Speaker 1: H m hm. You're listening to playback a Variety I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio podcast. I'm your host, Variety Awards Editor Chris Hapley.
Speaker 1: This week we have director John M. Chow here to
Speaker 1: talk about his new film, his historic new film, in Fact,
Speaker 1: Crazy Rich Asians. We talked about what the release of
Speaker 1: the first Hollywood film in twenty five years centered on
Speaker 1: the Asian American experience means, and a whole lot more.
Speaker 1: So Sit tight. This is playback, right, are you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good. I like this recorded. Thank you. It's
Speaker 1: not mine, but I wish it was good. Might buy one.
Speaker 1: I've used it in the past. I've been traveling. Yes,
Speaker 1: where you get from? I just got back from Sam Francisco.
Speaker 1: We were in Seattle. I I don't I got married
Speaker 1: one week ago, so congratulations, thank you. In Napa oh
Speaker 1: so lovely. Yeah, I was really really nice. We saw
Speaker 1: it last night. Was the first time we were like
Speaker 1: together since the wedding. It's been spending my whole time here.
Speaker 1: It's got to be high pressure at a film, a
Speaker 1: wedding like what you film in this movie and then
Speaker 1: go off and happen completely. My mom was like, why
Speaker 1: did you give all your ideas away. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I got more ideas, don't learn. We had at just
Speaker 1: on our wedding, we had a forty piece vocal choir,
Speaker 1: all ages girls, ages eight to sixteen. They were beautiful.
Speaker 1: They wrote like they had this amazing so they did. Uh. Yeah.
Speaker 1: We had this amazing um African American singer from Hawaii
Speaker 1: that we met um when we were there, who was
Speaker 1: just performing, who was busting on the side of the street,
Speaker 1: and we loved his voice, so he did he wrote
Speaker 1: a song for us for our first song, um wed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we did that. There's a lot of music. I thought
Speaker 1: it was a lot of fun. There must be. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're big dance fan. I've had all my friends and
Speaker 1: dancers and they did some great I could be a
Speaker 1: surprise performance for her. And then she did a surprise
Speaker 1: performance for me. Uh and she did the robot which
Speaker 1: was really fun. And she's super shy in that way,
Speaker 1: so for her to do that meant a lot awesome.
Speaker 1: It's fun. You get back there alright, check a couple more. O.
Speaker 1: This is like the slickest like it. Yeah, I really
Speaker 1: like this. She come into the studio and we've got uh,
Speaker 1: we've got an actual podcast studio and again variety up
Speaker 1: the street. Thank you, man, sweet, we're already going cool,
Speaker 1: all right, man in okay, everybody, I'm here with John M. Chew,
Speaker 1: the director of Crazy Rich Asian, which is about to
Speaker 1: make a whole lot of money. I'm gonna go ahead
Speaker 1: and put that out. Thank you, we hope, we hope.
Speaker 1: Thanks for doing my show. I really appreciate. Uh. This
Speaker 1: is a highly significant film and I'll get to all
Speaker 1: of that in just a moment, but before I do,
Speaker 1: let's just sort of set the table this This is
Speaker 1: based on Kevin Kuwan's book about a you know, young
Speaker 1: Asian American woman who it's kind of like meet the
Speaker 1: parents in Singapore. I guess let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1: We should probably cringe if you've ever I mean people
Speaker 1: put it that way, yeah, a little bit. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a very simple idea of an Asian American bringing
Speaker 1: being brought to a wedding in Singapore for a boyfriend.
