Following the release of In the Heights, director Jon M. Chu stopped by The Tonight Show to chat with Jimmy Fallon about the musical drama.
The director said it was “super important” for the movie, which just released, to play in theaters, and said “the time has come” for audiences to get back into venues.
Giving a brief window into his filmmaking process, Fallon brought up the fact that Chu is known to edit after he shoots. Chu clarified that he does this “to know I got the shots.” He then works with an editor, in this case Myron Kerstein, for the actual cut of the whole film.
In the Heights, an adaptation of the stage musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes, follows a New York bodega owner who imagines and sings for a better life. Anthony Ramos stars in the title role as Usnavi de la Vega.
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Fallon mentioned how In the Heights accurately captures how hot it gets in New York during the summer, as well as the mentality of “don’t forget where you came from.” Chu said, “That’s why we connected, Lin and I.” He shared that he grew up in Northern California in a Chinese restaurant that his family has had for 51 years. “I knew what it felt like to grow up there, to be raised by not just your parents, but your aunties and your uncles, and the hardworking people who take care of their families.”
Chu continued, “We should be looking up to these people. That bodega owner on the corner, he does not have a small story. He has a dream bigger than any screen that you can put in front of him. he has hopes and dreams, and to me, that’s what movies can do, that’s what movies can say. If you see it, you can’t unsee that.” Of the film’s hopeful story and message, Chu remarked, “I’m going to take that for the rest of my life.”
Among the directors’ previous films is Crazy Rich Asians, which Fallon and Chu briefly talked about for the fact that it helped create career opportunities in the U.S. for many actors in the film including Henry Golding. “The box office is one of the only places where people can say: We want this,” said Chu.
The director, whose wife is expecting a baby “literally any second,” kept his cell phone on the arm of his chair for the duration of the interview.
