Director Spotlight | Jon M. Chu

American Cinematographer: How did your love of musicals begin?

Jon M. Chu: I grew up watching them. Music was a part of my life — [I played] piano, drums, saxophone, violin. I’m not good at any of them, but my parents took me to musicals every weekend. In college, I really fell in love with the performers; I was friends with dancers and singers, and I loved being around them because they were my people. I think they’re the most beautiful artists because there’s no promise of fame or fortune, and yet they give everything in their artistry. It’s poetry in a language that speaks to me, maybe even more than dialogue. It’s poetry in motion, and I love that.

It’s hard to go back once you start making musicals. There’s so much room to innovate in that space. Dance and music have evolved, and our technology has changed in how we capture that on the big screen. I love that we get to go into a less-touched space, and play.

Were you daunted by the prospect of bringing such a beloved story to the screen?

The Wizard of Oz is one of the most American fairy tales. Those characters are iconic. Oz is a mythical place, and only a few filmmakers have gotten to play in Oz. Because the emotions of Wicked are so raw and real, I decided we’d have to break the theatrical frame, the proscenium, and get in there, too. The dirt should feel touchable, the floors scratched. Then, it was about how color plays into each world.

Shiz is a magic school, and we’ve seen a lot of those in cinema. How do you make it unique? We went to the text [The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]. L. Frank Baum said before the road, things were connected by water, so we built a waterway leading into Shiz.

We didn’t want to just take from the show, either. We used shapes and colors to mold our Oz. Munchkins aren’t about size, they’re about harvesting the joy, the honey, the colors of Oz for all. Emerald City is where you pursue dreams; it’s aspirational, and everyone’s included. Shiz is the educational place of the old that’s been infiltrated by the new, so what are the new stories and teachings?

Everything was [designed based on] what it needed to say from a character or story level. And on top, what is delightful about it? Because Oz is meant to distract you from anything real, to keep you happy. That’s what Elphaba [Cynthia Erivo] is going to break.

Was there a sequence that you found more challenging than any other?

Every sequence was difficult, but ‘Defying Gravity’ was the one where every department had to come together. Costumes had to fit the harness for Cynthia, who had to be able to sing live in that space and do those stunts. VFX had to know where clouds and the CG cape were. Everyone was fully on it the whole time. We shot that last, and I’m glad we had all gone through several ‘wars’ together to get to a point where it could all piece together and feel elegant — simple, yet so complicated in all its pieces.

Tell us how you and Alice worked with choreographer Christopher Scott on the dance sequences.

I’ll map out specifics and how we need to show passage of time and places, then Chris will take that, work with dancers, and then we’ll go back and forth. Once we get that language, we start to put pieces together. Alice and I go in, shoot [mobile] phone recordings and start to storyboard. We cut those with storyboards, then go back to Chris for changes. We keep building this moving document until costumes and production design all know what’s needed. Then on the day, of course, everything changes! But because we did the work, we can change on a dime and still get what we need.

You’ve worked with Alice Brooks, ASC since your film-school days. How did she first impress you, and how has your collaboration evolved?

At USC, she was a semester ahead, and she was the superstar, writing and shooting the 480 [thesis] project as a junior. I was doing a musical the next year and knew I needed Alice. I love people who are curious and not afraid of trying things and maybe even being wrong, and Alice and I have made a lot of mistakes together along the way. Also, there’s no ego. I’ve seen dudes try to push her around, and it doesn’t affect her. Her thing is, ‘I’m making something great. You’re either on this train or you’re not.’ I love that about her. We’re used to not having sets. I’m used to going somewhere and hearing, ‘This is what you got, go make it something.’ We’re really good at that! On this, it was, ‘You can do whatever you want. What are you going to do?’ That’s pretty darn challenging, too.

I was really proud of, for instance, designing Emerald City. When you have all the resources, you can design it any way. So the question is, what do we want the audience to experience with the girls as they walk through? We built 3D models in Unreal and did so many versions of being inside that. Alice had to think logistically of where lights can be, what time of day, what direction the whole set needs to be built — things I don’t even think about. And on the day with the dancers, it’s these long takes with hundreds of dancers, special effects [and] visual effects that have to carry through. That took all of us. Every reflection, costume color, set color, what paints they’re using on the walls — Alice is talking to the team about all of that. Her fingerprints are all over.

Did your directing process change at all on this project?

When you’re doing a movie this scale and size, you cannot control every bit of it. Rather than communicating specifics all the time, I had to learn to communicate the themes and goals of the feeling to each department. I had to repeat it more times than I ever have. What’s delightful about this? What’s lonesome about this? What’s yearning about this? I got to ask a lot more questions than give answers! It was an effective way to build a world because we had the most talented people, and it gave us all room to invest intellectually and emotionally. I’ve never really done it like that before.

This interview originally appeared in AC Jan. 2025. An excerpt from our cover story can be found here. And here’s our complete interview with Brooks from our Clubhouse Conversations series: