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Why Did Wicked Director Jon M. Chu Say 'Everything Scared' Him About Making The Film? Recalls THIS Moment As Most Intimidating
In a recent interview, Wicked director Jon M. Chu opened up about feeling “scared” while filming the movie. But filming one particular musical number was the most intimidating for him because of the pressure!
Despite having a glorious and clear vision for the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked, director Jon M. Chu was “scared” of everything about making the film. The Wizard of Oz prequel based on Gregory Maguire’s novel had been in the making for years. On December 13, Chu arrived for a screening of Wicked at Hollywood’s Linwood Dunn Theater alongside leads Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and producer Marc Platt.
“I mean, everything scared me every day,” the director admitted. He also mentioned the one scene — which was impactful for the film — was the most intimidating to film out of all and it was the beloved musical Defying Gravity.
Chu admitted that filming that musical “scared the s—” out of him. He was concerned about how Erivo as Elphaba would fly and feel the lyrics to the song which screenwriter Winnie Holzman “brilliantly” put together around 20 years ago. Despite the intense pressure, he had to let that fade away to focus on the scene. “These things haunted us, but there [was] a certain point where we say worry is a misuse of imagination that we couldn't worry at a certain point,” he explained.
“We knew it was in our hearts,” Chu added. Moreover, the cast and crew being a fan of the musical who awaited to witness the creation of the song for all these years, added extra pressure on the director.
Continuing to talk about the crew, Chu praised how everyone constantly tried to pitch ideas to make the film better and grander. He recalled the team asking questions like “How do you make a world that in context may seem like a dream, but how do you make it feel like a real landscape with real culture?” or how to portray the complicated emotional dynamic of Glinda (Grande) and Elphaba (Erivo) .
“We talked about these things and kicked the tires over and over and over again,” Chu said about the song. The director revealed how the team made an effort to push themselves for a better outcome, every day. Wicked is now playing in theaters.
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