47 Fun Facts About Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Daniels broke through by directing the music video for which viral hit?

Turn Down for What: Daniel Kwan stars in the 2014 video himself, dancing opposite Sunita Mani, and the clip earned the duo a Grammy nomination.

Who plays Evelyn Quan Wang?

Michelle Yeoh plays Evelyn Quan Wang, a part that brought her the Academy Award for Best Actress in March 2023; the Daniels rewrote the lead for her after first conceiving it as a man.

What type of business do Evelyn and Waymond run?

A laundromat: in another universe Waymond is a polished, successful businessman, yet he tells Evelyn he would have liked just doing laundry and taxes with her.

Which purchase does the auditor Deirdre question as one of Evelyn's business expenses?

A karaoke machine: asked how it could be a business expense, Evelyn insists she is a singer, and Deirdre notes she has also filed as a novelist, a chef and a teacher.

What does Waymond stick onto objects around the family business to make them look happier?

Googly eyes: Evelyn peels them off at first, but in the final fight she sticks one to her own forehead like a third eye and tells Waymond she is learning to fight like him.

Who plays Joy Wang and her multiverse alter ego Jobu Tupaki?

Stephanie Hsu plays both Joy and Jobu Tupaki, joining after the original Joy dropped out in early 2020; previously known for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Broadway's Be More Chill, she earned an Oscar nomination.

Who plays the auditor Deirdre?

Jamie Lee Curtis plays Deirdre; the directors say she copied the hair and outfit from a photo of an office worker they had found online. The part brought her the first Oscar win of her career.

Who plays Gong Gong, Evelyn's demanding father?

James Hong plays Gong Gong; in 2022, aged 93, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, after fellow actor Daniel Dae Kim crowdfunded the cost.

What does 'Gong Gong' mean in Cantonese?

Grandfather, specifically the mother's father, is what Gong Gong (公公) means in Cantonese; Joy uses it for Evelyn's father, who has just flown in from China and does not yet know his granddaughter has a girlfriend.

In one universe of Everything Everywhere All at Once, what have humans evolved to have in place of fingers?

Hot dogs: in that universe Evelyn and the auditor Deirdre are a couple, and with such floppy hands people have learned to do everything, even play the piano, with their feet.

How do characters trigger a verse-jump?

By performing statistically unlikely actions, such as swallowing lip balm, giving oneself paper cuts or declaring love to an enemy, a jumper's mind links to a version of themselves in another universe.

Jobu Tupaki's doomsday creation, a swirling black void, takes the form of which food?

A bagel: Jobu piled everything in existence onto an everything bagel until it collapsed into a void. Daniel Kwan says the film's central symbol started as a throwaway joke.

Alpha-Waymond says this Evelyn can beat Jobu because, of all the Evelyns, she is the greatest what?

Failure: this Evelyn never finished a goal or followed a dream, and Alpha-Waymond argues that each path she abandoned became a skilled self in another universe that she can now borrow from.

What is Jobu Tupaki actually looking for, she eventually reveals?

An Evelyn who can see that nothing matters is what Jobu has searched every universe for; having found one, she hopes they can step into the void together, until Waymond's plea to stop fighting changes Evelyn's mind.

What are Evelyn and Joy in the universe where they communicate through on-screen captions?

Rocks: two boulders on a cliff in a universe where life never began, talking only in captions. The Daniels wanted one moment of quiet in a film about noise and chaos.

What does Waymond bring to the audit, hoping it will make Evelyn talk about their marriage?

Divorce papers: Waymond hopes that serving them will finally start a conversation about the marriage, but Evelyn finds them in the middle of the chaos and assumes the worst.

Which Hong Kong director's films inspired the universe where Evelyn is a martial-arts movie star?

Wong Kar-wai, whose mood of romantic yearning the rain-soaked street scenes borrow; the actor playing the suave Waymond knew it first-hand, having been Wong's assistant director on 2046.

Which Pixar composer voices Raccacoonie, the raccoon chef?

Randy Newman, the Toy Story composer: the first draft already said the raccoon was voiced by Randy Newman, a wish the Daniels say they never expected him to grant.

Which Glee alumnus plays Chad, the chef with a raccoon hidden under his hat?

Harry Shum Jr. plays Chad. Evelyn garbles the title Ratatouille as 'Raccacoonie' and insists it stars a raccoon, then lands in a universe where her mistake is real.

The Daniels first wrote the lead role of Everything Everywhere All at Once for which action star?

Jackie Chan was the star the first drafts were written for, until the Daniels rebuilt the story around a woman; the actress who took the lead says she later teased him: your loss, my bro.

Which actress was originally cast as Joy in 2018 before dropping out?

Awkwafina was announced in August 2018 in what was billed as a Crazy Rich Asians reunion with the film's star, but she had left by the time shooting began in January 2020, and Joy was recast.

A meme comparing which politician to Short Round prompted the Daniels to seek out Ke Huy Quan?

Andrew Yang, then running for president, was captioned online as Short Round 'all grown up'; the joke sent the Daniels looking for the actor, who had just decided to return to work after seeing Crazy Rich Asians.

Which former Goonies co-star acted as Ke Huy Quan's lawyer for his contract?

Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk in The Goonies, became an entertainment attorney after leaving acting and negotiated his old co-star's contract for the film.

