Byron Wu Talks Making All-Asian Action Comedy – Deadline

What would you do when you found that your once-ordinary life was constructed on the inspiration of one among Taiwan’s largest (and profitable) organized crime households? Netflix‘s crime comedy The Brothers Sun runs the gamut and the streets of the San Gabriel Valley for solutions. Co-created by Byron Wu and Brad Falchuk, the eight-episode collection follows the Sun household matriarch, Eileen Sun (Michelle Yeoh), who, after falling in love with a “country boy,” turned second in command to probably the most profitable and harmful gangster companies in Taiwan. Because of the potential threats on her household, she decides to spare her youngest son, Bruce (Sam Song Li), from the violent household enterprise and strikes with him to Los Angeles whereas leaving her older son, Charles (Justin Chien), again in Taiwan along with his father (Johnny Kou) who turned him right into a cutthroat murderer.

Here, Wu speaks with Deadline in regards to the writing course of, discovering his main forged and the significance of crafting a relatable all-Asian story on display.

DEADLINE: Congrats in your first main challenge coming to display. I’ve come to grasp that you’ve got a level in physics, proper? So, you didn’t undergo the normal route of movie faculty or any of that till later. Can you discuss a bit about your origin story and what bought you into movie and TV? 

BYRON WU: I all the time liked comedy. I did sketch comedy in highschool. I did improv comedy in school. And my mother and father didn’t actually perceive what that was or what I may do with it. I didn’t actually know what I may do with it both on the time. So, I used to be pursuing pc science and physics. And I used to be in a category [about] information constructions and algorithms, and it was just like the third lecture of the semester. And I had my notes pulled up; it was only a clean sheet of paper. The first two hours had simply utterly gone in a single ear and out the opposite. And I don’t know why, however I simply typed EXT. OFFICE – DAY, and I simply began to put in writing what I assumed can be a screenplay. I’d present as much as a lecture and write, and by the top of the category, I had a barely passing grade, however I had written a half-hour pilot.

That was my first foray into it. Then, I simply saved writing and making an attempt to movie quick movies in school. And I ended up doing a storytelling and animation class, which was a part of the pc science program. And that launched me to how Pixar tells tales. And I began to see that there’s some method and construction to story, which speaks to form of that math a part of my mind, and I began to see as a result of physics is principally you are taking a bunch of identified variables, and also you remedy for unknown variables. You know what sure issues are, what you’re aiming for, or what you assume will occur, after which you might be simply placing collectively the items. And that’s how I see story as effectively. I see that I’ve sure components that I do know I need, sure components I’m making an attempt to hit, sure tones, sure story factors, after which, it’s nearly discovering what is sensible, what logic would make sense inside our worlds, to suit that each one collectively.

DEADLINE: Then you went to AFI Conservatory to get your MFA? What occurred there that led you to make The Brothers Sun? 

WU: The expertise was wonderful. Before AFI, I used to be simply writing broad, half-hour sitcoms, issues like How I Met Your Mother, and people sorts of fundamental concepts as a result of that’s what I assumed would get me a job. And then at AFI, they had been like, “OK, forget all that. If you could write whatever you wanted, this is your two-and-a-half years. You’re basically paying for this amount of time, so write whatever the hell you want.” And that’s when I discovered much more of myself and this bizarre tone that I believe you’ll see in The Brothers Sun. It’s one thing that bought me interested by movie within the first place. My favourite filmmakers are these guys like [Akira] Kurosawa and Juzo Itami, director Bong [Joon-ho] and Park Chan-wook. They all swing from comedy to drama to motion on a regular basis, and that’s the zone that I really like. I simply assume it’s so wonderful, and it’s the place I bought to experiment in and study and develop at AFI.

DEADLINE: How lengthy had been you workshopping The Brothers Sun after which discovering it within the fingers of Brad Falchuk? 

WU: I initially conceived it between my first and second 12 months at AFI. Then I despatched it to Mikkel Bondesen, who was at Brad’s firm, on the finish of 2019. I developed it with them for just a few months, then the pandemic occurred, and I hadn’t heard from them [in a while]. Then, abruptly, I bought an e mail from a improvement government saying, “Hey, Mikkel pitched your idea to Brad in our staff meeting. Can you send us your latest pilot and a series bible?” And I used to be like, “I don’t have a Series Bible. Give me three days.” I typed one thing up and despatched it to him, after which I used to be on Zoom with Brad just a few days later, the place he was like, “Yeah, let’s do this thing.” It was loopy, a loopy experience.

