If there’s anyone who understands the importance of viral marketing, it’s Wicked: For Good director Jon M. Chu.
At WIRED’s Big Interview event in San Francisco, the onetime YouTuber and Crazy Rich Asians director said that working with acts like Justin Bieber taught him the value of connecting with fans online during the creation process. While directing Bieber’s concert film, Never Say Never, in the late aughts, Chu said the then-14-year-old star used Twitter to introduce him to fans. After Bieber posted a clip joking that the director was following him around on set, Chu told WIRED’s senior editor of culture, Manisha Krishnan, that he began to watch his online followers grow by tens of thousands of people almost instantly, something that really drove home the power of direct connection with a fanbase.
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Working with Bieber, Chu said, made him realize that “the story is being told before you even start shooting, and after you’re done with the movie, you have to continue that story.” That’s why he believes fans have felt so invested in Wicked—and its sequel, Wicked: For Good—and why the movie’s marketing and press tours have leaned so heavily on the relationships built by the cast while filming.
Bonds, like the one between stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, came from the immense pressure the crew felt to make something not only great, but also bankable. “We only had each other so we’re very, very bonded,” Chu said, likening the relationship to that of Silicon Valley developers working long hours together to deliver a new product.
A Bay Area native, Chu said he’s always felt partially indebted to the tech world for his start in entertainment. In the ‘90s, when Chu was just a teenager, tech-minded customers at his parents’ Chinese restaurant would slip him computers, video cards, and software when they heard he was interested in filmmaking, giving him a leg up on fellow students when he went to college at the University of Southern California. “I was built by the generosity of this place, and I feel a great responsibility when I’m back,” Chu said.
The director also said that because of his longtime relationship with technology, he’s somewhat open-minded when it comes to the interplay between AI and filmmaking. The director is “fascinated” by AI’s potential for information gathering and organization, and has put work into learning how to use AI in his own process because he wants to understand its potential.
On the flip side, Chu said, when making Wicked, he felt there was value in having practical sets and being able to improvise, rather than having to write every bit of dialogue, camera motion, or characterization in advance.
If Wicked had simply gone from storyboard to screen and the film’s stakeholders hadn’t been able to pivot and go where the work and their processes were taking them, Chu said, then fans wouldn’t have gotten the best product or now iconic moments, like when Elphaba (Erivo) winks at the camera while putting her witchy cape on in the first film. Chu said if he’d written that wink into the script before the scene was shot, it would have felt rote and hacky, but when Erivo did it spontaneously during a take, it felt perfect.
“Since she did it in the moment, it becomes an image that lasts forever, and that’s what makes cinema and art beautiful,” Chu said.
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