Stephanie Hsu on ‘Everything Everywhere’ follow-up with ‘Joy Ride’: ‘The pendulum is swinging the other way so far’

Fresh off an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actress and other high profile awards and nominations for Everything everywhere all at onceStephanie Hsu returned to the big screen in a very different way.

Hsu stars opposite Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu in the raunchy comedy about friendship Ride of joywhich he filmed before Everything Everywhere It was released.

“I kind of feel really grateful that this is the sequel because I think after you’ve been nominated for an Oscar and you’ve gone down that trajectory, everybody’s like, ‘What’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s next, what’s ‘and then?’ and there’s a lot of weight,” Hsu said The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday. “Especially after this movie started to do really well with audiences, I felt relieved that the pendulum is swinging so far in the opposite direction, that it also somehow breaks the glass ceiling in myself, so nothing has to be so valuable after this. I find it, as an artist, really liberating.

Hsu also revealed much of the Everything Everywhere team was there to support you at Ride of joy premiere, including Daniels (directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) and the film’s producers. “He’s pretty sweet and cute,” he added.

When he first read the script, Hsu joked that his impression was “wow, chaos – sign me up,” while Wu “was like, oh my God, this is Asian Bridesmaids or Asian Hangover. It’s insane, it could be huge.

The comedy has often been compared to beloved films such as Bridesmaids, The Hangover franchise, Express pineapple AND Girls trip, as Wu continued, “I think it coexists really well with those classics. Hearing people laugh as much as they do really makes me believe this movie is a truly memorable comedy.”

“We actually spent some time watching those movies, those R-rated friendship movies because at the end of the day this is it, this movie is about friendship, finding out who you are and choosing a family,” Cola added. , as Hsu noted. the added unique layer of having four Asian leads in a story directed by Asian women (director Adele Lim and writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao).

“When I was watching all the plays grow up, I never really understood any of the cultural references, how they’ve felt for me so far, and I think what’s really special about this one is that there’s so much cultural specificity to the community that we can laugh at ourselves, laugh at each other, but we are 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 to work together and collaborate that way. I think we were like, ‘If they were able to send balls to the wall, why can’t we?’”

Ride of joy hits theaters July 7.