Which Marvel series were the Daniels invited to discuss developing around the time filming began?

Loki, the Disney+ series built around alternate timelines, was the Marvel project the Daniels were approached about; they declined, being about to shoot their own multiverse film.

What does Waymond beg everyone to be?

Kind: 'Please, be kind, especially when we don't know what's going on,' Waymond says, and Evelyn takes him at his word, ending the battle by giving each attacker something that makes them happy.

Daniel Kwan calls Everything Everywhere All at Once a response to which earlier film?

The Matrix: the Daniels wanted their own version of its ordinary person who learns that reality can be bent, and a new Matrix sequel even reached cinemas before their homage did.

Which street-corner job gives one Evelyn the skills to fight off a squad of armed men?

Sign spinner: one Evelyn twirls advertising boards for a living, so this one can whirl a shield the same way. The Daniels chose skills that are impressive but overlooked or underpaid.

What was the Daniels' previous feature film, released in 2016?

Swiss Army Man cast Daniel Radcliffe as a flatulent corpse, and some of its first audience at Sundance walked out; the Daniels still left the festival with its directing award.

Which band composed the score?

Son Lux, the trio of Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang, wrote a 49-track score and soundtrack and drew in star guests: OutKast's André 3000 turns up on it playing the flute.

Which two musicians feature on the single 'This Is a Life'?

Mitski and David Byrne duet on 'This Is a Life' over the end credits, but at the Oscars it was the actress who plays Joy who sang it with Byrne, in Mitski's place.

Which rock hit recurs throughout Everything Everywhere All at Once?

Absolutely (Story of a Girl) is quoted in dialogue and heard three times, each a custom cover: Nine Days singer John Hampson, now a teacher, re-recorded it with new lyrics for other universes.

Which Debussy piece serves as Deirdre's theme?

Clair de lune follows Deirdre through the film as her theme; in the universe where she and Evelyn are a couple, she plays it for Evelyn on the piano with her feet.

At which festival did Everything Everywhere All at Once have its world premiere?

South by Southwest chose it as the opening film of its 2022 festival in Austin; the band behind the score recalled the premiere audience laughing and crying all around them.

The low-budget Everything Everywhere All at Once grossed roughly how much worldwide?

$143 million worldwide made it the first A24 release ever to pass $100 million, a mark it crossed four months into its run, when it was already on sale to watch at home.

In 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once overtook which film to become A24's highest-grossing release?

Hereditary, Ari Aster's 2018 horror, had been A24's biggest worldwide earner; the newer film passed it in June 2022 on a run so steady that its takings rose in its sixth weekend.

Which Oscar did Everything Everywhere All at Once lose?

Best Original Score went to All Quiet on the Western Front, second on the night with four Oscars, while The Banshees of Inisherin, level with it on nine nominations, went home with nothing.

Evelyn's actress became the first Oscar winner from which country?

Malaysia's first Oscar winner trained as a ballet dancer until a back injury ended that career; she won Miss Malaysia in 1983 and only then tried her luck in Hong Kong action films.

Ke Huy Quan was the first Oscar-winning actor born in which country?

Vietnam is his birthplace: his family fled in 1978 in two groups, he to a refugee camp in Hong Kong with his father, his mother elsewhere with three of his siblings, and all were reunited in the United States a year later.

Which everyday item does Alpha-Waymond wield as a weapon in the tax-office fight?

A fanny pack: Alpha-Waymond flattens the building's security staff with it. The actor took the long-strapped prop home to practise and says he broke a lot of things in the house.

What is the name of Joy's girlfriend, whom Evelyn struggles to accept?

Becky, played by Tallie Medel: Evelyn spends most of the film keeping the relationship from Gong Gong, then at the end tells him about it herself.

Which comedian plays Debbie the Dog Mom, one of Evelyn's customers?

Jenny Slate plays the customer whose little dog gets swung like a nunchuck in battle; her credit read 'Big Nose' in cinemas and was changed for the home release over its echo of a Jewish stereotype.

Which directing duo produced Everything Everywhere All at Once?

Anthony and Joe Russo, directors of two Avengers films, backed it through AGBO but collected no Oscar: the Best Picture statuettes went to producers Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang.

In which California city do Evelyn and Waymond live and run the family business?

Simi Valley, north-west of Los Angeles: the film names it when a TV news report says a man has gone berserk at the tax office there, after Alpha-Waymond's fight with the guards.

What condition did Daniel Kwan discover he had while researching an early draft's protagonist?

ADHD was the diagnosis Kwan received after recognising himself while researching an early draft whose undiagnosed protagonist had the condition; the idea of a mind pulled in every direction survives in the finished film.

Everything Everywhere All at Once won three acting Oscars, as only A Streetcar Named Desire and which 1976 film had before?

Network won three acting Oscars, one of them posthumously for Peter Finch, but like Streetcar it missed Best Picture; Everything Everywhere All at Once was the first of the three to win both.

How did the actress who plays Deirdre create Deirdre's protruding stomach?

She used her real belly: everyone assumes it is a prosthetic, says Daniel Kwan, but the actress wanted nothing concealed, having sucked her stomach in since she was 11.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is widely described as the first film of which genre to win Best Picture?

Science fiction had never taken Best Picture: even E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial lost, to Gandhi, and the genre's nominees had gone home empty-handed ever since.