Speaker 1: She doesn't realize he is from the wealthiest family of Singapore,
Speaker 1: so all his exes and socialites are after her. So
Speaker 1: it's a fun romp, but at the same time has
Speaker 1: like a strong message in the middle of it. So
Speaker 1: we'll tell me first, what was your first brush with
Speaker 1: this book. My I got an email from my sister saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you got to read this book. Then I got one
Speaker 1: from like my cousin, then my mother, who I didn't
Speaker 1: even know would read books. Though it was like exactly
Speaker 1: the movie uh and uh. And so I was shooting
Speaker 1: another movie at the time, and so I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll get to it. And I read it on over
Speaker 1: a weekend and I couldn't put it down. I loved it,
Speaker 1: but again, I didn't think of it as a movie
Speaker 1: yet because I just wasn't in that I was in
Speaker 1: the middle of a movie. It wasn't only a couple
Speaker 1: of years later that my sister emailed me again and
Speaker 1: was like, hey, why aren't you making this movie again?
Speaker 1: This seems like perfect for you. And I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I forgot about that book. And so I reached out
Speaker 1: to my agent and he said, he's like, oh, Nina
Speaker 1: Jacobs was producing, and I'll send you the script. I
Speaker 1: read the script. I loved it, and I said I
Speaker 1: need to make this movie. And he said, how did
Speaker 1: you know they sent it to you on Friday? It's like,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? He's like you you asked
Speaker 1: me the same day that they sent it to you
Speaker 1: to consider, and that was that's when I knew, like
Speaker 1: the universe is saying, I've got to make this movie.
Speaker 1: So you said when you first read it, you weren't
Speaker 1: thinking about it in terms of the movie. That kind
Speaker 1: of makes me wonder. So when you read books or
Speaker 1: anything in general, do you not see cinema? Oh no,
Speaker 1: of course no. I I read it for the medium
Speaker 1: that's in so I can enjoy it. Um, it's just
Speaker 1: when you're making a movie. Um, it's hard to think
Speaker 1: of their movies. Um I I and they're more of
Speaker 1: escapes to get my brain off of my own movie
Speaker 1: at the time, and so I was just literally in
Speaker 1: my head. But at the same time, I also probably
Speaker 1: was held back by the idea that a movie like
Speaker 1: this isn't an obvious thing for a studio at that time,
Speaker 1: especially uh so, uh so my own brain sort of
Speaker 1: trapped me. Whenever you looked at the script and was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make this. What were some of those visual
Speaker 1: ideas that started to bubble up? Um? I just love
Speaker 1: the idea of an Asian American going to Asia for
Speaker 1: the first time. I mean, they have a lot of
Speaker 1: characters in the book, but but Rachel Chew in particular,
Speaker 1: she's from Cupertino, which is where I'm from, where my
Speaker 1: family is from. Um, there's a lot of references for
Speaker 1: things that I recognized in my own life, and I
Speaker 1: knew that it was a really fun way. It's almost
Speaker 1: Alice in Wonderland type story of her going to this
Speaker 1: crazy place, uh and finding herself by going through this adventure.
Speaker 1: So I think that was what got me. The rich stuff.
Speaker 1: Of course, all the brand stuff was like fun, but
Speaker 1: I don't that doesn't necessarily communicate story to me. Um.
Speaker 1: It was really um knowing that in that world we
Speaker 1: could tell a great story. UM, and we could root
Speaker 1: for this love this couple. Uh, it was really what
Speaker 1: got me. Yeah, this is the first Hollywood film and
Speaker 1: twenty years to be centered on the Asian American experience,
Speaker 1: which you know, even at a time when like underrepresented
Speaker 1: communities are crushing these these kind of stats, that's still
Speaker 1: a staggering one. It's it's nuts, Um, it's been Um.
Speaker 1: It's crazy to think in eighteen that that that that
Speaker 1: that we're still here. Um. But here we are, so
Speaker 1: we've got to change things. And and you know who
Speaker 1: knows the reasons. I've been around for ten years. So
Speaker 1: I'm proud of the problem. And that's what I realized
Speaker 1: of reading the Twitter feed and reading all the stuff.
