Jon M. Chu talks directing ‘Wicked,’ fatherhood, Palo Alto roots

Filmmaker Jon M. Chu played essential roles in delivering not one but two bundles of joy this month.

The first arrived Nov. 9 when the Palo Alto-born filmmaker and his wife Kristin Hodge welcomed daughter Stevie Sky into their enchanted kingdom; they now have five children.

The happy event coincided with the glitzy Los Angeles premiere of one of the biggest films of 2024, Chu’s new cinematic version of the beloved Broadway chestnut, “Wicked.”

When asked if welcoming a new daughter and being director of one of the holiday’s biggest movies means he’s not getting much sleep right now, the affable Chu jokes back.

“I haven’t had sleep for like three years,” he said. “My wife’s an angel. So life is full right now and my heart is full. So it’s only all blessings.”

Chu’s Part 1 of “Wicked” (Part II is slated for a November 2025 release) runs as long as the entire stage production but doesn’t seem like it and boasts an eclectic cast that includes Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, the ostracized Wicked Witch of the West in the making, and pop star Ariana Grande as goody two-shoes Glinda (or Ga-linda, as she’s quick to point out). The two irk each other as odd-couple roommates at Shiz University’s women’s college, Crage Hall. It’s overseen by headmistress Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). “Bridgerton” heartthrob Jonathan Bailey also co-stars as the dashing prince Fiyero Tigelaar who catches the fancy of both.

Chu helmed 2018’s phenomenally successful “Crazy Rich Asians” and, later, the peppy musical “In the Heights.” The latter, released in the aftermath of COVID-19, failed to ignite the hoped-for box-office traffic. “Wicked” experienced turbulence in its own flight to the screen when the writer’s strike halted production right before filming of the show-stopping number “Defying Gravity,” which concludes this film. Erivo sat with that song for six months and then belted it out, Chu said.

Chu has always adored musicals and fell in love with “Wicked” during its 2003 world premiere run at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre. The 45-year-old fondly remembers coming to San Francisco with his family to see ballet, opera and various musicals productions. Chu’s parents are beloved South Bay icons: Lawrence and Ruth Chu and run the famous Chef Chu’s restaurant in Los Altos.

With “Wicked,” Chu was swept away from the very start.

“I feel very lucky to have the most pure patient-zero experience,” he recalls. “I knew nothing about what I was about to watch, but I remember very specifically when it blew me away, when I was intrigued by the bubble, when the little nods to the (‘Wizard of Oz’) movie really connected with me.”

For that reason, it’s a bit of a mind blower for Chu, who also helmed two “Step Up” dance movies, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” “Jem and the Holograms” and more, that he’s the one directing the film version some 20 years after seeing the musical with the fam.

“It feels like destiny,” he says.

His love for musicals got nurtured while attending school in the South Bay.

“Our school (Pinewood in Los Altos) was very much into theater,” he said “I played Oliver. I was obsessed with ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ I had the pop-up book. I had the beach towel. I had the porcelain mask. I loved ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.’”

Chu’s curiosity in filmmaking came in the mid- to late-‘90s, the advent of digital video. For a 13- to 14-year-old kid the hardest part was gaining access to the equipment.

To the rescue came the generosity of the regular patrons at his parents’ restaurant.

“People came into the restaurant and gave my dad equipment for me because they knew I was into videos,” he recalls. “I was in the right place at the right moment, at the right time in a restaurant, which is essentially a house of stories, because everyone’s telling stories at all times.”

Having the camera in his hand proved to be a game changer.

“I was the youngest of five, people sort of ignore you,” he said. “But with a camera in my hands, everybody paid attention. They would let me go sit with them. Or they wanted to see what I was shooting. And looking into that lens was sort of like putting on a mask. And the way they look at you is different. I maybe got addicted to that. … It took me a little bit to understand the power of that.”

Chu recalls hearing his immigrant parents singing songs from the original 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” around the house. The American Dream “was very real in our household,” he said.

But he found himself “waking up to a different reality” once he left the Bay Area and started college. The stage musical “Wicked” brought what he was feeling to the forefront.

“Suddenly I walk into a store and they treat you differently,” he recalls. “I was sort of coming to grips with is this the way the world is? And this musical came and upended this idea of the fairy tale and said … in a very earnest way who decided what a villain should look like, who decided what a hero should look like.”

That stuck with him through the process of making the movie. One of the trickiest aspects was casting the two female leads.

Erivo wowed them with her performance, even when she first came in dressed in jeans.

Chu, though, was reticent when he heard Grande was interested.

“I was like no way. Ariana Grande can’t do this. No way.” But he agreed to see her.

“She comes in and she’s the most interesting person in the room,” he recalls. But he still wasn’t entirely convinced she was the right one for the role. During a call-back, he asked if she could “take off the Ariana Grande stuff.”

“She became totally different, and she was willing to go there,” he said. After a third audition, she got the part.

“Wicked” Part II comes out Nov. 21, 2025, but Chu isn’t kicking back till then. He’s developing a film version of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and is working on an animated musical of Dr. Seuss’ “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” And then there’s that the “Crazy Rich Asians” musical coming up, an in-development potential sequel to that massive box-office hit. And, oops, he’s also tapped to direct Britney Spears’ memoir.

All could well turn into even more bundles of entertainment joy and Chu’s thrilled about that.

“Just not more kids,” he said with a laugh.