Why Lulu Wang keeps her film a secret | Inquirer Entertainment I remember sitting in New York in their studio, having a glass of whiskey and doing it in one take, she says. 'The Farewell's Lulu Wang Talks Bringing Humor To Grief - Deadline Her 2014 directorial debut, Posthumous, explores what happens when a struggling artist (Jack Huston), who learns that his work is more valuable after his "death," concocts a shady scheme to reap the rewards of his "posthumous" success. "When it played a the premiere everyone was like, [gasping noise]," she says. Lulus very-much-alive grandmother still didnt know about her cancer diagnosis. On the other side of the world, birds scatter from a tree near Nai Nai's apartment complex. To me, its a very American story because Im American, and its just about me going back to a place where I dont understand and Im trying to understand, she said. Her Nai Nai was played by 75-year-old veteran Chinese star Shuzhen Zhao. The Farewell became 2019's little indie movie that could, earning acclaim out of the gate at Sundance last January and going on to garner awards buzz for its phenomenal cast and, last night, a Golden Globe award for breakout starAwkwafina, who made history as the first Asian actress to win Best Actress at the Golden Globes. Then a funny thing happened. Lulu Wang's grandmother learned she had cancer from 'The - Resonate The Farewell is a bilingual film in English and Mandarin Chinese. But theres a line in the movie that people dont die of the cancer, they die of the fear. By making that movie, Im bringing people, were cooking, were eating together. Awkwafina as Billi and Zhao Shuzhen as Nai Nai. Shes like, Well just tell her that movies are fiction and none of it actually happened. The Farewellopens with a title card declaring that the film is based on an actual lie from director Lulu Wangs own life. Wang first told the story on an April 2016 episode of This American Life, which piqued the interest of various producers, allowing her to make the movie. The lightly fictionalized film finds Awkwafina's character Billi in the same situation, grappling with her own impending loss and frustration with the cultural practice of secrecy. The sex symbol confessed that "girls thought I was a jokea happy buffoon," before he met his wife. Its kind of an interesting insecurity in the film business right now. A few other ideas for potential sophomore projects started to take shape here and there. This idea of being in a room with a mic and knowing that once I recorded, within the next three days, people all over the world would hear it, she said. The Farewell opens with a title card declaring that the film is "based on an actual lie" from director Lulu Wang's own life. She really became all our grandmas. If someone tells you theres this crazy set up where you cant tell your grandma and theres a wedding, you expect there will be a moment of reconciliation and catharsis the things that you see in the movies. It brought joy to all of us.. She said: 'And then it was just the three of us.' As Shuzhen, who played Nai Nai in the film, also told IndieWire in a separate interview, the whole cast and crew had to take part in the family's lie, too. She . And making this film brought joy to all of us." Xiaojie Tan dreamed of traveling the world and celebrating her 50th birthday with her daughter.. But Wang elaborated that her grandmother only knew it was a "family story" and actually encouraged her to shoot the film at their hometown. In a Slate interview, director Lulu Wang revealed thatThe Farewell led to her own grandmother discovering she had cancer. So she fashioned the film accordingly, resisting requests from American and Chinese backers to make a broader, more sentimental film. [13] In January 2019, A24 acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film for $7 million, over Netflix, Amazon Studios, and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Meanwhile, Wang is currently working on a new film, an adaptation of the short story Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein that takes place in the near future and, according to Wang, centers on questions of family and why we have children. Her grandmother, nicknamed Nai Nai, who today, at 86, is still alive, welcomed the visit, still in the dark about the real premise of the film. "Thats a long thing that I am still dealing with, with my family, and whether or not we will keep the secret is up in the air, because we want to show her the movie," Wang recently told IndieWire. And so that was the moment for me that ignited the scene and what the climax of the movie was. Wang and cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano. We want to hear it. The problem was no one else did. Billi disobeys her parents' orders and flies to Changchun shortly after the rest of the family arrive there. Its really rare when you can think, Oh, this would make a perfect movie. 