Dive into the crazy worlds of the multiverse with A24’s new movie Everything Everywhere All At Once! Starring Michelle Yeoh, this movie from Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (collectively known as the Daniels) combines action and comedy in one high-energy, multiversal adventure.
The film follows the aging Chinese immigrant Evelyn, who is facing struggles from all corners, from her business to her marriage. Evelyn seems to be a failure in every aspect of her life, but when an interdimensional rupture threatens the safety of the multiverse, only she could restore balance to her world and all the alternate realities. To do this, she must tap into the acquired skills of a variety of Evelyns hailing from the different parts of the multiverse.
Watch the trailer below:
Before you see the movie on the big screen, we’ve rounded up some interesting behind-the-scenes facts about Everything Everywhere All At Once that you might want to know!
1. Jackie Chan was the first choice for the lead role.
It is no secret that the Daniels really tailored the lead role of the film for Jackie Chan while Yeoh would star as his wife. When Chan was unavailable, something clicked and the directors realized that the story would be better with the wife as the protagonist.
In an interview with The Guardian, Yeoh shares her fun banter with Jackie Chan: “Jackie actually texted me and he says: ‘Wow, I hear amazing things about your movie. Did you know that the boys came to see me in China?’ And I said: ‘Yes, your loss, my bro!’”
2. The directors almost had to explore the Marvel’s multiverse as well.
As it turns out, the Daniels had the choice between working on the Marvel’s cinematic multiverse or on their own multiverse. The Daniels were offered to direct Loki, MCU’s spinoff series where the God of Mischief is introduced to his other variants across the multiverse. But the directors decided to focus on their film, thus, the director’s chair was given to Kate Herron. Given that both titles received great praises, it seems that everything worked out well in both multiverses.
3. Yeoh’s husband in the film is an iconic Indiana Jones ally.
Starring as Waymond, the husband of Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn, is Ke Huy Quan. If you think his face is quite familiar or his name rings a bell, that is because he is an iconic child actor. Ke Huy Quan played the ever-dependable Short Round in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and as Data in The Goonies. In his new film, the actor even had a quick reference to his popular role in The Temple of Doom, which you’d want to see for yourself.
4. Jamie Lee Curtis wanted her character Deirdre to look real in the film.
In Everything Everywhere All At Once, Halloween icon Jamie Lee Curtis stars as the eccentric IRS inspector named Deirdre Beaubeirdra. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Daniel Scheinert reveals how Curtis was so enthusiastic about portraying the character, saying she’d send them photos of weird outfits and hairdos for Deirdre right after signing up.
It was also important for Curtis to make the role realistic. “I wanted to just be truthful to this woman. In the world, there is an industry — a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry — about hiding things. Concealers. Body-shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything,” said Curtis.
5. The indie film’s eye-popping visual effects were worked on by just five people.
The film has a lot of visual effects given its surrealistic and high-energy multiversal premise. In an interview with WIRED— which you can watch below– the Daniels revealed that there were only five people working on the movie’s visual effects. They even shared how they put together some of the sequences in the film.
Everything Everywhere All At Once opens in cinemas nationwide this Wednesday, June 29, 2022. Book your seats in advance and buy your tickets here.
