Scheinert: There was one actor who didn’t want to do what the script said, and that was James Hong.
Seki: Yes Yes.
Also a legend.
Seki: Also a legend.
Scheinert: yes. He didn’t like how much his character was supposed to sleep in the movie. And he had a suggestion. He always wanted to have fun and contribute. He was like –
Seki: he fought back. I’m glad he did. he was good
Scheinert: yes. he is great
Coming out of ‘Swiss Army Man’ and turning down ‘Loki’, which is also a multi-dimensional adventure, for you to make this movie as you made an explosive mark on this movie. But how did the idea for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ come about and how did it become multiversal apart from ‘Loki’?
Scheinert: yes. So, in a way, when I made “Swiss Army Man,” I think they asked me, “Oh, you’re going to make the big leap to Hollywood.” And it made our brains think, “What would our movie look like if we were to make a Hollywood blockbuster?” And here is what we wrote.
Seki: Yeah, this is kind of like saying, “Oh, this is probably the closest thing to a blockbuster.”
Scheinert: yes. As such, this is our version of a Marvel movie. Very silly, very existential and philosophical, also like…
Seki: Personal.
Scheinert: Personal. And I’m kind of intimidated by IP, right? Even if it’s an adapted article, “What about the actual human this happened to?” So we’ve always naturally gravitated toward writing our own stuff.
So we were just lucky to choose mulch…it seemed like a coincidence. I think it was in the cultural conversation and spirit. But in 2016, I just started writing an Asian-American multiverse movie. There’s an explosion of multiverse movies right now, and an explosion of Asian-American stories.
Seki: right. I used to say that all our scripts were like prayers. And slowly over the years, the world has shifted to a place where our films are very obvious, but the first time I met Michelle was in her 2nd year when “Crazy Rich Asians” was released. I remember it was a week ago. So, no one knew if it would do well, but for some reason, for better or worse, a lot of it rode the box office.
Scheinert: We kept saying to our producers, “Let’s book her now.” And they said ‘maybe 2 weeks wait’.
Seki: I was like, “No, no, no.” yes. But she said: This wild Asian-American movie predates “Crazy Rich Asians” like her version of the super-banking Asian-American movie.
So this was just something we’ve been chewing on for a long time. Looking at our past work, we’ve dealt with multiverse stuff. You know, 10 years ago we were doing it.”possibility,” It was like an interactive, bizarre piece of tech art about the decisions a couple about to break up make.funny ball” is a kind of endless quest. So it’s always been on our minds and we realized, ‘The multiverse can be a really cool place for our ideas to flourish. know?