'The Farewell': Lulu Wang's Truth, Lies, and the Long Goodbye As much as The Farewell is about confronting loss, it's also distinctly about place. No broad comedy! After receiving a rejection letter for a Guggenheim Fellowship, Billi discovers from her parents, Haiyan and Jian, that Nai Nai has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and is predicted to have only a few months left to live. [11] However, she added that her main source of inspiration came from "spending time with Lulu's family at their home in Changchun, during pre-production. Like in the movie, Lulu Wang, her parents, uncle and cousin went to China for the main purpose of visiting her grandma. Then Lum sent back a tape. After the praise and success of Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean's 8 last year, Awkwafina . (After that, it was, You did this once already and youre so young Ang Lee didnt make his first movie until he was in his thirties and he was supported by his wife. That was always their reference point.) But Wang didnt relish the idea of repeating that disappointment or selling out. The website's critics' consensus reads: "The Farewell deftly captures complicated family dynamics with a poignant, well-acted drama that marries cultural specificity with universally relatable themes. One night, her uncle, Haibin, contends that the lie allows the family to bear the emotional burden of the diagnosis, rather than Nai Nai herselfa practice of collectivism that Haibin acknowledges differs from the individualistic values common in Western culture. I was really driven by how conflicted I was between, you know, the value system and what I felt was very wronglying to my grandmabut also the love that I also felt, Wang said. ", It's easy to summarize The Farewell as being about one young woman's internal culture clash, but there's a transcendence to the film easily summed up by the recurring image of the sparrow. When my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, she was given three months to live. They wanted it to be my big, fat Chinese wedding, said Wang of the investors on both sides of the world. "[The studios] wanted it all in English, or as a very broad comedy," she told the Seattle Times. Lulu Wang on good lies and immigrant family ties in 'The Farewell' This news won't be shocking to anyone who listened to Wang'sThis American Lifeepisode from 2016 about the same subject, but it nevertheless acts as a welcome surprise given that the conclusion otherwise felt tragically cathartic. Not just limiting as a filmmaker like limiting as a human being., When Wang first started pitching what would become The Farewell to producers, it was that type of film what the director calls My Big Fat Chinese Family Wedding that they expected to sign on for. She talks to Alistair Harkness ahead of the films screening at Glasgow Youth Film Festival. July 16, 2019. When asked about her own grandmother, Wang revealed that she only recently found out about her cancer. Like, a million times over! just like Nai Nai taught her. Awkwafina was cast as Billi, Wangs avatar, while her own aunt Hong Lu played the aunt in the film, Little Nai Nai. There are other people who look like me as a whole.' She wasnt suspicious; everybody on the crew knew not to tell her. Then Wangs relatives fast-tracked a cousins planned wedding as an excuse for everyone to visit the elderly matriarch one last time. Theres a second part to this anecdote, Wang points out with a smile, one that she swears is 100-percent authentic. There was no fear while we were there. The podcast became a sensation with audiences and suddenly her personal story was just right for film. Based on Wangs own life, the film centres on a Chinese American womans family refusal to tell the grandmother that she has cancer. Billi assures her parents that she will not reveal the cancer diagnosis to Nai Nai. Wang had been here before; she assumed most of the sit-downs would start off well before the inevitable Yes, but what if shoe dropped. We kept asking ourselves, is it ethical to make her go through this traumatic experience again, take after take? If Nai Nai was given three months to live, how could that possibly be true? Coronation Street actress Barbara Young dies aged 92, Nurses strike continues: Major disruption for NHS services in England, Additional flight to evacuate Britons from Sudan today, Ryanair cancels 220 flights over May 1 bank holiday due to strikes, Hardcore coronation fans already camped outside Buckingham Palace, One dead and seven injured in Cornwall nightclub knife attack. The film was screened in the U.S. That dialogue was inspired by a conversation Wang had with a friend who is American-born Chinese, unlike Wang who was born in China. Wang's great-aunt, Lu Hong, connects by phone in the wee hours of the morning from Changchun, where she lives in the same building three floors above her sister, Wang's grandmother. Once, when she met with Wang's real grandmother, they pretended that it was a personal visit, and although the real Nai Nai was told that Shuzhen would be playing her, she wasn't told that she'd be the main character. #ggforeignfilms #goldenglobesStill haven't subscribed to Golden Globes on YouTube? Best Supporting Grandma? For 'The Farewell,' an Oscar Campaign Begins And that feels very limiting, at least for me. "I very much felt the way that Billi in the movie feels, which is that it's wrong to lie," Wang told People magazine. ", The reasoning behind keeping a secret like this from the real Nai Nai is "to make sure the person still lives a happy and carefree life, and that their condition does not get worse," Shuzhen said, and from her experiences meeting with Nai Nai, that's been the case. But as Beyer would soon realize, Finchs past wasnt what she claimedand Beyers own difficult history was up for the taking. Casi Moss/Courtesy of Big Beach. Her Little Nai Nai, Grandmas younger sister, who first perpetrates the lie and coordinates the reunion, was played by Hong Lu Wangs actual great-aunt. Nai Nai does have a limp in real life, but it wasn't from being shot, which Lulu admits is fiction. Yes, I did, Wang says, laughing. Come along for the ride! Filmmaker Lulu Wang Based 'The Farewell' On Her Family's Real - NPR And the title of the movie is Dont Tell Her in Chinese. [15] A fully Mandarin-subtitled version of the film played in select theaters on September 8, 2019. Based on the real life . The Farewell vs. the True Story of Lulu Wang's Still-Alive Grandma She made a film, "The Farewell," based on the story of her real-life grandmother. But while Wang's family's story has been broadcast on This American Life and on theater screens nationwide, The Farewell still hasn't hit China, and per IndieWire, the real Nai Naiwho is still alive despite the three-month prognosis given to her in 2013still hasn't seen it nor been told what exactly the movie is all about, though she does know it's "loosely based" on the family. The lie wasnt her grandmas illness: in 2013, her Chinese grandmother, or Nai Nai, really was diagnosed with cancer and given three months to live. The Farewell was a huge hit at Sundance, sparking a bidding war that ended with Wang turning down an additional $8 million from a streaming service to tie her wagon to A24, the film company behind Moonlight and Lady Bird. ', Lulu Wang, left, on the set of The Farewell., Awkwafina, left, and Wang on the set of The Farewell., The Farewell: Lulu Wangs Truth, Lies, and the Long Goodbye, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 'Don't Tell Her')[3] is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang. Wang's mother told her over the phone, not in person like in the movie. ', It turned out, however, that, like Wang, Lum had been partially raised by her Chinese grandmother. "While this process was unfolding, [Lulu Wang] was constantly reminding us, 'Dont leak this,'" Shuzhen said. It was, in her words, an oasis in the middle of all of the Hollywood nonsense. It was on the air within a month. Warning: Mild spoilers for The Farewell are ahead. It also helped get her parents off her back regarding her decision to give up being a concert pianist or going to law school in favor of a life behind the camera. ButThe Farewell makes its debut in Chinese theaters onJanuary 25, 2019, which made it more likely that Wang's grandmother would find out and, of course, it was a Chinese-language review sent to her by a friend that would reveal it. It's developed a lot more. "[25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 47 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Nobody wants to tell my story. Initially, I wanted her to play Nai Nai, the director admits. When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. As she told The Hollywood Reporter, the fact that a script which was then named Nai Nai, the Chinese word for grandmother, and was written by an Asian-American woman had come across her radar was too unique to pass up. Wang first revealed the lie about her grandmother on public radio. 'The Farewell's' Lulu Wang and Awkwafina want you to cry, then call Her family threw a fake wedding for her cousin from Japan and her grandmother didn't know. When I come across people who have [original] stories they want to tell, they feel like they have to tell those stories in some other medium first in order to get any traction.. I just didnt know what the tone would be until later.. In 'The Farewell,' The Bad News Bearers Keep A Secret. She's always felt like an outsider. This is articulated heartbreakingly in a scene where Billi breaks down after telling her mom she wants to stay in China and take care of her grandmother. THE FAREWELL director Lulu Wang tells the harrowing tale about how she kept the content of her film about her grandmother a secret from her grandmother while. Talking about "The Farewell" - Boston College Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. Lulu Wang was in Berlin in 2013, editing her first film, when she got the call: Her grandmother in China, who'd briefly taken her in when her parents fled the country in 1989, was terminally ill . The Farewell (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bi