Shang-Chi director on sequel thoughts and the importance of AAPI representation

Speaker 1: Is this what you wanted? Speaker 2: So with me is Destin Daniel Creon director of sh she Destin. Thanks for Speaker 3: Joining me. No, thanks for having me, Roger. Speaker 2: So congrats on the success of song. She, the, the highest domestic grossing movie of the year, and to officially signing up for a sequel. Uh, I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about what it was like to shoot the movie during a pandemic, especially when you were [00:00:30] operating in different locations like Australia and San Francisco. Speaker 3: I mean, the, the pandemic hit, everybody hit the, the, in obviously the entire world in our industry, pretty hard. Um, for, for us, I personally never stopped working our production shut down, but we continued to edit the footage that we had shot. We shot for about, uh, a month and a half before we shut down. So we had a good third one quarter of our movie shot. So we were, we [00:01:00] were continuing in post production and also we used the time to plan out, um, the remaining of our shoot in more detail, which was very helpful. Speaker 2: Uh, speaking of San Francisco in, in different locations, the, obviously one of the highlights of the film is that bus fight scene. But I I'm curious if you had a chance to check out that tweet thread from the SF, uh, bus driver who kind of pointed out some of the inaccuracies and some accuracies, uh, in the film. It was a pretty funny, uh, threat [00:01:30] obviously went around the Speaker 3: Internet. I lo I love that thread. It was awesome. It was really cool to, um, to have, have somebody call us out on all of the, the movie tricks that we were doing. I mean, you obviously there's really no place in the world where you can have a busing downhill straight for six minutes, which is what our, how long our scene lasts. So we, we definitely had to create some cheats in, in the route route that the, [00:02:00] the bus was going. Um, but, uh, it was, it was, I, I loved that tweet. It was really funny. Speaker 2: Yeah. It just, it's interesting how someone enough to go through the minutia of it all, uh, definitely shows there's, there's some passion for that movie. I think one of the reasons why it worked so well, at least for me, you know, the characters in the story, uh, really broke stereotype and broke extra, especially if you knew or knew anything about sh she's backstory in his cannon. [00:02:30] I'm curious what it was like, constructing that story and you know, how it was dealing with this well, problematic history. Speaker 3: Those, those are our number one goal from the very beginning was to create a, a sh she, that anyone can relate to. We wanted, we wanted to create characters who felt like my friends that I grew up with in, in the Asian American community in Hawaii. Um, the, that felt [00:03:00] like the friends of Dave Callahan, my co-writer who grew up as a Chinese American in the bay area. Um, and, but we also wanted these characters to be dealing with emotions and themes and, and, uh, um, you know, goals that they wanted to achieve that could relate to. Um, and I, I do think family relationships, family dynamics, um, are, are very universal. And, um, [00:03:30] I would hope that not only people in the Asian American community would be able to relate to these characters, but whether, whether you, you have never experienced anything from this culture, I, I think it would be, uh, hopefully surprising to some people of how, how much they can identify with sh Chi and shielding and, and even when woo, um, by the end of the movie. And, and if, if that does happen, that's, [00:04:00] to me, one of the, the greatest, um, successes of our movie. Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm speaking of when we were totally young. I mean, I thought he was absolutely fantastic. Um, brought a lot of gravitas, you know, it definitely sort of made him one of the more compelling villains in the MCU. And I know, you know, he, his story seemed to come to a pretty definitive end there in the third act. But I I'm curious if there is a chance or there's some possibility, given it a comic book universe that he [00:04:30] makes another parents or somehow shows up in another MCU project. Speaker 3: There's always a chance. I would imagine. There's always a chance in the MCU that anybody who used think is dead somehow comes back. Um, I, but, you know, in the context of our story, it, it made sense for, um, for when woo, who has lived as long as he did to, to have some peace, really. And, but, [00:05:00] and by the end of the movie, it made sense to his character and the story to, to give him an ending, you Speaker 2: Know, this is, I mean, obviously this is an MCU movie, but it's also harkens back to sort of old school Kung Fu movies, uh, you know, Shain type movies. I I'm curious if you saw it that way in, in producing this film. And, and more generally speaking, if you think the, I guess the genre of Kung Fu movies still exists, especially as, as Hollywood has absorbed so much of that [00:05:30] martial arts into sort of mainstream action flick. Speaker 3: I mean, this movie was, was definitely from, from the very beginning. We, we looked at it as a, a Kung Fu movie. Um, we looked at it as a superhero movie and we looked at it as a family drama, and