And the Oscar goes to

This article has been kicking around in my head for a few weeks now, apologies if it rambles a little, but hopefully my point will be made.

In April 2022 a movie called “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (EEAAO) was released, with immediate talk of how well it would do during the next awards season.

Although I’m not involved in the film or entertainment industry (just a veracious consumer) I can see that success is measured on:

1.??????Box office / chart (and therefore money earned)

2.??????Critics reviews

3.??????Awards

I’m sure there are a lot of people in the entertainment industry, or any industry for that matter, that say that none of these things matter and they do it for the love of the craft or the enjoyment they get from having work enjoyed by fans, but at the end of the day and deep down I would wager these success measures do matter.

EEAAO ticked the first two measures of success fairly quickly. On a reported budget of up to USD$25 million, it has so far made USD$106 million at the box office and it has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In terms of awards, it is certainly on a winning streak with four Critics’ Choice Movie Award wins and two Golden Globes. Still to come are the British Academy Film Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the mother of all awards – the Academy Awards.

It’s the Academy Award nominations for Jamie Lee Curtis (Best Supporting Actress) and Michelle Yeoh (Best Actress) that is at the heart of this article. Or, in EEAAO terms, the centre of the bagel.

On paper, EEAAO must read like an acid trip. Curtis herself said to the filmmakers “Look, I don’t know what the f**k your script is about”. Watching EEAAO doesn’t make much more sense either. I only watched it at the start of the year and whilst I was thoroughly entertained – especially by Curtis, Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – I honestly think it’s the most bonkers film I’ve ever watched.

According to IMDB Jamie Lee Curtis been in 80 movies/TV shows, Michelle Yeoh has been in 59. Curtis can be considered a Hollywood princess (she is a self-proclaimed “nepo baby”) as the daughter of acting legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. There are many who would consider Yeoh Asian movie royalty – a beauty queen ballet dancer who built her career in action movies, doing her own stunts and fight scenes.

They’ve been in some of the most iconic and some of my favourite movies of my generation – “A Fish Called Wanda”, “Trading Places”, “Crazy Rich Asians” - just to name a few.

Curtis is 64 and has been acting since 1977. Yeoh is 60 and has been acting since 1984.

Their Academy Awards nominations for EEAAO are their FIRST. Ever. Their first ever Academy Awards nominations.

(Side note: Yeoh is the first Malaysian to be nominated for an Oscar and also made history as the first Asian to land the Best Actress nomination.)

For a movie that makes no sense. For a multiverse movie that has plastic googly eyes on everything, a dimension where people have hot dog sausages for fingers, fight scenes involving a bum bag/fanny pack as the primary weapon, something involving butt plugs and where a bagel is the centre of the universe. Yeoh’s character wasn’t even initially intended to be a woman – it was initially written for Jackie Chan.

So what made Curtis and Yeoh say yes to this project? Out of all the projects they must get presented with. Curtis has said in multiple interviews that she did this movie because of Yeoh and because she “I know her (Deirdre). I’ve known Deirdres my whole life.” Yeoh has said “I waited a long time for this. I was patient.”

But what I think is unspoken is that their inner voice / gut / intuition – whatever you want to call it – said “do it”. Sure it looks BONKERS but, do it.

I’m sure for both actors they thought that previous project would have been recognised by the Academy. Think of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Memoirs of a Geisha”, “Knives Out” and even “Freaky Friday”.

I’m sure for EEAAO they didn’t think “THIS. This is going to be the one.”

I told you this might ramble a little, so I’ll get to my point.

There are hundreds and thousands of people right now in career transition, myself included, due to the mass scale layoffs in the tech industry. We are wondering what our next project is and if it will be a success. We are wondering what to say yes to and how it will turn out.

The next amazing thing is out there. The project / role / adventure that is going to change our lives is out there.

It may not be the very next thing you do, but with self-belief, determination, resilience, passion and listening to our inner voices, it will happen.

We may not be nominated for an Academy Award, but by golly we will be successful. And happy. And fulfilled.

A final note to this article, as well as all of the measures of success EEAAO has accomplished, it’s also formed a beautiful bond amongst its creators, cast and crew – especially Curtis and Yeoh. You just have to look at moment Yeoh won her Golden Globe, with Curtis sitting next to her as excited as if she had won herself. That moment has spawned a #hypewoman movement, led by Erin Gallagher. If you haven’t already checked it out, I highly recommend it.