Stephanie Hsu says this year's record Oscar nominations for Asian actors represent 'intergenerational healing'

This year's Oscar nominations broke some new ground, particularly in the acting categories. The Oscars have now set a new record for the most Asian actors nominated in a single year with four: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu were nominated for Everything Everywhere All at Once, while Hong Chau earned a nod for her performance in The Whale.

Hsu tells EW that she prepared for Tuesday morning by rewatching Everywhere Everything All at Once (for the first time since it hit theaters last spring) on her plane ride back from filming in Australia.

"I really wanted to do it as a blessing, as a ritual of recognition not only for myself but for the whole family that came together to make this movie, our crew and everyone," the Best Supporting Actress nominee says. "I wanted to return to that little moment in time where we first made this thing, purely out of love for this story that we were telling before anyone really knew who any of us were. So that was a really healing moment to get to see it again, acknowledge how far we've come, and also just to be like, 'I f---ing love our movie!' So many people tell me that they start sobbing right when it starts, and now I am that person too. Before anything even happens, I'm just like, 'Oh my God, look at this family. I know what they're about to go through!'"

Allyson Riggs/A24 Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, and James Hong as the Wang family in 'Everything Everywhere All at Once.'

Hsu continues, "I am just really proud and really happy that not only our principal cast, but so much of our creative team was celebrated as well. It's 11 nominations, and every single one is everyone's first time."

That's right: Hsu has now earned her first Oscar nomination at the same moment as Yeoh (who has been a movie star for decades, from Hong Kong to Hollywood) and Quan (who retired from acting from lack of opportunities after his child star breakthroughs), who played her parents in the film. This moment feels special for all of them.

"When I think about Michelle, I just feel so lucky and grateful that I get to be alongside her in this record-breaking, history-making moment," Hsu says. "I know that has not been an easy road for me, and she's had to go through that times 10. So it's pretty wild that we're having this moment together. Our movie is a lot about intergenerational trauma, but I feel like today we get to have a public-facing moment of intergenerational healing."

This year's acting nominations are particularly notable because, even in recent years where Asian films like Parasite and Drive My Car proved popular in major Oscar categories, they didn't receive any recognition for their actors. This year changed that by celebrating not just the EEAAO cast, but also Chau's work in The Whale.

"I had this thought right before I found out: 'What if I told you every choice that I made was intentional? What if I told you that my performance didn't just come from my heart and my identity, but also because I studied Shakespeare and Chekhov and was lucky enough to get to be trained?'" Hsu says. "I feel like sometimes that doesn't always translate to voting bodies for some reason. So it does feel like a high honor, because I feel the genuine appreciation for all of us and for our work. Hong Chau's amazing, she's had such an incredible year and incredible career, and she knows what she's doing. Those are character choices that she's making, and she's taking it very seriously."

Allyson Riggs/A24 Stephanie Hsu in 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

Before filming EEAAO, Hsu worked on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel at the same time she was starring in the Broadway musical Be More Chill. Those experiences taught her the discipline required to shift between different modes of acting, as she does in EEAAO with her double performance as both existential teenage daughter Joy Wang and the multiverse-destroying monster Jobu Tupaki.

Hsu didn't just receive an Oscar nomination, after all; she got the nomination for a performance where she wears all kinds of colorful wigs and kills people with dildos.

"I always say that Everything Everywhere is the most honest handshake I could possibly make with Hollywood," Hsu says. "It really encapsulates so much of my training and what I wish for. I feel really passionate about dramaturgy and story. I had a traditional acting experience when I was at NYU, but then my mentor Liz Swados was an experimental theater queen who taught me that every artist has a huge responsibility to be in communication with the world and to make art that hopefully moves us into a better place. It should be subversive and wild and scare us, but it should also shake us out of our seats."

Hsu continues, "I know so many people see themselves in Joy and Jobu. So I really feel like anytime good news happens, it's not just for me, it's for so many other people as well who don't get to be seen or don't get to be heard and are desperately wanting to know that they're worthy of existing. I'm not even just talking about identity. I'm talking about the weirdos and the artists and people who are not cookie-cutter Hollywood starlets."

Hsu will soon reunite on screen with her EEAAO costars Yeoh and Quan in the upcoming Disney+ series American Born Chinese — a hopeful signal that this wave of Asian-American cultural representation will be sustained, rather than confined to a one-off jewel of a movie.

"I do believe that it's going to be sustained," Hsu says. "I think some changes are really happening, and I think today was a really big deal because of that. I mean, again, you really think about it and you're like, '95 years is a really long time for there to hardly be any Asian actresses nominated for Best Actress. That is our collective history, but that history is also being broken."

The 95th Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

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