we wanted to capture all of those things and wrap it up in, in one aesthetic. Um, we, we wanted this movie to [00:06:00] pay respect to all of the great Kung Fu movies that I grew up on. And when we hired, uh, Brad Allen, who, um, trained under, under Jackie Chan and came out of that camp, um, he was, was really, really stressed out in the best way, um, stressed out about getting it right, and making sure that the Kung Fu and the martial arts in [00:06:30] this movie paid respect to the, the art form specifically, and also paid respect to the movies that came before us. I feel very, very proud of that team and what they did, because it was all created out of a deep love and respect for the art form. Speaker 2: Yeah. And I appreciated that. It wasn't just one style that was, uh, that was shown off in the movie that there was, there was sort of a story linkage between the, of martial arts and, [00:07:00] and what the plot just needed for that moment. Right. Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, there's the, the, the style of, of fighting and not only the style of, of the actual choreography, but also the style of, of the, the camera moves. Um, we're really connected to the, the story that we're trying to tell and the development of these characters throughout the, throughout the movie, um, you see the chaotic, chaotic, almost comedic style of a Jackie Chan [00:07:30] film and, um, with a lot of, you know, gags and setups and payoffs that, that, that you, you find in the bus fight sequence. Um, uh, but you also find, uh, a more eloquent, elegant, beautiful style that, that you, you see during the, the father, mother almost romantic love, uh, fight that happens in the, in the first act. Um, and [00:08:00] all of it is, is re was really designed, um, for the characters and for their relationships to grow throughout each fight. And that was something that was really important from the, from the beginning. Speaker 2: And this film, obviously you were shooting it, um, in, in the midst of the academic, but also in the midst of, uh, a rise in attacks, uh, and in some horrific violence against the Asian American community. I'm curious what it was like, you know, filming this [00:08:30] movie, or if you were sort of heads down what it was like filming this movie, and I guess how important it was to you that this movie kind of debuted when a debuted, Speaker 3: It's always a moment when you're, when you're in the bubble of shooting a movie and you start to, you know, get headlines that are coming in from, from the news. And, and this has happened on a couple of movies and when it does happen, it actually feels really [00:09:00] right. Um, and when we were getting those, those headlines coming in of the, of the violence that were happening, it, it was, it was really hard for us because the, these images that we were seeing were, I mean, that could be our grandma, our grandpa, that we're seeing. Um, and, but it also made us feel like we are doing the right thing right now. This is the time for this movie to come out. Not because the movie itself is political, [00:09:30] that the movie is trying to make a big point, but, but, um, I do think that movies like this exposure like this, um, to a culture that you, you maybe have never been exposed to, to, to characters that maybe if you are of another culture, you, and you have never hung out with an, an Asian dude or girl, um, it's so easy to have a preconceived notion about them. Speaker 3: Um, but hopefully [00:10:00] after, uh, seeing a movie like this and hanging out with Katie and sh G and shielding and WW, um, and, and Lee, you, you will have a, a connection to these faces that you may not have otherwise. And when you see that old woman on the street, um, she's not just a, a stereotypical old Asian person that this is, you will [00:10:30] hopefully see them as, as a grandmother, as somebody's mother, as, as somebody that you can actually relate to. And, and, uh, I, I hope that is one of the byproducts of this movie. Speaker 2: Yeah. One of the scenes I appreciated, I mean, there was obviously a focus, a lot on shhe and his father win wound that dynamic, but the one of the early scenes in, you know, in Rosie's home, that, that kind of inter intergenerational dynamic there, where you had the grandmother, the other, I love seeing that scene. And, and that example, [00:11:00] because to your point, like, it's, it's a, a lens into, uh, a culture that you can probably find very close to you, but probably never seen before for a lot of folks. Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, culture is obviously the specifics of, of different cultures. There are so important to, um, get right and to, to show that there are clear differences. But what I, what I love growing up in Hawaii [00:11:30] is, is finding the similarities between cultures, finding the similarities between familial relationship percent. How, um, my, my culture as a Japanese American, my relationship with my grandma is, is very similar to, um, to simu relationship with his grandma, um, and to Dave Kham, who is Chinese American. And so, so understanding what these differences are, [00:12:00] and the similarities I think are, are very, um, important well, Speaker 2: Uh, D and thank you for your time. Really appreciate, really appreciate this Speaker 3: Conversation. Thank you. Thanks so much.