Everything Everywhere All at Once: how Michelle Yeoh was persuaded to star in Daniels’ sci-fi action comedy

Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan wanted to imbue Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh, with the ‘energy of the Hong Kong films we love’

The duo wrote the film with Yeoh in mind and believe their relationship with her, and the cast addition of Jamie Lee Curtis, convinced Yeoh to accept the role

Reading Time:3 minutes

Michelle Yeoh in a still from Everything Everywhere All at Once, a sci-fi comedy by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan.

Published: 7:15am, 24 Mar 2022Updated: 9:42am, 24 Mar 2022

Known collectively as “Daniels”, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan wrote and directed Everything Everywhere All at Once, the best American movie showcase of Michelle Yeoh’s talents yet.

In the film, Yeoh plays Evelyn, a wife, mother and launderette owner facing an impossible tax audit. She is also dozens of other “Evelyns” – from an action star to a Chinese opera singer to a boulder atop a desert cliff that can think and move.

Daniels wrote their script with Yeoh in mind, even naming her character Michelle. “Which I think was flattering when she first read the script,” Scheinert says during a Zoom interview. “Also she did not like it.”

The directors believe two factors persuaded Yeoh to accept the role. One was Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Deidre, a mean-spirited tax auditor, and who showed she was willing to risk everything about her screen persona. The other was the relationship Yeoh formed with Daniels themselves.

“The behind-the-scenes chemistry between actor and director is so important to us,” Kwan says. “When you trust the director and the director can trust the actor, that’s when you can push in ways no one would ever expect.