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‘Was It Enormous Pressure?’: Jon M. Chu and Shawn Levy Bond Over Beating Expectation With ‘Wicked’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’
Jon M. Chu and Shawn Levy discuss how they directed two of the year's biggest blockbusters and how they beat fan expectations.
Before he directed “Wicked,” the hit adaptation of the Broadway musical about a pair of witchy BFFs, Chu was an extra on “The Secret World of Alex Mack.” And that Nickelodeon series, part of the TV diet for anyone growing up in the 1990s, marked the directorial debut of Shawn Levy, who would go on to make “Stranger Things,” “Free Guy” and last summer’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The two are meeting in New York to discuss their journeys to the top of Hollywood’s A-list, as well as their talent for making unabashedly commercial movies, featuring heroes and heroines with extraordinary abilities, that are also deeply personal. Yet they’re more interested in discussing the detours and hurdles they’ve faced, and their love for making movies that are empathetic and hopeful at a time when those things are in short supply. I grew up in a divorced household with an alcoholic mom, and it was like, “I want to build the life I wish I was living.” I see now a lot of the work I’ve done is aspirational and about attaining this dream.
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