that made me realize I have to do this movie now. Part 1 is the choice to rise, and Part 2 is what happens when you stand up. It gets way more complicated.

[As Chu and I are talking, his mother appears in the banquet hall to kiss her son on the forehead. She’s a spry, slender woman with short, gray hair. Chu says, “Hi, Mom! Love you.” She turns to me and says, “Now, he won’t disappear. When you kiss your kids, they don’t disappear.” I choke up. Chu says to his mother, “We’re in the middle of a meeting. I was trying to stay focused here.” She waves off his concern and leaves as quickly as she appeared.]

I love that she came to give you a kiss.

She didn’t fix my hair. That’s good. Or say that I’m fat.

I know, right? To Asian relatives, we’re always fat, even if we’re 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 do cook I think I could be good if I just focused. I’ll tell my wife, “I think I’m on to something.” She’s like, “No.” I definitely love setting the table and getting the people in and then bringing each dish out and talking about it. But no, I am not a good cook.

Food is like a character in your movies. The hawker market scene in Crazy Rich Asians made me want to go to Singapore. Of course, I love your dance numbers, especially the choreography in In the Heights. The scene when they dance along the side of the building, I mean, come on.

I took tap, but I’m not a great dancer. You would never see me and say, “That guy should keep doing that!” No, but I was friends with great dancers. I know what they’re trying to express. If a B-boy gets down and he starts spinning, don’t spin with him. Let him carry. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a concept, but a lot of times it’ll be driven by the dance.