Hollywood’s latest “It” girl, Stephanie Hsu, who is recognized for her part in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” has been making waves.
Next, she wants to try her hand at producing and directing. But she never imagined having the life she does today.
“And so the deeper work actually is going within myself and untangling all those knots. … It’s kind of finding the courage to actually be in your full bloom, as it were,” she said.
What Did Stephanie Hsu Say
“I think I fought it for a really long time because I didn’t know if it was actually something that was possible for me, really,” Hsu said. “And I look back now and I wish I just allowed myself to love it sooner.”
“We just didn’t see a lot of ourselves onscreen growing up,” she said. “So I never really thought of it as a actual career trajectory. … In some ways I like to joke that it set me up for a lot of success, actually, because my standards were very low.”
Hsu, who was raised by a single mother from Taiwan and was born outside of Los Angeles, claimed that being a member of a marginalized group made her feel as though she had to be “extra excellent” in order to “have a seat at the table.”
But she ran into resistance when she tried to act. Her mother was unconvinced when Hsu told her she wanted to become an actor and insisted that she pursue a career in business.
Hsu started out in experimental theater when she first started performing, and she eventually created the part of Karen the Computer in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.”
She received additional acclaim for her supporting function in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” before being nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her function in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which won best picture at the 95th Academy Awards in March.
Michelle Yeoh won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in the movie, making her the first Southeast Asian actress to do so.