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“Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Stephanie Hsu predicted the movie’s success during filming.
In an interview with IndieWire, Hsu describes feeling excitement about the project despite having had “zero concept” of A24, the studio behind the film, before joining.
“I don’t think we all knew it was going to be successful, I think we knew it was going to be special,” Hsu said. “The experience of filming it was special. It was crazy and we had no idea what we were doing, and I don’t know how else to describe it other than we knew that the core of the story was about this family trying desperately to find one another, and that is something we really resonated with.”
However, despite the realistic uncertainty of success, Hsu expressed feeling an instinctual sense that informed her of the film’s potential.
Dubbed a “witch” by co-directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, also known as the Daniels, Hsu described pulling Kwan aside and predicting: “This movie is going to bring people back into the movie theaters.”
“There was just something in me that could feel the scale of it, and that we were doing something that no one has ever seen before,” she explained.
But faced with the sudden pandemic, Hsu described fearing the film’s eventual reception.
I was like, ‘I don’t know if people are going to like it or not, or if people are going to understand it or have the patience for it.’ But it’s been so rewarding and affirming, both in the industry and also as an artist, to realize that people are still willing to be surprised and are still capable of being surprised and want to be challenged. People will show up for a new experience. And that as artists and as an industry, we still have the opportunity to do magnificent things and should strive to do so.
Hsu’s role as both Joy Wang — Evelyn and Waymond Wang’s disassociated daughter – and universe-destroying Jobu Tupaki played a major part in launching “Everything Everywhere” to success. In addition to earning nearly $104 million in the box office, the film would also become A24’s highest-grossing film ever.
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