Everything Everywhere All At Once Was Written For Jackie Chan Before Michelle Yeoh Bagged The Role

Michelle
Yeoh
led
the
anticipated
sci-fi
film
Everything
Everywhere
All
At
Once
reportedly
was
first
written
for
a
male
action
hero.
The
film’s
directors
Daniel
Scheinert
and
Daniel
Kwan
recently
told
The
Hollywood
Reporter
that
the
film’s
leading
role
was
originally
written
for
martial
arts
star
Jackie
Chan.

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Everything
Everywhere
All
At
Once
follows
Michelle
Yeoh
as
Evelyn
–
a
laundromat
owner
who’s
enlisted
to
save
reality
itself.
Scheinert
revealed
that
action
film
was
“going
to
star
a
dude”,
Kwan
added,
“We
were
having
trouble
figuring
out
the
casting
for
the
father
figure.”

The
filmmakers
also
confessed
that
Michelle
Yeoh
was
originally
cast
as
the
main
character’s
wife,
but
the
makers
believed
turning
her
the
protagonist
will
make
the
story
more
relatable.
Kwan
said,
“And
one
of
us
started
wondering
what
happens
if
we
take
Michelle’s
character
and
flip
it
and
she
becomes
the
protagonist.
And
the
film
just
opened
up
in
a
completely
different
way.”

“We
have
these
very
strong
moms
and
grandmoms,
and
we’re
also
both
kind
of
dopey,
gentle
guys
ourselves,” Scheinert
said
as
soon
as
they
switched
it
they
believed
the
characters
and
their
dynamics
had
become
much
more
relatable.
“Why
on
earth
didn’t
we
write
it
this
way
from
the
get-go?'”
he
added.

However,
they
could
no
longer
cast
Jackie
Chan
in
the
husband’s
role.
Kwan
told
Vulture
how
he
eventually
decided
to
recast
the
role.
“The
hardest
thing
about
finding
this
role
was
that
it
required
a
lot
of
different
skill
sets.
He
had
to
be
able
to
speak
Cantonese,
Mandarin,
English.
He
had
to
know
martial
arts.
But
he
also
had
to
be
an
incredibly
believable
sappy
pushover.”

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He
then
came
across
a
picture
of
actor
Ke
Quan
as
Short
Round
from
Indiana
Jones
and
the
Temple
of
Doom.
It
was
then
he
began
thinking
about
casting
Ke
Quan
as
the
ever-cheerful
husband,
Waymond.