The School of Greatness - 237 Jon Chu on Directing in Hollywood, Creative Storytelling and Chasing Your Dreams

Episode Date: October 7, 2015

"The reason we make and watch movies is to feel connected as a community." - Jon Chu If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and video at http://lewishowes.com/237

This is episode number 237 with director John Chu. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone back to the podcast.

Very excited about this episode. It's with a buddy of mine named John Chu, who's an American film director, film producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer best known for directing the movies Step Up 2, The Streets, Step Up 3D, Justin Bieber's Never Say Never, and G.I. Joe Retaliation. He's an alumni of the University of Southern California School of Cinema Television where he won many awards. And he's currently filming Gem in the Holograms.

And the five things you're going to take away from this, there's going to be a lot of takeaways from this, and I didn't want John to stop because his storytelling is so incredible. But you're going to hear about the story of how Steven Spielberg found one of John's movies while he was still in school and bought another one of his ideas later, how he got into making dance movies, why he will always make movies even when no one pays him, and what he learned about Justin Bieber from making that movie as well. Lots of other incredible stories about creativity, storytelling, and how to live an incredible life.

I think you're going to fall in love with this one as much as I've fallen in love with John. So make sure to check out all the show notes. We'll have some other videos of what John's up to at lewishouse.com slash 237. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive into this episode with the one, the only John Chu. Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got John Chu in the house. What's going on, my man? What's going on? Good to see you, brother.

Good to be here. We met, I think, three years ago, two or three years ago at Yale's house. Yes. Is that where we originally met? I think so. We have a lot of mutual friends, so I'm sure we were in the same area before that, but I think that was the first time we met. Yes, the first time we met.

And I think I was sitting next to you. We were playing like Cards Against Humanity or what we put, Apples to Apples or something. What you. We were playing like Cards Against Humanity. Yes. Or what were we playing? Apples to Apples or something. What was it called? It was Cards Against Humanity. Right? Yeah.

And I think at one point, I didn't know who you were. I was like, cool. This guy's name is John. Like, all right, cool. But it was a great event. It was a great little house party. And we were playing Cards Against Humanity. And I think I remember one of the cards was your name or something.

Was that right? I believe it was my name or one of my movies. Your movie or something? I don't fully remember. It was like the director of something or whatever, right? And you were like, oh, that's me. I was like, what? Who are you?

So let's talk a little bit about who you are. You're a director of – how many movies have you directed? I've directed seven movies now. These are like main feature movies. Yeah, studio features in the last seven years. So about a movie a year. And you're only 35, is that right? Yeah, 35.

But I feel like when you make a movie, you don't feel like that much time has passed. But then you realize, oh, shoot, I'm 35 now. So I feel 28, but really. There you go. now so i feel 28 but really there you go uh but no i've been seven movies different uh genres from documentaries to you know like the justin bieber movie to the step up dance movies to gi joe action films uh so we have a big range of movies that i do and uh but it's been a fun fun ride it's amazing and what's the new movies coming out that you have? Right now, it's an interesting challenge. I'm doing two movies at the same time. I have two very different movies. I have Gem in the Holograms, which is based off of an 80s cartoon.

It's a musical. Teenage girls find fame on the internet. It's all original music. I work with Scooter Braun, who's Justin's manager. You know very well. And it's all original music. Worked with Scooter Braun, who's Justin's manager. You know very well. Of course. And it's a great sort of fun, poppy, young girl story. Is it kind of like Glee?

It has a little bit of Glee-ness to it. But it definitely, you know, it's based off a comic book and cartoon series. So it has a little extra little thing to it. It has a little sci-fi element. There's a robot that speaks beatbox. And there's hologram. I mean, it's a very strange, fun movie. And then the other one that comes out next summer that I'm working on at the same time right now is Now You See Me 2, which is a sequel to a couple years ago. A movie came out, Now You See Me.

It has Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine. It's a huge cast. Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg. And the whole cast is coming back, right? They're all coming back, and we've added a few new people people like Lizzie Kaplan and Daniel Radcliffe is in it. Really? So, yeah. Wow.

It's a fun cast, big cast, and it's all magic. I love it. Now You See Me was great, in my opinion. All the magic. It's so fun, right? It was sort of a sleeper hit a couple years ago and made tons of money all around the world. Huge global audience. And you weren't directing the first one.

I didn't do the first one. Louis Leterrier, who is a master of that stuff, did that first one. So coming in is a little bit of a challenge. You've got to find your own voice in it, but not stir it up so much that it's a different movie. But we actually have a very different take. We get to go to the other side of the curtain

and get to know these magicians more. When you have that caliber of cast, you can sort of let them go and they create some really great things and we had a great a group of magicians who helped us out so you've got like the top magicians in the world right like mentalists we had uh uh we had cardistry guys we had sleight of hand guys we're all like around a table creating magic tricks of how these magicians can escape this you know this magic trap uh and it's a it's a fun environment so everyone's learning magic um all the time so yeah and so a lot of these guys the professionals are they coming in

and actually doing the tricks on film is it their hands that are like flipping the you know throwing the cards and doing like the crazy we try? We try not to do that actually. These actors are so involved in their craft that they want to learn how to throw cards. So Dave Franco got so good at throwing cards. And Jesse Eisenberg and Mark Ruffalo, they wanted to like get in there. Woody Harrelson who learned mentalism and can go into a any like place and uh and do some of these the he could actually do it yeah he can actually do it it's pretty amazing holy cow uh you know of course some of the more super skilled stuff yeah you know it's a

movie so we try to do some of those things but making a magic movie is tough because you want to show the audience that you're not faking anything that this is like so you can't cut around stuff you can't do camera tricks so we try to do everything as practical as possible uh and so you'll see that in the movie you'll feel that in the movie even if you don't fully notice it i think when you go back and watch the movie you realize we actually did these tricks interesting i love it yeah so you went to usc correct uh yeah film school to us yeah right down the street now you can actually see it down here, right? You can see it in my window. On a good day.

On a good day, it's a little hazy. I see a little bit. It's my dorm room, right? There you go. And I read online that you, you know, Steven Spielberg, he found one of your videos or one of your movies. Is that right? Yeah, it was a very interesting period of time. It was in school.

I'd done a couple of shorts. I got some attention. But, you know, you're in school. This is 19, no, this is yeah um so there was no youtube so nothing could go sort of viral online um but the uh so you had to go hustle around the difference hustle around a little bit but i'd done a short film that was a musical um about the secret life of mothers it was very strange i don't know why I'm not a dancer myself. I don't sing.

I, you know, a few drinks, maybe I'll get up on the karaoke bar, but that's about it. But I love dancers and I love singers. I love being around them. And they were all my friends. So they're the only ones who would help me out when I had the camera.

