Yahoo Lifestyle “Wicked” Director Jon M. Chu Tells Jenna Bush Hager the Story Is 'the Image of the American Dream'
"It is an examination of who gets to say what is a villain and what is a hero,” Chu said on the Nov. 27 episode of the ‘Open Book with Jenna’ podcast
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Jon M. Chu and the cover of 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by L. Frank BaumJon M. Chu wants viewers to know that Wicked is just as relevant today as when its source material came out — maybe even more so.
Speaking with Jenna Bush Hager on her podcast, Open Book with Jenna, on Nov. 27, the Wicked director said that original story, L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, holds a special place in the American canon.
“When you relook at it, it is so embedded in our culture and how we see story, how we see ourselves,” Chu said on the podcast. “L. Frank Baum always said that he wanted to be an American fairy tale with American dynamics to it, which is like self reliance, optimism and resilience.”
Related: Does the Wicked Movie Follow the Book? Barely. Here Are the Biggest Differences
Chu also noted that the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, became “a part of that fabric of what we look towards.”
“What's beyond that rainbow became the image of what the American dream talks about,” Chu said. “And so I think when we revisit that world, it's like Oz is like our old friend that we've known for so long, but never actually looked at.”
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Jon M. Chu in 2024Wicked is now in theaters, and stars Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. The film, which follows the origin stories of the witches of Oz, is also an adaptation of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, Wicked, itself based off of Baum’s novel, as well as the Broadway musical.
Chu has had a busy year — he also published his memoir, Viewfinder, this past July. The book, co-written with Jeremy McCarter, looks back on Chu’s film career, as the director of hits like Crazy Rich Asians and In the Heights, and his experience as a first-generation Chinese-American. Chu told Bush Hager that The Wizard of Oz story reminded him of his own family’s experiences.
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“It's like looking at my parents and being like, ‘Oh, you decided to leave a country to come to this country because it wasn't enough for you. You dropped everything.’ Like, that's rock star,” Chu said. “And I think when we look at something like this story, I think it is an examination of the story that we have been told. It is an examination of who gets to say what is a villain and what is a hero.”
“What is timeless about that story is that it is a pattern of humanity,” Chu added. "But what's beautiful about that pattern is we always rise through it.”
Chu begins his memoir with a quote from The Wizard of Oz film, where Glinda tells Dorothy to “just follow the yellow brick road.” Chu told PEOPLE in July that he resonated with the quote even before he was hired to direct Wicked.
"It felt like, as I'm growing up, that the yellow brick road becomes more and more false, and that maybe there isn't a wizard at the end of that cutoff, that maybe when we're at the end of the path, we actually have to do it ourselves and that we have to build our own path," he said.
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"It's not a destination — your dreams. It's a work in process. And I hope people understand that," Chu added. "Those people who are chasing their biggest dreams, just keep walking, because it's gonna be hard. It's never gonna be easy. You just keep walking. You just keep going."
