Michelle Yeoh Originally Wanted Daniels To Cut The 'Hot Dog Hands' Scene In Everything Everywhere All At Once
2021 seems to be the year for bonkers cinematic multiverse hopping, with "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)" being scheduled for release this year. Apart from these superhero shenanigans, there's Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's "Everything Everywhere All At Once," which offers a delightfully berserk multiverse with Michelle Yeoh's Evelyn at the center. But, according to an exclusive by Empire, Yeoh wanted the Daniels to cut the "hot dog hands" scene from the film, which was a step too far into the utterly absurd and surreal for the star.
'Hot-dog hands' are the peak of human evolution
The absolutely insane trailer for "Everything Everywhere All At Once" perfectly captures the frenetic essence of the title of the film, which helms a plot that is existential, fun, beautiful, and terrifying all at once (heh). There's a good about of martial arts involved in the film, coupled with the concept of the multiverse, which opens infinite possibilities for Evelyn. In one of the alternate realities, Evelyn encounters humans who have evolved biologically to the point of having flippy, hot-dog fingers, which is deeply strange and humorous, to say the least.
The overarching absurdity of the scene obviously left Yeoh wondering if it was truly going to be a part of the film, propelling her to initially urge the Daniels to write it out of the film. Jamie Lee Curtis, who plays Deirdre Beaubeirdra, an IRS inspector in this reality was equally baffled, but described the experience of shooting that sequence as "moving":
"There's a part of that sequence that was as moving for me as an actor as anything I've ever done. At the same time, we have hot-dog fingers and I use my feet as my affection tool...I think the two of us [Curtis and Yeoh] looked at each other and were like, 'Yeah, I have no idea what the f*** this is. But clearly these guys [the Daniels] do.' And they know it so well. You just surrender..."
The Daniels are not new to executing absurd, fantastical concepts with great skill, as evidenced by their surreal comedy-drama "Swiss Army Man," which centered on a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) being maneuvered like a swiss army knife, which obviously yields delightfully odd results. Yeoh went on to talk about how she felt transported to the realms of the narrative, despite the weirdness of it all, which is a testimony to the strength of the writing:
"We went into the different universes believing: that this is the real universe. We have to live that moment and live how they would – even though, yes, they had weird digits... I had never read anything so crazy. I couldn't even wrap my head around that whole concept. I'm a dinosaur – I don't really know how to get online and Google things. They had me going, 'Maybe I don't really understand, but you know what? They have intrigued me.' And I love a challenge.'"
"Everything Everywhere All At Once" had its world premiere at SXSW on March 11, 2022. The film will be theatrically released on March 25, 2022.