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After Brenda Song claimed she was told her "image was basically not Asian enough" to audition for Crazy Rich Asians, the film's director, Jon M. Chu, took to Twitter to address the allegations.
"??Nope," the 40-year-old filmmaker tweeted after a follower shared the article in which Song made the comments. " I love @BrendaSong and that sucks if anything of that nature was ever communicated. It's gross actually. The fact is, obviously I know who she is and didn't need her to audition. I'm a fan of hers! Nothing more nothing less. Bums me out she thought it was anything but."
Chu also reiterated this notion after seeing multiple outlets report on Song's claims.
"Would these words ever come out of my mouth?" he tweeted. "Nope. Makes no sense. I feel horrible she thinks this is the reason. The fact is I love Brenda Song and am a fan. I didn't need her to audition because I already knew who she was!"
In addition, he resurfaced a 2018 article about the movie's open casting call.
"One of my favorite memories of making #CrazyRichAsians was when we opened the auditions to anyone in the world with our open call," he tweeted. "We watched hundreds &hundreds of videos from very talented people from all around the world. Made us tear up many times."