So I somehow fell into that world. But so I made a short film and it got around town. And you could only get like a VHS or DVD copy of it. And somehow, I didn't send it to Steven Spielberg. I didn't look for that. It somehow ended up on his desk. And I just one day got a call from my agent who said, you know, rumor has it that Steven Spielberg has seen your short.

And I don't know what it means. This was a Friday night. He's like, I don't know what it means, but just know that you heard that. We're not sure if it's true or not. I was like, okay. But of course, all weekend long, I'm thinking about it.

What does that even mean? How does that? And then- You were like 21, 22 at the time. Yeah, I'm 22 at the time, yeah. And so then I get a call from my agent the next day. And he's like, hey, just so so you know i know it's saturday but i've been getting i was like with my family but i got all these calls from steven's like agents

and people and he really wants to sit down with you tomorrow at his house on a sunday on a sunday i was like uh yeah there i'm playing it totally cool oh Oh, let me check my calendar. Meanwhile, I'm jumping up and down, going crazy. He's up in the hills or Bel Air or somewhere. He's got some – Exactly. So we call back and we actually – it ends up being on the Monday. Okay. But I go into his office and he was totally cool.

It was just me and him. We talked for a couple hours. It wasn't just like a fast, hey, great thing. Here's my card. I'll call you. it was more uh we talked about musicals we talked about movies we talked about all sorts of things and he was uh he was genuinely interested and genuinely present he brought in his other um his other sort of lieutenants at the dreamworks at the time um and uh and at that point i remember thinking my only goal was to get a second meeting. Like, that's my only thing.

This whole, whatever happens, stay focused on getting a second meeting. So, like, I was like, oh, you know, we have this. He's like, what do you want to do? Do we have projects? And, you know, he's really involved with USC funding it and stuff. So, I think he, there's a sense of pride there, too. Yeah, he wanted to give back and support. Exactly. So I was like, well, I have a short

I mean, a feature that I've been writing with my buddy and Jason Russell who actually started Invisible Children. But at that time, we were both in film school together. So we said, I said, yeah, I have this thing. And he's like, oh, I'd love to hear it. I was like, oh, I have it ready.

And he's like, oh, let's meet this week. I was like, perfect. So I second-meeted. Totally made that happen. So I went back to my apartment. And Jason was there because he was excited just to hear about what happened. No idea that I pitched this thing. Wow.

That was only really half together, to be honest. You're like, we're going to do this now. We had talked about it over a beer, I think, at one point. Wow. So we're like, oh, shit, we have four days to write this thing together. So him, his now wife, Danica, and myself, we just stayed up all night for four days doing this thing. And I'd never done a pitch before. And so on that Friday, or I think it was a Friday, we go into DreamWorks and sitting at the table for my first pitch ever is Steven Spielberg, Walter Parks, Laurie McDonald, his wife.

They were sort of the heads of DreamWorks at the time. We had Adam Goodman, who was at that time an executive at DreamWorks. He eventually becomes the president of Paramount. There's a whole other story about that. And we had Mike DeLuca as well. And Steven Spielberg. So this room was like the powerhouse. And so we come in there, these young, never done a pitch before, and we bring in this chest of costumes and pictures.

And so we start pitching the story. And every time we go to a new scene, we have pictures and hat changes and costume changes. I mean, it is the most ridiculous thing. It's probably like, who are these guys? It's like the scene in Moulin Rouge where they're putting on the outfits and they're running out and coming back in. I mean, they must have been laughing after. Now looking back, it is so embarrassing. But they were very gracious.

They listened to the whole hour performance of this thing. They bought it. Really? And so. So it worked. So it worked somehow. I don't know what happened. Out of pity, maybe.

Yes. Yes. But just, and we never actually made it, but we did set it up there and we developed it for years. But just the fact that Stephen would reach out and make that kind of notice and take the time means a lot in the business. Everybody paid attention. Nobody knew who I was. So that sort of pushed me into the world, into the real world here. So that was a very interesting time.

But what was interesting too was, so Jason Russell was supposed to leave for Sudan at the time, because he wanted to do this documentary about Sudan. This was before Invisible Children, where he started, it was about Ugandan children. So he, I was like,

why are you leaving right now? We just pitched to Steven Spielberg. He's like, I am meant you leaving right now we just pitched steven spielberg he's like i am meant to go right now i know i'm like he's like i went to film school obviously this is our dream but i'm like i feel like i need to do this trip yeah i feel called and i was like okay bro but this is the whole like you go to film school to get this opportunity to get steven spielberg to be on your team yeah totally didn't understand him leaving. But he left. He's like, just keep me updated. And while he's there, I call him when our deal closes.

I'm like, dude, we got it. We're doing this. I was like, come back. He's like, I just met these kids in Uganda, and I made a promise to them that I would tell their story, and I can't leave. Oh, my goodness. And that's sort of what started Invisible Children

and that sort of 12, year journey of uh of them and so for me seeing how that company was born um was was two paths sort of diverged in a moment and that's how i know that's why i love jason so much and know his his heart um and all that stuff but it was very interesting because we had, we started the very same place of a film school and we, we get along creatively and all that stuff. He did this obviously thing for his bigger purpose, which is great. But he could have been a big director like you if you would have stayed in it and you guys would have made movies together or he would have done his own

thing. It's interesting. It's interesting that he would have the courage to leave and go do something he had no idea what was going to come from when he had the biggest opportunity of his life. It was insane. It's an insane decision. And I wish people, I wish I'd filmed that moment. I wish he could, I wish other people could have seen those conversations because I had

no idea what he was talking about. Wow. You're going to go to this unknown and make this promise to a kid that you met. That you don't know. It's a little town that you don't know. And do you know how long that could be? And do you know that you probably won't even be able to fulfill that promise? And he's like, yeah, but I have to try.

And that was it. It was very simple for him. There was no like, ooh, maybe, maybe if I. He was like, no, there's no way. Amazing. That's inspiring. That was really inspiring. I always think about that moment in my life when those things come up, even when little things, not even things that big.

Although that didn't feel that big at that moment of him making that decision other than you're losing a huge opportunity. Yeah. But you realize those little choices, the way you see the world or the way you see your path can affect your whole life. And so I always think about how brave he was to do that. That's cool. Do you think that you'd be where you're at now if you didn't have that opportunity with Spielberg then? You'd be making features and doing everything you've done?

Or is that kind of the catalyst that really... It definitely was the catalyst to get me into the studio world. I don't doubt that I wouldn't be making movies. Maybe it wouldn't be movie movies. Maybe it would be TV shows. Maybe it would be making movies. Maybe it wouldn't be movie movies. Maybe it would be TV shows. Maybe it would be wedding videos. Maybe it would be whatever. But since I was in third grade, I've always made movies on my own.

