Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the and director of the deeply personal dramedy The Farewell, which is one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2019 and the 2019 film with the highest per theater average gross.

Over the course of our conversation at the offices of

the Hollywood reporter the 36 year old and I discussed the move from China to

America that her parents and she made back when she was just six. The close relationship she has always had with her

grandmother, Nainai, and how it was tested in real life by the circumstances

depicted in the farewell, how her own career evolved from being fired from her job as a producer's

intern on the set of 2007's Pineapple Express, to doing coverage for one of the leading producers

of Chinese American Films, to being ready to quit

filmmaking in favor of radio work after struggling to get the farewell made as a film but

telling the same story on this American life, how things finally came together with the

farewell and what she has made of and hopes the industry takes away from its

tremendous reception, plus much more.

But first, I was joined at the offices of the Hollywood reporter by a fine journalist and friend

of mine who, earlier this month, wrapped her two-year term as president of the Hollywood Foreign

Press Association, the group behind the

Golden Globes.

Mahara Tautna, thank you for joining us.

You're welcome.

So you have quite a life story.

How did you go, first of all all from India to Brandeis University where I also went

and I guess let's just start there. I wanted to get out of India. I decided I didn't want my mother's life. So I applied secretly from my

parents to a bunch of universities. I did my SATs and Brandeis was the one that paid everything.

...