Main image via Vulture
If you've seen Crazy Rich Asians, you know that tear-jerking proposal scene we're talking about. That moment where Nick proposes to Rachel amidst helping other passengers of the plane with their luggage, squeezing past others and hopping across seats. Well, did you know that the scene almost didn't happen?!
"In the script, they're actually sitting next to each other. [Rachel] sits down in coach and doesn't realise that [Nick is] sitting right next to her. He puts down a paper, and he's just there," said director Jon M Chu to Vulture. "I was like, ‘This is problematic. I do not want another talking scene. We need energy.’ I need movement."
The morning of the second proposal shoot, Chu decided to improvise and have Henry Golding, who plays Nick, out of his seat and the iconic scene was born! The only direction that Golding received was, "You want to express how much you love her and that you dreamt of this moment the whole time," said Chu.
"It wasn't the perfect proposal, and that wasn't what was important; it was just those two, and that's what really helped with that scene," added Golding.
Image via Bustle
The proposal went through multiple drafts—most of them were grand moments and gestures. But in the end, Chu and screenwriters Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli decided to go with something humble and most true to who Nick is. "This needs to be the New York Nick, the guy we meet in the beginning of this movie," said Chu.
"We also wanted to make the point [that] she's not going back to him for all this money. So, we needed to make it the simplest version of a proposal as possible, and to make him work for it with these people and these obstacles." added Chu.
Then, there was the ring. The original ring was already designed and the mock-up looked so bad that Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh, who plays Nick's mother, Eleanor, told Chu "That cannot be the ring I wear."
Image via Washington Post
"I'm like, ‘I know, I know. I'm so embarrassed by it, but we don't have the money.’ She's like, I have a better ring than that," laughed Chu. Yeoh then asked her assistant to get her box of jewellery and pulled out an emerald and diamond ring she had bought as a gift to herself, and that was the ring that Nick eventually proposed with.
Image via sohu.com
"She pulls it out, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that's our ring.’" And the rest is history.
Info via Vulture