Director Chloe Zhao was certainly the centerpiece of this past Oscar 2021, winning not only her nomination, but also winning the award as producer of “Nomad Land.” It is clear that she will prove to be extremely in demand in Hollywood in the coming years, and whether she can build on that success, the near future will tell. For example, when the comic book adaptation of “The Eternals,” on which she worked almost simultaneously with “Nomad Land” is released. Zhao spoke about the film and her career in the film industry in an interview with Variety, excerpts from which are given below.

What’s it like to exist in modern Hollywood as a woman of Asian descent? Have you encountered any obstacles?

I’m sure I have. Absolutely. But I learned pretty quickly that you have to surround yourself with, shall we say, the right people. Because you can’t change the way people think, you can’t control the way they think, how they will behave. But it is quite possible to make sure that the people around you are not only protective of you, but they want to be with you because of your qualities as a person. So far, I’ve been lucky in my whole career. I’ve been surrounded by people like that in every movie we’ve made. But, of course, I know that a lot of people my peers face something like that, and I’ve been very lucky to have been protected from that.

What was this year full of violence and hate crimes against people of Asian descent like for you?

We have to support each other. And I’ve been very grateful for the phone calls, the messages, the letters that I’ve received. I think Tyler Perry said some very right things at the ceremony. Sometimes it’s hard to have those conversations, but you can just reach out and ask, “Are you okay? What can I do?” It means so much. Walk down the street and smile at a stranger, it might just make your day better. So I think we have to start with ourselves, with even if only a small circle of communication that we’re in. And if we all do that, I think we can make a difference.

“Forevermore” will have Marvel’s first gay superhero, a deaf character, and a generally impressive international cast. Did Marvelf say yes to all these things?

It was just an incredible experience working with the Marvel team. I should have been careful about saying “my vision,” although I do want people to know that they fully supported what I wanted to do. I want everyone to understand that. And the fact that I had the support of this incredibly talented team, some of the most talented artists in the world. And it really was a significant challenge to make this particular film, but they let me lead the process. So, the answer is yes.

We know that you’ve worked on your other films before with small, close-knit teams. How different was the process with “Forever?”

As far as Marvel is concerned, they knew from the beginning what I wanted to make this movie, how I wanted to make it. I don’t like to have hundreds of people standing around me, after all. So they tried very hard to adapt how to run the set the way I wanted to work. They have whole armies of real professionals, but each of them knew that they had better stay out of the way.