The actress and martial arts star has surprised the Yankee box office with the science-fiction comedy ‘Everything at the same time everywhere’
‘Everything at the same time everywhere’ has surprised the Yankee box office with its tone somewhere between science fiction and humor. Its protagonist is the martial arts superstar Michelle Yeoh (Ipoh, Malaysia, 1962), whom we have seen in ‘Tiger and Dragon’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. In this film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who sign as Daniels, she plays a Chinese immigrant in the United States, owner of a dilapidated laundromat, who gets trapped in a loop of parallel universes when she goes to pay her taxes before an inspector of Treasury (Jamie Lee Curtis). An amazing heroine lost in the confines of the multiverse, she will discover her skills in hand-to-hand fighting.
-Can this film be one of the most surprising that has been released in the cinema?
-Honestly, when I first read the script, I thought: I’m going to have to find some way to tell these two guys that this is impossible to play. In this universe, human evolution has taken a radically different turn for reasons that are explained with a cameo from the director. Making the decision to make this film has been one of the most important in my career.
-There are scenes with Jamie Lee Curtis that are absolutely sensational.
-When you do a dance like this, you need a fearless partner because Curtis remains undaunted throughout the sequence. We both looked at each other, not thinking that we had fingers in the shape of hot dogs. We literally improvised that dance with each other. Before we started shooting, I was wondering how Jamie was going to react, in fact, I was embarrassed to do that scene. I managed to keep my composure, thinking about the more than 30 years I’ve been in this business.
– As absurd as it may seem, the scene between the two women is emotional when it could be absolutely ridiculous.
-The viewer is attracted by what the characters live. You want to see them together and for their relationship to flourish, for them to evolve because they are going through the pain and the breakup.
Do you believe in this theory of many parallel universes?
-It’s an enigma. I love the idea that parallel universes can exist. As an actress I am open to understanding other worlds because that is part of my job, but in reality I don’t think I would accept that theory as naturally as my character does. The beauty of opening your mind makes you free, however strange some of the proposals that appear on the screen may seem.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everywhere Everywhere’.
-How would you describe ‘Everything at once everywhere’?
-It’s fast, furious and chaotic. I would say it’s like pop art and pop music, where everything happens at the same time. But it’s also very much the world all millennials are used to: with the internet, information overload, constant acceleration. Beauty arises when you leave the cinema and think, look around you and discover that the world is as chaotic as what the story proposes. I think there is a very intimate philosophical message in the idea of taking a step back and saying: How do we heal ourselves? How do we make society work? I think we are all forced to reflect because we cannot continue like this.
-Is it true that you were looking forward to working with the Daniels?
-From the moment I read the script I couldn’t get them out of my head. In fact, I decided to participate as a producer because his seems to me to be a type of cinema with a surprising freshness. I needed to meet this writing and directing duo capable of creating something so intriguing. The truth is, the Daniels are evil geniuses.
Have you ever questioned the decisions you’ve made?
-This film has forced me to think, to ask myself and delve into existential questions Obviously, if I had made a different decision, my life would be different, but I have never regretted the decisions I have made in life.
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