Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Jennifer Yuh Nelson, also known as Jennifer Yuh, is an American director and storyboard artist. She is best known for her directorial debut Kung Fu Panda 2. Yuh is the first woman to solely direct an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio...
NationalitySouth Korean
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth13 June 1972
guy feelings insecurity
One of the things we love about Po [Kung Fu Panda] is that he's vulnerable. He's someone that we can all identify with because he has those insecurities. He's an outsider feeling guy.
school kids artist
There aren't a lot of female story artists, and it's baffling to me. There are a lot of kids in school that are female and I wonder, 'Where did they all go?' People have brought it up, asking me, 'What did you do?' I don't really know. I puttered along, did my thing and gender has really never been an issue.
blessed thinking kung-fu-panda
We got the best actors imaginable [in Kung Fu Panda]. If we could have made a wish list I don't think there would anyone else we would have added. Yeah, we've been blessed with exactly how amazing a cast of actors we have. To have someone like Bryan Cranston, who is not just an amazing actor, but who has such a range.
army people film
It's like being the general of an army [directing a film]. You send people out to die.
stories animation
A lot of the time in animation is spent getting the story right - that's something you can't rush.
furniture tantrums persons
I'm a very soft-spoken person. I don't throw furniture. I don't throw tantrums.
years sweat tears
We want to be proud of our work and make sure it's worth the talent of the animators, who spent four years of their love, sweat and tears on it.
transition tough aggressive
I'm not aggressive by nature and it was tough for me to make the transition to directing.
people fronts
When you make a movie, it's just so personal and then you put it out in front of people and it becomes something else.
ideas choices shapes
Every movie goes through that U-shape where you start with 'Oh that's a great idea. I love it.' Everything's possible and then you face 'Oh, we can't do that, and that's impossible, and that's a bad choice.' You go the practicality of it. And then you come up to 'Great.' But that middle part is when you don't have results yet.
thinking jewels perfect
We always try to make the very best movie when we're working on and we can only think one at a time. We want to make this a perfect jewel, and then we'll see what happens after that.
growing-up kids frustration
Growing up, my sisters and I would always talk stories. One of my frustrations was I didn't know anything about cameras. I didn't know how to make a film and I obviously didn't have a special effects budget. I was a kid. So I was learning to draw to get down the stuff that was in my head, that I couldn't afford to actually do.
school thinking directors
I don't think about the gender thing very much. But when I speak at schools, I've had female students say to me afterwards, "I never envisioned myself being a director, since I've never seen women do it." But after seeing me, they can picture themselves directing, so maybe we'll see more female directors.
mom real drawing
I've been drawing my whole life. My mom says my sister and I were drawing by age 1. Animation seems a real, natural extension of drawing as a way of telling a story visually.