THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 39 FEBRUA RY 26, 2020
in Chinese politics and society.
“There’s a real impetus on the
part of the Chinese government
to make this work. I’m sure the
government is going to try to
show that the boycott has had no
effect.” And while her comment
might still anger filmgoers in
Hong Kong, where the recent live-
action Aladdin took in $8 million,
that market is tiny compared to
the mainland (total 2019 Hong
Kong box office was $245 million
compared with China’s $9.2 bil-
lion). “Most people outside Hong
Kong have likely forgotten about
this controversy,” says Rosen.
“But the Chinese government
does not forget these things.”
The fact that this version of
Mulan is a large-scale war epic
inspired more by the ancient
Chinese ballad than the original
animated film may also help win
fans in Beijing, but the choice car-
ries its own significant risks: The
film needs to satisfy Chinese audi-
ences raised on the legend while
not disappointing a generation of
fans in Asia (and elsewhere) for
whom the animated film is foun-
dational. “People would come in
to audition and would say, ‘Sorry, I
know this is really unprofessional,
but before I start, I just want you
to know, the animated movie was
the first time I saw someone that
looked like me speak English in
a movie theater,’ ” says producer
Jason Reed. “The stakes couldn’t
be higher.”
Mulan also represents a leap
of faith in the film’s director,
Caro, whose previous two films
boasted budgets of about 10 per-
cent of Mulan’s (The Zookeeper’s
Wife and Disney’s 2015 sports
drama McFarland USA were each
in the $20 million to $25 million
range). Caro, 53, was not Disney’s
first choice. Before hiring the
New Zealand filmmaker, the
studio targeted directors of Asian
descent, including Taiwanese
Oscar winner Ang Lee (he was
busy promoting Billy Lynn’s Long
Halftime Walk) and Chinese
helmer Jiang Wen. Still, Caro
showcased a knack for represent-
ing cultures outside of her own
with her 2002 debut Whale Rider,
which follows a young Maori girl
who wants to become chief, a role
traditionally reserved for men.The feminist story of Mulan
resonated deeply with Caro.
“When I first started wanting
to be a filmmaker, there was so
little precedent for women doing
this [big studio] work,” she says.
She has now directed the most
expensive live-action film by a
woman, joining only a handful
(Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay
and Patty Jenkins) who have
helmed films costing more than
$100 million. “Patty changed the
game with Won d er Wom an. It was
like a shot of adrenaline for me
as a filmmaker,” says Caro, who
assembled a mostly female-led
crew, including cinematographer
Mandy Walker, costume designer
Bina Daigeler, makeup designer
Denise Kum and first assistant
director Liz Tan.
To those still upset that an
Asian filmmaker didn’t get the
job, Caro responds: “Although it’s
a critically important Chinese
story and it’s set in Chinese cul-
ture and history, there is another
culture at play here, which is
the culture of Disney, and that
the director, whoever they were,
needed to be able to handle both
— and here I am.”
Soon after Caro’s hiring,
rumors about the movie began
to swirl online. Years of studios
centering Asian movies around
white protagonists (from Scarlett
Johansson’s Ghost in the Shell to
Matt Damon’s The Great Wall)
meant the threat of whitewashingloomed large. An early report
online claimed that the first
draft, penned by Elizabeth Martin
and Lauren Hynek, featured a
white male protagonist.
“This is the first time I’ve been
on a big touchstone movie with
the internet what it is today. And
I had a Google alert set, so I’d see
these things, ‘Oh, there was origi-
nally a white male lead, or they’re
casting Jennifer Lawrence,’ and
they were all just made up,” says
Reed, who adds that there may
have been two non-Chinese char-
acters in the initial script, but
both were secondary roles.
The rumors may have been
unfounded, but the fallout was
real: The Lawrence-as Mulan
story sparked a 2016 petition,
“Tell Disney You Don’t Want a
Whitewashed Mulan!,” drawing
more than 110,000 signatures.
Ironically, as that rumor
swirled, Caro struggled to find
an actress to play Mulan. The
global hunt began in October
2016, when Caro sent a team of
casting directors to each conti-
nent and virtually every small
village in China. They were
looking for an actress who could
play Mulan across three phases,
from a young woman unsure of
her place to a soldier masquerad-
ing as a man and, finally, as an
empowered warrior. She had to
be fluent in English, handle the
physical demands of martial arts
and deliver the more emotional
moments with Mulan’s family.
“She’s a needle in a haystack, but
we were going to find her,” says
Caro. “It’s impossible to make this
movie without this person.”
Though the studio cast a wide
multinational net, Bill Kong
— a veteran Chinese producer
known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon and Monster Hunt who
was brought on as a producer
on Mulan — advised Caro that
in order for this film to play
well in China, not just anyone of
Asian descent would work. “The
first thing I told her was, ‘Hire
a Chinese girl. You can’t hire a
Japanese girl to do this,’ ” he says.
Actresses who made it past that“I told [director] Niki
[Caro] that I really
want to show Mulan’s
complexity,” says Liu
(left in Mulan and
on set with Caro, above).
“What made her
choose her path?
Was she afraid,
was she hesitant?”