Speaker 1: I realized that, Um. I realized that if anything was
Speaker 1: going to change, UM, we had to do it on
Speaker 1: the ground. And I was here, and so, uh, that's
Speaker 1: that's that was just a literally a decision I had
Speaker 1: to make in my own life. And I was getting
Speaker 1: older and I realized what else am I contributing to
Speaker 1: the cinema, a medium that I love so much? Like
Speaker 1: what am I actually bringing new to this world? And
Speaker 1: I knew my specific story, um, and if it helped
Speaker 1: a couple of people was worth pursuing. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: great that you put it on your shoulders like that
Speaker 1: and say that that you're part of the problem. But nevertheless,
Speaker 1: like I mean, what's what was your experience like breaking
Speaker 1: your own barriers in this industry? I mean it's it was,
Speaker 1: I mean, like anything in this world, like you sort
Speaker 1: of My parents always taught me, you know, they came
Speaker 1: over from China Taiwan with not knowing a word of English,
Speaker 1: and they said people are going to treat you certain ways.
Speaker 1: Don't spend your energy, um thinking about it. You focused
Speaker 1: on your own journey, proved to them that you're better
Speaker 1: than what they think. So that's the way my philosophy
Speaker 1: always was. Um. Coming to Hollywood, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be the Asian director. I wanted to be Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be Tim Burton. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: all these people I looked up to. And so you
Speaker 1: get self conscious about your own cultural identity um, and
Speaker 1: you feel like maybe it's something you're supposed to hide
Speaker 1: to mix in and UM. And I was in those
Speaker 1: rooms when they give you the stats of oh, there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of Asian actors. Oh, you can't cast
Speaker 1: someone like that because the rest of the world's not
Speaker 1: going to care. Um, and you don't and you and
Speaker 1: because you think the adults know what they're talking about,
Speaker 1: you don't say anything. It wasn't until I'm getting old,
Speaker 1: uh and having a baby that I realized and that
Speaker 1: I'm actually not lucky to be here. I earned my
Speaker 1: right to be here, and I should if I'm going
Speaker 1: to contribute anything to this is is stuff that I
Speaker 1: should that it is unique to my story. Um. So
Speaker 1: it's been a long journey, but it was more of
Speaker 1: again a sort of self worth, um journey for myself
Speaker 1: and knowing that as an artist you have to uh,
Speaker 1: you have to say something you have you got, you
Speaker 1: gotta go out there and it's fun to make fun movies,
Speaker 1: but at a certain point, um, for if you want
Speaker 1: to leave something for your kids to to stand on
Speaker 1: and to be proud of, you've got to put yourself
Speaker 1: out there too. A fascinating element of this too is
Speaker 1: just getting the industry to understand because I saw this film,
Speaker 1: I was like the only white guy it was. It
Speaker 1: was a fully Asian Asian American audience and they were
Speaker 1: clearly having the time of their lives. And it's the
Speaker 1: kind of excitement that we were feeling around like Black
Speaker 1: Panther earlier this year. And it comes a point where
Speaker 1: it's just like there's there's obviously a hungry demographic ready
Speaker 1: to buy the ship out of these movie tickets, to
Speaker 1: say the least, And so at what point is it
Speaker 1: just like, look, this is good business. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: what we're trying to prove, is like Black Panther proved
Speaker 1: there's a huge business for this, and I think also
Speaker 1: cinema depends on these kind of new ways, new perspectives. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, you can only tell the same story from
Speaker 1: the same perspective so many times. And now we're at
Speaker 1: a point where like, if we're going to have just
Speaker 1: superhero stories, that's fine, But like movies were always meant
Speaker 1: to be a place, um to see stories you couldn't
Speaker 1: experience in any other way. It was an event in
Speaker 1: itself to go see it on the big screen, to
Speaker 1: sit down in a dark room and say, tell us
Speaker 1: a story and um. And and with the access to
Speaker 1: people editing, to filmmakers, writers at our that are telling
Speaker 1: their stories in their own ways, to be able to
Speaker 1: bring that to cinema, to refresh cinema and not just
Speaker 1: be an old and antiquity UM, I think is vital
Speaker 1: for this business. Is actually a necessity. And I think
Speaker 1: studios are waking up to that idea and they just
Speaker 1: have to find the right stories and that people have.