Gos T; lit. ", "Barack Obama's Favorite Movies and TV Shows of 2019", "The 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award Nominees are Here! With A $21M Opening", "Keira Knightley in 'Official Secrets' and Molly Ivins Doc 'Raise Hell' Lead New Openers", "Awkwafina Proves She's More Than a Comedian in The Farewell", "Is The Farewell the olive branch the US-China culture war needs? You were whole once. Written and directed by the Chinese filmmaker, The Farewell casts rapper-turned-actress Awkwafina in her first leading role as Billi, a Chinese-American student playing a form of Wang herself. Incredibly, Nai Nai, and the family secret, survived long enough for her to discover both the deception . She also said yes when Peter Saraf, the cofounder of the production company Big Beach, proposed a lets-get-to-know-each-other chat. "I said something that she responded to which was: 'In China, I felt whole because I had my entire family and then I came to the U.S.,'" Wang says, "She was saying she's never felt whole in her life. The grandmother is at the hospital for a test but doesn't tell the girl so not to worry her. This felt like a real-life screwball comedy, but as the situation unfolded what was really interesting was how emotional the whole experience had been for me, but also how undramatic it was from an external perspective. Right after I found out I had gotten in to Sundance, she notes, I was with my same friend at the same restaurant. He goes, Hey, do you remember when we had that conversation here, and you said youd never feel this creatively satisfied again? It's that this familyare are linked across continents; their intangible bonds expressed perfectly in that final visual. And then we went to America and it was just the three of us," she says. When Wang pitched her setupa Chinese-American woman returns to her home country with the other expatriates in her family under the guise of a wedding, but with the true intent of seeing the family matriarch before she diesshe was met with a flood of criticism from both Chinese and American financiers: Who is this movie for? Yes. Dramatic Competition section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival[4] and was theatrically released in the United States on July 12, 2019, by A24. All rights reserved. "[8], The film was primarily shot in Changchun, China, over the course of 24 days in June 2018. We got distribution in China. Lulu Wang RUBEN V. NEPALES LOS ANGELESWriter-director Lulu Wang has quite a dilemma. But: What if the main character is the bride, she breaks up with her white boyfriend, they have to get married to keep this lie to Grandma going, and then guess who falls back in love, and., Its like, I see the film youre envisioning because that film already exists! Wang adds. She says she had many disheartening encounters with American and Chinese financiers who wanted to include a "prominent white character into the narrative, and punch up the nuanced drama to turn it into a broad comedy. Billi keeps her promise to maintain the lie. The Farewell: Lulu Wang reveals that her grandmother has figured out Is this evidence that there's some truth to the line in the film, "People dont die of the cancer, they die of the fear"? I was like, OK, but you realize that means this will be 75 percent in Mandarin,' she recalls. Billi intercepts Nai Nai's medical test results from the hospital and has it altered to reflect a clean bill of health, helping to maintain the lie. is nai nai from the farewell still alive She knew it was about the family that was obvious. [7][6], Wang said that the film was based on her grandmother's illness, stating that "I always felt the divide in my relationship to my family versus my relationship to my classmates and to my colleagues and to the world that I inhabit. Instead of toasting, Wang, who still desperately wanted to adapt her story for the big screen, burst into tears. Her second and most recent . At the end of the film, Billi returns to New York. When Lulu Wang's grandmother was diagnosed with a terminal illness, her family in China decided not to tell her, inspiring the US-based director to make culture-clash drama The Farewell. And its very traumatic that its coming out in China. "[29] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter commented, "its moments of sweet sentimentality are fully earned and heartfelt. So making this film became part of the lie. Lulu Wang's deeply personal, disarmingly universal story of culture clash and family grief became an indie phenomenon when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year.Based on Wang's own . In an interview with Vox, Wang was asked whether her grandmother will see the film. Wang revealed at the Golden Globes Foreign Language Symposium, held at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre on Sunday that her grandmother "just found out" that the film is based on her (via Slate): "It's very traumatic that it's coming out in China.

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