"Wonder" director talks about making his inspiring film

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One of the biggest breakout hits of 2017 was the cinematic adaptation of the R.J. Palacio novel Wonder. The film opened domestically with less than 30 million but went on to earn more than four times that amount in the United States alone.

In a year when several movies suffered after their opening weekends, this was the rare family-oriented feature that steadily built an audience through positive word of mouth. The story’s uplifting message was one of the things that stood out to director Stephen Chbosky, who co-wrote the script with Steve Conrad and Jack Thorne.

Chbosky recently chatted with me about discovering the story, the Oscar-nominated make-up designer and what the film’s success might mean for moviegoers.

“The book was sent to me about three years ago when my son Theodore was born,” Chbosky said, “and there was something about those two events — having a son and reading about Auggie Pullman — that just got me right in the heart.”

For those who haven’t discovered the story yet, Auggie Pullman is Wonder's main character. He’s a youngster with facial differences who grew up being home-schooled by his caring mother. His parents decide to send their son to a local school in the fifth grade, understanding that socialization with peers could benefit Auggie but fearing that their son might be bullied for his appearance. 

When Chbosky read the novel, he “thought about the world [that his son] and his sister Maccie were about to enter in school.” He noted, “It was kind of an unrecognizable landscape in some ways because of social media and I just jumped at the chance to do [the film] because I wanted to make the world a better place for my kids.”

In the story, Auggie has a hard time making friends because of his looks. Some people can’t see beyond his facial differences and never see him for the person he truly is but others slowly embrace Auggie's kind-hearted personality.

Make-up designer Arjen Tuiten, who transformed Jacob Tremblay into Auggie, recently earned an Oscar nomination for his work on the film — work that made Chbosky realize that this story could be told.  “[W]hat he created has never been done before.” Chbosky said, “Basically, Jacob Tremblay is completely covered. The only thing that’s him is his lips and his eyes. That’s it. Everything else is makeup. It was Arjen’s brilliance that made us all realize that this could be done.”

The film’s production team did research to ensure that Auggie’s journey felt authentic. Chbosky noted, “[Y]ou want to respect the community and so David Hoberman [and] Todd Lieberman, our producers, and the author R.J. Palacio were all instrumental in reaching out to the Cranial Facial Difference Community… and just keeping a dialogue going.” Reaching out wasn’t their own step in making sure the film spoke honestly to this community and other audiences. The director noted that several children with facial differences visited the set and were consulted on the movie. “It was very important to us that these folks — that faced these real-life challenges every day — felt respected and honored by what we were doing.”

The story doesn’t only focus on Auggie’s first year in high school though. The point of view uniquely changes throughout the narrative, showing the challenges that other characters face as well. Characters that once seemed one-dimensional take on a different look when you see their own personal struggles. “The more that you got to know each of them,” Chbosky said, “really confronts your own prejudice or your own judgment of people.”

“It’s amazing how readily people — including myself as I was reading the book — could dismiss somebody and then to have R.J. very beautifully bring it back home and say ‘no you were wrong’ and to make me feel that sense of ‘why are we so judgmental?’” Chbosky added, “Why do we forget that everyone we meet is a hero in his or her own life and that they have their own problems and their own story to tell?”

After the success of Wonder and the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast (which Chbosky co-wrote), some may be wondering if more positive and uplifting stories are on the way.

“I think that people are starving for these types of stories.” He said, adding that he “came of age in the movies as an audience member in the 1980s where fun [live-action] movies for the whole family with a positive message were normal.” He hopes the success of movies like Beauty and the Beast or Wonder show people that “these type of movies can really make money for the studios and put a lot of more positive things out into the world.”

The screenwriter said it might take some time for moviegoers to see studios really embrace uplifting and positive stories like Wonder though.

“The change is rarely immediate because it takes so long to write a film," he noted. "It takes so long to develop a slate. It takes so long to make a movie. I think you’ll feel it probably like in two years.”

In the meantime, the uplifting Wonder is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD.