It’s inevitable that the stuff I write is probably going to reflect a lot of my world views. I do fundamentally believe that most people are born good, and I don’t tend to have any villains in my films. I also think we’re all flawed, but flaws are what unite us, and I think we’re probably more similar than we’re different. Yeah, I’m an old Asian dyke, but I bet you that there is a 17-year-old straight conservative white boy out there, and we probably have commonalities in the way we’re thinking about our lives. If you strip away all of those things, there’s just something at the core of us: Most of us want to love, most of us want to connect, most of us want to be heard and recognized. When I come from that place with each of my characters, how they manifest it might be different, but that’s basically what they want.
I’m not sure [those things are] specific to teens. I think they’re probably just a human [desire]. In my experience with teens, I think that they’re far more sophisticated than we give them credit for. Their minds are more agile because they’re not quite as jaded. They’re at this very interesting time when they’re experiencing certain huge things in life for the first time. It’s the first time they’re trying to pull away from their parents and establish their identity. And because that time is so formative, I actually think that we never let go of it no matter how old we are.
What advice would you give any creator who might be queer, Asian, or both, who wants to make their own film?
I can only tell you from my own personal experience that I write from a very deeply emotional place. For most people — especially if you’re a queer or Asian writer — to me, that already suggests you’re really trying to get your voice out there. When you’re writing, you’re really building a new world, it’s like a new physical world, a new emotional world, and what you want to do is give yourself the freedom to really own that world. To not get too bogged down by, “Well, but will people like this?,” because nobody knows anything. Listen, I turned 50 last week. I just made a movie with teenagers in it. No one knows anything, right?
If someone comes up with feedback and you actually think it makes sense to you and you love it, then great, use it. If you’re not sure and the only reason you would change [your work] because you think maybe they know better or you don’t want to displease them, that’s the moment I would suggest to you: Look, you’re not going to know if you’re right, but you also aren’t going to know if they’re right. Why not bet on yourself? That’s really what I’ve done with both my films, and it’s hard to do. After the fact, it sounds so easy, but it feels terrible because I’m a people pleaser.
