The ceremony of the 95th edition of the Oscar Awards ended with the film Everything everywhere at the same time sweeping seven awards, including the most coveted Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan).
The offbeat and surreal comedy from directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, also known as “The Daniels,” follows the wacky adventures of a Chinese immigrant, middle-class laundromat owner, who suddenly leaps from a parallel universe into other. If she saw it and you loved it as much as we did, let’s find out together 10 amazing facts about this year’s big winner.
1. Influenced by philosophical theory and literature
Kwan and Scheinert drew on a philosophical theory for their concept of the multiverse, in which every choice a person makes leads to their own alternate existence. The modal realism of the philosopher David Kellogg Lewis (1941-2001) was the inspiration.
Simply put, these are possible worlds that are just as real as the real world. However, more in a logical sense than in a physical sense.
2. Idea of multiverse even before spider-man and rick and morty
“The Danielses” conceived their concept of a multiverse of possibilities in 2010, but implementation fell further and further behind schedule. During the waiting phase, directors were always horrified to see other movies or series juggling similar ideas.
3. The project was written for Jackie Chan
Originally, the main character was not supposed to own a laundromat. In fact, “The Daniels” had imagined a teacher with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as the protagonist. As the lead actor, they had Hong Kong superstar and martial arts icon Jackie Chan in mind.
However, at some point in the writing process, Kwan and Scheinert reconsidered the lead figure and thought that he should be portrayed by a woman, believing that a husband-wife relationship was more convincing. The film ended up starring Michelle Yeoh, whose performance led her to become the first Asian woman to win the Best Actress Oscar.
4. Daniel Radcliffe was supposed to be part of the cast
In an interview with Empire, Daniel Radcliffe revealed that “The Daniels” approached him for a role in the film. The protagonist of Harry Potter was very excited to collaborate with the two directors again as it would be their second collaboration after A corpse to survive.
He even said that Kwan and Scheinert are the only people in the world with whom he would agree to work on a film without even reading the script. Unfortunately, due to another work commitment, Radcliffe was unable to accept the role in Everything everywhere at the same time.
5. Ke Huy Quan returns to acting after twenty years
For the role of the heroine’s husband, “The Daniels” achieved a real casting success by releasing Ke Huy Quan from his acting retirement. In the 1980s, the Vietnamese-American was a child star, starring in cult films Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the goonies.
Sadly, in 2002, Quan gave up his acting career out of frustration at the lack of offers for Asian actors, but returned in a big way with the Netflix side movie Ohana: a magnificent treasure and TETPAMT, which earned him a well-deserved Oscar.
6. Everything everywhere at the same time had a false name
Everything everywhere at the same time had a provisional name during production to keep details under wraps, this was A woman trying to pay her taxes.
7. How much did it cost?
According to various reports, TETPAMT it had a production budget of only $25 million. However, this figure was denied by producer Jonathan Wang, who revealed that only 14.3 million were needed in the production phases.
A very small sum compared to another movie focused on the multiverse: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesswhich cost 200 million dollars.
8. The visual effects were created by a team of five people
We all know that most of the special effects in movies are done by specialized studios, but in the case of TETPAMT it was not so. Being an independent film and not having a large budget, the production relied on a group of only five people, including the directors, for its special effects.
But that’s not all, none of them studied at a specialized school and instead they all learned the trade with tutorials! Also, filming only lasted 40 days.
9. Director cameos
In an Alfred Hitchcock-esque move, “The Daniels” made an appearance in the film. In fact, the two directors can be seen in two very brief moments in some scenes.
Daniel Kwan’s cameo can be seen at 45:40 as he plays a pickpocket, while Daniel Scheinert impersonates the diver who is seen leaving the safe room at 1 hour 10 minutes.
10. The universe of rocks
Originally, in the universe where Evelyn and her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) are rocks in a desert, there was going to be audible dialogue. However, Yeoh suggested that the scene be completely silent.
In separate interviews, both Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu revealed that the rock universe was their favorite despite neither character being present or talking about that world.
11. The most iconic items from the movie were auctioned off for charity.
The A24 film studio organized the auction. Among the out-of-the-ordinary items are Michelle Yeoh’s sausage-shaped fingers that sold for $55,000.
An auditor of the month trophy in the form of a sex toy, belonging to the character played by Jamie Lee Curtis, sold for $60,000. The raccoon puppet nicknamed Raccacoonie and the googly-eyed rock were also part of the auction, literally selling like hot cakes.
12. He broke a record at the 2023 Oscars
Everything everywhere at the same time It is the third film to win three Academy Awards in the acting categories, as in addition to Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan also won the award in the Best Supporting Actors category.
In addition, with its seven Oscar awards, the film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert became the most awarded film in the world with 349 awards received.