Alice Wu

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Alice Wu, 2005

Alice Wu (actually Wu Siwei , Chinese 伍思薇 , Pinyin Wǔ Sīwēi ; born April 21, 1970 in San José ) is a Sino-American director and screenwriter . She became known for her debut Saving Face from 2004, which was shown at several renowned film festivals and is about a Sino-American doctor who falls in love with another woman, as well as her mother, who is rejected by her community there she is pregnant again at the age of 48, unmarried. Although there are similarities between Wu and one of the main characters, the film is not an autobiography.

Life

Alice Wu was born in San José in the US state of California , where she first grew up. Her family later moved to Los Altos ; there Wu graduated from the local high school at the age of 16 . In 1990 she received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Stanford University , and two years later a master's in the same subject. She was previously a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

After graduating, Wu first worked in Seattle as a software developer for Microsoft , then as a product manager at Cinemania and Music Central , an entertainment department of the group that produced film and music databases on CD-ROMs , but hired at the end of the 1990s because it no longer appeared profitable due to the advancement of the Internet.

Wu is openly lesbian ; according to her own admission, she noticed her sexual orientation when she attended a course in gender studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . She outed herself during her last year of study at Stanford University during a visit against her mother, which led to a rift. A few years later, however, Wu reconciled with her mother, who finally accepted her homosexuality . Wu also dedicated Saving Face to her because she said she wanted to show her that it was never too late to really fall in love for the first time in life. In addition, the film was an opportunity to represent her mother in a positive way. According to Wu, Wil , one of the main characters, was based on her, but the events in Saving Face were not based on her own experiences.

Career

Saving Face

While at Microsoft, Wu began writing a novel about her coming out to her mother. She decided the story would be better scripted, so she attended a twelve-week scriptwriting course at the University of Washington . There she wrote a complete script, which she named Saving Face , an allusion to the concept of the face, which is particularly widespread in East Asia . The instructor encouraged her to film her script, which is why Wu quit Microsoft in the late 1990s, moved to New York City , attended a class for aspiring filmmakers, and gave herself a five-year window to make her plan a reality.

In 2002, the penultimate year of her self-imposed schedule, Wu submitted her script to a competition sponsored by the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment , an organization that helps Asian Americans and Pacific islanders get into the entertainment industry. Through her victory in the competition, she met Teddy Zee, the also Chinese-born president of the production company Overbrook Entertainment founded by Will Smith .

According to Wu, she wanted to make it clear to viewers with her production that it is never too late for them, regardless of their sexuality or cultural background, to get something that they have actually wanted their whole life to have. In addition, it was her goal with Saving Face to tell a universal story that is understandable not only in their own Sino-American community, but also for everyone who has already experienced the ecstatic instability of romantic affection.

Wu faced a number of hurdles in realizing their production. Although several well-known studios have expressed interest in the script, they have asked for a number of changes. So the plot should resemble that of My Big Fat Greek Wedding - wedding in Greek , which is why the characters in such a film should also be Hispanics and not Sino-Americans, as an alternative, they suggested to her to rewrite mother and daughter in white characters they are played by well-known actresses such as Reese Witherspoon and Ellen Burstyn . Since Wu did not agree, the studios demanded as a compromise to at least change the daughter's crush into a white woman so that someone like Scarlett Johansson could be cast in the role and thus bring more public attention to the film. The studios also questioned the Mandarin dialogues , the lesbian relationship itself, and Wu's work as both a director and a screenwriter. For these reasons, Wu finally decided not to sell the script to a large production company, but instead turned to Teddy Zee, who co-financed the film with Will Smith, the production company was Destination Films , a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment that focuses on Focused on niche films.

Wu also had some difficulties in casting the roles, as she could not initially find any actors who could speak Mandarin. She had to meet with about 1,000 actors before she could put the ensemble together. In addition, her preferred candidate for one of the leading roles, who lives in China, would not have been able to travel to the United States due to visa problems, which is why she hired his understudy. Lynn Chen had to audition for the role of Viv several times because she had no access to the script the first time and played her role wrong, so to speak, as she did not know about the homosexuality of her character. Michelle Krusiec was not a native speaker, so Wu let her fly to Taiwan for a three-month language course and only allowed her to speak Mandarin in films if Wil got into an argument with her film mother.

Filming in the New York neighborhoods of Flushing , Queens , Brooklyn and Manhattan started in the fall of 2003, with a budget of $ 2.5 million. The tight budget turned out to be a problem because Wu wanted to use landscape shots of the city in the production. The corresponding members of the production team were finally allowed to fly in a helicopter, the pilot of which took aerial photos of Manhattan for the film Hitch - The Date Doctor .

For Saving Face Wu in 2005 received a nomination at the Gotham Awards in the category Best New Director . The film received the Audience Award at the Golden Horse Film Festival in the same year, and Michelle Krusiec was also nominated in the Best Actress category. At the GLAAD Media Awards 2006, the film received a nomination in the category Best Film - Limited Release .