And I know for a fact whether getting paid for it or not, I would always do that. And I will always do that in the future. My movies may all bomb and I may never get another movie in Hollywood ever again. But I know I'll still be making stuff. Right. That's just in my future. Yeah. My movies may all bomb and I may never get another movie in Hollywood ever again, but I know I'll still be making stuff. Right. That's just in my nature and that's just what I'm doing. And everything I read online

that your parents, you grew up in San Francisco area, right? Yeah, Palo Alto. Palo Alto. And your parents would give you the camera to film

going on vacation or whatever, but you decided to make movies instead of filming the moments that you're supposed to film, right?

Yes. Yeah, I mean, when you give a kid a camera, what are you supposed to like make movies instead of filming like the moments that you're supposed to film right yes yeah i mean when you give a kid a camera what are you supposed to do i'm just bored on these vacations they were so great they you know they came from china my mom came from taiwan um into the bay area they didn't know a word of english wow and uh and they wanted to give everything to the kids so we so they met in the Area, but they started a little restaurant. It's been there for 46 years now. It's like a famous restaurant now, right? Yeah, it's been there for so long. What's it called? It's called Chef Chews. It's in Los Altos, which is next to Stanford. So at the center of the Silicon Valley before it was called the Silicon Valley, and they grew with the neighborhood. And we got the benefit of growing with that neighborhood as well, being in that environment where the engineer was celebrated.

Nobody was rich and famous. It was just about like, what are you making and how is that changing the world or how is that affecting how we live? And they were crazy ideas from people riding around in electric cars in the 90s to people bringing in software. You could see them working at lunch right at their at their desk and i got the benefit of having um you know they would find out oh chef chu's son likes to make these home videos you know we have this uh computer that we're working on now that can do like dissolves and interesting things with video and so they would bring in their beta computers and adobe would bring in their software, all like testing mode, all beta mode with no manuals. And they would give it to my dad to give to me.

And you'd be like editing videos on there. Literally, I would just have to sit there and be like, how do I do this and figure it out? So I was ahead by a lot in those times. And that was, you know, you're sort of grown by your community. That was definitely something that was very rare and weird. And looking back um i just was very lucky to be in that environment at the time but they gave my parents were always giving to the kids i'm the youngest of five kids uh and they said they never let us work at the restaurant really always said uh they didn't want us to get used to fast cash they're like do everything we couldn't do first like go after the things that you won't be able to do later one day possibly just like explore

and so they put us in music classes dance classes we went to i did animation school i did theater we did sports camps we did we traveled so every year we would travel as well and uh and that's where my that's sort of where i got the video camera at first and then would make little mini movies with my brothers and sisters who didn't really want to do the movies. You're like, we're doing this. And I had a lot of toys. So I am convinced that my toy collection, I get passed down all the toys from my brothers and sisters. And I would figure out ways to convince my parents to get me that extra special toy. And I'd have week-long adventures in my backyard.

And I'm convinced that that's where I actually learn filmmaking and storytelling. Amazing. What is it about film that you love the most? Is it the idea creation of, I've got this idea for a great story? Is it the actual filming? Is it working with the cast and the crew?

Is it the post-production? Is it when it filming? Is it working with the cast and the crew? Is it the post-production? Is it when it's finally out there and you get the reaction of the 13-year-old girls who are watching Justin Bieber movies screaming and crying next to you in the movie theater? You're like, how did I create something where people are crying their eyes out? You know? Yes. You know, something – before you answer that, I watched the Never Say Never movie like three or four times. And every time I cried, man, during the grandparent section, I was like, this is unbelievable what this kid has gone through. You should have seen me behind the camera.

I was also crying. I was shaking. Yeah, luckily I wasn't holding the camera. But no, those moments are really genuine in that. It's amazing. And I genuinely grew to love the kid because I did not – I can't call him the kid anymore. The man, Justin Bieber, because I didn't know too much going into that movie. But I wanted to make the movie about someone who didn't know anything about him and learning step by step who this person is.

You see this person on YouTube and they come across as, oh, there's just a pop star. see this person on youtube and they come across oh there's just a pop star but then when you actually go back you see he's a boy that has extreme talent and you recognize that boy as someone that either you know or that you were and you follow him on his journey and i think that was the inspirational part for me it was it's a fairy tale yeah in a way and it's actually happening in real time it was unbelievable i mean the storytelling i mean i guess you weren't really telling the story you were just sharing the story of it was just incredible i mean the way you put that that movie must have had some big records too right did it sell extremely well yeah it did uh it did super well uh made 100 million dollars wide and for something that was supposed to be just a

concert movie you know we were like well let's tell's tell, let's make a real documentary about this kid's life. Let's make a biography, but the music, not just be concert songs, but actually be a musical documentary. So when words aren't enough, the music helps tell that story. We recontextualize his music that sounds like, oh, that's just about first love. It's actually about him, you know, falling in love with the business at that time when he came into la or or that's about the deal that he made with whatever so that was really fun to flip his music and say let's make how would you use that in a musical about his life and uh that's how we sort of format it would that would you say what was the big movie you did before that and i want to get

back to you answer the question a second but what was the big movie you did before that uh right before that i'd done two step-up movies so i did step up to the streets and step up 3d okay uh and so because of my 3d efforts on uh step up they knew they wanted to do the justin thing in 3d uh so adam goodman who i had met at that original meeting with steven had at that point this was like four or five years later you know maybe six years later become the president of paramount and so he had this on his desk and he had known we had always talked about doing a project we never actually got there actually making a project so he called me and said hey i have a you know we always wanted to work together i want you to bring you over to paramount but i have this project first that i need help on and he like, it has to come out in like six or seven months.

He's like, I have no idea what to do with it. And it's in 3D. So have you ever heard of this guy, Justin Bieber? I was like, I don't know. He's like, that song, Baby? I was like, oh yeah, that Baby song. Okay. And so then I went home and I started watching YouTube videos.

I just wanted to get a sense of who, first I was like, I don't do concert movies. There's no, I don't know what I would do with this so then i go home and start watching the youtube videos and you can actually go to his first video he ever posted and you can go to the first comment of the first video ever posted you can go to the second comment you can go to the third comment and in real time you can read how this thing unfolded you can go to that second video that fourth video and you can go to those comments and you that fourth video, and you can go to those comments. And you're literally tracking this. And it's like you're going back in time. Wow.

And I thought that was so surreal to experience the story in that way. I was like, if we can bring this type of thing into a movie, I thought that was really interesting. You guys did a brilliant job with that, too. In the introduction, I remember seeing the comments showing up and the views going up. That's actually how I first saw him because they sent me an email with the link. So actually, I remembered they didn't send me to. It was my friend, actually. It was probably like six months prior.