DEADLINE: This is a primarily all-Asian forged and crew behind the scenes, right? That’s fairly monumental. And, naturally, there’s so many culturally related jokes baked into the present, from the Mahjong Aunties, Asians exercising in public, Charles (Justin Chien) and Mama (Michelle Yeoh) preventing over utilization of the air con, and, in fact, Bruce’s (Sam Song Li) faculty grades. Were there any jokes or representations you needed to significantly battle for? How did you navigate this expertise? 

WU: Our author’s room was all Asian, aside from Brad. Both of our administrators [Kevin Tancharoen and Viet Nguyen] had been Asian. We had a lot of division heads that had been additionally Asian American. There weren’t any [references] that we actually needed to battle for. It was such a pure a part of the method, the place issues would come out, and somebody would simply convey up being like, “Hey, did your parents ever fight with you in the car about turning on the air conditioning?” We’re like, “Yeah, we know what that feels like.” So, what’s nice about it’s that it’s a collective; many people are sharing that very same expertise. And, I imply, plenty of the writers in our room had by no means been in a author’s room with different Asian Americans earlier than. And so, once we talked about this stuff, it was nice to see what little moments we had been like, “Oh yeah, my parents did that,” or “Oh yeah, all my friends’ parents also did this thing.” And so, if we felt a kind of, that’s going within the present, so it was pure to simply put all that stuff in.

DEADLINE: You talked somewhat bit about your curiosity in mixing genres. The Brothers Sun is a good byproduct of that because it slips from melodrama to pure comedy to drama to motion. How did you go about that? 

WU: We needed to tug from plenty of issues that we liked. We love comedy, motion, drama, and thriller assailants [type stories], and we needed to do all of these issues. And the present simply felt prefer it had house for it. From the pilot, I actually needed to do a dark-action comedy. I had seen so many nice reveals that had been pushing the boundaries of style, particularly within the half-hour to an-hour house, like Barry and Killing Eve and BoJack Horseman, Get Shorty. These reveals had been doing one thing that I assumed was so great that they had been doing issues that had been typically reserved for motion pictures. And I felt like I needed to try this, Brad needed to try this, so we simply did it. And it was only a matter of really feel. So a lot of the time, it was like, does this joke work? And then we needed to see it on its ft on set and be like, “All right, it does work,” or generally it wouldn’t, and we’d have to regulate and issues like that. But it was actually simply, I hope it really works, I hope folks reply to it and prefer it, as a result of to us, we felt prefer it did, and that’s all we may actually base it on.

DEADLINE: Let’s get into constructing the 2 brothers, Bruce and Charles. When did you determine who was who? Was there a thought that possibly this story initially ought to give attention to one baby? 

WU: Yes. I believe on the very origins, and this was means earlier than Brad got here on, I believe he would’ve hated the present if he had seen every other earlier model of it. It was simply Bruce and TK [Lee Joon], humorous sufficient, as a result of it was such a narrative about these insecure, goofball Asian-American characters that I needed to inform a narrative about. Then, I began to assume extra about whether or not there was some assertion about Asian American masculinity, and I shortly realized I wanted a counterpoint, which turned Charles, the older brother. And then it turned extra targeted about these two brothers, however the present didn’t actually take off till Mama Sun got here into play and have become a personality, and that’s when it began to make extra sense. And after that’s when, like, even then, it was nonetheless only a group of characters in a world as a result of I knew it was this, and it was considerably of a tone, however it didn’t change into a TV present till Brad got here alongside and helped make it that.

DEADLINE: Which of the brothers are you most like? 

WU: I see myself in each characters. I’m a goofball like Bruce’s, you recognize, I did improv, I pursued my very own private objectives, however I additionally really feel the factor that Charles feels, which is like I’m very dedicated to my household, I do plenty of issues like my household is essential to me. And then, I additionally could be a very severe individual, so there actually are each side of it.

DEADLINE: Outside of the household dynamic, plenty of that is additionally centered across the inside workings of a number of triad factions. What does that analysis seem like? And blink twice when you’re OK. 

WU: There are just a few books on the market [about the triads]. But my unique inspiration was that I used to be studying about one among my favourite filmmakers, Juzo Itami, a comedy director within the late ’70s and early ’80s. He did these motion pictures like Tampopo … he did this film in regards to the yakuza, and after it premiered, he went again to his residence, and these yakuza guys had been there ready for him. And they beat him up, they usually minimize his face, they usually’re like, “Don’t you dare make another movie making fun of the yakuza ever again.” And I assumed it was so humorous that these guys had been so insecure about their jobs as gangsters that they might beat up a comedy director, like what a loopy factor to do. So that turned Bruce and TK, the unique inspirations.

