Everything Everywhere All at Once is a sci-fi, action-comedy film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schienert, the film was released in 2022, that tells the story of a Chinese immigrant who travels in different multiverses to meet her alternate self so that they can stop a formidable foe. The movie has a star-studded cast, and the movie was well received by fans and critics.
However, a controversy sparked surrounding the film as it was being criticized over antisemitism surrounding Jenny Slate, a Jewish actress who played the role of Big Nose in the movie. However, she broke the silence and responds to the criticism surrounding her character in the film.
Also Read: Why Everything Everywhere All At Once Is The Perfect Multiverse Movie (VIDEO)
What did Jenny Slate Say About the Controversy Surrounding Everything Everywhere All at Once?
During an exclusive interview with the Independent, Jenny Slate stated that it was never ill-intended and the directors explained it to her in the right manner so there were no antisemitic thoughts.
“They explained it to me. They explained it to me right away, so I never felt it was anti-semitic.”
The actress mentioned that she is not very active on social media, so the directors told her about the controversy and they were heartbroken if they commented something about her.
However, the actress was not offended by the directors, and in fact, she found the character “funny.”
“I’m not on social media much so [The Daniels] made me aware of it, like, ‘There’s this discussion and it sort of breaks our hearts that you would ever feel that there was something anti-semitic or that we were commenting on you, or saying that you’re not beautiful.’ And I was like, ‘You guys explained this to me right away. I thought it was funny.’”
The My Blind Brother actress stated that she was not kept in the dark and she knew very clearly about the character she would be playing in the movie.
“On my end, I was always very clear and I made the decision to play the character knowing what the name or non-name was.”
Some viewers have complained that Jenny Slate’s character also portrays a stereotype. As seen in the film, Evelyn played by Michelle Yeoh calls Slate’s character ‘Big Nose’ in Everything Everywhere All at Once, and even in the credits she is mentioned with that name. However, the directors mentioned that it was a misjudgment and in Chinese Culture they refer to white people as “Big Nose.” They acknowledged their mistake and changed Jenny Slate’s character’s name in the credits to ‘Debbie the Dog Mom.’
What did Daniel Kwan Say about the Controversy?
During an interview, Daniel Kwan, one of the directors of Everything Everywhere All at Once director, said that they wanted to create a movie full of microaggressions.
“We wanted to firmly root the world in this space of microaggressions.”
However, the audience did not take the microaggression lightly because in the movie Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) called a white woman Big Nose, but Jenny Slate is Jewish, and she did a hilarious Jewish American Princess stereotype.
The audience was furious at this scene, and it soon created a controversy. But Kwan stated they intentionally created a world where everyone was mean to each other and there would be microaggression when everyone gets busy in life.
“It was meant to be a world in which everyone was mean to each other, but not intentionally. There’s fat-shaming, there’s sexism, there’s racism, there’s just a lot of just microaggressions that come up from the fact that when you live a busy life and you’re so distracted, you just can’t see each other – you don’t see humans, you’re not afforded that time. By the end, when [Evelyn] has the power to see people fully you can really see [her] transformation.”
The director states the Jewish community can interpret it wrongly, and he understands it but they realised that it was wrong of them to not give Jenny Slate’s character a proper name, and they’re not proud of it either.
“Of course, the Jewish community could totally interpret it like that.Yeah, understandably. I was like, I don’t blame them for being – if they are – offended. But now we’re realising: oh, the biggest offence of that whole thing is the fact that we just never gave her a proper name in the credits, right?”
“We’re not proud of that name,” Scheinert interjects.
Even though Everything Everywhere All at Once was a massive success, it is surprising to see that no matter how much successful a movie gets, it can’t escape the opinion of the critics and the audience, but sometimes the problems portrayed are not real problems they are just overblown.
Everything Everywhere All at Once can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: Independent
