.thatalicewu talked to us about why netflix's TheHalfOfIt isn't your typical young-adult romance, finding catharsis in her own life, and more
knows the power of a deadline. If her years as a software engineer for Microsoft taught her anything, it's that true efficiency is achieved through self-imposed stress . In late 2016, she applied that knowledge to a script she had been mulling over for months. The filmmaker cut a check for $1,000, sent it to a trusted friend, and made them promise: If she didn't finish the draft in five weeks, the money would be donated to the National Rifle Association.
It's a familiar theme for Wu, whose strength as a storyteller is her tender, humanist approach. She released her first — and only other — film,, nearly 16 years ago. Written for her mother, the multilingual rom-com is loosely inspired by her own coming out as a lesbian to her traditional Chinese family."I was trying to find a way for my mind to understand," she says."She knew I was gay, but it was not a comfortable topic for her.
is intimately introspective. Inspired by Wu's own teenage tumult, it depicts the unlikely friendship between closeted, eloquent Ellie and the last person she'd become close to: straight, white, tongue-tied Paul. It was personal for Wu, who found her own Paul as a teenager when she needed him most."At that point my parents were not speaking to me," she recalls."I was deeply terrified when I came out to myself because I didn't know any gay people.
Wu and her friend lost touch after high school. There were tears and heartache. But the nights they spent talking about things a lot bigger than themselves — the universe and where they fit into it; computer science and probabilities; how to win over a girl — shaped her for years to come. And they still influence her now.So, as Ellie gets on that train in the film's final scene, headed toward her future, a future that might not include Paul at all, it's bittersweet.
"I always joke that I make the kind of comedy where I hope you cry at least once," she says."If you haven't cried, then I failed."
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