Alice wu gay

In , Wu wrote and directed the commercial "The Note," for Oreo, in collaboration with PFLAG. "The Note" showcases one step in a young Chinese American man’s coming out journey and emphasizes the role family members can play as lifelong allies for their LGBTQ+ loved ones. Writer-director Alice Wu looks back on her queer rom-com 'Saving Face' and how the industry has changed in the years since.

But in Wu’s latest film, The Half of It — streaming on Netflix on May 1 —there is no such moment. The new movie’s protagonist, Ellie (Leah Lewis), is a gay high schooler living with her. After a year hiatus from filmmaking, Wu further subverted classic romance tropes with the new coming-of-age drama, The Half of It, which arrived on Netflix May 1 and received the top award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Released in , the film starred Joan Chen, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen and told a queer love story, focusing on a relationship between a mother and her closeted daughter. It was a personal. It's a delightful spin on Cyrano de Bergerac, where a nerdy girl helps a dim-witted jock write love letters to the girl they both love.

Alice Wu’s ‘The Half of It’ is More than Just a Queer Love Story – The Nerds of Color

Published by Laura Sirikul. Real stories that will sometimes surprise you, move you, and leave you hanging on to every word. She came onto the scene in with the film "Saving Face," a dramedy about a woman who is closeted, and her mother, who is pregnant and unwed. Regardless, Wu is indeed a filmmaker and an important one at that. This mage released by Netflix shows Leah Lewis, left, and Alexxis Lemire in a scene from "The Half of It," a romance about a high school loner who helps a jock woo the popular girl in school.

Fortunately, the film became an indie hit at film festivals and has been praised for its themes and finally giving visibility to Asian Americans and the LGBTQ community. SBS Audio. She actually wanted to write about her friendship with her straight guy best friend that sadly ended due to his relationship with his girlfriend.

And it worked. Warrior Princess. A lesbian rom-com featuring a Chinese-American protagonist, written and produced by a lesbian Chinese-American? She wrote what she knew and realized that film was the perfect way to tell her story. Her dad is there. So film is a wonderful medium for that, where you have moments where you can show a character who's not aware they're being observed.

With encouragement from a writing teacher, Wu gave herself five years to give Hollywood a shot. As Wu began outlining the story, she realized it would be hard to translate that into a screenplay.

Alice Wu finds her voice again with 'The Half of It'

Even after two features, "I still am not somebody who is like, 'I am a filmmaker. So she started writing. Why the long gap between films? So she started writing. You can actually show the truth and we get to suddenly see what they're really feeling. Everything is so huge. Wu decided to create a Cyrano de Bergerac type of story where her lead character, Ellie Chu Leah Lewis , a quiet straight-A student who makes money from ghost-writing homework for classmates, decides to help the dumb but sweet jock, Paul Munsky Daniel Diemer , write a love letter to their classmate, Aster Flores Alexxis Lemire.

It's not because she happens to be Asian American, female and gay, although that does put her in a rare class. Let Me Tell You. What film shall I make? What does it take to write a good story? Love Me, Love My Anxiety. Copyright The Associated Press.