Fresh off of a supporting actress Oscar nomination and other high-profile awards and nominations for Everything Everywhere All At Once, Stephanie Hsu is back on the big screen in a very different way.
Hsu stars alongside Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu in the raunchy friendship comedy Joy Ride, which she filmed before Everything Everywhere was released.
“In some ways I feel really grateful that this is the follow-up because I think after you’re nominated for an Oscar and you go on through that trajectory everyone’s like, ‘What’s next, what’s next, what’s next?’ and there’s a lot of weight,” Hsu told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. “Especially after this film started really doing well with audiences I felt relieved that the pendulum is swinging so far in the other direction, it kind of breaks even the glass ceiling in my own self so that nothing has to be that precious coming after this. I find that to be, as an artist, really liberating.”
Hsu also revealed much of the Everything Everywhere team was there to support her at the Joy Ride premiere, including Daniels (directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) and the film’s producers. “It’s pretty sweet and cute,” she added.
When first reading the script, Hsu joked that her impression was “wow, chaos — sign me up,” while Wu “was like, oh my God, this is Asian Bridesmaids or Asian Hangover. That’s insane, this could be huge.”
The comedy has been frequently compared to beloved films like Bridesmaids, The Hangover franchise, Pineapple Express and Girls Trip, as Wu continued, “I think it lives really comfortably with those classics. Hearing people laugh as hard as they do makes me really believe in this film as a genuinely memorable comedy.”
“We actually did spend some time watching those films, those R-rated friendship films because that’s what this is at the end of the day, this film is about friendship, discovering who you are and chosen family,” added Cola, as Hsu noted the additional unique layer of having four Asian leads in a story helmed by Asian women (director Adele Lim and writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao).
“When I was watching all of the comedies growing up, I never understood any of the cultural references, like they felt so far for me, and I think the very special thing about this one is there’s so many cultural specifics for the community that we can laugh at ourselves, laugh at each other, but we’re not the butt of the joke,” Hsu said.
Added Park, “Bridesmaids, The Hangover, Girls Trip, those were all movies that I can watch over and over again, and I think you can tell those people love working with each other and they collaborate in that way. I think we were just kind of like, ‘If they were able to go balls to the wall, why can’t we?’”
Joy Ride hits theaters July 7.