And I had forgotten about this. But when I was making the movie, I remembered that I got an email saying, hey, check this. You always get emails of like, check this cat out. Like the sneezing panda. And then I remember getting this email and then clicking it and be like, oh, you always get emails of like, check this cat out, like the sneezing Panda. And then, and I remember getting this email and then clicking it and be like, Oh, it's another person seeing on YouTube.

And then all of a sudden watching the whole thing and be like, Whoa, this kid is amazing. Yeah. And I didn't know that. How old was he then? At that time he was 14, 13. And I,

I, and, uh, never connected with that guy being Justin Bieber. So I was like, that's how I want to start the movie. I want to start the movie with, you could be anybody getting any sort of link. And when you click on this, you're going to see a kid that blows you away.

And you don't know what he becomes. But I'm going to show you what he becomes. I just got chills when you said that. I was going back to the movie. I remember that whole unfolding of that. That was a key element for us of how we wanted to tell that story. And I remember pitching this to Scooter at the time. This is how I'm going to start the movie.

I'm sort of painting the whole picture. What do you think about it? I remember just silence. And he looked at me and he's like, I like that. So he didn't pitch it to you. You didn't know Scooter at this time. No, I didn't really know. So Adam said, I want you to do this movie.

I said, I'm open to it. He's like, well, you have to talk to his manager first. I was like, okay. He's like – he's this like 25-year-old kid. Right. I'm like, wait, I'm older than him. Wow. This is going to be really weird.

So I called – Scooter called me and we got on the phone and he was like, I just want to say that you've done some – because the Step Up movies were distributed by Disney. He's like, you've done a bunch of Disney stuff. I just want to tell you that I don't think Justin's a Disney person, and this is not a Disney-type movie, so I'm not quite sure you're the right person. Wow. I was like, okay. All right, good. I like an honest person here in Hollywood. You don't get that very often.

So I laid it on the table. I was like, listen, bro. Well, first of all, he said oh and you're in you're a dancer and that's not really what this is about i'm like one i'm not a dancer to the fact that you think i'm a dancer is great because when i do my movies i i i jump into that world and and you should think i'm a dancer by seeing that movie um and uh and i'm like i totally understand that but most of my movies whether it's dance or you know or music or action um it's they're fairy tales they're actually just sort of these parables and fairy tales that use these things as our language um and so in this one this would be music so i pitched him sort of this concept of i want to tell the story with the

musical documentary part of it and by the end of the conversation there's like an hour and a half conversation uh he's like all right you're the man and we became like best friends since then and i introduced him to his wife wow you did yeah i did yeah wow so how did that happen he told me like saw her on twitter one day or something yeah she had tweeted me something then he called me he was like who's that shut up i was like oh you know she's coming into town you should meet her um and it didn't work out at that point we were doing a justin's tour for believe at the point uh the timing didn't work out but then the next time he called me uh next time time she was in town and she was looking for a house because she was moving to L.A. And then I got a call from Scooter.

He's like, I think I just saw that girl from Twitter. He's like hard stalking her. I'm like, bro, you've got to meet. He's like, I'm leaving town tomorrow. You've got to meet today. And so I email them both and say, say you know it's hard to find great people in la i mean i have these emails it's really funny and i said you guys gotta meet uh and you gotta do it today and because they're really he was leaving tomorrow yeah he's leaving

next day and then i sort of left it at that uh i was like oh and i'm getting off this chain so i don't want to know and then like two weeks later i get a call from scooter i don't even i don't call again i just leave it at that. Who knows what happens? Everyone is very busy. Sure, sure. Then he calls me and he's like, hey, I'm in Paris. I'm like, great.

He's like, someone wants to talk to you. Shut up. And it's – yeah, I'm like, oh, it's still going. You're on a vacation. So that's sort of how it all unfolded. That's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy yeah it's nuts that's unbelievable okay so i want to get back to the original question what i asked before we went on this tangent yes uh what's your favorite part about making a film and you call it a film or a movie

what's the technical term it could go either way flick uh i say i see film i say movie okay um you know i think what's even in our conversation leading up to this question, I think what I originally thought intellectually, you're like, I love making movies to tell the thing that's in my heart. And of course, every movie, you have to find that, what you want to say in this. It's a very rare opportunity to have the microphone, as you know. And when you do get that opportunity, you want to make sure you're using it for something that's good. It's powerful and inspiring. Yes, powerful. Exactly.

But the reality, too, as I get older and as I do more and more, it's really, I think it's about the people that you meet. And it's about the people that you learn about, whether it's actors learning about quirks and egos and how someone ticks and what makes you ticks tick what what gets you to uh uh find something in a story or find something in a moment or discover something about emotion when you're dealing with the scene it really actually is a very uh sort of meditative thing because you get to explore every aspect of life that you probably would never get to experience in other ways right and you get to be connected with people and also your cinematographer also your editors you're sitting there day after day not seeing your family or friends you're going through ups and downs you're going through notes you're going through frustrations you're going through triumphs deleting stuff constantly deleting things starting back and then going way back to

the beginning like maybe we were right on our first instinct that journey it's like giving birth every time to a new child and it's painful it must be sore man

and it's sore yes and when you're doing twins it's even harder oh man you've got two movies right now

yeah but when you come out of it you come out a different person and you come out of experiences that literally you could not have experienced or you know that could not have been possible in any other way. And you feel stronger and you feel more connected with other people as well. And ultimately that comes down to the reason we make movies, the reason we watch movies is to feel connected as a community. So I think the more I go through it, that's really what drives me.

Sure. I think the more I go through it, that's really what drives me. Sure. Since you were 20, since your first film that was on, you know, in theaters, or when was that first film? What year was that? That was 2008. So there was this period of time when after the Steven Spielberg stuff, after getting connected to a big movie at Sony, the Steven Spielberg stuff after getting connected to a big movie at Sony. I got connected to like five movies at different places,

studios around a town from Warner Brothers, Sony to all these places. But I actually didn't make a movie for five years. I didn't make anything for five. I would develop those movies. You know, you work with the writers to get it into shape. It's called development hell.

It's not, it's not producing. That's, that's developing. That's developing your, I mean, you're attached to direct. So when those movies get greenlit, you're the director.

But as a director, that's part of your job is to shepherd the project. But you can shepherd something for 10 years. You can shepherd something for 11 years and never go out. Oh, my goodness. So those five years

as a 22-year-old kid coming into this world and sort of coming in with a bang and then actually not making movies for five years. Half a decade. And every year goes by. You're like, no, no, this next year. We're almost there.

We're like so close on this project. You're like questioning and doubting yourself. Absolutely. People are questioning you. People are like, oh, yeah, that's that kid. Five years ago did something but hasn't done squat or whatever. Wow. So you feel that pressure.