Speaker 1: And on our side, young filmmakers, writers, old filmmakers who
Speaker 1: haven't had their stories told need to be writing and
Speaker 1: going out there and know that this is a new
Speaker 1: day and that all the walls that we have built
Speaker 1: for ourselves, um, don't have to exist anymore. And that's
Speaker 1: also goes for below the line. I should think, yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely underrepresented voices across the spectrum, right uh. And it's
Speaker 1: important to have representation below the line, above the line,
Speaker 1: behind the camera, in front of the camera, because conversations
Speaker 1: of representation, um are where you get the result, the
Speaker 1: good results. I'm not I don't know everything. UM, I
Speaker 1: can't represent everything. But when I have a discussion with
Speaker 1: constants WU about a certain line in the movie that
Speaker 1: she feels is offensive and I feel like it's just
Speaker 1: a joke, we get to have a healthy discussion and
Speaker 1: guess what, we get to make a decision together on
Speaker 1: how we approach it, um, instead of just letting it
Speaker 1: slide by and letting an audience discover it and then
Speaker 1: having and then changing away. People think because of that,
Speaker 1: so uh, that conversation is becoming more and more apparent
Speaker 1: that is a necessity in movies. How do you think
Speaker 1: that translates to something on the ground action oriented? Speak
Speaker 1: for yourself, Like you know, just back in April, you
Speaker 1: said this is a movie, not a movie, It's a
Speaker 1: movement not a movie. By the way April Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: has not been shy about showing that anybody clue that
Speaker 1: they think they've got something on their hands. But you know,
Speaker 1: just talk to me about that, like, is there anything
Speaker 1: any initiatives that you're very interested in or passionate about
Speaker 1: our ideas that you have as far as making this
Speaker 1: happen on the ground. Um, yeah, it's any way to
Speaker 1: help young filmmakers who are coming into the business. Um
Speaker 1: that I watched these YouTubers and they're so talented, Wong
Speaker 1: Food and Ryan he Got, and they're creating things, um,
Speaker 1: from the ground up without anybody. This is where I started.
Speaker 1: I loved making videos as a kid and and creating
Speaker 1: this is and um, there hasn't been a structure a
Speaker 1: system for them to then take their ideas and take
Speaker 1: it to the next level and bring it to the cinema.
Speaker 1: So I hope that whenever way I can help bring
Speaker 1: that or open that door, give them the opportunity, or
Speaker 1: make studio people see that there is an opportunity. There's
Speaker 1: an audience that is sitting there waiting for these things.
Speaker 1: That's what I hope that comes out of this UM.
Speaker 1: And again, not just Asian people of all of all
Speaker 1: walks of life, of anybody who has a story that
Speaker 1: we have not heard before, UM, that is unique to
Speaker 1: a world or a place, um, of all ethnicities. I
Speaker 1: think it is so exciting because cinema needs it. And
Speaker 1: then let me also just ask you, uh, you know
Speaker 1: that comments about having a conversation with constants about something
Speaker 1: she might find offensive. That's interesting the movie has or
Speaker 1: maybe the book itself. I don't know if it's just
Speaker 1: the movie, but there's been criticism about a lack of
Speaker 1: like South or Southeast Asian representation in the film. I mean,
Speaker 1: how did you respond to that? Um, one, It's a
Speaker 1: great conversation to have. What a pleasure to have it
Speaker 1: that we can actually have a conversation of um when
Speaker 1: you have a character and a cast full of Asian actors. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, this is a very specific book. Again, what's
Speaker 1: a shame is that one movie is expected to represent
Speaker 1: every single culture in the Asian and that, to me,
Speaker 1: that's an unreal realistic idea. And and we're basing it
Speaker 1: off a book that has very specific character with very
Speaker 1: specific backgrounds and ideas. So to shove in a character
Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with what the book was
Speaker 1: actually uh talking about well one we don't even have
Speaker 1: the room for it to Uh, this is one story
Speaker 1: and and and that's why I call it it's bigger
Speaker 1: than this movie. That the movement is what we're trying
Speaker 1: to point to. I think Bruce lee'say is, you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm pointing to the moon, don't focus on my finger,
Speaker 1: because you'll miss the beauty and elegance of the of
Speaker 1: the moon itself. Um. We are we are human beings
Speaker 1: making movies to tell stories, to pass on a message,
Speaker 1: a truthful message, we hope, And but we can't be
Speaker 1: the only ones. Truth comes in so many different perspectives
Speaker 1: and ways, and we need those other people to speak up.
