Jon M. Chu says Crazy Rich Asians was the moment he started learning how to tell his story. Nearly 20 years after his directorial debut, Chu reflected last month at a Canva Create panel at SoFi Stadium on the imposter syndrome that has shadowed his career and the way the 2018 film changed it.
He said he once did not think he deserved to be in Hollywood and often asked, “Why am I the person to tell the story?” Looking back on Crazy Rich Asians, he called it “a big point in my life” and said, “I was discovered and I got very lucky.”
Chu said the feeling was familiar: “When you win the lottery, you think you actually don’t know how you got there.” That uncertainty, he said, forced him to adapt. “I had to learn how to win in a different way or how to tell my story,” he said.
He added that he did not think anyone would see Crazy Rich Asians and told his team, “I’m going to make a movie. I’m going to take five years and I’m not going to make you any money.” But he said they were fine with the plan, and they understood that audiences, whether Asian or not, would respond to the family meals, conversations, self-mockery and mix of walks of life in the film.
The comments frame Crazy Rich Asians as the career milestone Chu associates with moving past self-doubt and into a clearer sense of authorship. Following Wicked in 2024 and Wicked: For Good in 2025, he is set to direct a Hot Wheels movie and an adaptation of Oh, the Places You’ll Go! with Jill Culton.