You feel that I went through a lot going through there. But I survived and you persevere through that. You have, you know, great friends and great family who are there to keep you on your feet during that point. And, and so my first movie was,

so actually what happened was I got a script and it was a direct to DVD movie. It was a direct to DVD movie, a sequel to a dance movie. And I said, no, I was like, Oh, I don't do, I don't do direct to DVD, butVD movie sequel to a dance movie and I said no I was like oh I don't do I don't do direct-to-DVD

but you haven't even done a movie yet I haven't done a movie yet for some reason I thought so then I called my mom and she's like when did you become a snob oh

and I was like what do you mean yeah I know it was a wake-up call and she said you say you're a storyteller but storytellers can tell it in a commercial

a TV show in a movie a direct-to-DVD. It doesn't matter if you're true. And you've never had the chance to even show yourself. You're like an NBA player that got recruited on a team. Sitting on the bench. But you've been sitting on the bench. So here's your two minutes.

You're not even in the D-League yet. Exactly. And this maybe is the D-League, and you've got two minutes. Go show what you can do. Prove it. Wow. And I realized, yeah, she's right. I'm going gonna make the

best damn direct-to-dvd dance movie sequel ever so we went in there and said the script sucks but we're gonna change all this all this the studio which was summit um disney had distributed the feature but summit was doing just the direct-to-dvd they said uh they said yes go ahead and do that um two weeks later got a call from disney or Aviv over there said, you know, we want to hear. We heard that John was attached, that we want to hear now what that version is. So we go in and pitch. 20 minutes later, he says, we have a slot in February for you. It's going to be a feature.

And your budget went from $5 million to $20. Wow. And he says, as long as you can deliver it in eight months eight or nine months uh and i didn't know how long it takes to make a real movie so i said yeah of course and so we were like in production two months after waiting all those years we were now starting with no script and i had to shoot in like two months and deliver a movie in those eight months uh but that's how i got my first movie and it made over $150 million worldwide and all that stuff.

So it worked out very well. It was a step up too? It was a step up to the streets, yeah. $100 million worldwide. $150 million worldwide. I mean, what's a good movie make right now these days? Like is $100 million, is that a grade? Is like the top 10%?

Well, it depends what your budget is. Our movie was $20 million. So when you- Multiply that much, that's pretty good, right? That's pretty good. Yeah movie was $20 million. So when you – Multiply that much. That's pretty good, right? That's pretty good. Yeah. There's marketing costs and things in there.

But beyond that, we multiplied our thing by a lot. It's not bad. So it was good. And we made – I mean, I think they made like five more step-up movies since then. So I think that was – Amazing. So you took a chance and it paid off. It sounds like.

Good. And I got to show off what i did but also learn yeah it was a great um it was a great platform to learn how to make a studio movie because when you make studio movies there's other agendas you've got to deal with uh a studio you've got to deal with uh marketing you've got to deal with um all the things that come with it right because you have a responsibility to uh these are putting you know millions and millions of dollars which the biggest thing i had done was like fifteen thousand dollars so and you actually learn how to work with a crew a bigger crew that you can't do everything for you know before i was like editing and doing doing the sound and doing the thing but um now

you're directing everyone else god it's just sort of like uh trust and learn how to communicate actually better wow yeah what would you say is the movie that you grew the most during that you were producing or directing? And what movie was that? Well, every movie is very different. The reason I take movies is usually some sort of thing that I've never done before. A challenge. Yes, exactly. I think life is too short.

You spend so much time on these things, and you literally don't see your regular friends. Yeah, yeah. The good ones stick around. We've been trying to do this for like two years. Yeah, it's true. It's true. And you get sucked into this weird world,

and so you want to make sure that it means something to you, ultimately. Not just to make money or whatever. Not just to make money. I mean, some people can do that. Every filmmaker, again, has their own journey, whether they want to make those five films and that's it, or they want to say that one thing and that's it, or they never want to touch a studio movie.

Studio movies are not for everybody. But for me, I grew up in an environment where movies were a celebration. Movies were where we'd all go to the movies and get scared or laugh or um or or feel something that that we wanted to get out of our system so although i love the community of going to watch a movie yeah um when people would boo at the screen or cheer at the hero yeah so those are the type of movies i love and i love to create um and so each movie i take is usually something crazy like step up to the street that was really to prove myself and i knew dancers so that was fun to go do and learn the language of dance more than i had known especially street dance which i didn't

wasn't as familiar with met a bunch of great people step up to a step 3d we shot in new york so that was like a dream for any filmmaker shoot shoot in New York. And I had met a bunch of dancers. This is actually in New York, not a Paramount, fake New York. No, this is like on the streets in New York. It was awesome. We shot all around town, Washington Square Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station. We picked all the

best places. Amazing. And we have dancers after dancers. We have hundreds of dancers and dancers that I met along the way that I was like, oh, that person's really interesting. I'd never seen that on film before. So we could reverse engineer some characters and stuff like that. That's cool. But I got to learn 3D.

This was before Avatar was out. Wow. And then what came out? So Never Say Never, the documentary, which I'd never done a documentary before. And being on tour with somebody is a very different feel. So two months on tour? It was like a month on. It was actually, we had done some prep stuff, so I guess it was probably mounted to two months. But actually shooting was about a month. And that was really

fun because you could be there for all the intensity, but get out before it went too crazy. And then G.I. Joe was a huge leap after that because it was a big 125 million dollar the rock was on that right the rock bruce willis channing tatum was also in that so we have a big cast what was that like uh that was awesome the rock is the coolest person he's one of the guys i've been trying to get on since the beginning of the show he's one of like the three guys i really want to get on he is everything you is everything you want your hero to be. He is. He's so kind and badass.

The same time. No apologies. Funny as hell. That's awesome. He aspires for perfection, so it pushes you as well. But he'll text me. I remember when we were about to release the movie like things like this is your time john let's do this shit like random text yes

yeah we're gonna do this so uh he's he is he's everything that he wow that you think he is that's who he truly is i don't doubt that he's going to be president of the united states his ambition is big and his uh and his heart is big and you can feel it in everything he does amazing focused so um that's cool so it's 150 million dollars that was 125 million dollar movie wow which is uh daunting and big explosions and thousands of extras and uh you're dealing with a franchise that's been around so there's a lot of pressure from whether it's hasbro or paramount or wherever so there's a lot of responsibility over that fanboys that you know wanted a very specific way sure sure uh so i learned a lot in that um and uh

and then we did another justin bieber movie which really fun. But I got to do his live show this time, his actual concert tour. And that was a great experience because it sort of broadened my view of like, you don't have all the control when you're doing a show because the artist is on stage and you can't edit anything. They're doing what they're doing. But that was fun to work with Justin at that time. And then with Jem, we did this movie for very little. We did it through with Jason Blum, who does all these, um,

uh, horror films for like less than $5 million. So to do a big, uh, musical for $5 million is, uh, a challenge, but I get full creative control and it was really fun.