Speaker 1: So hopefully this cracks that door a little bit, um
Speaker 1: because through that, through those cracks, comes the light. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And really that just speaks to the underrepresentation for years,
Speaker 1: it has gone on in the hunger that exists as
Speaker 1: a result that when finally something cracks through, everyone's looking
Speaker 1: forward to represent them as well. So I just need more, exactly,
Speaker 1: we just need more and then and and and I
Speaker 1: don't blame anybody for that. I don't blame it for
Speaker 1: the pressure. Uh, that's just where we are? You mentioned Spielberg,
Speaker 1: Tim Burton. I want to circle back, just your inspirations
Speaker 1: coming up and you went to film school right yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to USC right down the street. Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you did for grad school? Okay? Get I Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I loved it there. Um didn't have any connections in
Speaker 1: the business. Did a lot of short films. I got
Speaker 1: a film I got a little little attention of five
Speaker 1: minutes short there called Silent Beats, still online. And then
Speaker 1: I did another store with a musical. Um that got
Speaker 1: UM Steven Spielberg's attention, and that got me into the business.
Speaker 1: Um really so so when you were coming up, when
Speaker 1: you were a kid and you were interested in movies,
Speaker 1: like what what drew your eye? Um? I loved the
Speaker 1: event of going to the theater. I remember when Batman
Speaker 1: was coming out and you got the soundtrack, and you
Speaker 1: got the toys, and you got the happy Meal, and
Speaker 1: you went to the theater and it was like for
Speaker 1: three days straight you went to the movie there to
Speaker 1: watch it over and over again, and then you got
Speaker 1: to go home and create your own stories and you
Speaker 1: listen to the music and you dancer. And there's to
Speaker 1: me that that event that changed my life. It made
Speaker 1: me so excited about stories and made me feel powerful
Speaker 1: in a weird way. Um. I remember going to see
Speaker 1: Joy Luck Club. My dad dragged us into a minivan
Speaker 1: on a Sunday morning, the earliest showing UH and then
Speaker 1: we laughed and we cried. I was young too, and
Speaker 1: to be able to then go to dim Sum for
Speaker 1: four hours and talk about, Oh, that's just like what
Speaker 1: Auntie says, that's what like just like what our uncle says.
Speaker 1: Like all those things, UH stays with you for a
Speaker 1: long time. So movies have always been a big part
Speaker 1: of our family. And knowing that the power of movies. Also,
Speaker 1: when I edited stuff by myself at first VHS t VHS,
Speaker 1: it gave me a voice something that I felt like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is this is what I can do. I wasn't
Speaker 1: the best musician, but I played a lot of music.
