For ‘Joy Ride’ Director Adele Lim, Raunchy Comedy Is a Palate Cleanser

Adele Lim is anxious to hear my recap of the previous night’s screening of Joy Ride when she pipes in from her home office in early June. Not only is it the screenwriter’s directorial debut, but it’s a bawdy, R-rated buddy comedy — the type of flick that rarely inspires the same reaction in a sparsely populated room of journalists as it does in theaters filled with friends. So she’s heartened to learn about the contagious laughter from one attendee. “You just need one unhinged bitch,” she says, “then everybody’s like, ‘Greenlight the party!'”

Lim, once a journeywoman TV scribe, has segued into film in a way that has made her a sought-after voice and even an accidental firebrand. Before her new film, one notably featuring four Asian American leads (three of them female and one nonbinary), the Malaysia-born mother of two co-wrote Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon and co-penned the $239 million-grossing Crazy Rich Asians — and then famously turned down the latter’s yet-to-be-made sequel, a decision she made after being offered reportedly one-tenth the salary of her white male co-writer.

During a wide-ranging discussion, Lim talks full-frontal nudity, the tightrope of promoting a film during a strike and what she learned from going public with that lowball offer.

What was your relationship with raunch comedy going into this?

Love raunch comedy. That’s my happy place. I’d been on Raya, a dream come true, but it was two years of writing for family, four quadrants, the whole thing. My friends and co-writers on this, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, we hang out all the time and it’s just dick jokes. Being on Raya, all I wanted was a palate cleanser. So, for shits and giggles, we met up every Thursday to talk about the story we wish we had in our 20s. What would make us crack up?

Asian women are rarely shown in this light. Was there a touchstone, growing up, where you thought, “I want my version of that”?

Any underrepresented group, there’s certain ways you get depicted. It wasn’t something I necessarily set out to do early in my career, but as an Asian woman in this space, I was very aware of how I was perceived. Asian women onscreen, they think of you as something exotic. We were like the first subsect on Pornhub. That’s a whole yucky thing. But the reaction from the community has been, “OK, let’s disavow our sexuality altogether” — which is garbage, because that’s part of us. You’re giving in to terrorists when you do that.

In terms of depictions, did a producer actually tell you once, “I look at you and think, ‘Dragon lady with a nail salon who might be human trafficking?'”

That was verbatim, word for word, me in a room with a producer on a project. I was like, “Really, you found a way to cram all those stereotypes into one sentence? That’s impressive, man.”

Did you tell him that?

What? No! This was years ago, before Crazy Rich. I came up at a time when if you shut people down, you’d be booted so quickly. Your career would be stillborn. It was always navigating between standing up for what you believed and survival.

Can you tell me about the conversations or hoops that got you to show full-frontal female nudity in a feature comedy?

You can’t really do this now, but I remember once googling “genital tattoos and the people who get them” in a writers room. Heads up: You cannot unsee those images. When we were breaking story, the character of Kat [Stephanie Hsu] was inspired by a friend of ours — now the most prim, pearl-clutching woman but a full-on freak in college. That made us crack up, so we gave the character one and kept expecting somebody to tell us, “Fuck, no!” But when you work with Seth Rogen’s company, their reaction is, “Fuck, yes!”

For the past decade plus, nudity in comedy has been dominated by the unexpected penis reveal.

It’s a nice pivot. We’ve seen so much penis! I don’t know how you top Ken Jeong in The Hangover.

Has your mother seen the movie?

She thought it was entertaining, which, by the way, is a big concession. She’s a born-again Christian, a prayer group leader. I said she probably couldn’t take her church friends like she did for Crazy Rich, but she really wanted to watch the movie. I didn’t want to be in the room with her — but, during the moment of the tattoo reveal, I happened to pass by. It was like the power of God compelled her backward on the casters of the chair, and she made this high-pitched sound I’d never heard in my life. But she liked it.

Is it true that you got your first writing job from a wanted ad in THR?

Yes, because I’m old! I’d walk a Barnes & Noble in Encino — I couldn’t afford to buy The Hollywood Reporter — so I’d just check the ads. I didn’t have any connections, and I was shit at networking, but there was an ad for a writers assistant. They didn’t say what show, because it was Xena: Warrior Princess — which had a huge cult following. If they were to advertise, they’d get swarmed by fans.

You’ve previously acknowledged that women and people of color often get one opportunity to fail in Hollywood. Knowing that, what made you want to try directing?

You’ll just be in a fetal position if you think about the pressure. I’m glad I got to go through all my failures and dysfunctions in the lower-risk world of television. There’s always a showrunner to disappoint. There’s always a bar you are not going to hit. But, again, stakes are high. It’s the first time that we are putting four Asian faces in the middle of an R-rated comedy. If you fuck up — if a project with a queer lead, a Black lead or an Asian lead fails — the industry’s knee-jerk reaction is to blame it on the otherness. You don’t want that fear to paralyze you and keep you from creating from a place of joy.

Stakes were especially high for Crazy Rich Asians. Having space from the decision to step away and then going public about being lowballed, what did you learn?

Zero regrets, but I’m happy being on the other side. I was crippled with fear about that story coming out. You never want to be the difficult person, especially if you’re a woman. There’s always that fear that you’re never going to work again. But these are the lies that we’re fed: “If you work hard enough, you’ll get there! And if you don’t, it’s because you just didn’t have it.” Not talking about that is the problem. Nobody wants to be the face of pay equity, but I’m glad it came out. I got lots of good feedback and realized it wasn’t just in my head.

Do you have an opinion on how long the sequel has been stalled?

Truly, I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for [director] Jon Chu and that movie. I put myself through at-home director school for Joy Ride and Jon Chu was instrumental in that. I love that movie. I love what it did for Asian Americans. I want a sequel. Whether or not I’m writing it or at the helm of it, I want it to do well.

How did your incoming calls change after that movie?

I went from spending my entire career writing cis white men characters, and sometimes women, to getting a million and one calls for every Asian everything. And that’s fantastic, but I can create and write for a lot of voices. I’m now the go-to Asian for Asian things.

Hollywood often dips into the same acting talent pool, too. Is that because of reluctance to take risks on unproven talent?

This is a thing we talk a lot about in our circles. Movies are such a risky endeavor, and the studios are risk-averse. They feel like they have to go to these huge names. Personally, I want it all for us. I’m obsessed with Michelle Yeoh. I want her and Simu Liu and Awkwafina to get all the projects in the world. At the same time, I want opportunities for projects to find new talent. When you’re an Asian actor, it’s hard to find material that platforms your strengths and makes you shine.

What’s your opinion on the proposed DGA deal?

I think it’s made really crucial gains, which are a base level for the rest of the guilds to build on.

Are you surprised by sticking points like AI in the WGA standoff?

I’ve been on the WGA negotiation committee before. You come to the table thinking, “Oh, we’re going to talk about how much of a gain we can get!” No, we’re going to talk about not rolling back the things we already have — even the concession that a writer has to be a human took a lot of work. That affects writers more than anyone. We have to fix that now for the future. Once you take away rights, it’s hard to get them back.

So, how will you engage with the mid-strike release of this movie? Will you attend the premiere?

For me, on this movie, I’m also a director, a producer and an Asian American woman who’s worked very hard for my community. For this movie, yes, I will be going to the premiere.

Interview edited for length and clarity. This story first appeared in the June 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.