So I'm sort of using all that stuff. And, but I got to use all my friends from film school and we got to build something that's very personalized and shoot in LA. And then Now You See Me was a big daunting thing because you have a cast that is on another level. You're working with

legends, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, even Jesse Eisenberg, who I really respect a lot, Mark Ruffalo. These guys are legends, if not already, in the making. And Woody Harrelson, he plays twins in the movie. So there's a lot of challenges in that as well. But every single one, I think, you learn about

not just the process, because the trade of making movies, but you can hire a lot of people who know those trades better and you can rely on them. But about more about how I handle how you, how you stay on your vision or you, how you create a collected collective vision, uh, without being,

uh, without being a committee movie, you know, so that, um, and how you get what you want and how you protect the things that you need to protect and fight the things that you need to avoid. So, yeah.

How do you I mean, so you go into every movie with your own vision. How do you enroll thousands of cast members potentially in these bigger movies in that vision as opposed to them all saying, you know, the big legendary actors were like, oh, I want to do it this way. Or what do you think about this, John? Or, you know, how about we add this in there? How do you stay focused towards a vision with all that power and people pulling you different directions? Yeah. I've dealt with it in different ways for different movies. And I think I'm still learning the best way possible.

You look at other leaders and you look at people like our president or you look at other CEOs of how they run their business. Some people do it through fear. Some people do it through communication and love. Some people do it through understanding. There's so many different ways. And all are effective, to be honest. It's sort of what fits your own style and the kind of life you want to live as well. Because as a director, I could scare the shit out of people right and make big do big

tantrums and leave the room and quit and get what i want and that would be actually really darn effective and sometimes i do want to do that wrong but i don't really want to live that life yeah uh i think life is bigger than those things and um you know that affects your energy anyway and i just choose not to do that uh and i do think that um like a computer like a multi-processor as a group as long as you're choosing the right things there's a lot of great ideas that can be mined and those things together have a synergy that one person could never create sure and uh and so i love that idea but as i I get through it, I think the most important thing I've learned about communicating the vision or getting a unified vision is literally just one by one. It's too daunting to think like, oh, I need to make sure everybody, we have that scene in the right place.

I need to like send, blast out this email that like cuts down their ideas and gets to the vision. It's literally like it's one by one sitting down, talking to someone, looking them in the eye and saying, let me understand your concerns here. Most people have concerns for the right reasons. They may not have the right answer and you may not have the right answer. But as long as you have the same goal of trying to fix this concern of like, I'm just not feeling this character. You know, some person could say, well, can you cut this scene? I think you listened more of the note of, oh, what does it mean that they don't feel this character, which means they actually don't care about what they or they don't know

what they want in this movie, which means it's not about that scene. It's about two scenes before that. And so by communicating with that actor, it's like, you know what, I think it's actually this point in the scene where you open your diary and we see exactly what you want. So by this point later, we'll be rooting for you instead of not knowing why you even want that thing. And I think it goes, it's a much more effective way. It takes a lot more time and a lot more energy and a lot more back and forth but it's a much more i think healthier way sure uh but also you that process of finding it makes you connect with that actor with that producer with the studio much more um and it is a harder process much harder than just saying suck it up do your job let's go yes i always say i would do i would make movies for free if you gave me a camera and actors like let's go i'll do it all all day long. I can eat ramen all day long.

It doesn't matter. What I get paid for is dealing with the politics and doing that job, which I, you know, which is also part of storytelling. It's also a part about understanding why you want to tell the story or why, well, why other,

someone else wants it. Everyone came to this story for a different reason. And by understanding the purpose that everyone came here for, you may not be able to fulfill that for every single person but you can find your balance of of of how you want to fulfill those things and maybe they have a purpose that is actually bigger than yours that you jump on yeah yeah what would you say is the biggest lesson you've learned about yourself through in the last 15 years of doing movies? The most important lesson you've learned. That I learned about myself? Gosh, there's so many things. Every movie you probably learned 20 new things about yourself.

Yes, but I think the one that has allowed me to survive the most is that I have really great family and friends. And I don't know why that happened. I don't know. I didn't purposely do that. I'm attracted to really great, good people. And for some reason, they believe in me. And for some reason, when I am not as good of a friend,

sometimes they're still there for me. And for some reason, when things are down, they know suddenly, randomly to call and to just keep me going. Because those are the people, those are the only people who really count when you're, you know, at your deathbed. Right. And you've wrapped up your life here. And so, you know, you don't appreciate your friends and your family all the time or how lucky you are to have those people. your family all the time or how lucky you are to have those people.

But I think there's no way I could be doing what I'm doing without those people having to help me in that. And I've relied on that actually now much more. And I can count on that more. Where I sort of before was like, I don't need it. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. You can do it on your own.

Yeah, yeah. What would you say you're most grateful for recently in your life? You know, I'm always grateful for, like I said, friends and family. I think that that is the most powerful thing. You can have all the money in the world. You can have all the support in the world. But that is what keeps you up. But recently, I think I'm grateful that I get the opportunity

to do what I love someone was like aren't you going to take a vacation you've done a movie every year you need a vacation and I'm sure you feel the same way if you're doing what you love this is vacation you don't need to get away for anything

there's nothing to get away from if I went somewhere on an island which I love do, I'd still be thinking about things. The only way to go there is to think about things. So I feel very lucky because I don't think everybody gets that opportunity and I don't think everyone gets to even really find what they love or even want. When I was a kid, I was lucky when I was a kid to somehow fall upon the thing that I would love and that would give me a voice because I was a shy kid. Well, sometimes a shy kid. Most of the time, a shy kid in front of public people in my home was probably really annoying. But I didn't have a voice.

I liked to draw. It wasn't the best drawer. I loved to be on stage but wasn't great at being on stage. I loved to animate stuff. I wasn't great at that. Like to play songs wasn't great at playing those songs. But film, I understood those things, which could help my film, but that's what I could speak. And that's, to me, what saved my life and gave me a voice.

And I feel very lucky that I found that in third grade. Amazing. I never doubted it. Amazing. I never doubted it. Amazing. What's the movie that you've been inspired by the most that you wish you would have? You'd be like, man, that would have been a great story to tell. What's the movie that you're like, man, you could watch over and over? Well, Goodfellas I watch a lot before making a movie because I feel like it's such a unique vision.

I could never make that movie. Literally, the subject matter, the world, the tone tone it's just not my style anyway but i love watching it because it reminds me that a scene can be a scene but the way you shoot a scene is the scene and uh and so i love it inspires me every time that you it makes you pushes you to look at your script and say, this is just the beginning of what you should be doing. And that E.T., of course, is one of my first movies that I ever watched. It has a lot of influence. I love – it's an honest story, but it has a magical twist to it. And I love that.