Speaker 1: I wasn't the best dancer, but I loved to be
Speaker 1: around dancers. I wasn't the best film or but I
Speaker 1: love to shoot stuff. And but when I edited all
Speaker 1: together I had I could I could see how they
Speaker 1: all connected, and that gave me a tool to actually speak. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned Batman. I felt the same way, honestly,
Speaker 1: Like I always call that my secle Be Demel moment
Speaker 1: when suddenly movies were like a huge marketing machine and
Speaker 1: like it was like it was everywhere, Like you couldn't
Speaker 1: have escaped the logo. You felt like it was just
Speaker 1: like and there's movies that were shut in Manhattan. I
Speaker 1: think one of the front of the third movies that
Speaker 1: Big Batman posters in the middle of time School. It's
Speaker 1: so awesome and and and and to say that the
Speaker 1: marketing is part of the storytelling itself, that it's not
Speaker 1: just a cynical just to get to get your money,
Speaker 1: like that was part of the events. Is to us
Speaker 1: to dress up and and hang out with your friends
Speaker 1: and talk about and dream about it. I think that
Speaker 1: that's the power of movies. I think Warner Brothers like
Speaker 1: this podcast even more now. I didn't even think about
Speaker 1: that was a Warner Brothers thing. Um. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you something sort of out of the blue here,
Speaker 1: giving your work on the Bieber films and the Step
Speaker 1: Up franchise, Like I'm always thinking about the concert film
Speaker 1: as a construct, as a thing and just room to innovate.
Speaker 1: What do you think about that like, where can we
Speaker 1: go with concert cinema? Absolutely? I mean I was not
Speaker 1: even a huge concert cinema fan when I started with Justin.
Speaker 1: I told them from the beginning, like, I don't want
Speaker 1: to just do a concert movie because I don't really
Speaker 1: even know who just and Bieber is at the time. Um,
Speaker 1: I was like, But what I found interesting was when
Speaker 1: he posted his first video, I could go back and
Speaker 1: there was a digital fingerprint of his mom writing test
Speaker 1: test test that his neighbor or his grandma being like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is cute, and then his his grandma's neighbor being like,
Speaker 1: oh should I can I send this to my friends?
Speaker 1: And then you just see it. You literally watch him
Speaker 1: grow and change, and I thought there was a really
Speaker 1: interesting piece of evidence that we had to experience his
Speaker 1: growth in real time as it happened, and not to
Speaker 1: make it just about a concert, but to tell his
Speaker 1: story of how he became who he was, which was
Speaker 1: the first time ever was the audience chose him to
Speaker 1: be their start, not some corporation, and that the music,
Speaker 1: even though maybe it was packaged sort of pop music,
Speaker 1: re contextualized, can tell a beautiful story of of this
Speaker 1: growth from from a boy to a star um and
Speaker 1: his family around him, both blood and not. UM. So
Speaker 1: I loved that idea of going into that movie. UM
Speaker 1: and I think music is such a beautiful way to
Speaker 1: tell story and so um anyway to innovate. And and
Speaker 1: there's one thing where you just go to experience a concert,
Speaker 1: there's another thing of communicating to anyone who's watching that movie,
Speaker 1: whether they're a fan of that artist or not, that
Speaker 1: this is how it makes you feel. This is what
Speaker 1: you think about when you hear this song. This is
Speaker 1: what the story that this artist is giving you when
Speaker 1: you hear this. I think that's that's has a lot
Speaker 1: of room to innovate in the concert movies, for sure.
Speaker 1: Are you you think you're gonna get back into that?
Speaker 1: I would love to do more, for sure. Sure. Listen
Speaker 1: up bands. Uh and I also wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: the Thai Cave rescue, the big herrowing event we've just
Speaker 1: kind of witnessed. You're planning to to work on something
Speaker 1: based on that, So what do you talk to me
Speaker 1: about that? What? What story obviously beyond the obvious do
Speaker 1: you want to tell their? Yeah, well, we're very early stages.