Unrealized projects

In 2005, Wu began working on Foreign Babes in Beijing on behalf of Paramount Pictures . The film was to be an adaptation of the book of the same name by actress and author Rachel DeWoskin , who moved to Beijing as a PR consultant in 1994 at the age of 22, lived there until 1999 and played a leading role in the hugely successful soap opera Yáng niū zài Běijīng . The book also contains DeWoskin's descriptions of the cultural, social and economic changes in the city due to China's modernization measures. However, the film was ultimately never realized beyond pre-production.

In 2008, Wu presented her idea for Foobar to ABC . The drama series was about young employees of a large software company who both want to achieve a technological breakthrough with their work, and who are slowly growing up through a growing sense of responsibility. The title referred to FUBAR , an acronym used mainly in the military for fucked up beyond all recognition (roughly shitty beyond imagination ). The plot was inspired by Wu's own experience at Microsoft. Neal H. Moritz was to act as executive producer alongside Wu, the production company was Sony Pictures Television . Wu also directed and scripted the pilot episode. The series was ultimately not included in the program by ABC.

Only half the story

On April 22, 2019, it was announced that Wu will act as director, screenwriter and producer for Nur die halbe Geschichte (original title The Half of It ), whose script was on the black list of the best not yet filmed scripts according to US film critics last year was standing. It's about the shy, Sino-American student Ellie Chu, who feels lonely in her small hometown. She makes money by doing essay homework for her classmates. One day she agrees to write love letters to Aster Flores for the jock Paul Munsky, which Ellie secretly raves about herself. The premiere was actually scheduled for April 18, 2020 at the Tribeca Film Festival , but it had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The original English title is a reference to a quote in Plato 's Symposium where Aristophanes , that explains the origins of the human search for the other half of an equal or opposite-sex partners love for personal perfection. The film was released worldwide on Netflix on May 1, and Wu, as co-producer, received the grand prize for best feature film from the jury of the online Tribeca Awards. In addition, for her work on film in June 2020, on the 50th anniversary of the first Pride Parade in the United States, Wu was named one of the 50 people heading the United States by the online publication Queerty aimed at LGBT readers Direct equality, acceptance and dignity for all.

Filmography

Web links

Commons : Alice Wu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c G. Allen Johnson: Alice Wu saved up her own doubts and struggles and turned them into the new comedy 'Saving Face'. In: San Francisco Chronicle. June 6, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Ed Leibowitz: Kissing Vivian Shing. In: The New York Times. May 29, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Logan Hill: Debut Director: Alice Wu. In: New York. May 26, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  4. ↑ SAVING FACE WITH ALICE WU. In: Film Threat. May 27, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  5. ^ A b c Jason Guerrasio: Production Report: “American Hardcore,” “Patch,” “PS,” “Saving Face,” & “Vineyard Haven”. In: IndieWire. March 2, 2004, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  6. ^ A b Sarah Warn: Interview with Alice Wu and Joan Chen of “Saving Face”. In: After Ellen . May 26, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b c Kera Bolonik: Message to Mom . The Advocate , June 7, 2005 edition, p. 65.
  8. ^ Saving Face and Murderball nominated for Gotham Awards. In: The Edit Center. October 25, 2005, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  9. ^ 42nd 2005. In: Golden Horse Film Festival . Accessed April 10, 2020 (English).
  10. ↑ Lawrence Marcus: GLAAD hands out noms. In: Variety . January 24, 2006, accessed April 10, 2020 .
  11. ^ Brian B .: Paramount Taps Alice Wu for Foreign Babes in Beijing. In: MovieWeb. December 16, 2005, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Rachel DeWoskin: Foreign Babes in Beijing W. W. Norton & Company (2005), p. 10
  13. ↑ Josef Adalian: Alice Wu, Neil Moritz team on 'Foobar'. In: Variety. September 20, 2007, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Mariano Glass: Foobar: ABC TV series about computer geeks. In: Serienjunkies.de . September 24, 2007, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Etan Vlessing: Leah Lewis, Alexxis Lemire to Star in Alice Wu's 'The Half of It' Teen Romance for Netflix. In: The Hollywood Reporter . April 22, 2019, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Jill Goldsmith: Tribeca Fest 2020 Sets Feature Film Lineup With 95 World Premieres. In: Deadline.com . March 3, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  17. ^ Hilary Lewis, Trilby Beresford: Tribeca Film Festival Postponed Amid Coronavirus Fears. In: The Hollywood Reporter. December 3, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  18. ^ Peter Debruge: 'The Half of It' on Netflix: Film Review. In: Variety. April 28, 2020, accessed May 4, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Dino-Ray Ramos: 'The Half Of It' Trailer: Alice Wu's Coming-Of-Age Netflix Dramedy Delivers A Different Kind Of Love Story. In: Deadline.com. April 9, 2020, accessed April 9, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Chris Lindahl: Tribeca Film Festival Awards 'The Half of It,' 'Socks on Fire' Top Honors. In: IndieWire. April 29, 2020, accessed May 4, 2020 .
  21. ^ David Reddish: Meet the world-class performers who are diversifying LGBTQ representation. In: Queerty. June 1, 2020, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Wu, Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wu, Siwei (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH San Jose , California