What's the movie that you were so excited to watch that let you down where you were like, oh, it could have been told in this way and it would have been the best movie ever? Oh, that's tough. That is tough. Whether it may be a story you already knew about or a character that you were excited to see what they created. Yes. I mean, I hate judging movies, especially being in the movie business now. Of course. Because it's a miracle that movies get made in the first place and I don't think anyone ever intends

to make a shitty movie and even if you think it's shitty probably other people find other things in it even our step up movies they may not be the academy award winning movies and we may have a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes but I'm telling you there's a lot of people

who became dancers because of that or people who watch that stuff over and over again. It plays on ABC Family every time. People, there is a spirit to it that goes beyond a review for it. So it's really hard for me to, and when people judge your movie, you know, everyone has the right to do that. It's just like music. It's a very

personal thing. Everyone feels like an expert because they are an expert in their world of it. But I try to avoid judging a movie. What's the one you thought could have gone a different direction that would have made it, in your mind,

more powerful? Maybe for other people they thought it was great, but in your mind, could have told a different story. I would say put y'all on the spot here this is really on the spot um i'm trying to remember i'm trying i'm trying to think of a movie that i've all the movies i've seen recently have been pretty darn amazing um i mean i just saw x mackinac was awesome so so good that's a movie that i was i'd be like i want to make that movie um i watch a lot of movies i go to the grove like or arc light you know once or twice a week at least which one do you think oh man that's good yeah it's not so easy i have to think and go back to the archives i think maybe like um captain america or something the first one or the i'm thinking the first one yeah the second one was great even like wolverine i was like it was good but i felt like it could

have been even more epic yeah i don't know some of those characters i'm like uh ugh. There's so many things. When you look at Avengers, there's so many things that it has to serve at a certain point. These companies are owned by conglomerates now, and they have bigger purposes than just the movie itself. You look at even Cars. It's John Lasseter. It's Cars. It should be a genius movie. I don't love Cars as much as the other Pixar movies.

I mean, they have a high bar to hit. So it's still a good movie. And John Lasseter is a genius. So how does that – but you see the toy sales, and they make way more toy sales than any other product. They have more than Toy Story, licensing than any other product they have more than toy story more than any of those things and so in a way these movies are more like commercials for those toys yeah um so you know there's there's a lot of different agendas in movies nowadays than what they used how does negotiating work i want to ask a few more questions uh i feel like i could do this

for another hour with you but how many how does the negotiating work for you right now when you're working on a movie that's a $5 million movie that you just did compared to a $125 million movie? Is it a flat rate? Is it a flat rate plus commission on how the movie does? How does that work for most directors? Well, they're very different. Every movie is a different deal, basically. And depending on how it's going to be released, depending on who's behind it, all those things. For me, I love the tradeoff of doing a big movie, a different deal basically and depending on how it's going to be released depending on who's behind it all those things um for me i love the trade-off of doing a big movie a small movie it gives you uh you know when you do a smaller movie you get a little bit more control you get

a little bit more uh you get a little it's a little more what you remember is making movies because you've got to figure it out and it sometimes pushes you to be more creative um but every filmmaker what i just went through i think every filmmaker should go through it was like financial whiplash going from a five million not for myself personally but for the movie itself the uh going from a five million dollar movie to 125 million dollar movie racked back you literally but it's the same process right no matter what resources you have you come down to what actually making a movie is about and what you need as a filmmaker to tell your story

so you don't get caught up in oh i need 20 trucks to bring 10 000 extras sure sure um you realize the reality of the line that you can draw of your art and what you need to say. And actually, those things aren't that important. Yes, if you need scope and you're trying to tell this story of a specific thing, that costs money, that costs people, that costs resources. But ultimately, telling a story, you could be next to a fire at a campsite and be telling just as compelling story as in a movie theater in the dark. For 50 bucks, you know, a camera and whatever i mean storytelling is storytelling you could be on a

podcast with no pictures be painting every picture of course you could be saying no words and just be doing sounds and tell various but so it um you know what i what i see my job as is less of a of a movie maker a filmmaker and more of a storyteller. And the genre that that happens to be in is audiovisual and big theater presentation. But I feel like that's not my skill set. That's just the tool that I'm using in that thing. To me, if you gave me a commercial, we just did the Virgin America safety video, which is like how you know how to put on your seatbelt of course virgin america

you can watch that on the flight and um but even something like dancing so um so even that was like we had to work with the faa to figure out how best to make people pay attention out and and uh i felt just as sort of emotionally involved in something as small and crazy as that as a bigger movie. So it all comes from the same well. So that's what I try to hone more. Less about like how does that camera work and how do I zoom in on the blah, blah, blah? And more of like, oh, if that helps me communicate something more in what I'm doing then then i'll pay attention but i would assume you know 125 million dollar movie you'd be getting a bigger upfront pay as opposed to a five million dollar movie you're making like you know you can't make a million dollars on a five

million dollar movie yes upfront yes as you could potentially 125 million dollar movie so how's the back end work for you so that so so the um so something like what we what we just did with with blumhouse so jason Blum does these a lot, and his model is this, any movie under $5 million, so it's like a, and they're usually like two or three, and they're horror films, so they're a very specific genre. You have to shoot in L.A., you have to, you only get a certain amount of time for pre-production,

production, and post-production, so those are lockdowns. You cannot negotiate that, you cannot go over time, you cannot do anything, it, and post-production. So those are lockdowns. You cannot negotiate that. You cannot go overtime. You cannot do anything. It is a very specific thing. So your process changes in that. You don't get paid. You get paid like minimum up front.

So you get paid. You're betting on yourself basically because your back end is bigger than you'll ever get in any of those bigger movies. And you get full creative control, which is the kicker. That's pretty cool. That's kind of fun for you because it's like- It's a fun thing for me. I get to do whatever I want. You can't tell me what to do.

Exactly. Because I'm getting paid nothing up front. Exactly. You're betting on your own- Your storytelling and your creativity. Your own movie. Yeah. That's fun at a certain point when you're like, let's bet on ourselves right now.

I think it was like Ethan Hawke who did The Purge and all this stuff. Ultimately, The Purge made a hundred and something million dollars and has sequels and all this stuff. It was like a $5 million movie or what? It was like a $4 million movie. Wow. And, you know, when you're making that kind of multiple and you're getting first dollar gross, which big studios don't do that anymore, you're making a lot more money on that little one. Than you would on a big one. Than you would have on a big one.

But only if it hits that scale. You know, it hits that scale. lot more money on that little one than you would on a big one we would have on really one but but only if it hits that scale you know it hurts the scale so things like even like uh believe uh justin bieber's believe where uh paramount was not involved in that one i did not get paid as much up front but ultimately and the movie didn't make as much as never say never by a lot but still did well it did well and i made more money on that one personally than I did on Never Say Never. Really? Because it's just a different... And you're still getting royalties on these movies, right?