Speaker 1: I'm in my listening phase. So I'm listening to a
Speaker 1: lot of to two different stories and different things, and
Speaker 1: and how to approach at the same time. Um, maybe
Speaker 1: it's not me directing. Maybe it's not me me anything
Speaker 1: to do with I don't know. I wanted to send
Speaker 1: a message to anyone who is thinking about making this
Speaker 1: movie with an agenda that they better do it right,
Speaker 1: that there's an important history that we want to make
Speaker 1: sure it's fair. I don't every artist has the right
Speaker 1: to do whatever perspective they want on anything. I never
Speaker 1: want to encroach on an artist's point of view. However,
Speaker 1: I just want them to know that we're here now
Speaker 1: and we want to make sure that if you're telling
Speaker 1: this story, you tell it fairly, uh fairly, and and
Speaker 1: and if I'm the person to help do that, then
Speaker 1: so be it. If I'm the justice steward to help
Speaker 1: connect the right dots between the Thai filmmaker, tie writers
Speaker 1: and the story, then so be it. Um. I was
Speaker 1: very defensive about in a way, about these families who
Speaker 1: may be signing up for a Hollywood thing that wasn't
Speaker 1: really a Hollywood thing. And and after doing Crazy Chase,
Speaker 1: and I realized the power and responsibility that we as
Speaker 1: artists in Hollywood have that, um, that we can actually
Speaker 1: make a statement and have impact. Um and uh and
Speaker 1: so we're in that phase is very early, but we're
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm listening a lot beyond that. What do
Speaker 1: you do You have any idea what's next for you?
Speaker 1: Or is that just the worst question I asked, No, No,
Speaker 1: I'm prepping on In the Heights, which is litt Manuel
Speaker 1: Miranda's musical that we shooting in New York next year.
Speaker 1: So I'm prepping that. I'm doing I'm shooting a couple
Speaker 1: episodes of a of an Apple series that we just
Speaker 1: sold to them, So that would be really fun. Um
Speaker 1: in the next several months. Um n's Amazon. Who knows,
Speaker 1: you never know. He's got to ask me and then
Speaker 1: we'll see. I would love to of course, of course,
Speaker 1: So Kevin, you have my number indeed regarding In the Heights,
Speaker 1: So what are some ideas there to bring it off
Speaker 1: the stage and and and make it cinematic. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a challenge. It's a challenge. It's a really hard
Speaker 1: one to convert into a movie, and we've worked years
Speaker 1: on finding the right way in We have found something
Speaker 1: I can't tell you yet, but it's really great. And
Speaker 1: when the immigrants story is under attack, UM, and you
Speaker 1: want to tell all what it means to be an
Speaker 1: immigrant in this country and how much how great this
Speaker 1: country really is because of it. UM. This story from
Speaker 1: the stage show UM has has has always been a
Speaker 1: celebration of community, and so I'm excited to share that.
Speaker 1: It's not political, that's not all that stuff. It is
Speaker 1: a celebration of life and joy and family and an
Speaker 1: all Latino cast, which is also very rare. So to
Speaker 1: be able to do that, UM on that level with
Speaker 1: the master himself, Linn Manuel Miranda, Uh, something I couldn't,
Speaker 1: could never pass up. So we have some we have
Speaker 1: some big plans for it. If you could bottle that
Speaker 1: guy's positivity, oh my gosh, husiasm and sell it. Yes,
Speaker 1: I want him on my left and I want the
Speaker 1: rock on my right in your life would just be awesome.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, your social media would be off the hook. Well.
Speaker 1: The movie is called Crazy Rich Asians. It opens August fifteen. Uh,
Speaker 1: please go see it. I'm sure you will because it's
Speaker 1: going to be drawing you there. It's one of those
Speaker 1: movies that I think people will be hungry for at
Speaker 1: the end of the summer, so congratulations and congrats on
Speaker 1: your recent nuptials. Appreciate it. One week ago, so this
Speaker 1: is my honeymoon. His honeymoon is promoting the movie with me.
Speaker 1: Go check it out, and John too. Thank you for
Speaker 1: doing it show. I really appreciate it. Thank you.