And then, whereas we had been doing analysis, the top of that story, that Juzo Itami story, is that these yakuza guys ended up killing him. They ended up pushing him off the roof of his constructing. And so once we had been doing analysis, we had been at a sure level the place we needed to make it true, however we needed to make it really feel true versus being factually true as a result of we didn’t wish to make it really about the actual, actual black societies and triads. We did it to some extent the place it was right and felt right, however to not the purpose the place we’d get pushed off the roofs of our buildings. That’s a great line to attract, proper? 

DEADLINE: A recurring theme within the present is about discovering your personal place, going up towards household expectations, and creating your personal sense of goal. Bruce, Charles, and Mama are very distinct in what they need from this troubling circumstance that they’re in. How did you go about breaking that? 

WU: One of our huge themes of the present was responsibility to self-versus responsibility to household. Charles is on one finish of it, being very, very dutiful to his household, maintaining his passions a secret out of service to his household. And then however, we’ve Bruce, who may be very a lot pursuing his personal objectives, pushing what his household wants off to the aspect. And it’s when these two issues come collectively and are available to a head that we see the expansion alongside each of them, proper, as a result of Charles pushed his actual self, his personal passions down a lot, he’s lacking part of himself, after which the identical with Bruce. And so we actually needed to push them alongside these paths in the direction of the middle of every one, studying one thing from the opposite. At the identical time, Mama Sun was once so highly effective, and she or he is doing every part for her household. She additionally has to learn to do issues for herself, what she deserves, and what she has earned. It’s about her accepting her energy and her place.

DEADLINE: How did you all handle to seek out the Sun household, Justin Chien, Sam Song Li, and Michelle Yeoh? What qualities did they possess to make them match the roles they performed? 

WU: A variety of credit score goes to our casting director, Jenny Jue. She labored her tail off for us, I imply actually, and she or he discovered some actually wonderful folks. I bear in mind our first assembly together with her; she talked about how she actually needed to discover a bunch of latest faces for the present, and that actually spoke to me. I really feel like, as an Asian American group right here in Hollywood, we’re nonetheless making an attempt to fill out the roster of individuals, and I actually needed to convey out as many individuals into giving them their break as a lot as potential. She discovered actually gifted folks to come back in and do these issues.

I imply, Sam and Justin, I bear in mind we had a chemistry learn between them, and we had been like, “All right, just be brothers. We don’t even need you guys to read the lines. Just hang out for a second.” And they had been simply so pure that like these, just like the second within the automotive in episode two when simply Charles slaps Bruce within the face with a cellphone, these issues simply got here out as a result of these two guys are actually identical to that on a regular basis. They’re a lot enjoyable collectively. They actually do exactly embody the reveals, the connection between these two.

Of course, Michelle’s wonderful. We, in fact, all the time thought Michelle can be wonderful for Mama Sun. We’d by no means assume she’d be accessible or wish to do it. And then, somebody was like, “I mean, we should try, right?” And we’re like, “OK. Yeah, sure, let’s try,” and earlier than I knew it, I used to be sitting throughout the desk from her, and we had been having a dialogue. And it was me, Brad, Kevin, Michelle, and her folks, and we simply bought alongside. We simply frolicked for 3 hours, and it glided by so quick. She’s such a captivating individual, nice to be round, such a professional, and we’re so stoked that she needed to do it.

DEADLINE: What’s season two doubtlessly trying like? 

WU: Listen, we’d like to do season two. Let’s hope we get these Netflix numbers going. And for me, I’m simply hoping we get season two. This is my first, effectively I don’t know, present. I believe my solely different credit score on IMDB is like an AFI quick movie.

DEADLINE: What’s the significance of bringing a present of cultural significance like this to life for you? 

WU: Seeing the joy on my household’s faces once they bought to satisfy Michelle Yeoh or one thing was great, however for me, the factor was with the ability to make it. Being capable of make the factor was a lot enjoyable, and we set to work with such nice folks. Justin Yu, our stunt coordinator and choreographer, he did such an ideal job, and he had a lot nice power on set, and his staff was so skilled and enjoyable to be round. Our digicam guys, our prop folks, they had been all a lot, they love the present, and it’s a lot enjoyable to be round a challenge the place individuals are joyful and excited to indicate up each day and to place within the, you recognize, our hours are, you understand how in manufacturing the hours are loopy.

But I didn’t wish to miss a single second of it. It was so nice. And for me, that’s simply what the objective is all the time: to get again to doing it, getting again to creating it. It’s a lot enjoyable within the writing course of, the manufacturing course of, post-production. It’s the very best time, so I simply wish to get again to it.

The Brothers Sun is now streaming on Netflix

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]