And on these... Yeah. All these movies, you continue to get royalties. Amazing. If they're playing, the movies I make are fun because they get to be played. They are enjoyed over and over again. They're on TNT and ABC Family. So they're always on all those channels.

So you're constantly getting... Nice royalty checks. Yeah, that's good yeah that's a surprise you're like oh what's the story you want to tell next that you've never told um i don't know to be honest i've cleared my slate before when i was doing these two movies i was like i need to just clear it and then um see where i am i think as artists what's fun is that you get to evolve and change yeah um i don't like to try to preempt where i'm going to be because it's a lot of energy and emotion and years on the line so i like to you know even now you see me i could not have predicted that i would have done that movie it came to me i get a lot of different movies that come to me it came to me at a time where i felt like that's what i needed and wanted to do go to london shoot a movie london macau so

you got to do a little china shoot as well and with these great actors and magic it all seemed very pretty cool how could you say no to that and having come just off of a smaller movie, it was a really fun jump to do that. And so we'll see what the next year brings. But I'm eyes wide open and ears open and everything sort of open to accept things and see where that may be. That's cool. Two final questions. One is, with all the stories you've told, with everything you've said, you've put out a lot of great content. If it was all erased, everything was gone, and you had a piece of paper, or you had one final video, a 60-second video that you got to put up on your YouTube channel, it was the only video that people ever saw of you ever again.

Yes. It was the three truths that you know to be true about your experience from making movies, life, everything you've seen and done. Three truths that you would give back to the world. Here's the final three things that you need to know about what you can do to be, you know, about the world. What would you say as your final video? Three, those three things. Three truths about what you've experienced in life, the things you know about it,

and what you would want people to take away if that was your only message you could give to them. Well, one would be, and this is something that I think why we make movies and this is something why I got into movies and this is something that I think is in all stories, is

that you are not alone. I think that we most of our lives feel alone and detached and out of place and trying to find our path and trying to find how we fit in and which is normal. And I think the reason we make movies, the reason I make movies

specifically is to say your struggle is exactly where you're supposed to be because you're not alone in that struggle and we're all going through that. And that's okay. Um, I think, uh,

as you go through your struggles, that's like the most powerful thing you can do to get through that. Right. Second one is, uh, something, uh, and a piece of advice I got a long time ago um which is you are what you do every day so like i was like well how do i become a director and this person said well you know one's going to give you that label no one's going to put that

on your door you'll just you just are you're not you're not no one's going to give you a business card that says you're an entrepreneur one day you just either or not and you are what you do if you're a director you direct something every day of your life if you're a writer you just write every day whether someone's paying you or not if you give little white lies here and there guess what you're a liar it doesn't matter how small or how big that's what you are um and i think that that's in all aspects of my life uh i'm not saying i'm perfect at any of those things but i try to check myself on the things that i do even as stupid as like rolling a stop sign in my mind i'm like well that's what you are if you are doing that you slide things and do things which is fine i mean i do it all the time maybe that's what i am but i like to remind myself of that because that's the only

thing that you give to this earth is what you're doing and what you're being um and the third one uh is um i think it's something to do with appreciate who you have or what you have with the things that are around you. Uh, I think life goes by so fast. Uh, and every time, but, but at the same time,

every time I say that life just keeps going longer and longer. So I guess life is actually long as well. Um, but the things that, uh, you affect or that affect you are the things that are right there next to you and appreciate that, that you were given those things or that those you are the things that are right there next to you and appreciate that, that you were given those things or that those things were,

um, or that you, or that those things found you, uh, because that's all, that's all the gifts that we were given here. So I would say I've never been asked that question. I never said that loud.

So I'd have to recheck if that was right. But off the top of my head, I think those are the three things. Those great yeah those are great uh one final question but before i uh ask you that where should we go to connect with you where do you like to hang out the most online where should we uh twitter i'm on twitter all the time yeah um both good and bad bring it let's go at john at john mchu j-o-n-m-c-h-u okay uh instagram as well at john mchu um those are the places sort of yeah if you want to check out the uh archives of your youtube videos check those out as well you have a huge following but you don't put any videos out

anymore yeah we don't back in the day you know when the legion of extraordinary did the lxd which is great to check that out that's great but But also we had this battle with Miley Cyrus. And this is after the five years of emptiness that I didn't do anything. By that time, YouTube was created. And I had promised myself from then on I would never have a five-year drought of making anything. Even if I wasn't doing a movie, I would make something and post it online. So these things are the things that helped me in between all the, all the different movies.

That's cool. Uh, so make sure to reach out with you and you, you get back to people sometimes here and there. Yeah. Cool. Um, before I ask the final question,

I want to acknowledge you for a moment, John, for the way you create and inspire greatness in other people, you know, before I even knew who you were, you made me cry and you made me want to watch the movie over and over again. And you made me learn more about myself through the story you told.

And I was a kid in Ohio watching this movie before I even knew that you were even the director. And so I want to acknowledge you for your creativity and your honesty and your ability to bring the greatest inspiration in every story you tell to impact the maximum amount of people. I think you've been given an incredible platform and I'm so glad that you're the one who's directing these movies because you get to inspire so many people to live better lives, to think differently, to check themselves and ask them, how am I showing up in the world? Even if it's through a silly entertainment thing or something that may not seem like it, we're affected by what you're creating. So I want to acknowledge you for

your gifts and the talents that you bring to the world. So thanks, man. Final questions, what I ask everyone at the end is what's your definition of greatness? Definition of greatness? greatness well i don't think you can define your own greatness i think that that is something that others can say to you uh and so in my mind your greatness is how much you uh give to others. And because by giving to others means you have some sort of self. You have

gotten yourself in a position or found something in your own journey that you can share. And I think that takes a journey in itself, which is a whole thing. But I think when you can actually start thinking about others and not just about your own survival,

I think you've reached your greatness and you should continue to, to, to give that way. I love it. John shoe. Thanks for coming on brother. Appreciate it, man.

And there you have it guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure to head back to the show notes at Lewis house.com slash two, three, seven, check out all the stuff that John is up to. Make sure to follow him over on Instagram and social media. I'll have that all linked up over at the show notes. Check out his movies that are coming out. This guy is an incredible director,

incredible storyteller, and visionary. So make sure to check them out, follow him, and be inspired. Also, if you were inspired by this story, make sure to share this with your friends over on social media and tag me, at Lewis Howes, and at John Chu over on Instagram to stay connected and hear about what we're up to and where you're listening to this podcast. So thank you guys so much for all you do. Thank you for continually supporting me and supporting this show. It's why I'm able to bring on guests like John and incredible, inspiring people because you continue to listen and apply it to your life and spread the message of greatness.

You're incredible. You're up to big things. The world has a lot of greatness out there, and it's time you go capture it. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Bye.