Michelle Yeoh has a new leading role

Michelle Yeoh (center) plays Evelyn Wang, a Chinese immigrant who owns a failing laundromat. She protects her daughter Joy (left), played by Stephanie Hsu, and her husband Waymond (right), played by Ke Huy Quan.

I felt that this was such a perfect opportunity to give a voice to the very ordinary mothers and housewife who are out there.

Alisa Chang 04.10.2022 NPR

In the new movie Everything Everywhere All at Once from directing duo The Daniels (that's Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), laundromat owner Evelyn Wang is bad at everything.

Her business is failing, her relationships with her husband and daughter are falling apart. As actress Michelle Yeoh puts it, Evelyn is "a jack-of-not-even-all-trades. She's a jack of nothing and master of nothing."

As if that weren't enough, she's also being audited by the IRS.

"It's probably easier to say what is going right in her life, the minute that you meet Evelyn Wang," Yeoh says. She is not a stereotypical superhero — and that's exactly what makes Evelyn so compelling for Yeoh.

"I felt that this was such a perfect opportunity to give a voice to the very ordinary mothers and housewife who are out there, you know, doing the most mundane things and get so taken for granted," Yeoh says. "And then let her discover that, oh my God, she is a superhero."