‘Joy’ is about the American Dream, but also a ‘very Asian story’: Ken Mok

Ken Mok is one of the producers of new film “Joy”.

Ken Mok is known for being the creator and executive producer of long-running hit reality series “America’s Next Top Model”, but “Joy” starring Jennifer Lawrence is only the second film he has produced.

Similar to his first endeavor “Invincible”, the new movie is based on a true story — that of Italian-American housewife turned home shopping network mogul Joy Mangano of New York.

The film, which rolled out in cinemas on Thursday (7 Jan), was essentially born out of Mok’s first meeting with Mangano about 10 years ago, when the inventor of the self-wringing Miracle Mop became a judge for one of his TV productions, “Made in the USA”. They became instant friends, he said from the US in a phone interview.

“I asked her about her life story. I asked her, look, how did you go from this small housewife, single mom to becoming this multi-millionaire, this huge success, and she told me this crazy story that’s outlined in the movie of ‘Joy’,” he recalled.

“And I immediately said to myself, and I said to Joy, this is a feature film. This is the ultimate female empowerment film, and I really want to pursue getting this movie. And she said, ‘Please go ahead’, and so now 10 years later the movie has finally gone out,” he recounted.

“Joy” stars Jennifer Lawrence.

‘Speaks to Asian values’

Though the semi-biographical “Joy” is a story in keeping with the American Dream narrative, Mok believes there are many things about the film that people around the world —especially in Asia — can relate to.

“Myself being Asian and Chinese I think it’s a very Asian story as well, because in a lot of ways her family and her story speaks very strongly to Asian values. The family she lived with was multi-generational. She lived with her parents, her grandmother, and she supported them,” he pointed out.

“She did a lot of self-sacrifice for the benefit of the family. And there was a lot of benevolence and obligation she felt for her family, even to members of her family who didn’t treat her very well.

“But then there was this whole instinct of hers to really take her life in her own hands with this idea and decide to build a better life for herself and to really struggle to become the success story.

“And I think that’s what’s happening so much in Asia now, in China and across the whole region where people are using their blood, sweat and tears. It’s not the American Dream anymore; it’s the Asian dream, whether you’re Vietnam, Singapore or China, all these people are now becoming incredibly successful businessmen, businesswomen by just taking opportunities and running with it,” he observed.

As someone who specialises in positive “aspirational” TV series, Mok might have a large number of women to admire, but the first one he mentions is his mom.

“She was an incredibly independent woman at a time when women weren’t really self-empowered. My mom emigrated to the US from China after the communist revolution. [She] got out of the country, came here, went to Columbia University and Julliard through her own sheer will; not knowing anybody here and then became a professional singer and a professor at university and raised kids. So she really is a hero of mine. I really respond to very strong women because of my mom,” he said, adding that it was one reason that Mangano’s story resonated with him.

The second person he names as an inspiration is his “America’s Next Top Model” partner Tyra Banks. “She’s so hard-working and ambitious and really puts her nose to the grindstone,” he said. “She’s a really good friend of mine and a great partner.”

Producing TV vs film

Comparing producing a film to producing a TV series, Mok says they are worlds apart.

“In the TV world when you’re producing a TV series, there’s a deadline. You have to get a TV series made so it can air in September or January,” he said. “The minute you pitch your show and they buy it, immediately the train starts running, and you’ve got to get the show produced. So right away you’re working 24 hours a day to get the production up, all the creative and then doing the producing and the editing and hitting your air date.”

In contrast, there’s no set deadline in the movie business. “So a lot of times you can pitch a story or get a story set up at a studio, and it may take years for them to get the movie made. It goes through development, endless notes, and you’re developing more and more.

There’s no set timetable because there’s no pressure to get the movie made. Once they green light it then, of course, you’re off and running,” he said.

Even though he had met Mangano a decade before, he explained that the movie only really got going several years ago.

“There was a period of time I was extremely busy with TV shows, “Made in the USA”, “America’s Next Top Model”, which became this huge undertaking…. Then, really, four to give years after that first conversation with Joy, her story just popped up in my head again and I said I really want to pursue this. In truth it took about three to four years for the movie to be made,” he said.

Fortune smiles

Mok, who shares producing credit with John Davis, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon, said they were very fortunate in that after about a year and half from getting the script in good enough shape to bring it to the marketplace, David O. Russell called within a week and said he wanted to do it.

Mok’s involvement largely ended there as the name of Russell, who directed such critically-acclaimed films as “Silver Linings Playbook” and “American Hustle”, made it much easier to get the film off the ground.

“David came on board and said, ‘I’m going to do the movie and I’m going to bring Jennifer Lawrence on, I’m going to bring Bradley [Cooper], I’m going to bring Robert De Niro.’ And that was just such a blessing to us because when you have a director and a writer and a producer like David come on board, he has such power that the movie gets made right away,” said Mok.

It was Russell’s enthusiastic response that Mok says was his best experience in producing “Joy”.

“I think the best thing ever was to get David to jump on board, to become the director of this movie. When you kind of put together a wish list when you’re developing the script… you never really think ‘Oh wow one of the greatest directors out there right now is going to do the film’. When he comes up, it’s like, wow, it’s like manna from heaven.”

“Joy” may be just Mok’s second film, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be his last. He has a slate of other films in development, including a biopic based on the life James Harris, the NFL’s first African-American quarterback. Terrence Howard is attached to star and Anthony Hemingway to direct.