Growing up with his five siblings in Maui, director Destin Daniel Cretton says his mom didn't let the kids watch much TV. "We had to find our own ways of playing make-believe, or making up plays, or making dance routines, fight choreography," he recalls.
Then, on a family vacation to California, his grandmother loaned him her VHS camera. "I became the person who was documenting the trip," he says. "And my grandma kind of encouraged me to do that." He got a thrilling glimpse of Hollywood and Universal Studios and Disneyland. "All of that inspiration came back with me to Maui," he says. "And that's when we started making movies nonstop."
Movies connected him to the outside world, Cretton explains. "As a kid, I would watch many movies with my dad, with our family, and that is how I traveled. That is how I was exposed to other cultures. That's how I understand how kids grew up in high school on the mainland. And one of my biggest takeaways was not how different we are, but how similar we are, emotionally."
Cretton's first job out of college was at a group home for at-risk teenagers. He turned that experience into the 2013 film Short Term 12, starring Brie Larson, Rami Malek and LaKeith Stanfield. He went on to direct the 2017 film adaptation of Jeannette Walls' memoir, The Glass Castle, as well as Just Mercy, about attorney Bryan Stevenson's work defending men on Death Row. His Marvel debut was the 2021 film Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, and he created the Marvel series Wonder Man. Now, he's the director of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Interview Highlights
On connecting to Peter Parker's experience of feeling alone in Spider-Man: Brand New Day
I was reflecting a lot on my 20s when I left university and when I didn't really have a real direction in life, when a lot of my friends are going off to other things. And it felt like a lot of people were moving on without me. It was easy at that time to feel completely alone, to feel like I didn't have a direction to go. … Being surrounded by people who all seem like they have it together and seem like they are having the time of their lives. And I remember certain times feeling very alone in the middle of it.
On working in a home for at-risk teens
It was a job that really threw a lot of things back into my face. It was by far the most difficult experience that I had up until that point and also the most rewarding. … I didn't realize how sheltered I was until I was working at that group home. I just was not exposed to the type of experiences that these young people had gone through. And I also wasn't ready for the people that they had become because of their experiences. These young teenagers were, in many ways, much more mature than I was … but then they had very real pain from their past that was just right under the surface that they were always dealing with. It was very quickly a very humbling experience for me.
On thinking of film as a hobby, not a career
I graduated with a communication degree and I couldn't really get a job anywhere. I was making short films. I would do a short film once a year and I would just save my money. So I worked at a group home for two or three years. I taught high school video production. I worked at a hotel putting up their media, their projectors and things. I had a lot of odd jobs to pay the bills. I shot wedding videos, but it was all really a way to just pay the bills while I made movies as a hobby.
On directing the 2021 Marvel superhero film Shang-Chi — and, for the first time in his professional career, walking into a space where nearly everyone was Asian
It was one of those things I didn't really know I was missing until it happened. … There was something about set that just felt homey, that felt so comfortable — to be able to have conversations with people that fully understand what my grandma is like, and what growing up in an Asian culture is like. So I didn't know that that aspect of myself could be a part of my filmmaking. You know, I always sort of compartmentalized my upbringing, and my culture, and growing up in Hawaii as sort of a separate thing than my experience as a filmmaker — until I was on set for Shang-Chi. It was very special.
On his complex relationship with his father
I think in many ways, most of my movies have something to do with my dad. My dad was a very passionate man … and could also be very dark and very angry. And, you know, it just depends which dad you are going to get on the day. I grew up learning to, along with my siblings, learning to navigate those emotions — those real intense peaks and valleys. And when my dad would come home, I learned to become very sensitive to what state he was in. …
So aside from my love of movies, my experience with my dad … really allowed me to not be afraid of any person. … It also allowed me to subconsciously create this skill of feeling other people's emotions, which I find I use all the time as a director. The moment an actor steps on set, I feel like I just know what state they're in, and I know what they need. I've learned how to bring down a very intense situation. I do feel like he was a very wonderful and troubled man, but I am so grateful to have had him as my dad.
On throughlines in his work
I feel like I'm exploring the idea of family in different ways. … Spider-Man: Brand New Day the idea of family and community is really at the core of this movie. I'm always interested in what happens to a person when they are outside of that family and community, and the importance of that connection with people who truly know who you are, that you can fully be yourself around. To me, that has just always remained the most powerful aspect of my life, is staying connected to the people who really know me.
Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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