JON CHU'S AMERICAN DREAM

The Wicked: For Good director on trying to change the world, one blockbuster at a time

- BY ANDREW R. CHOW

THERE'S A MOMENT IN WICKED: FOR GOOD WHEN Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is debating whether to flee. The Land of Oz, led by Jeff Goldblum's conniving Wizard, is full of injustice and idiocy. But running won't change that. Maybe, she thinks, she should stay, and work to improve it. “Oz is ... a promise, an idea/ and I want to help make it come true,” she sings.

Few people understand this sentiment better than the movie's director, Jon M. Chu. Chu has been enmeshed in the Hollywood studio system for close to two decades, churning out splashy box-office hits based on existing IP: Step Up 2: The Streets, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Crazy Rich Asians. His ability to appeal to America's middle and to global audiences alike has made him one of the most bankable directors in the business—and an exemplar of the American Dream.

“He has so many superpowers as a director, I’m not sure where to start,” Ariana Grande, who plays Elphaba’s foil Glinda, wrote in an email to TIME. “His heart and his innate understanding of the human experience. His empathy.”

But as Glinda learns, sometimes embedding yourself within a powerful machine means selling false dreams. “The system disappoints me all the time. When the dream shatters, and when you know the truth, who do you become?” Chu asks during an interview in Manhattan in late October. “This is me, this is America, looking back at the things we believed in: the stories we were told by Spielberg and Walt Disney; Michael Jackson making us believe we could float on air. Now we're in a different era, we have all the information. Do we still believe in those things?”