The first month of 2023 was quite an eventful one for Michelle Yeoh. She started by winning the Golden Globe Award for “Best Performance [by an Actress] in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy” on January 10. This was for her performance as part of the cast of Everything Everywhere All at Once, the absurdist comedy-drama film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert.
About two weeks later, the actress made history as the first ever Malaysian to earn an Oscar nomination. There had been some fears beforehand that she would become the latest person of color to be snubbed at the Academy Awards, but this proved not to be the case.
Yeoh’s career has well and truly taken off now, albeit at an admittedly latter stage of her profession. For a few years, she did not appear in very many movies or TV shows, as she felt that she was being offered only stereotypical parts. Since 2018, though, her star has soared with major roles in Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as well as The Witcher: Blood Origin on Netflix, among others.
For the moment, however, it is Everything Everywhere All at Once that is stealing all the headlines for Yeoh. Before her, however, the main role in the film had been offered to Jackie Chan.
Everything Everywhere All At Once Was Originally Written For Jackie Chan
Michelle Yeoh played Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once. The character is described as “a dissatisfied and overwhelmed laundromat owner,” and “a middle-aged Chinese immigrant [who] is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.” The actress also portrayed those multiple other versions of Evelyn in alternate universes.
When Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — commonly known in the industry as “the Daniels” — started writing the script, however, the character looked very different. To start with, the part was male, with the legendary Jackie Chan as their ideal casting choice for the role. The pair still had Yeoh in mind, but she would have played the wife of the leading man instead.
Scheinert confirmed these initial plans in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in March 2022. “At first we were like, ‘Action movie, going to star a dude,” he said.
“[But] we were having trouble figuring out the casting for the father figure, and one of us started wondering what happens if we take Michelle’s character and flop it and she becomes the protagonist. And the film just opened up in a completely different way.”
How Does Michelle Yeoh Feel About Jackie Chan Having Been The First Choice For Her Role?
It’s not the best feeling in the world to know that you were settled on, not quite chosen. In Michelle Yeoh’s case in Everything Everywhere All at Once, however, the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. The Daniels have admitted that the story only truly found shape and blossomed when they decided to change their leading man into a leading woman.
At the same time, while Yeoh’s achievements cannot yet compare to those of Jackie Chan over the years, the creators are adamant that they gained more than they lost when they decided to go with her. On the actors’ part, there was no bad blood between them, despite having gone head-to-head for the main part in one of 2022’s most successful movies.
“Yeah, [the role] was written for Jackie Chan,” the actress told CBS News in January 2023. “He texted me and he said, ‘Hey, congratulations on your film... Do you know your directors came to look for me first?’ I said, ‘Yes, bro, I know! Your loss, bro, thank you!”
The Writers Also Wanted A Strong Female Lead For Everything Everywhere All At Once
The decision by the Daniels to move on from Jackie Chan and have Michelle Yeoh as the main character served multiple purposes all at once. The first problem solved was the question of who to cast as the lead character’s dad. That particular role — fondly named in the film Gong Gong (which is Cantonese for “grandfather”) — went to Hawaii Five-O star James Hong.
The writers must have felt that Hong, as well any other actors they might have auditioned for Gong Gong, would not gel well with Chan. The relationship with Yeoh as Evelyn worked perfectly, though, and was one of the highlights of the film. At the same time, changing the character from male to female gave the movie an opportunity to be led by a “strong woman.”
“We have these very strong moms and grandmoms, and we’re also both kind of dopey, gentle guys ourselves,” Scheinert said in his conversation with THR. “As soon as we switched it, we were like, ‘Oh, now the husband and wife characters are more relatable. Why on earth didn’t we write it this way from the get-go?”