Everything Everywhere All at Once truly has it all, including a star-making performance from actress Stephanie Hsu, whose been nominated for an Oscar award for her supporting role in the movie. The latest from surrealist filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, known collectively as Daniels, Everything Everywhere All At Once follows a Chinese-American family through their adventures across the multiverse. Michelle Yeoh has the lead role as the matriarch, Evelyn, a laundromat owner who learns she's just one of many versions of herself and the one who must save all of existence. Former child star Ke Huy Quan (The Goonies) co-stars as her husband, Waymond, and Stephanie Hsu plays their daughter, Joy Wang. While only Yeoh and Quan have won Golden Globes for their roles, all three are nominated for Oscar awards in 2023.
If Hsu is familiar to audiences watching Everything Everywhere All at Once, it is likely from her recurring role as Mei Lin in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Mei was introduced in season 3, appearing more prominently in the recently released fourth season. As the previous most noteworthy role of Hsu's career, the sensible Mei made Hsu's outrageous scene-stealing in Everything Everywhere a welcome surprise. But Hsu has been a dazzling comedic talent in television and on Broadway for years. She was a regular on the MTV show Girl Code, and on the stage, she originated the role of Karen Plankton in the SpongeBob Squarepants musical and played the lead in Be More Chill. Undeniably Everything Everywhere All at Once will put Stephanie Hsu on the map though — which makes the fact Joy and Jobu Tukapi were almost played by someone else even more surprising.
Stephanie Hsu's Character In Everything Everywhere All At Once Was Recast
For Stephanie Hsu's role in the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hsu replaced her Shang-Chi co-star and real-life friend Awkwafina, who was originally cast in the movie before having to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. The opportunity to take over such a significant film role from someone as established and broadly prolific as Awkwafina certainly presented Hsu the chance to break out as a movie star. But it also could have been a daunting task trying to live up to any comparison. Hsu succeeds in overcoming the latter, delivering as complex and extravagant a performance as might have been seen from the star of The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians, and now she deserves for the former to happen as well.
As Joy in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hsu essentially plays two characters. There's the real world version of Evelyn's daughter, which called for a more emotional and dramatic performance, and the multiversal villain Jobu Tupaki, a potentially evil version of Joy from another universe. For this sort of movie, with its cartoonish action and out-there science fiction plot, over-the-top performances are what stick with viewers after they leave the theater. Hsu's work as Jobu Tupaki, which consists of many extreme costume changes and other bizarre transformations as well as a good deal of villainous grandstanding, sometimes ridiculously wielding sex toys as weapons, is absolutely spectacular: flashy, funny, fabulous. The performance is all the more noteworthy because her excessive scene-chewing as Jobu Tupaki contrasts so strikingly against the grounded act she puts on as Joy.
Stephanie Hsu's Oscar Nomination And Career Future
While Hsu had a steadily growing filmography before Everything Everywhere All At Once, Hsu's role as Joy/Jobu Tupaki being nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role — her first Oscar nomination — means that bigger opportunities are on the way for the star. In addition to her expected return as Mei in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 5, the actress will continue her transition to movie stardom with a couple of film gigs.
In 2022, she wrapped on a major role in the still-untitled directorial debut of Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon screenwriter Adele Lim. The upcoming comedy follows four Asian-American women as they bond during a trip to find one of their birth mothers. She can also be heard voicing a character in the Netflix animated feature The Monkey King, due this year. Combined with the Oscar buzz surrounding Everything Everywhere All at Once, Stephanie Hsu definitely seems to have a bright future ahead of her.