‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Cast Used Sex Toys as Weapons: ‘We’re Not Afraid to Get Weird’
The Everything, Everywhere All at Once cast worked with dozens of props while filming the thrilling sci-fi movie, including sex toys. Stephanie Hsu — who plays Joy, the daughter of Michelle Yeoh’s character Evelyn — opened up about some of these over-the-top scenes. And she admitted she didn’t mind getting weird for the film.
Stephanie Hsu was worried she’d scare Michelle Yeoh while filming The Elvis scene in ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once’
In Everything, Everywhere All at Once, Hsu portrays Evelyn’s daughter Joy and her nemesis, Jobu Tupaki. While shooting her very first scene for the film, Hsu admittedly had to get weird. But she was initially worried she’d scare Yeoh.
“The first scene I shot with Michelle was the hallway scene or otherwise known as the introduction of Jobu or the Elvis scene or the swinging ding-dong scene,” Hsu told The Hollywood Reporter. “I was so nervous — so I made [directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert] announce to the room when I was going to get weird so that Michelle would be warned that Jobu was about to be unleashed.”
Hsu revealed that Yeoh was a little taken aback at first. The seasoned actor quickly got over it. But Hsu thinks some of the sex toy scenes may have given Yeoh some pause.
“It was pretty intense, but Michelle’s the most generous scene partner and also supremely wild and funny, herself,” Hsu added. Though I do think a lot of things in this movie pushed her over the edge of like, ‘How is it possible that I’m doing a buttplug fight? In all my years of working, how have I never seen this before?'”
Stephanie Hsu paid more attention to the fight choreography than the sex toys
In one scene in Everything, Everywhere All at Once, Jobu fights Evelyn with nunchucks that look like sex toys. In her chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Hsu talked about how she filmed the scene and revealed that she focused more on the fight than the weapon itself.
“I did some wushu training with Li Jing, who actually plays the kung-fu master in the movie,” Hsu recalled. “Those are sex-toy nunchucks. So we worked with wushu nunchucks just to get familiar with it — honestly, once you’re in it, you can’t think about that.”
“We did play it as if they were sex toys, but we also were trying to make sure we were nailing the moves of the wushu choreography,” she continued. “The first time I saw it on a big screen, I could not believe that I agreed to that without ever questioning it.”
The ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once’ star isn’t afraid of getting weird
Everything, Everywhere All at Once writers/directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert rewrote some of Hsu’s scenes based on her quirky personality. But Hsu suggested the filmmakers are just as “weird” as she is.
“It’s just so funny because they are so weird,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “They’re self-proclaimed maximalists, and I think we play the same way. We’re not afraid to get weird. We’re not afraid to try every idea and be completely surprised by what happens, and then we fine-tune from there.”
Hsu jokingly acknowledged herself, Kwan, and Scheinert as “socially accepted” weirdos. But she credits that with helping them make such a mind-bending film.
“Our weird is kind of cool and endearing, but we’re just not afraid to push the envelope and we’re excited by what is on the other side of the envelope/the envelope’s not even real,” Hsu said. “Time is a construct. Everything everywhere all at once.”
