Jon M. Chu still can't enjoy success because of past 'flops'

Jon M. Chu can't enjoy the success of 'Crazy Rich Asians' because he taught himself not to focus on critics or the box office.

The 40-year-old filmmaker admitted seeing his previous movies - including the likes of 2015's 'Jem and the Holograms' - get "s**t on" meant he had to compartmentalise his emotions when it comes to assessing his own work.

Speaking to Variety's '#REPRESENT: Success Stories' series, he said: "I got torn a new one.

"Plus, all my movies, I feel like they always get ripped on, from 'Step Up 2', to 'Step Up 3', to the [Justin Bieber documentary] - they all get s**t on...

"It's why it was hard to actually accept its success, because I had already decided in my own life that I wasn't going to depend on the critics, and I wasn't going to depend on the box office."

'Crazy Rich Asians' - which has two sequels in the works - was released in 2018 and became the highest grossing romantic comedy since 2009, while it was also the first major studio film to feature a majority cast of Asian descent in a modern setting for 25 years.

While Chu has "recently" been able to "sort of recognise" its impact, he is still in a mindset which won't allow him to really "enjoy it".

He explained: "[I decided] I was just going to make the thing, and I was going to focus on my next thing.

"Only recently am I really able to actually sort of recognise it, but I still can't enjoy it, because I already made a decision in my life not to let that part give me satisfaction, I guess."

The director has recently been working on a big screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's hit Broadway musical 'In The Heights', but the ongoing coronavrius pandemic means the movie was pushed back until next summer.

Chu previously tweeted: "I know it's much later than we wanted but 'In the Heights' didn't take 10 years to get made only to be left in half empty theaters w/out the crowd it deserves!! (sic)"