The critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All at Once pits the unassuming Wang family against the collapse of reality. Chinese American housewife Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) learns from a multiversal iteration of her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) that there's an entire collection of alternate universe versions of themselves. With a supervillain threatening to plunge existence into chaos, Waymond helps his wife draw from her parallel selves to confront this crisis. Throughout the A24 film, Waymond's love for Evelyn acts as an emotional anchor to the film. Helmed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka the Daniels, the film has Quan step back into the spotlight for the first time in over twenty years to stretch his acting chops after starring in classic films like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Quan discussed what drew him to the project and returning to acting. He also detailed how he prepared for the movie's reality-bending action set pieces and praised the cast and crew for crafting such a delightfully chaotic film.
I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once and this movie is chaotic in the best kind of way. How was it getting the script and seeing you'd portray an entire multiverse of Waymonds? What drew you to this project?
Ke Huy Quan: When I first read it, it was one of the happiest readings I had ever done. This was the script that I wanted for many, many, many years. It didn't exist and that's why I had to make the difficult decision to step away from acting for more than twenty years. When I read it, not knowing what it was about, as I was turning the pages one after the other, I realized it featured a Chinese American family. It was incredible and the script was beautifully written and I felt Waymond, this character, was written for me. After reading it, I wanted to be a part of this so bad, I called my agent and said, "Please, do anything we can to help me land this role," and I went and auditioned for the Daniels the next day.
I was super nervous because I hadn't done this for more than twenty years. I hadn't auditioned for anybody for a long time. I thought I did really good, didn't hear from them for two months, and any hope I had of landing this was completely gone. All of a sudden, I got a call again and went in to audition for a second time, saw them enjoy my performance, thought they liked it, was really happy and, when I left, I saw another Asian actor waiting in the lobby to read for the same role. He was taller, better looking, wearing a suit looking like he walked out of freaking GQ magazine and I went, "I don't think I'm going to get it. I think that guy is going to get it." I went home, called my agent very sad, and said, "I don't think I'm going to get it. I tried so hard." And then three weeks later I got the call and it was one of the happiest, most amazing calls I've gotten in a long, long time.
You've got a murderers row of a cast, with Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, and James Hong. I know your very first movie was working with Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford but how was it working with this cast?
I remember the first day of shooting, we were in the IRS building in that cubicle, and in front of me was Jamie Lee Curtis, behind me was Michelle Yeoh, to my left was James Hong. I looked around and had a momentary panic attack going "Holy shit, these are all legendary actors. What the hell am I doing here?" After the first shot, I walked up to the Daniels and asked "Is there anything you want me to do? Is my performance okay? Anything you want me to change?" and they went "No, you're fine," and we kept on shooting.
I remember one day, I finished a shot -- and Jamie Lee Curtis is always by the monitor watching. When she's not shooting, she's at the monitor. She came up to me and gave me a really long hug with a big smile and says "Ke, that was fucking incredible." Getting that praise from her meant so much to me. I walked on the set the next day with total confidence and that's how I finished the movie. It was a joy to work with all of them. Even though we had a really tight shooting schedule and everyday there was a lot to get done, we really enjoyed ourselves. Every morning, we'd all get together with the cast and crew and we would either do a warmup exercise or dance to music to get everybody's mood going. That's what the set was is like, it's incredible, a really fun shoot.
I was talking to the stunt coordinator Tim Eulich and he said you had a very tight window of time to get the fight scenes down, and Waymond gets into the action before Evelyn. How was it working out things like the fanny pack fight?
I studied Taekwon-do for many years but the fanny pack sequence is a style called wushu rope dart and that's a style that, if you don't practice it as a kid, it's really hard to master. I trained with Tim and the Martial Club boys who really choreographed those fight sequences. I trained with them for weeks and I brought the fanny pack home and practiced with it, swinging it around my neck and shoulders constantly and constantly breaking things. My wife wasn't too happy, but luckily, I think all that hard work paid off.
When we were shooting it, it was only scheduled for one and a half days including all the drama and dialog leading up to it. We just didn't have the luxury of a Jackie Chan movie where you keep on shooting until you get that move perfect. Every shot, we were averaging two to three takes and that was all the time that was allowed because we had so much to cover. It was tight but it was fun for me to do because, for many years, I was behind the camera helping an action director named Corey Yuen choreograph sequences and watching him shoot them and put it together. This felt very familiar to me but this time I wore the actor's hat.
How was it having the majority of the production being in a converted office building?
