Kevin Kwan Goes Hollywood

The author of Crazy Rich Asians is happy to be the public face of his book’s upcoming movie adaptation. But he’d be happier if somebody else were doing it for him.

- E.Alex Jung

CONTOUR THE SHIT OUT OF ME,” says Kevin Kwan before his photo shoot, closing his eyes as a groomer applies a walnut-brown powder along the underside of his jaw. “More!” he says dramatically. “More!”  Kwan is a mostly willing, occasionally reluctant participant in the remaking of his image as the author of the best-selling novel Crazy Rich Asians. The first book in a trilogy— which includes the sequels China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems—was published by Doubleday in 2013 and has mushroomed in popularity as the movie adaptation, starring Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh, inches toward its August 15 release. (The original novel hit No. 1 on the New York Times’ best-seller list for paperback fiction for the first time in July.) “People are often disappointed when they meet me,” says Kwan, “because I’m not this giant, flamboyant—you know, I don’t wear sequined jackets.”