I think that was the only way for our movie to be completed. It was a thick script. We had a lot to shoot and we just didn't have the luxury of going to many different locations. We shot the majority of the film in an abandoned building in Simi Valley and, yes, we were there constantly. Being comfortable in that environment and having that sense of familiarity certainly helped, not just for me but for the entire cast and crew. That was the only way we could do it with limited locations.
With there being all these different versions of Waymond, were there any constants that between them that you kept in mind in portraying them?
When I got the role, I realized I wasn't playing one character. I was playing three very different versions of the same character. It was very important to me, from the very beginning, that the audience could distinguish these different versions and I'm treating them as different characters. I hired an acting coach, a body movement coach, a voice coach, and a dialog coach to help me prepare to play this character. It was physically demanding and also emotionally demanding too.
To get into that mind frame, I really reached deep within me and looked at all those decades of my life, going to places where I was really happy and also dark places where I was very sad. I poured my life into these three different characters. It's hard for me to separate them because [I feel like] they're all me. They're all parts of my life, different phases of my life, and also, at certain times when I needed guidance and to lean on something, I would lean on one of them. That's how I did it.
I feel like a lot of that emotional honesty definitely shows on the screen and a lot of that comes from you working with Michelle Yeoh and you recently wrapped another project with her. How was it working with her?
It was incredible. She did her first movie in 1984 in Hong Kong, directed by Corey Yuen, who I've had the pleasure of working with. But also in 1984 was my first movie, when we did Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, so we actually started around the same time just in different parts of the world. I've always been a fan of hers and I've seen every single one of her movies and I waited 38 years to unite with her on the screen. When we first met, there was that instant chemistry between us. It was very palpable and I think it's because I have extreme admiration for her.
She's just this nice, down-to-earth, generous, humble, really fun person that I love to spend time with because she worked a lot in Hong Kong in her early years and those were the movies that I watched growing up in my formative years. We share that history together and, not only do we speak the same language -- she speaks Cantonese and so do I and we both speak English -- I think we share a lot of that history together. It was really fun and I'm so happy and feel really blessed to have this movie be my comeback movie and to be able to do it with this amazing cast and our amazing directors.
With this being your comeback movie, along with Finding 'Ohana, was it intimidating coming back to acting, or was it like riding a bike?
I was really nervous, to tell you truth, before I stepped in front of the camera. I guess I was lucky that I did Finding 'Ohana. I have a small role in that, so that was a nice warmup for me but I also spent a lot of time prepping for this role as Waymond. Once I stepped in front of the camera, all those wonderful memories I had as a kid on the set of Indiana Jones and The Goonies came rushing back in. I remember having a moment to myself standing in front of the camera: I felt really comfortable and happy. This is where I felt like I belong.
It's been more than twenty years and, honestly, I didn't know how the audience would react to my return. They hadn't seen me in a long time. The last time they saw me, I was a kid! But ever since our movie came out, seeing and hearing all these wonderful and positive reviews and comments have really warmed my heart. I'm really overwhelmed with emotions.
After working with directors like Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner, how was it working with Daniels?
It was incredible! The first time I auditioned for them, I was in the room and I'm acting and they were giving me notes directing me. In that instant, it felt so familiar because that's what Steven Spielberg did on set because he'd constantly be off-camera telling me what to do, giving me notes while the camera was rolling. Being directed by them is wonderful, they're so smart, really talented, and know exactly what they want.
They wrote this amazing script and they are fun directors. They're very collaborative, open to us actors giving suggestions and trying different ways. It's a lot of fun and you can [see it in] the movie, the movie speaks for itself. They did a freaking amazing job. It's a beautiful movie and able to balance all these things together. I haven't done this for so long and to be able to pull that performance out of me really speaks volumes to them as directors.
You've said that it was Crazy Rich Asians that made you want to get back in the game but, with the benefit of time and working behind the camera, what did you bring with you from that experience?
It was very different but also very familiar and I'll tell you why. Back then, we did all those movies with practical sets, there was rarely a green screen. You'd walk on set and everything was there. The Daniels chose to make their movie with practical sets too. We only had one day of a green screen and that was mostly for [the scene with] the bagel. Everything you see was there so I was very familiar walking to the set again because that's what I was accustomed to as a kid. The only difference is that we had the luxury back then that those movies were shot over a six-month period.
Our movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once, we shot over 38 days over an eight-week period. It was a lot tighter and every day we just needed to move a lot. Even though we worked tirelessly on this movie, we never stopped having fun. It was just a great shoot and crew and, with all the cast there were zero egos, we all love each other. Everybody walked on the set with humility and nothing but love and kindness for one another -- very much like Waymond!
Written, directed, and produced by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once is in theaters now.
Source: Trendz OH
No comments:
Post a Comment